CEOs Get Serious About Longevity

In France

This article originally appeared in my FORBES column behind a paywall. I’m sharing it here with paid elderberries subscribers, a short time after initial publication.

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47 French CEOs Sign a Longevity Charter

CEOs of France’s leading companies, including L’Oréal, Air France and AXA, came together in Paris in January to discuss the implementation of the Charter they signed to prioritise longevity strategies for their 50+ employees. Under the aegis of the Club Landoy, the approach signals a growing realisation in the business world that accelerating demographic change is right up there with climate and technological change.

Sibylle Le Maire, President Club LandoyGROUPE BAYARD

By 2035, 50% of Europe’s population will be over 45. The impacts will be comparable to the century’s other big shifts – but a lot more predictable. “Ageing societies are not a risk, they are a reality,” explains Sibylle Le Maire, Executive Director of the Bayard Group and President of the Club Landoy, who is the brains behind the push.

Why CEOs Care

“The idea that seniors are less productive, because they are less energetic, is bullshit!,” insisted Hervé Navellou, CEO of L’Oréal France, at Club Landoy’s annual conference. “What creates productivity is the complementarity between the youngest and the most experienced.”

L’Oréal was one of the first companies to sign the Charter. Most of the signatories are listed on France’s stock exchange, the CAC 40. At the conference, they reported on the strategies they are beginning to roll out to bring the Charter’s principles to life. They recognised the challenge of adapting their businesses to the new realities of a 5-generation workforce that is, for the first time in history, balancing between the older and the younger.