Ken Dychtwald has been trying for over 4 decades to prepare America (and the world) for the huge disruptive force that is the graying of the Baby Boomers.
By Pam McDonald
Remember a commercial showing a restaurant filled with guys in suits talking animatedly over lunch, when one man leans in and says, โWell, my broker is E. F. Hutton . . .โ and the entire room falls silent, straining to hear what this guy says next?
Well, thatโs kind of the reception Ken Dychtwald gets when he addresses owners, operators, lenders and investors in the senior housing and care space, as he did at the National Investment Center (NIC) Fall Conference a couple of months ago.
A gerontologist, psychologist, speaker, author and founder of the California-based consulting firm, Age Wave, Ken has been trying for over 4 decades to prepare America (and the world) for the huge disruptive force that is the graying of the Baby Boomers.
He says the Age Wave will impact nearly every aspect of society, including, of course, business. โYour industry is going to have the wind in its sails,โ he notes, but he also warns that future behavior is not as easy to predict as demography. The central question for business, he says, is โWho are the Boomers going to be when they get older? Because if you get that wrong, youโre out.โ
Winners and Losers in Senior Living
He continues that there are major ways senior living can fail to win with Boomers. He says, โFirst of all, if you say, โWe are expert on older adults, thereโs just going to be twice as many of them,โ youโll fail.
โOr, [if you say] . . . โIโm tuned into Boomers. I understand the Boomer mindset, weโre just going to picture them with wrinkles,โ youโll fail.โ
He also believes that โif youโre building your communities and your marketing and intelligence is based on the 20th Century notion that people really want to stop work, separate from society, not do much of anything other than relax and socialize, and be called seniors, youโre going to fail.โ
Branding for Seniors Wonโt Work with Boomers
Ken says, โI know a lot of your companies have got the word โseniorโ in your brand. Every study thatโs ever been done in the last ten years of Boomers says that they donโt ever want to be seniors. They might like to be โelders,โ they might like to be โolder adults,โ they might like to be โlong-lived people.โ
โYou will win,โ he says, โif you can imagine this generation, understand what’s in their hearts and souls and minds and bodies, and then project them into a stage of life that itself is morphing as they migrate into it.โ
Ken describes four areas where Boomers and aging will transform each other, including the following:
1. Longevity Inequality
2. The Death of Retirement
3. Family/Financial Security
4. A New Purpose for Maturity
Longevity Inequality
He notes, โThereโs been a lot of talk lately about income inequality; the idea that some people have it, other people donโt. You just watch what happens . . . when people come to terms with longevity inequality . . . A lifetime of wellness is about to become the prize for a generation thatโs going to be having aches and pains and all sorts of physical challenges.โ
Heโs sure, โWeโll see breakthroughs . . . that will allow people to sustain their youth or to grow old young or to not age.โ But he points out they may be enormously expensive. As todayโs young people live to age 150 or more, he notes that Boomers will be on the leading edge of these innovations and says, โSome will get access and others will not.โ
An End to Retirement As We Know It
Ken points out that we currently have about 70 million retirees who bought into the notion that retirement has people moving off the stage, quitting work at age 65 and relaxing more. But, he points out, โLast year, the average retiree watched 49 hours of television a weekโ and that looks pretty boring to Boomers.
He says that 77% of Boomers want to work in retirement, but not full time. And, more than half want to try something different than theyโve ever done before. But many wonโt be able to afford to retire.
He notes, โAbout one-third of the Boomers are doing pretty well financially. About a third are in the middle. Theyโll be able to make it through their later years with some cutbacks and careful planning or communal living or a โsharing societyโ or groups of people living in a home together. But about a third of the Boomers have got less than about a thousand dollars net savings. Theyโre going to struggle in their retirement. They wonโt be able to afford to retire.โ
Linear vs. Cyclic Life Plans
Ken says, โHistorically weโve lived what Iโll call a linear life plan. Life was short; biological clocks were ticking away . . . Perhaps the biggest mistake people make when they contemplate gerontology is they think that increasing longevity gives a longevity bonus . . . that people are going to stick that at the end of their lives. So that people are going to live their lives in the exact same way folks always have. Theyโll just be old longer.โ
But he points out that when John Glenn announced he was going to go up in space again, he said: โJust because Iโll be 77 doesnโt mean I still donโt have dreams.โ Ken notes, โOur communities are designed to be places where people are nostalgic for who they used to be. In the future, people will have new dreams at 60, and 80 and 100. This becomes the model of a long-lived society.โ
Little Family or Financial Security
Ken states that Boomers will have very little family and financial security, and are also the generation people love to hate. He points to a recent Philadelphia Magazine cover with the headline: “Dear Baby Boomers, JUST DIE ALREADY.”
He concludes that it is unlikely that public policy will be generous toward Boomers and says, โThey will have to fend for themselves. Theyโll have to find communities and homes and neighborhoods that they can afford.โ
Ushering In A New Purpose for Maturity
Despite any generational friction, Ken believes Boomers will help redefine purpose in later life. He says, โBoomers . . . want to be somebody; they want their lives to have meaning. And, in their later years, when they have time affluence, they will have an enormous appetite to give back.”
He concludes, โI think the idea that living a long life should simply be an extension of youth or that you should simply fulfill on the dreams of your childhood is going to be replaced by the idea that maybe I can give back. Maybe I could be somebody Iโve always dreamed of being. People are going to search for ways to be connected, relevant, involved, [and] living with purpose.โ
Watch Kenโs entire NIC Talk below:
NIC Talks speaker: Ken Dychtwald, PhD, Founder and CEO of Age Wave