Every year Beloit College releases its College Mind-set List just in time to greet incoming freshmen. Every CFO and business manager should read it because it gives you a glimpse at the future of your organization. These young people will, sooner than you think, become your employees and customers.

They will force you to change how you talk to them, manage them, and sell to them. These people, for example, almost never use conventional USPS mail and even avoid email as just too slow, according to the Beloit study. So, how will you communicate with them? Think social media or texting. They rarely use phone to just talk; yes, they are wedded to their cell phones but not necessarily for talking. As the Beloit researchers say: “The digital world is routine and technology is just too slow.” Here is an interesting study on social media trends, too.

These young people also have never known a world without the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Accommodating people with ramps and handicapped parking spaces is normal to them. Similarly, a quarter of these young people have at least one parent who is an immigrant. That will surely change the immigration discussion in your organization.

Some other interesting Beloit findings: Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet (or possibly in antiquated elementary schools), incoming freshmen have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides. Also, computers have never lacked a CD/DVD disk drive.

However, this last point is changing even as you read this. In the effort to cut size, cost, and power consumption, vendors are eliminating CD/DVD drives. Certainly the latest Internet-capable smartphones don’t require the drives; software and videos increasingly are downloaded from the Internet. All you need is an Internet connection.

To incoming freshmen, American companies have always done business in Vietnam. They’re not haunted by the ghosts of the Vietnam War. The also don’t know the Cold War; Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.

Technology is thoroughly incorporated into their lives. Few, the Beloit researchers point out, know how to write in cursive anymore. They take notes on their laptops or leave messages on Facebook wallpaper.

This emerging generation of employees and customers will force you to change your technology infrastructure. The incoming freshmen will assume they access information and applications over the network. They will communicate using social media, which they expect to access via their smartphones. Your IT people will need to make the appropriate accommodations and security.

If your organization expects to assign to these new people old, slow desktop computers with low-resolution CRT monitors, think again. They will expect modern 64-bit workstations as good or better than the Windows 7 and Mac notebook computers they brought to college. To access information or run applications, their natural impulse will be to slide their fingers across the screen.

But some things never change. As the Beloit researchers point out: One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid!” — and always has been. ###