Facebook's Demographics

This trend toward youth, a situation that also developed at Google, YouTube and Microsoft, gives companies depth in the development area, but makes the companies less strong in the management and finance areas. Some young entrepreneurs "gave away" their companies to more experienced managers in an effort to raise capital, while others retained control at the expense of the management expertise that older managers could have brought to the organization. Today's most successful entrepreneurs are those who recognize their weaknesses, and seek management talent who complement rather than overwhelm their strengths. Nonetheless, there can still be conflicts among older and younger workers.

Chief among best practices for dealing with the organizational conflict that can arise when a predominately younger workforce brings in older workers, for example, is recognizing that there are differences in styles and expectati