What C-Suite Execs Can Learn from Dr. Joseph Coughlin

One thing I admire about Joe Coughlin is the way he consistently and convincingly shows that when it comes to the longevity economy, so many businesses are missing the boat.

Joe started sounding this note in his 2017 book, “The Longevity Economy,” and it seems like there’s not a week that goes by in which Joe doesn’t point out a few more examples.

One of his most recent calls to action came in a piece titled “Leveling Up The Longevity Economy: Discovering Hidden Opportunities in Plain Sight.”

In it, he acknowledges that business leaders, advertisers and investors are seizing opportunities to serve older Americans in the health and wealth industries, and occasionally in travel, too.

But there’s so much more ground they could be covering.

Older Americans are a huge and growing segment of the population. They have the largest share of disposable income. Their economic clout will transform countless industries.

That’s why Joe’s work should be required reading in the C-suites of every major American company. It would spur them to at least ask themselves, “Are we missing something? Is this a consumer market?” Investors, likewise, would ask, “Is this an investment thesis that we’re missing?”

Joe makes another excellent point in the piece by encouraging more businesses to not just design products and services for older adults, but to design aspirational products that will excite and delight these consumers.

As he writes:

“Designers, engineers, and developers must reimagine products that … deliver more than the avalanche of big, beige, and boring products that remind people to take their medications and check their blood pressure.”

(This is a point I am sure Sarah Thomas will agree with: She has written eloquently about the boring, utilitarian — and usually ugly — design of “functional” products for older adults.)

Part of the problem is that even when businesses recognize opportunities in the aging market, they bring their ageist stereotypes with them.

They pigeon-hole older adults as a growing market only for financial services and the physical and mental health care industries. They might also try to sell us a few travel packages as well as more canes and walkers — things that scream, “You’re old!”

In the end, the companies who do that are going to get disrupted right out of business. They’re going to lose the market opportunity. That’s why I think they should be reading Joe — otherwise they’ll stick to dated, ageist thinking and miss enormous opportunities.

Note: Joe will be giving the keynote address at the NIC Spring Conference in San Diego in March, and then joining me onstage for a fireside chat. The topic is “Aspirational Aging: Redefining the Senior Housing Experience from Avoidance to Aspirational.”