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Until recently, aging big-shot
executives were happy to play golf, become ambassadors or just fade away.
Have you noticed that CNBC is
dominated by frisky septuagenarians? Last Wednesday, Carl Icahn, the
72-year-old corporate raider turned hedge-fund manager/ shareholder activist,
was terrorizing the whippersnappers at Yahoo, accusing the executive team of
foolishly torpedoing a merger with Microsoft. The day before, the network aired
testimony of legendary trader George Soros, 77, who was lecturing Congress on
the oil spike. Earlier in the month, Warren Buffett's annual Berkshire Hathaway
meeting, known as Woodstock
for Capitalists—with Buffett, 77, strumming a ukulele rather than Jimi Hendrix
wailing the national anthem—received blanket coverage. Kirk Kerkorian, 91, who
amassed big stakes in Chrysler and General Motors and agitated for change, is
amassing a large stake in Ford.
This isn't America's
business channel. It's "Cocoon."
Our culture relentlessly celebrates
youth. But in the corporate world, 80 is the new 50. The exploits of these
Sunshine Boys and advances in medicine make the retirement age of 65 seem like
a relic. And in fact, it is. When Otto von Bismarck established Germany's—and
the world's—first social-welfare system in the 1880s, "he had to pick an
age at which people were so enfeebled and disabled, they couldn't work,"
says Ken Dychtwald, chief executive officer of the consulting firm AgeWave,
which specializes in aging and the workplace. Bismarck chose 70. "At the time, the
average life expectancy in Europe was about
45." In 1916, Germany
reduced the age to 65.
Since then, this arbitrary cutoff
date has calcified into a thick gray line. Until recently, aging big-shot
executives were generally happy to play golf, become ambassadors or just fade
away. Today, not so much. Like a stage mother, Jack Welch, 72, nearly seven
years removed from the top post at General Electric, is lecturing successor
Jeffrey Immelt from the wings. The rise of private-equity firms and hedge funds
has effectively created a sort of seniors tour for successful managers.
"This is just not a cohort that's all that excited about stepping into the
world of 24/7 recreation," says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale management
professor who founded the Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
Most Type-A M.B.A.s could probably
outpace these guys in a 10K. (Self-proclaimed workout stud Sumner Redstone, the
85-year-old chairman of both Viacom and CBS, might give the youngsters a run
for their money.) But these are marathon men, not the sprinters who thrive
during bubbles. In recent months, fiftysomething CEOs of Wall Street firms and
large banks have been decimated by the credit crunch, just as twentysomething
tech stars were crushed in the 2001 NASDAQ crash. Unlike their younger counterparts,
today's headline-making grandparents have experience managing through the last
serious oil shock and prolonged period of financial pain in the 1970s. Kirk
Kerkorian began his career during the Great Depression. These rock stars have
also proved willing to learn a repertoire beyond their greatest hits. Rupert
Murdoch, 77, beat younger moguls in the race for MySpace and is now busily
remaking The Wall Street Journal. Carl Icahn has a blog (though it doesn't
contain any content). Former oilman T. Boone Pickens, 80, who runs a $4 billion
hedge fund, is the lead investor in a $10 billion wind farm in Texas. Oh, and he has
just penned his debut book: "The First Billion Is the Hardest."
These business guitar heroes may be
taking their cues from real-life rockers, like Neil Diamond, 67, Mick Jagger,
64, and Tina Turner, 68, who are still filling arenas. In both instances,
markets are recognizing and rewarding continued excellence, even if the
performers' gaits have slowed. CT Partners, the executive search firm, recently
conducted an unscientific poll on its Web site, asking managers whether they'd
hire a 72-year-old CEO (which is what the Republican Party is asking the
country to do). The answer was yes, by a margin of 55-45 percent.
For leadership guru Warren Bennis,
who at 83 teaches full time at the University
of Southern California's
business school, such ambivalence is a key issue facing the economy.
"Organizations have to learn how to manage the people who keep growing and
learning even as they get older," he says.
As they've moved through life, the
baby boomers have altered societal attitudes on everything from smoking
marijuana to Botox. In the 1960s, the boomers' mantra was: don't trust anyone
over 30. In the 2010s, it'll probably be: don't trust anyone under 70.
Daniel Gross
NEWSWEEK
Jun 7, 2008
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