Don’t treat all the Boomers the same

I recently had a chance to have interact with Warren Evans, a top international speaker and futurist. Like our team at TomorrowToday, Warren tracks the trends that are shaping the world of work, and has an interest in demographics, technology and other key drivers of change.

Having heard Warren talk about demographics, I checked out the video snippet on his website. He makes a great point. Simply put, he is skeptical about generations. Actually, he is skeptical about how people use generational theory as a blunt instrument. They talk about “Boomers” or “Gen Y” as if everyone born in one twenty year period is identical. This is an abuse of the theory, of course, but is often how it is used. At very least, one has to take into account the cuspers (those born between the generations). But one should also consider that younger and older cohorts within a generation are often quite different too.

As Warren points out, treating the Boomers as a homogenous group is not only silly, it’s also dangerous. The pace of change in the 1950s and 60s was so fast that what may at first glance appear to be only one generation (“the Boomers”) is in fact three generations. If you were born in 1947, you had a very different growing up experience from someone born in 1966. The promise of demography is that we can predict what someone aged 64 will do (and that you will do the same things at age 64 that people who were 64 in 2001 or 1995 or 1975 did). Yet, younger Boomers and older Boomers had different starting points, different life experiences and now live in different life stages.

I think Warren is right about this. As Einstein is reported to have said, “The sign of a true genius is the ability to simplify complex information as much as possible. But not more so.” Generational theory has a compelling pop psychology appeal to it. But some people have simplified it too much.

We’re working on a new model that brings together the concept of younger and older cohorts, and integerates this with the concept of cuspers. Of course, we also have to consider other psychographic influences, such as religion, gender, culture, class and socioeconomics. So, segmentation models are tough to get right. But the value of doing them properly is enormous. It allows one to deliver on the promise of demographics by understanding how behaviour will change as new lifestages are reached.

That’s the kind of stuff that gets me out of bed in the morning! Feel free to contact me if you want to chat about this more: graeme@tomorrowtoday.uk.com

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Building your own healthcare community

Many years ago when I was in community development, some of the cutting edge thinkers were promoting the idea of less professionals and more community involvement in ensuring the growth, development, safety, etc of family. It was a simple but profound concept of building a care system less reliant on the ‘usual suspects’ (professionals) by involving people around a particular family who had an interest in them, who spent more time with them, and who, if integrated successfully could provide more useful and meaningful support.

There was a book I remember having to read while studying called ‘The other 23 hours’, that made the point in a residential child care environment. The book was written to encourage Child Care Workers, and to see the value and importance of their role. Social Workers in these setting often got all the glory and were seen to be the most important people in a child’s world. But as the book pointed out, a child may only see a Social Worker for 1 hour each day (and that’s a lot), there were another 23 hours in their day.

FastCompany has recently posted an article (The Future of Healthcare is social), and they’ve done a great job outlining similar thinking for healthcare, with technology as a large enabler. It makes sense in this arena as well. Our health is something that needs 24 hours of proactivity. We can’t afford or expect professionals to be available for all that time. But if we can assemble a community of people around us, who care about us, and who’ll get involved with us, and then enable it all with technology, we may find ourselves in a far healthier place than we currently are.

Even when we do our best to stay healthy, we still get sick. Coping with sickness in our already hectic lives can be challenging. In addition to looking out for her parents, Susan manages the health of her two kids, her husband, and herself, and she looks for ways to save time and money while still getting the care that they need. Recently, for example, Susan’s son woke up with a sore throat and a fever. She used an at-home strep test to rub a swab of her son’s throat culture onto a card. Within minutes, the test results confirmed her son had strep. Through an embedded RFID sensor within the card, the test results were wirelessly transmitted to her computer’s reader. On her computer, she was prompted to connect the incoming test results to her son’s personal health record. Next, she used her personal health network to book the earliest visit for her son within a 10-mile vicinity. Susan elected to electronically send her son’s strep results in advance of her appointment, allowing the receiving retail clinic to accelerate her visit by pre-issuing an e-prescription. Before leaving her computer, Susan selected her son’s classroom network, comprised of his teacher and the parents of other students, and sent out a message that her son had strep throat and would be home for the next several days.

It’s a longish read, but definitely worth it. If not just to see where health care might go, I’m fairly certain the thinking will at least change how you see other parts of your world.

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UK retirement age stays at 65 (for now)

For a few years now, we have been predicting that the Baby Boomer generation (born after World War II, into the 1950s and 60s) will not retire. In fact, we think we’re quite clever when we say they’ll more likely re-tyre. We’ve even developed a presentation on the topic that we called, “Prime Time”. (See all the posts on this blog in this category here).

One of our specific predictions has been that those countries that have mandatory retirement ages (such as the UK) will soon be forced to drop these laws and either move the mandatory age older, or drop it altogether. Today, the UK courts came out with a surprising ruling on this issue.

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TomorrowToday is getting a Billboard

TomorrowToday South Africa is getting a Billboard for 2 weeks in September. We did an exchange with INM Outdoor earlier this year. We did some work for them, and they’re doing some work for us. So a swap of sorts.

We’ve not had anything like this, and we’re looking forward to seeing what it does for business? We’re not even sure what we can expect? But we are excited, and it has been fun getting it all together.

It’s also been a great catalyst for us to get our international branding on the same page, and we’re starting this with look and feel driven largely by our websites. So by the time the billboard goes live we’ll have a new South African look and feel to our website, followed shortly afterwards by our UK office.

The billboard focusses on Talent and Leadership. In a business world with a changing worker (so called Talent) there has to be a rethink on how to lead. You can’t expect to lead a different group of people in same way. Can you? We don’t think so.

I’m sure we’ll post updates and results, if only to post our thoughts on the medium of outdoor advertising.

Watch this space…..

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88 years old and mayer for 30+ years

Today is Nelson Mandela’s birthday. An international icon.

But this is not about Madiba. He’s never been mayor. He has been President of South Africa, and leader of the African National Congress (ANC), but never Mayor.

This is a video interview worth watching about Hazel McCallion, who’s 88 years old and been mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada for 30+ years. She’s been re-elected 11 times in the 6th biggest city in Canada, and runs a city that’s debt free with cash reserves of $700 000 000.

It struck me while watching, that we’re a world that’s become so ‘young people focused’, that we so easily miss and don’t appreciate the value and contribution that ‘much’ older people do make, and can make in our private and public worlds.

So happy birthday Madiba and wow Mayor McCallion. Don’t stop teaching us. May we never stop learning from everyone we meet.

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Graeme Codrington suggests books on Classic FM

Graeme Codrington was recently interviewed on Classic FM’s “JSE Direct” show. It is a book review show, and Graeme highlighted two books he feels everyone should be reading, if they are interested in tracking key trends that will be shaping the world of work over the next 10-20 years.

They are: Ken Dytchwald, “Age Power” (Buy it at Amazon) and James Martin, “The Meaning of the 21st Century” (Buy it at Amazon or Kalahari).

Subscribe to out PodCast feed to listen to the interview:

• :: iTunes
• :: RSS

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A new way of looking at inheritance is needed

If you read this blog regularly, you might have spotted that last week’s Spectator magazine has been on my reading list. It just happened to be a fairly thought provoking edition. Here is another thought it sparked for me.

When the world changes, we need to change too. As demographics change, the institutions of the world also need to change. We are living in an era of unprecedented change. I mean fundamental shifts, not just technological changes or infrastructural improvements. One example of demographic change is that we are now living longer on average than at any time in recorded history. An example of a change in institutions this requires is that we should be rethinking inheritance.

My grandmother is 95 years old, and still going strong. She spent most of her life in Christian ministry, and so doesn’t have much of a nest egg to pass on as an inheritance. But, if she did, who would it go to? The current system means my aunt and father would receive the inheritance. But aunt is retired, as is her husband, and my father is certainly of retirement age. As the oldest grandchild, I am nearing 40 with three children under 10 years old, while the youngest cousin of my generation has just become a father for the first time.

Surely it is my generation that would gain much more benefit from an inheritance from her?

As the demographics of longevity have changed, should we not change our practices, so that inheritance is passed onto the grandchildren? Once this is established, each generation will receive an inheritance. The only generation to be affected would be the current middle aged generation who would need to forgo an inheritance in favour of their children.

And there lies the problem. To implement such a change, the Baby Boomers would need to forgo their inheritance. But, this seems unlikely. The Boomers have spent their lives not only being selfish about hoarding and spending their money, but also whittling away the inheritance they could leave to their children. There is a danger that many of them will take the inheritances they should start to receive soon, and use these up. I don’t think, then, that they’re likely to look favourably on the idea of giving up their inheritance rights altogether.

But, it would make sense if they did.

Read the Spectator article that got me thinking about this online here, or below.

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Boomers: the worst parents ever? The worst generation ever!

Here is the second article from The Spectator of last week. If you haven’t heard about Julie Myerson, you may want to do a quick Google search to get some background – or read this news report.

I don’t necessarily agree with Rod Liddle (on this, or almost anything else), but the man has a point. He claims that as a society, we are “concerned, consensual, caring, socially libertarian: in the abstract, when it doesn’t bother [us]. When it does bother [us], [we] are less consensual, caring and libertarian. When it bothers [us], [we] turn into fascists.” I’d like to make sure I don’t, so a story like this is worth reading every now and again – as an innoculation.

And, if you can make it through the first 10 paragraphs, the final two paragraphs make the article sharp and insightful in the extreme. Is the Boomer generation really the worst generation in history? And will their legacy in history really be of the generation who selfishly mucked it up completely? You decide…

Read The Spectator article here, or below.

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Motivating your senior staff (remember, they’re Boomers)

A lot is written about how to attract and retain talented young staff. And, right now, in the midst of a global recession, even more is being written about how to get them engaged and passionate about what they are doing. But a recent survey from CEB (the Corporate Executive Board) reminds us not to think that older, top level staff are settled, focused and sticking around.

“Most companies think that in the downturn employees, especially senior leaders, are just grateful to have a job,” says Jean Martin, executive director of the CEB’s Corporate Leadership Council. In fact, valued players are increasingly likely to be looking around. Among high-potential employees (identified as such by their employers) one out of four plans on quitting in the next 12 months. The best way to motivate the top group? Money. They are Baby Boomers after all. Read more about what TomorrowToday has to say on generations in the financial crisis.

The CEB survey shows that employee engagement is falling faster among top executives than any other group. Only 13% of senior executives at the vice-presidential level or higher say they are “willing to go above and beyond what is expected of them”—a decline from 29% two years ago. In the December 2008 survey of the CEB’s 79,000 member employees worldwide at 123 organizations, 20% of all respondents said they were disengaged – that was only 10% two years ago.

CEB says compensation-based incentives are three times as likely to improve engagement among senior executives as among the workforce as a whole. To keep high-potential employees from defecting, companies should be investing in rewarding them and have a rigorous performance-management process in place to ensure a genuine meritocracy.

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Silver divorces – Boomers buck the trend

The Times and The Guardian reported on a very illuminating societal trend this weekend, they noted that divorce rates in England and Wales are now at their lowest level for 26 years. However, recently the number of divorces in the over 60′s category has been on the increase. This is a very interesting trend and in part explained by the fact that the oldest of the Baby Boomers or what we call “Cuspers” have been turning 60. Baby Boomers are defined as the generation born directly after WW2. They have a can do attitude, believe anything is possible and don’t settle for second best. As The Times puts it “they no longer think of it as the end of their lives but as a time of opportunity and reinvention. And in an age of psychotherapy, people get gripped by a desire to live as they really want to live rather than by someone else’s values.” Boomers led the charge to the divorce courts in the 80 & 90′s and became the most divorced generation ever. The latest trends suggest that as Baby Boomers enter retirement they are continuing to prefer to get divorced rather than head to the coast to slow down.

This has major implications for marketers especially those working for financial service companies. Whilst all other Generations show a reduction in divorce rates, Baby Boomers, because of their driving values and the windfalls they have made from the housing boom (watch this space…) feel wealthy enough to get divorced and start new lives. The products that are developed and marketing campaigns aimed at the over 50′s market need to take note of these changes in societal trends. The Baby Boomers are now making a very visible impact on over 50′s lifestages and we predict they will change retirement behaviour completely. Marketers that miss this change will quickly loose favour with Baby Boomers who move onto products and brands that continue to connect with them.

Click here to read

The Times post or here to read

The Guardian post

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Indiana McCain and the Election of Doom

I must give The Economist website the credit for this awesome headline. And I must agree with them that John McCain is in trouble. If elected as President later this year, he will be the oldest person ever elected American President. While this should be no factor, since life expectancy has been steadily increasing over the past half century, and McCain is sprightly, healthy and the very model of what today’s elderly can be, there is a problem.

McCain is not a Boomer. The Boomers (born after World War II and into the 1960s) are old and aging (although they will hate to read that bald fact stated so bluntly). They’re now in their mid 40s to mid 60s. But, they feel 25. Or, at least 35! Any decent marketing efforts aimed at them cannot treat them (or show visual images of them) as they are – i.e. over 50, ageing individuals. Marketing efforts aimed at Boomers should think of 35-39 year olds, and use similar images, too.

Americans are not ready for an old President. (There is a website devoted to things that are younger than Mr McCain – including the Golden Gate Bridge, plutonium, Coke-in-a-can, Velcro, 91% of Americans…). Or more specifically stated, Americans are not ready for an old President who is not a Boomer. In 20 years time, they’ll be ready for 70 something President, but not yet.

So, this should be a really fun election to watch. You will have either your first woman, or your first African-American. Or your first septuagint. Which of these is America more ready for. I’m not sure. But I am prepared to put my generational credentials on the line, and say that Boomers and Gen Xers would rather have a Boomer than someone from either the Silent or Veteran generations. So, for my money, on generational theory alone, McCain has no chance. But, then again, who would have thought that Indiana Jones would get another run at his age (actually, Harrison Ford is a Boomer in his 60′s – so maybe there is your answer!!)

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Generation comparisons

I am a huge fan of Eric Chester, an American author, speaker and consultant who focuses on understanding what he calls “Generation Why” (what a cool title!! I wish I had thought of that first). You can see his excellent work at http://www.generationwhy.com.

He has a nice summary of the three generations now in the workplace. The dates on his summary reflect the consensus among American researchers. My own dates (Boomers 1946-1965; Xers 1966 – 1985 and Millennials 1986 – present) reflect more of an international bias, recognising that different countries arte slightly ahead or slightly trailing these median date ranges.

Read Eric’s summary at his website (and spend some time looking around while you are there), or see below.

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Targeting the Boomers

Springwise recently carried the following report on a new concept targeting the 50+ Baby Boomers, who don’t want to accept they are getting old.

Brain Gymns for Boomers

Our brains resemble our muscles in one key respect: don’t exercise them, and they’re likely to lose strength. Conversely, many experts now believe that brains stimulated in a healthy manner can better resist debilitating mental conditions such as Alzheimer’s. Which begs the question: how to keep brains in top shape?

The solution offered by vibrantBrains, a San Francisco start-up, is to create a workout centre for the brain, patterned after a health club. Instead of exercising muscle groups via a series of circuit-training machines, vibrantBrains members hone their mental skills using a variety of computer software programs and other tools, for a monthly membership fee of USD 60. vibrantBrain’s health-club-for-the-mind approach should appeal to the millions of baby boomers who’ve spent their adult lives regularly visiting gyms. As they approach retirement age, they’ll want to maintain their mental agility, too, as attested by sales of Nintendo’s Brain Age, which sold 10 million copies, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

No doubt we’ll see plenty of additional products and services aimed at enhancing baby boomers’ brain power, joining a long list of companies already selling everything from vitamins to training seminars. Still, vibrantBrain’s model is unique. And from a business standpoint, it has a couple of profit-enhancing advantages over the traditional gyms that it’s based on. Space requirements are minimal compared to health clubs, and entrepreneurs won’t have to lease or buy an expensive array of exercise machines.

If the mental health club idea catches on, the real competition eventually may come from traditional health clubs, which could add brain-exercise routines as easily as they’ve added yoga and martial arts instruction. However, even if that happens, there should be plenty of opportunities for start-ups to differentiate themselves—from rehabilitative clinics for the elderly to centers focused on mental and physical exercises for kids.

Website: www.vibrantbrains.com

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V-day

Today is the tenth anniversary of the little purple pill. Although I personally think that big pharmaceuticals should spend more time trying to cure diseases that are part of the scourge of poverty (like malaria and TB), it is noteworthy that one of the biggest money spinners over the past decade has been Viagra – the erectile dysfunction pill developed by Pfizer.

Viagra is one the best case studies for what companies must do to benefit from the ageing Boomer generation. As the generation born after World War II, who came of age in the swinging 60s, they were never going to be coy about sex, and certainly did not want a mere biological issue like “getting old” stand in the way of their preferred lifestyle. They are a generation that believes in choice – their choice! So, medicines that deal with hair loss, sagging skin, sexual slowdown and other age-related conditions were always going to be successful. Pfizer got there first. Others have – and will continue to – follow.

The Boomers are the “youngest”, healthiest, richest and most powerful retiring generation of all time.

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Face the facts… about ageing workforces

One of the issues we are tracking closely at TomorrowToday is the ageing Boomer generation, and the impact they are likely to have on the workplace, on retirement (we prefer to call it retyrement) and society as a whole. Here is a great piece I saw recently in an online mag called S+B (Strategy and Business). Read the original here, or scroll down.

How to Be a Demographic Realist
by Lord Andrew Turnbull
 
11/08/07

To prepare for the implications of aging populations, individuals, organizations, and society as a whole must confront assumptions that are no longer valid.

Across the developed world, the demographic profile is changing. According to United Nations projections, the proportion of the global population over 65 years old will triple between now and 2100, from 7 percent to 21 percent. The population is aging more rapidly in some countries, such as Italy and Japan, and less rapidly in others, such as the United States and the United Kingdom. But in all countries, this demographic shift raises challenging new questions, not just for retirement and how it is to be financed, but also for the world of work — and the transition between the two.

Although most people understand that this change is taking place, they do not realize how large it will be and what its implications are for our working lives, for how we provide in advance for retirement, and for how support and care will be provided and funded in the future.

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Boomers Turning 60 – coming into their branding prime

Boomers are variously defined as those people born from the mid 1940s to the mid 1960s around the world. Most researchers use the end of the Second World War as a reference point, which means that as of 2006, this group of people has started to turn 60. They are not old, though. Don’t be confused about that. This demographic tidal wave will have a greater effect on institutions and businesses than the aging of any previous generation. Because of the size and spending power of the boomers, mature values and trends will dominate marketplace realities.

The Chief Marketer recently put out a list of 5 ways in which the Boomers will continue to shape the marketing and branding landscape. Here is what they said (from author, Brent Green):

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Freetirement Generation Research

Friends Provident, a UK insurance company, recently released a press release about research they have done into the Boomer generation who are about to start retiring. I like the title they selected: “Freetirement”. Here is their press release:

The Freetirement Generation report was commissioned by Friends Provident and is based on independent research undertaken by the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) in January and February 2007.
Growing old today is neither about sitting by the fire nor is it about wakeboarding. Its characterised by the freedom to choose between these and many other options.

Freedom of beliefs, lifestyles, careers, and money is the characteristic of the ageing Baby Boomer generation. Its often overlooked or misrepresented in public discussion of the older generations. More often than not, the media represents older people as degenerating caricatures or eccentrics trying to recapture a lost youth. Old people are either polishing their bifocals in front of the television or sailing solo around the world, skydiving and knitting underwater.

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Assessing Wisdom Continuity within your Organisation

Recognised experts in any field often rely on nothing more than a hunch. Time (and hard work by others) typically proves them to be right. Where does that innate gut instinct come from? Can you learn it? Can it be transferred? These are questions that get Aiden Choles interested in investigating wisdom continuity as a critical organisational capability.

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IBM to spend $50 million on staff financial education

The China Post is reporting this morning that IBM has announced a $50 million staff development initiative specifically aimed at improving their staff member’s financial education.

Employees, as well as their spouses or domestic partners, will be offered a series of live and Web-based investment seminars starting this month. Employees will be able to get unlimited one-on-one personal financial planning and counseling by phone through [external financial services companies]. Financial planners from Fidelity and Ayco will be trained in all of IBM’s benefits programs and will receive no additional pay or commissions for selling their companies’ products.

“No other company that I’m aware of has ever done anything this comprehensive for its employees,” said Randy MacDonald, IBM Senior Vice President, Human Resources.

The move comes at a time when IBM and other companies are shifting retirement planning responsibility from the company to the employee. Traditional pensions, which promised an employee a guaranteed retirement income, are being replaced with “defined contribution” plans, in which employees put aside money for retirement, often with a partial match by employers. IBM, for instance, closed its traditional pension to new hires starting in 2005 and said last year that employees hired earlier will have their benefits frozen after 2007.

This type of investment makes sense on many different levels:

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Airline Pilots retirement age increase

According to CBS News, and other sources, the FAA (US airline authority) is following the International Civil Aviation Organisation and raising the retirement age of pilots from 60 to 65 (as long as the co-pilot is younger than 60 years old).

The International body increased their age limit last year, and the FAA is set to follow suit this year.

Up to now, they have managed the Age 60 retirement by offering large retirement packages to their top pilots. This has worked well for the industry, since younger pilots were able to move up the ladder quickly into the empty slots.

But, like most industries, the Boomers have hit 60, and (1) don’t want to give up working, and (2) can’t afford to do so, and (3) find that there is not enough pension money going around, nor are the retirement packages as good as they used to be, and (4) they can’t leave because there are not enough qualified youngsters to take their place.

This is a problem across most industries, especially the professions. And, its only going to get worse in the years ahead.

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