Boomers & Purpose
A long time ago a client of ours — a CEO of a DC-based company — said in one of our peer group meetings that boomers would be the generation that leaves the planet in lasting disrepair. He, himself one, said our masses, our values, our consumerism, and being raised in relative peace-time bliss — would leave a lasting scourge. Years later the term Boomer and Karen emerged as exclamation marks to make his point.
Stereotypes abound, as they do for many generational cohorts. Apparently, we boomers never retire. We care about aging well, driving sports cars, traveling and enjoying ‘experiences’ and are on the cusp of massive wealth transfer. We live to work instead of work to live. Warren Buffett age 94 appointed his son, Howard Graham Buffet (a boomer aged 70) as his successor. You gotta love this as it’s not like Mr. Buffett turned over the reins when he was 74 and his son was 50. Nope. 70 is the new something that’s for sure.
Colleague John Dick, CEO and Founder of Civic Science, a data and real-time research company we know and respect published in his Saturday newsletter (a must-read) said this:
“The Reemergence of the 50+ Consumer: Marketers’ obsession needs to shift from Gen Z (they’re broke) and Millennials (super-broke) and pivot to Americans in their 50s and beyond. Not only are gray hairs sitting on piles of savings and stock market gains, but they’ve rapidly become more tech and media-savvy, early adopters across nearly every category, and significantly less brand loyal than past generations of oldsters. Brands who win will toss out conventional wisdom and invest their marketing dollars accordingly…..”
Suddenly we are cool again.
And yet our day-to-day is changing. CEO after CEO “retiring” in our industry — to get out of the day-to-day grind and to remain active philanthropically, economically, experientially, and with use of their time to sit on boards, and make a difference another way. I disagree about this generation taking and not leaving. The leaders I have worked with give in spades and care in spades.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently. One of our “founding team members” Steve Giglio — retires at the end of this month. Steve helped make Outsell what it is. As an integral member of our revenue team, he has been a coach, mentor, friend, and colleague who contributed so much literally and spiritually to our team over the years.
Steve has had two stints with us — one of our many boomerangers. After 8 years in his second stint, he is hanging up his Outsell spurs. He is the last of the first/founding cohort of our firm to retire and he is the last person who holds the lore with me, holding both the institutional knowledge, and tacit knowledge.
With over a year to prepare we have been lucky. It is both celebratory and bittersweet. He attended his last SKO this week and shared his wisdom while we celebrated him. He gave his heart and soul to our company. Godspeed Steve as you look ahead to the next chapter. Thank you for your service and so much more.
One client plans to leave mid-year; another made the change last quarter. While he sits on his company’s board he is turning full-time to philanthropy. One on LinkedIn, CCO of Elsevier left this lasting note.
I am blessed with great relationships with clients, and I will miss them. They are now on to new horizons, and I wish them well. To me they aren’t boomers, nor economic engines. They are individuals who have led by example, committed to bettering themselves and their teams. They demonstrated a hunger to learn recognizing if they led information businesses congruency meant taking in other’s information and putting it to great use.
They lived with purpose in the companies they’ve led– so we could live our purpose and together leave the world a better place.
Retiring generations leave behind valuable lessons — just look at SCORE. And as we say goodbye to one generation of leaders it’s fun to say hello to a new one with fresh ideas, new ways of doing things, eager to make a difference and engage a different way. The circle of life in the information services industry continues just like anywhere else.