Longevity And Aging Should Be Part Of Every Companies’ People Strategy Says Organizational Expert

During a presentation in Lisbon to a group of companies in retail and banking on the buying patterns and lifestyles of European youth, Ana João Sepulveda found a new calling. As a researcher responsible for sales and marketing, she frequently applied different methodologies to predict consumer trends and market direction. Most companies were all over the youth market, so Sepulveda's presentation was just what they wanted.

This is why she was surprised when afterward, representatives from two major companies asked why she was focusing on the younger market when all of Europe was aging. That was in 2007.

Without skipping a beat, Sepulveda proposed using a reliable methodology for a motivational segmentation study of Portuguese seniors. It didn't take long for her to discover a unique business opportunity.

"When I realized no one else was looking at the aging market, I began exploring the topic," Sepulveda said. In 2008 she launched the 40+ Lab, specializing in the economics of longevity and aging. She and her team focus on four primary areas: products and services, team longevity, training, and regional development strategies.

"As far as I know, 40+ Lab is the only business consultant fully specialized in the economy of longevity and the business challenges associated with longevity and aging."

Why Longevity Matters

As Managing Partner at 40+ Labs, Sepulveda and her team are on a mission to educate organizations and the government on why longevity matters. They also help differentiate between longevity and aging since the two are often lumped together and explain why this should be a part of every companies’ people strategy.

"It's not only at the organizational level that people confuse aging with longevity," explains Sepulveda. "People generally think they are synonymous concepts, but they are not. Yes, societies are aging, but the source for aging is longevity."

A longevity economy impacts more than just businesses wanting to understand the needs of their customers better. It also impacts people on a personal level. Not only do they need to plan financially for living longer – studies suggest that living to 100 will be a common achievement – many of them must also care for aging parents.

"People need to be aware that they will live longer, and a longer life has consequences, many of which have never been considered. And they need to plan with some degree of awareness which means they need a certain amount of longevity literacy," says Sepulveda, who believes longevity literacy should be included in school curriculums.

The Power of Benchmark

"When you don't have a perspective of the whole, when something is very new, when you want to innovate and can't identify paths, a benchmark study is an excellent option," explains Sepulveda. "Even more so in the case of 40+ Lab because we are highly specialized and have a global network, which allows us to talk to the right people and gather the information that otherwise would not be accessible."

"Benchmarking is a way to provoke comparative immersion in a given theme and has been very useful in developing a macro strategic vision of business development (e.g., designing a value proposition for a bank or an insurance offer for an insurance company). It also presents a view of how various economies integrate longevity into their growth strategy, among other aspects.

Sepulveda says that, in large part, the secret of good benchmarking lies in knowing how to ask the right questions across an extensive network.

"Knowing who to contact worldwide and how to integrate that person in the project is a powerful tool," she adds. "This is also how you find companies with an innovative and long-term vision and provides insight into their rationale.

A Global Challenge

The U.S. may have a population of around 335 million people. Portugal's population is closer to that of Michigan or North Carolina at about 10.2 million. But the demographic challenges are the same.

That realization caught Sepulveda by surprise.

"One day I was talking to someone from the U.S., and we came to the same conclusion–the problems in both countries were the same. The difference is only in the ability for people to mobilize and create change."

"In an increasingly globalized and westernized world, societies share more or less the same characteristics. Aging is a biological process, and so is longevity. This unites societies and countries. The challenges also have different aspects related to the maturity levels of societies and the level of innovation vision of governments."

Visionary governments work together with stakeholders to promote sustainability and growth. Myopic governments see an aging society as a burden because they cannot see the benefit.

Where does Sepulveda place Portugal?

"Portugal is in the latter group because they have limited focus on longevity and aging and no valid strategy or policy."

"Countries like us have a great challenge, starting with shifting attitudes. In this area, Sepulveda acts as a citizen and an influencer.

"Work environments need to be two things: age and longevity friendly. That means proactively focusing on all ages working together and providing employment opportunities for older workers. Companies should not neglect the longevity component because the business world is increasingly adopting evaluation and rating organizations and countries with longevity as a criterion."

Progressive companies understand the need to be agile and flexible, to shift their focus to acknowledge the value of all aged people, both as customers and employees. Companies with a narrow perspective see very little outside their bubble of sameness, often disguised as "corporate culture" and looking for a "culture fit" versus a culture add.

Sepulveda believes that much of the slowness in change is because this is still a very new area, even globally. "A focus on longevity and aging is so new that people who don't work in this area sometimes find it difficult to understand, and that worries me.

The solution is simple: for companies looking to attract and retain future talent, people strategies need to respond to demographic changes. And that means companies need to understand the difference between longevity and aging and employee talent of all ages.