Printable Biography of Cam Marston

Cam Marston, founder and president of Generational Insight, is a consultant, author, and speaker who has worked with Fortune 500 companies and small businesses throughout the world to improve multigenerational relations and communications. He has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, New Zealand Herald, Entrepreneur Magazine, Charlotte Observer, HR Management Today, Money Magazine, Fortune Small Business (FSB), on the BBC, and in and numerous trade journals and city business journals across the United States.

Cam's programs and concepts are the result of nearly a decade of extensive research and study inside businesses of all sizes and sectors. In the course of his work, he has interviewed hundreds of representatives of the various generations. Their answers are interesting - sometimes surprising - and always valuable.

Cam began his generational-focused consultancy after several years selling for Nestle Brands Foodservice Company. While at Nestle he discovered that he developed closer relationships with his customers when he talked to them about subjects that appealed to their value systems. He soon learned that his customers had many different values but the values were roughly the same in each generation.

In 1996 he founded Marston Communications, now Generational Insight. Originally his clients engaged him to conduct surveys, focus groups, and research on both their customer and employee bases. Cam's results revealed significant generational differences that his clients had never recognized and which supported his findings while at Nestle. The focus of Marston Communications began to evolve just as awareness of generational differences was gaining national media attention.

Today, Cam uses personal research conducted within client organizations and the explosion of available data on generational dynamics to explore the unique affects of generational difference in the workplace and in sales-based relationships. He presents his finding to organizations around the globe, ranging from small, local associations to national convention audiences of more than 3,000 to a handful of Fortune 500 senior executives in a corporate boardroom.

In addition to his presentations, workshops and targeted coaching, Cam has written a book on his findings. Motivating the "What's In It For Me" Workforce: Managing Across the Generational Divide, was first published in October, 2005 and re-released by JW Wiley Publishers in 2007.

Cam was born in Mobile, Alabama and graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the father of a four year old, a two year old, and twins born in May. After fifteen years in Charlotte, North Carolina, Cam and his wife have recently returned to his hometown of Mobile to raise their young family.

SPEECH TOPICS

Leadership and Teamwork
Four Generations in the Workplace
For the first time in history, four distinct generations are employed sided by side in the workplace. With differing values and seemingly incompatible views on leadership, these generations have stirred up unprecedented conflict in the business world. Effective management of this generational divide is vital to every organization’s longevity and success. What are each generation’s core values? What do they expect of their leaders and how do they define success? In this engaging program, Cam Marston answers these questions and much more. Audiences will learn how each generation developed its core values, how that manifests in the workplace today, and why they can all not only operate alongside each other, but do so with extraordinary success. This program provides the generational insight, concrete examples and specific approaches to help frustrated managers build the individual connections needed to boost employee performance and retention. Attendees will walk away knowing the common generational characteristics, specific leadership needs of each generation, the new definition of company loyalty, and fresh guidelines for team building.

Sales & Customer Loyalty
Selling Across the Generations
The first rule of selling is steadfast: know your customer. With four distinct generations playing active roles in the buying decisions of companies worldwide, that tenet is increasingly difficult to fulfill. It is no longer enough to be personable and knowledgeable about your product. To succeed in today's business climate, you need to approach each buyer with an informed generational perspective - recognizing the underlying biases, values and expectations that pave the way to "yes.” Cam looks inside each generation's core values to identify what forms their buying decisions and gives audiences the understanding required to develop a solid sales process, based on known generational biases and business preferences. Attendees will learn to identify subtle shifts that indicate upcoming leadership changes, create a fast and genuine connection with new customers, sell to their customers’ expectations, build trust between the generations, highlight appropriate product selling points for each customer, and avoid common communication pitfalls. Cam uses examples to show how some companies today are effectively engaging generational marketing techniques to appeal to the unique decision making traits of each generation and prepare their sales teams for success in today's marketplace.

Management & Human Resources
Attracting and Retaining a New Generation of Employees – Management & Human Resources
Good talent is hard to find. And even harder to keep. With company loyalty increasingly considered a comedic punch line rather than a standard employee trait, knowing how to identify, attract and retain the very best talent may seem impossible. Generational DNA plays a huge role in the changing workforce dynamic. Understanding it unlocks the secret to selecting the right candidates and encouraging employee loyalty - both essential to business survival. The four generations in the workplace bring to the office their own distinct biases about loyalty, leadership, time, and productivity. Cam has studied these biases and their effects on attracting and retaining good employees. He shares this insight and provides specific examples of how every organization can create an environment that attracts the best talent and fosters, rather than discourages, employee loyalty. Audiences learn to identify the best prospects, create compelling employment offers by age group, meet the long and short term goals of each generation, understand the motivating factors for each employee and become the kind of boss employees want to serve. Every level of leadership plays a key role in attracting and keeping the very best. By discovering how to create the workplace that each generation prefers, your company will reap the rewards in consistent transfer of knowledge, increased productivity and decreased turnover.