Business Brief is a (very brief, just 5 mins) new solo series, with totally off the cuff business implications of the biggest emerging topics.

Who will run your business in the future? We like to study, interview and market to young people, but are we really ready to handle the feedback they're serving? In this Business Brief, we look at the 'performative' nature of youth engagement and why this is causing a further disconnect for the next generation of leaders.

In a boardroom setting, young people are often spoken of and sometimes represented. But their ideas, opinions and provocations are mostly inconsequential, left untranslated to influence. After all, young people are full of naivety and inexperience that doesn’t fit with our practical ‘real world’ ... right? But Shai Naides says that their presence should be less like a token of good will, and more like a gesture of intent. Through his work in policy for intergenerational governance and participation, within UNICEF's office of strategy and evidence, Shai has uncovered what it takes to bring young people into multilateral forums where their (perhaps altruistic) challenges and perspectives to established thinking are turned into a mechanism for their agency. And perhaps gives them back a little bit of hope for the future.