Jacket Notes | Ronen Aires on 'Breach'

Hi, my name’s Ronen, and I’m a GenXer. I grew up on pinball, TDK cassettes and The Wonder Years. Of course I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I grew up. Then, I grew up. And I did something outrageous: I wrote a book. Even more outrageous: I wrote a book in Covid-19. And I wrote a book in Covid-19 for leaders and parents about growing up. Ironically, my business was flying off a cliff too, and there I was in my pyjamas thinking up chapter titles.

The inspiration to write Breach happened when I snuggled on my couch, logged into a virtual conference, with Netflix humming in the background. Nothing dramatic. What was dramatic, though, was I realised I had it all wrong. I’d spent the past 20 years consulting large companies on how to rewire themselves to be more relevant to the younger professional. I was wrong. We GenXers have been trying so hard to hold onto our limiting beliefs in business and always pinning the problem on our millennials and GenZs — when we were the glitch in the system. Cue epiphany on couch.

When your world is a mess and it dawns on you that you are the “mess-maker” it hits different. This was the true driver behind Breach. While I was unveiling the deeper truth about our youth “being right”, I was ultimately shining a magnifying glass on myself through the process; my age, my beliefs and my irrelevance. Could I adapt to “their” way?

Could I let go of what I thought to be right (even harder, could I admit they were right), and could I ask the young ones for help?

Breach looks at these questions and revelations.

Breach by Ronen Aires is published by Merack Publishing