Future-Proofing Business: Longevity Leadership For Growth

This month’s Longevity Leadership Programme in Lisbon brought together global thought leaders pioneering new perspectives on ageing, health, wealth and economic and personal growth. Held at Portugal’s leading business school, Catolica Lisbon, and catering to an international business audience, this innovative new programme sought to understand the multiple impacts of a new age of longevity. How would the new demographics hit countries, companies, cities, consumers and workforces? And how should individuals and businesses prepare themselves?

Speakers from around the world addressed each of these questions in turn and included Economics Professor Miguel Gouveia, Nic Palmarini, head of NICA, the UK National Innovation Center on Ageing, Lisa Edgar, CEO of the Big Window, Michael Clinton, head of ROAR Forward, and Martin Frölander, CEO of Junoverse. The programme was co-designed and directed by me and the Dean of Executive Education at Catolica Lisbon, Céline Abecassis-Moedas.

The week-long programme was designed be both cross-disciplinary and very holistic, integrating multiple perspectives. In order to prepare leaders for the demographic transition at play, they needed to learn longevity’s full range of impacts. There are now a number of programmes focusing on personal midlife career transitions (I’ve written about university programmes here, non-academic ones here and here). What didn’t exist was a programme aimed at public and private sector leaders and managers to prepare them to understand and lead the change in their businesses.

COUNTRIES: The Economic Implications of Aging Societies

Miguel Gouveia’s presentation focused on the economic impact of aging populations. He emphasised the importance of both life span and healthspan, noting that while life expectancy is increasing globally, quality of life remains a critical measure. Gouveia explained the concept of “morbidity compression,” where the proportion of life spent in good health increases even as life expectancy rises. “More life, more health, more quality of life for longer,” he stated, highlighting the positive outlook for future generations.

Gouveia also discussed shifting labor market realities, noting that while the US workforce is still expected to grow, Europe’s will shrink in the coming years, necessitating increased investments in education, training, and immigration to maintain economic stability. He suggested that only improvements in functional capacity and more employment of 50+ workers can offset the projected slowdowns in GDP growth due to population ageing and shrinking.

CITIES: Urbanisation for Every Age and Life Stage

Nic Palmarini introduced the concept of the “City of Longevity,” a vision grounded in evidence, data and science. A open-source, shared platform where cities could exchange best practices, learn from each other, while still integrating local cultures and traditions. He argued for a shift in frame from an “aging society” with its negative focus on the older to a “longevity society,” emphasising systemic and advanced interventions to make cities healthy, communal and liveable at every life stage.

He pointed out that the vast majority of investments in longevity is spent on medicine, rather than spread across the multi-factorial things that influence and impact health, which the graph below shows is widely spread, with medical care only representing 11%.

“Optimists, not dreamers.” Palmarini described cities of longevity as proactive actors in promoting health, playing a critical role in shaping long-term wellbeing. He noted that since the tipping point moment in 2009, the world’s population has been majority urban for the first time. Cities, he says, have a more direct impact and responsibility for health and human welfare than any national policy-making can manage.

His goal is for every city to become a ‘blue zone,’ a concept he spoofs by pointing to entire countries in southern Europe that now qualify by boasting some of our longest-living humans. He wants evidence-based cities to have access to a “full set of KPIs to support lives that are longer and healthier by promoting cultural and heritage-wise behavioural triggers delivered through existing infrastructure and day to day touchpoints.” It’s not about all of us moving to a few towns full of centenarians, but for towns everywhere to become welcoming hosts to the global centenarians we are now aging into.

CONSUMERS: Rebrand Life’s 3^rd Quarter – the 25 Years After 50

Michael Clinton ex-head of Hearst Magazines, and now CEO of ROAR Forward, roared through a presentation on what he calls the ‘re-imagineers,’ the 1/3 of Q3ers who are redefining ageing and retirement. He challenged outdated stereotypes about aging, highlighting the media’s rising interest and attention to individuals 50+ who are starting new careers, lifestyles, and relationships.

Clinton’s data showed that this demographic is economically powerful, holding significant wealth and contributing substantially to GDP. In the US alone, 50+ consumers spend is projected to hit almost $13 trillion by 2030. In 2018, just the Q3 segment (50-74) spent as much as the entire under-50 group.

Clinton emphasised the need for updated, modern representations of older adults in media and advertising, noting that they often feel misrepresented and undervalued. “It’s a people revolution,” he declared, advocating for a societal shift to recognise and leverage their potential. Brands that misstep he warns will lose out on a demographic increasingly less brand loyal and ready to move towards brands that “authentically represent them.”

“To hell with Generation Alpha,” he quoted Wolfgang Fengler for Brookings. “The real consumer power by 2030 will be held by older consumers, especially in the world’s largest economies – Asia, Europe and the Americas.”

Understanding Q3 Consumer Behaviour

Lisa Edgar, from The Big Window, focused on both the generational and age-related changes that impact consumer behaviour and, as a result, business strategies. She started with how age perception often differs from chronological age, with many older adults feeling younger than they are. “We think we are older than our age until 30,” she showed, “then think we’re increasingly younger than our age… until 75, when we think that we are 16 years younger than our true age.” But, she warns, there is a real ’75 moment’ in the data, where our perceived and real age start to collide.

The transition through the age phases, from 50 onwards impact needs and desires, which businesses must understand to remain relevant. Edgar’s research reveals that older consumers want to be enabled and facilitated rather than simply supported. Don’t help them; instead work with them, collaborate with them, empower them.

She also noted that today, many companies content themselves with one, or maybe two, market segmentations for consumers 50+, when they represent half the market and most of the purchasing power. “We need a much more granular approach to life stages and the details of decades in the second half of life,” she insists.

Edgar emphasised the importance of an approach that goes beyond talk of just lifespan and healthspan towards “full span”, where businesses integrate the overall fulfilment of individuals. “It’s about a full life, not just a long life,” she insisted. She highlighted the need for human-centred design in products and services to meet the evolving needs of an aging population, suggesting companies take a 3-step strategy:

1. Optimise existing products,
2. Stretch current offerings towards Q3 consumers, and
3. Innovate for longevity.

Edgar shared data showing how our psychology changes in older life. It improves. There is less social strain and distress, fewer peer comparisons with others and more emotional stability. Goals become more emotional and less focused on acquisition. Brands need to recognise that they are responding to a very different set of consumer priorities.

WORKFORCE: Impact on Careers and Workforces

Junoverse’s Martin Frölander discussed the “new age of old age” and the impact of longevity and shifting workforce dynamics on careers and organisational design, succession planning and talent management. By 2060, he notes, the OECD’s population will grow by 200 million people, but the traditionally aged workforce (15-64) will shrink by 10%. “The only short-term solution to compensate for less people in the traditional working age population,” says Frölander, “is to enable longer working lives. People will need to work well into their 70s.” But that’s absolutely not the current trend. In both the US and UK, employment tumbles well before the statutory retirement age. That’s the challenge ahead.

He presented a kind of heaven and hell set of alternative scenarios for the future. Dystopia first. If employment rates remain at current levels, the active labour force shrinks and GDP drops by about 10% by 2050. If, on the contrary, we enable and support longer working lives and unlock increased female participation, we could unlock 20% GDP growth per capita by 2050.

He stressed the importance of individualised employee experiences, particularly for older professionals in being able to enable the latter option. Frölander emphasised the urgent need for organisations to start proactively retaining and supporting Q3 workers.

Frölander highlighted the current challenges faced by older employees, including health issues, caregiving responsibilities, and job loss, which are too often driving early workforce exits. “We need a life-course approach which integrates age differentiation. That in turn drives individualisation and optimisation.” He called for comprehensive employee longevity strategies that include career development, retirement preparation, and transition support to enhance both individual and organisational longevity.

Getting Leaders Longevity-Ready

The Longevity Leadership Programme underscored the profound implications of an ageing population on societies, economies, and individual wellbeing. From economic strategies to innovative city planning, and from consumer behaviour to organisational policies, the speakers provided a multifaceted view of the opportunities and challenges ahead. As Miguel Gouveia aptly summarised, “The future is going to be good—more life, more health, more quality of life for longer.” Embracing these insights will be crucial to fostering countries and companies that value and leverage the potential of their ageing populations.

Participants gave the programme a standing ovation on the last day, approving its holistic approach and stellar speakers. Dean Abecassis-Moedas notes that “participants appreciated how much more skilled and ready they feel to design relevant longevity strategies for their businesses. This issue is huge, right up there with climate change and AI, so leaders everywhere will want to get this up to the top of their agenda, and be prepared to address it fast. The era of longevity is upon us!”