Longevity Leaders Series: Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

Welcome to Longevity Leaders, our new blog interview series spotlighting fellow innovators shaping the future of age-inclusivity and the longevity sector and economy. 

In this ongoing series, we sit down with founders, thought-leaders, researchers, policy designers, strategists and visionaries and more who are leading in this sector - exploring their ideas, missions, and momentum as they pioneer longer, healthier, more vibrant and equal futures for all.

And to kick off this series, we're interviewing Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is a thought leader specialising in gender and generational balance. She advises on leadership, the future of work, the longevity economy and the consequences of 60-year careers.

A regular contributor to Forbes and the Harvard Business Review, she hosts the longevity-focused podcast 4-Quarter Lives, and publishes the substack Elderberries. Avivah is Visiting Faculty at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, co-Directs the Longevity Leadership Programme at Catolica Lisbon, and is Adjunct Faculty at DePaul University. In addition to her three Ted talks, she speaks regularly at events ranging from The Economist Conferences, to The Global Peter Drucker Forum, The Leadership Forum and The Women’s Forum.

And, most recently, Avivah and I have partnered on our new joint social-led campaign "Intentionally Intergenerational", sharing innovative insights, pioneering thought leadership, and interactive resources on how to successfully understand,  engage and connect generations  -  and build intergenerational balance.

So who better for us to kick it off our new Longevity Leaders interview series with?!

You’ve been a thought leader and pioneer advocating for gender and generational balance in the workplace for decades. What first motivated you to focus on these areas, and what keeps you passionate about this work?

In both cases, it just seems so obvious. And obvious that others weren’t seeing what I was seeing. I’m a biz school graduate, if you looked at the data (I love data) on gender back when I started at the turn of the century, women were already the majority of graduates and managers in some countries. There were the vast majority of purchasing decision makers in an ever-expanding range of sectors. Any business that ignored their potential was going to miss half the talent and most of the market. The same has been happening, slowly but predictably, with ageing populations. Suddenly, we find ourselves with workforces and consumers that are trending towards being generationally balanced between the over- and under-50s for the first time in human history. I love these big, shape-shifting transformations. If you’re smart, you harness them and use them to drive competitive advantages - both at work and in life. 

What actions can companies take to prevent age bias and support older employees?

They can start by framing this as a massive "longevity opportunity".

How you frame the topic when you launch it is your key success factor. Get it right and it sings, get it wrong and you get backlash. Then you need to measure what the potential is for your business/ segment and country. What share of your consumer base is over and under-50. Who has the purchasing power? How do you service and communicate with your 50+ consumers? Do they like it? The same for employees. How many? What’s the engagement score gap between the younger and the older? What share of your development and training budget is spent on the 50+? Have you flexed retirement options. Companies may need their older talent more than they know. Retaining them will be tomorrow’s big challenge.

With your experience guiding leaders on gender and generational balance, what advice would you give to people over 50 who may feel their age is a barrier to career advancement or opportunities? And what advice would you give to those younger to ensure there is balance?

Read a wonderful OECD report on the Midlife Career Opportunity. You learn that companies are ageist in predictable ways. They think when you age you are reluctant to learn, don’t like tech, and rely on your decades of experience. So all you have to do is prove them wrong proactively. Upskill, get a certification, embrace AI and don’t talk about decades of anything…For the young, I think the promise of longevity and 60-year careers is that they can pace themselves differently, which we are already seeing. Don’t over-invest in work at the cost of other fundamental things in life – family, relationships, and learning. Don’t think that you need to accomplish everything before 50. You’ll be working into your 70’s, so plan for change, portfolios and variety, some of which make money. And don’t forget that health and wealth both start with regular inputs. Start small, and stay consistent over the long haul. It’s gonna be a marathon, so get good shoes and train up!

From your global work, have you seen any successful examples of companies creating welcoming workplaces for all ages? What can we learn from them?

Good companies have always been open to talent in any shape, colour or form. That’s what makes them great. It’s just that most are fairly conformist, and stick to dominant national, social, or increasingly political, norms. The myth of the true meritocracy is fairly rare but there are a few. You can feel them right away, because there are humans of all kinds that work there. I’m particularly fond of large multinationals based in small countries, because they were often some of the first to go big and go global. They are incredibly multi-everything. Culture, gender, and generational. Usually they built it in that order.

Looking at generational balance, what shifts do you see happening in the workplace today, and how can companies leverage this new demographic reality for long-term success?

Workforces will increasingly be divided evenly between Q2 ers (25-50) and Q3 ers (50-75), two groups who will have different motivations, needs and goals. Companies that recognise this early will be able to create the intergenerational teams that will deliver better performance which will be more sustainable across the shocks were about to experience. It’ll combine innovation and experience, energy and wisdom, knowledge and curiosity, in new and unknown ways. And it will be sustainable in a fast-ageing world.

What inspired you to intentionally join forces with our founder Jacynth for your new campaign, Intentionally Intergenerational, and what are your hopes for it? 

I wanted to visibly practice what I’m preaching. I want to reach out to more and more people in the Quarters ahead and behind me. We need each other. There are things I need to learn, and knowledge I need to share. So that’s my mantra for the campaign, and for all of us, that at every age, we learn to Grow and Share, intentionally, across generations.

Find out more about Avivah and her work at www.avivahwittenbergcox.com and www.20-first.com