The rise of Bernie Sanders, seemingly from nowhere came as no surprise to us at yBC.tv. In our video about Next Gen Consumerization, our friends at the Leading Edge Forum made a number of predictions about how technology is changing the world. And in relation to the US election campaign some of those predictions are already coming to pass. Despite Bernie Sanders ultimately falling short, Next Generation Consumerization is a trend with powerful implications for anyone in business.

The basic idea is that the next generation of consumers are digital natives who use advanced technology in every aspect of their lives.

These consumers are also the next generation of employees (or voters, employees, patients, fans etc) and already form the largest part of the workforce. They are connected and smarter, work differently and more collaboratively and most importantly they expect to have decision rights. This is a huge power shift. If you do not get it right, they won’t work for you … and they won’t be your customers, clients, partners, followers, students, patients or fans.

Next Gen Consumerization has huge implications for everyone in business

The next generation of consumerization is so powerful it is changing fundamental business assumptions. Everyone needs to prepare themselves.

And in our opinion, the impact of Next Gen Consumerization trends is exactly what we are seeing in the Democrat Primary.

By some key measures, Sanders was even drawing larger crowds than Obama did in 2008. The sizes of the crowds—tens of thousands of people at a time—had everyone asking, including the Washington Post, “How does he do it?”

Bernie’s campaign not only uses digital to access a far bigger digital world that what was possible in 2008, digital is also baked into the way the campaign is run. Allowing large events to be organized cheaply and fast.

As well as being very digital, the campaign is also very experiential with a high degree of authenticity.

But the team pulled it off so well, there were reportedly more than a thousand people waiting outside trying to get into the rally.

“That happened because A, his message was resonating with folks and people did want to go and see him speak, and B, we were able to quickly go and engage the right amount of people and the right people who would potentially go and hear him speak through all these different digital channels

Most importantly we see “decision rights” in action. Young people who are typically relatively unengaged in politics are organising via digital channels to exercise control.