Entrepreneurs in Action
By Rowena Bentley
As a society, we’ve been obsessing over Gen Z for the last decade. Any quick Google search will deliver swathes of hot takes and deep analysis of their leisure time habits, digital consumption, mindsets and preferences. But there’s a new generation on the horizon: smart, savvy, eager, and potentially invaluable to organisational development.
Gen Alpha have quickly come to be defined by the pandemic. Dubbed "the Covid Kids", having spent a significant portion of their early childhoods in lockdown, they've found themselves labelled as drastically impacted both socially and educationally by their experience. But is that fair?
Anthony Nolan had the privilege of taking part in Entrepreneurs in Action (EiA), giving us the opportunity to experience Gen Alpha insight first-hand. EiA are a consulting firm specialising in the next generation’s insight for global brands. The programme gave us direct, unfiltered consultation with 15-16 years olds to tackle a key organisational challenge head on - in less than a week.
For Anthony Nolan, this generation hold lifesaving potential; young people are essential for those in need of a stem cell transplant, with research linking younger donors with better outcomes for patients. However, there is still a need for more young stem cell donors in the UK and, as the oldest members of Gen Alpha turn 16, they represent a critical potential donor group.
Our challenge
Our challenge to the Gen Alpha cohort taking part was straightforward, but enormous. We need to increase the number of young people and people from ethnically diverse backgrounds on the stem cell register so that everyone who needs a transplant has the best chance of finding a matching donor.
We asked them to develop a youth-focused campaign that raises awareness of Anthony Nolan, engages 16–18-year-olds, and encourages them to join the stem cell register.
The insight
The Entrepreneurs in Action model was impressively well organised. The class was divided, with two CEOs leading the challenge and four teams tackling the work: research, innovation, marketing and finance.
What blew us away was the depth of thought and analysis these future leaders demonstrated. Their inquisitive nature saw them on the phone to our team asking the right tough questions about the brief to distil and define the challenge in their own words.
But their savvy analysis didn’t end there. Undertaking a school-wide survey with over 200 responses provided the evidence they needed to shape their recommendations, but it also gave us insight that can be notoriously tricky to uncover. This is a generation that are listening to their peers first and foremost, and the peer-to-peer model that underpins the programme provides a level of candour that's often difficult to access.
Identifying the key pillars they needed to address - familiarity, consideration, trust, availability of young donors, and average donor recruitment per school – they set about delivering a costed and considered solution to the task we’d set.
They put trust at the core of their strategy, assessing that trust is “earned not given”. They shared: “trust isn’t built through a one-off session but through active ongoing involvement with young people and the community.” It was a principle they carried throughout their numerous, detailed suggestions.
Their recommendations were strategic, practical and remarkably comprehensive. They included:
- Analysis from their survey, which uncovered a need to educate this generation about the donation process and build trust, including actionable recommendations such as reviewing our privacy policy wording.
- An assessed heat map of schools across the UK to support more targeted recruitment.
- Financially sustainable partnership models to build trust with key communities from an earlier age.
- Enhancements to our existing Hero Project school programme to generate income and increase awareness.
- Integration of new technology into our donor portal to create a more seamless user journey.
- Geographically mapped data identifying where Gen Alpha partnerships could help us achieve our goals.
- Detailed recommendations to improve our communication style across multiple platforms.
And they even left some of the budget as a contingency.
This is a generation that is calm, clear, confident and candid, if you give them the space to shine. Far from the "Covid Kids" label often attached to them, they worked as a cohesive team, used critical thinking to deliver a fresh perspective and never once shied away from the realities of our work.
Nicky Read, Chief of Fundraising, said: “What this class provided was a genuinely engaging presentation and incredible to think they only had 2.5 days. They had ideas on ways to build trust, awareness, engage and drive longer loyalty that I think all of us would like to develop. The students were articulate and confident, and I was gripped from start to finish.”
India Bennet, Senior Brand and Insight Manager, said: “This cohort looked at things very differently, and in a simpler way, than we do. Sometimes we’re so in the detail that we can miss more obvious solutions. They brought us out of that and made us reflect on how to make changes that will drive big impact.”
What we gained wasn't just a set of recommendations. We gained a clearer understanding of a generation that is ready to contribute, challenge assumptions and help shape solutions. If we're willing to give them the floor, Gen Alpha have plenty to say.