The 55+ Conundrum in Business

For the most part, business has been on a "youth kick" for several decades. I can recall in my 30's and 40's I was a "young buck" and the phone constantly was ringing with headhunters calling with exciting new opportunities!

Then I hit 50, and suddenly the calls slowed to a trickle. And when I did occasionally interview, often the genre of questions changed. "When do you think you will be retiring?" Age discrimination could barely be disguised. I once suggested an old colleague as a candidate to my company's leadership. I sent his CV. I got a call a week later, "It looks good Jim, but the guy is over 50 and that's just too old...." I was shocked and I pushed back, "How can you say this? You and I are both over 50 my friend!"

His reply? "Yes Jim, but you and I were recruited BEFORE we turned 50."

This blatant disregard for senior executives certainly started to distress me on a visceral level as I passed 50 and moved closer to my 60's. It frankly pissed me off. I was still fit, still running and exercising, and far fitter than the vast majority of 30-year-olds. I had more energy and more vitality and more health than many unfit employees 20 years my junior. It just seemed so superficial to judge people on a birthdate. But this is how people, and companies, can think. Superficiality replaces common sense.

So, when I joined Fine Hygienic Holding (FHH) as CEO at the age of 55, and I was faced with having to re-vamp my senior management team, I was certainly open minded to hiring the best people regardless of age. I agreed with my Super-fit, totally engaged, and also 55-year-old Chairman we would go for best available talent. It wasn't a single-minded focus on a "youth movement". I went for talent. I went for ENERGY and VITALITY. I went for people still willing to dig in and get their hands dirty. I didn't hire based on birthdates.

We ended up with a team of 5 of us in the 55+ group: Our Chairman; Myself; Our CFO; Our Chief Commercial Officer; and Our Chief of Supply Chain. To put it in simple mathematics, 1/3 of our leadership team was over 55 years old. A couple were already past 60. So what?

It didn't matter. We hired for energy. All 5 are fit. Runners. Mountain Climbers. Fitness buffs. In a recent "push-up" competition, company-wide, only a handful beat myself and our other senior participants. 90th percentile in number of push-ups completed!

Old guys rule!

These people brought wisdom, experience, and the calm that comes from "I have seen this before". The business responded and for the past several years, we have doubled our profitability. The company is doing well and the 5 "old guys" have left their handprints all over the success model.

And then Covid-19 came. A curveball nobody saw coming. A dramatic shift to the business environment.

Like any crisis, Covid-19 gave a glimpse into the character of people. Who keeps their emotions in check? Who holds their "shit" together? Who stays cool? Who looks out for others; and who becomes self-focused and forgets everyone else? Who forges on, and who starts to "get depressed" and "burned out" and even perhaps "gives up"?

I have 3,500 employees. I had lots of talk with people who would say they are "burned out". I have had many discussions with people saying they are depressed or "cannot take a lockdown any longer". I have watched leaders "lose it" and border on the edge of being irrational, under the stress. I have offered counseling to our people and been in special meetings focused on "managing the mental health of our organization".

What's interesting is, through it all, the 5 old guys, the 5 highest-risks for Covid-19, and 5 folks supposedly on the edge of retirement, just forged on like nothing happened. I never heard a single complaint from any of them. They are engaged 24/7. Our Chairman, our CFO, our Chief of Supply Chain, our Chief Commercial Officer, have all done some amazing work and delivered beyond outstanding results, in the face of crisis. I never heard a peep of complaints from any of them. They just kept their shit together and did their jobs to perfection. Nobody was whining about being depressed. They just put their heads down and got it done. No stress. Just get on with it!

And this very fact is the conundrum of the 55+ crowd of business leaders. In normal times, our experience, our perspective, our wisdom, our RESILIENCE of having had more exposure to the world, is undervalued. But you get into a crisis like Covid-19, and for FHH the 55+ crowd became a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. With age comes that ability to stay cool. To endure, knowing we can endure anything. To put things in their proper perspective. And it's a generation that talks much less about depression in general. Our generation always believed happiness was, for most people, a choice.

To put it very bluntly, the 55+ part of the team of FHH has been an edge in the marketplace. And this crisis showed the real value of hiring for energy, and being open-minded for top people in the 55+ club.

I am thankful these 4 are with me. Their fingerprints are all over our success. And when this is over, and we get back to filling some key roles, I will be more resolute than ever in considering, and interviewing, qualified candidates from the 55+ crowd.

55+ ROCKS!