The New York Times carries an interview today with Patricia Martin, the author of RenGen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer--and What It Means to Your Business. Among other things, Martin predicts that the RenGen--that's Renaissance Generation, the group now in their late teens and twenties--will produce the most entrepreneurs of any generation yet. "Not only are they driven to do original work, but they are going to want to live that out in originally designed careers," Martin tells the paper. "In order to do that, they’ll work hard to create their own enterprises because that is where they can realize their dreams."

The larger takeaway is that there is a wide swath of consumers, cutting across generational and indeed demographic lines--she uses the term "psychographic" to describe this group--who emphasize authenticity over slickness, genuine industrious commercialism over fake pseudo-anti-commercialism, and eco-consciousness above almost everything else.

These are the people whom you are going to be selling to, employing, and, increasingly, competing with, so read the whole thing and take notes. Of course, if Martin's right, then chances are some of you are members in good standing of RenGen, so none of this will be news to you.