Ken Dychtwald, the well know US consultant on all things ageing, has five questions he would like the Presidential Candidates to answer.
Maybe the UK's politicians would like to have a crack at answering them as well since they are faced with exactly the same issues.
These are two of his points that you might want to ponder. I have very slightly changed the wording.
The medical profession is not ageing-ready.
In the US there are 50,000 pediatricians, but fewer than 5,000 geriatricians. Only eight of the US's 145 academic medical centres have full geriatrics departments, and 97% of U.S. medical students don’t take a single course in geriatrics.
Yep, the UK is in a similar medical mess with the NHS. This is the time when the medical profession should be re-positioning itself to cater for an ageing population. That isn't happening.
Ageing with no money
In the US, roughly half (52%) of all households near retirement (headed by someone age 55+) have NO retirement savings and about half (51%) of our population have no pensions beyond Social Security. Yep, the UK has a similar fragmentation of older people into those who can expect a half decent retirement and those that cannot.
These are mega issues that will have an impact on the landscape of the ageing business for the next couple of decades (at least).
Now marketers are not going to 'solve' these issues but they should be able to identify the implications that they will have on their business.
Just in case they want a bit of help then my forthcoming new book 'This I Know' will provide some guidance. Dick Stroud
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