Ken Dychtwald

Biography

Over the past 30+ years, Dr. Ken Dychtwald has emerged as North America’s foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing, healthcare and workforce implications of the age wave. He is a psychologist, gerontologist, documentary filmmaker, entrepreneur and best-selling author of fifteen books on aging-related issues, including Bodymind, Age Wave: The Challenges and Opportunities of an Aging Society, Age Power, The Power Years: A User's Guide to the Rest of Your Life, Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent and his latest – a children’s book Gideon’s Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings. His new (and highly anticipated) book is entitled With Purpose: Going From Success to Significance in Work and Life. In 2007, he had his debut as a documentary filmmaker and host with the highly rated PBS special "The Boomer Century."

In 1986, Ken became the founding President and CEO of Age Wave, a firm created to guide Fortune 500 companies and government groups in product/service development for boomers and mature adults. His client list has included more than half of the Fortune 500. His explorations and innovative solutions have fertilized and catalyzed a broad spectrum of industry sectors-from vitamins and cookies to automotive design and retail merchandising to mutual funds and health insurance.

During his career, Dr. Dychtwald has addressed more than two million people worldwide in his speeches to corporate, association, social service, and government groups. His strikingly accurate predictions and innovative ideas are regularly featured in leading print and electronic media worldwide, including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Financial Times, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Inc., U.S. News and World Report, The Economist, Hong Kong Daily News, South China Morning Post, The Standard, The Straits Times, 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, PBS, NPR and BBC.

He is the recipient of the distinguished American Society on Aging Award for outstanding national leadership in the field of aging. American Demographics Magazine honored him as the single most influential marketer to baby boomers over the past quarter century. His article in The Harvard Business Review, "It's Time to Retire Retirement," was awarded the prestigious McKinsey Award, tying for first place with the legendary Peter Drucker. Through his highly acclaimed presentations, his breakthrough research and consulting initiatives, and his leadership within both the social science and business communities, Ken Dychtwald has dedicated his life to battling ageist stereotypes while promoting a new and vital image of maturity

Publications

With Purpose
With Purpose challenges readers with a paradigm shifting view of what matters most in the second half of life, redefining the way America views success, employment, retirement, and living a significant life.

Success can be looked at in different ways from different points in your life. As a child, it was pleasing your parents; in high school, it may have been about academic achievement and popularity; as a working adult, success is often represented by earning a good salary and the respect of others. But what about in the years after your initial goals have been pursued? What constitutes success then? Leisure or legacy?

For more and more people, it's about making things better and about improving the world-large or small-in a lasting way. It's about changing the community, the nation, the political landscape, and the environment. With Purpose focuses on why readers should commit to having a lasting impact on the world and how they can do it. Ken Dychtwald addresses finances, locations, and realities of life, and includes inspiring stories of people who have made a difference while providing the resources to enable the reader to do the same. Men and women will identify their strengths, become inspired, and find themselves galvanized into action.

Titles

Retirement at the Tipping Point: New Funding, New Timing New Purpose
Based on highly acclaimed Age Wave research, this NEW presentation reveals how four generations of Americans are altering the funding, timing and purpose of retirement. This mind-stretching program will explore the following: Who has suffered the most loss during the past year and how long do they think it will take to get it back. Why the retirement clock is being re-set to at least age 67 and how that could be good for everyone. What are the key lessons learned from the financial crisis and how will people’s behavior and attitudes toward money and retirement be changed? What is the #1 retirement “wildcard?” How the sandwich generation has morphed into multigenerational “Rubik” families and the vast implications of this for all generations. A vision of retirees’ changing role in American life - from lifelong learning and legacy to mentoring and philanthropreneuring. How financial professionals can most effectively help people fund their new retirement hopes, dreams and purpose.

Living with Purpose: Rethinking Success
Success is defined differently at different moments in life. As a child, it has a lot to do with pleasing our parents. In our teens, it’s often about academic achievement and popularity. As a working adult, success is often about balancing the challenge of creating a healthy family while building a satisfying career. But what’s next? Healthy living and modern medicine have given our lives longevity, but how do we make the most of all that time? Is it too late to go back to school, start a new and gratifying career (or turbo-charge your current one), fall in love again, reinvent yourself? Since happiness is about more than what's in the bank, what are the essential components of an all-weather, successful “life portfolio” - with a significant investment in head, heart, spirit and civic engagement? This hopeful and motivating new presentation answers the essential questions: what is success now and what is the new purpose of life’s second half?

Four Generations Rethink Work, Retirement and Success
We are living in the midst of unprecedented demographic, economic and social changes that impact nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives. Increasing longevity and insufficient savings mean that older workers will be working longer and shrinking their retirement. Mid-career workers are trying to reboot their enthusiasm for a longer and more demanding worklife as they simultaneously try to fund their future retirement. Young workers are struggling to enter the workforce during tough economic times. What makes each of the four working generations tick - and perform at their best? What are they looking to get from - and give to - their jobs? How will they measure success in this new era? This presentation will explore these issues while showing how to retain and attract valuable talent and enhance productivity through programs such as: creative use of flexible work arrangements, innovative learning and mentoring opportunities, sabbaticals, retraining, re-careering, flex-retirement and creative compensation and benefits programs.

Retirement Wake-Up Call: The Future of Financial Services
How has today's financial crisis altered the relationship between client and financial advisor? Based on research findings from numerous highly acclaimed Age Wave studies on retirement and financial services, this presentation sheds light on which aspects of the financial services industry are dying and which are coming alive. It outlines the “new” retirement-related needs, worries, and aspirations - and how financial services firms and advisors can re-establish trust with the wary public. Meet the “Ageless Explorers,” the “Comfortably Contents,” the “Live for Todays” and the “Sick and Tireds.” Learn how each group feels about their lives, their prospects for fulfilling their hopes and dreams for retirement and what role financial planning, employer support and/or government policies have played in getting them to where they are today. This presentation also covers how the emerging adult lifestage demands of careers, parenthood, eldercare, grandparenthood, singlehood, disability and rehirement will affect savings and retirement funding.

Power Shift: How Women's Rising Power will Change the World
Now, more than ever, the role of women in defining and driving business is paramount. Women already control more than 50% of all consumer spending. They are being educated in higher numbers than men and are now, for the first time in history, employed in higher numbers than men. While many of today's women stand strong when wielding earning power, many still slump in their financial confidence, long-term financial decision-making skills, economic control and investment power. The final frontier for women in the gender revolution will be gaining muscle and control over their money. Based on groundbreaking fi4/24/2009ndings from Age Wave's landmark research study “Women, Money, and Power,” this presentation reveals important new insights on women and their relationship to money. It provides an illuminating and in-depth look at women's motivations, fears, and challenges around money, saving, and spending and shows how to most effectively target their needs and hopes.

How the Age Wave Will Transform the Marketplace - and Our Lives
This visionary presentation offers deep insights into the global population shifts that are occurring and what they mean for business and marketers. How might increasing longevity and declining fertility impact societies, economies, families and individual lives? Do people want to live traditional “linear” or more flexible “cyclic” lives and how does that alter brand loyalty? How will the “age wave” impact the consumer marketplace and which sectors and products will shrink and which will grow: from vitamins and nutraceuticals, cookies to lifetime income insurance and anti-aging healthcare, and from adventure travel to edutainment. Which industries - and countries - are hopeful about their “age wave” prospects and which are fearful? This presentation outlines how companies should orient their branding and marketing to best resonate with the new generation of “middlescent” adults. Dr. Ken Dychtwald will also provide a list of “key marketing lessons” from 35 years on the front lines - that can be applied by marketers across industries. (Note: This presentation can be shaped to focus either on the US, North American or Global Age Wave.)

The Longevity Revolution: The Future of Health and Healthcare
This sweeping presentation provides a visionary glimpse into the future of the body, health and healthcare. How long might we live? Will our later years be a time of health and vitality or illness and disability? Are we heading toward “Shangri-la” or “Gerassic Park?” How far will we go in our pursuit of the “fountain of health?” What are the new frontiers of medicine - from genomics, anti-aging therapies, therapeutic cloning and virtual surgery to pharmaceuticals, cosmeceuticals and nutraceuticals. How might they be used to combat the diseases of aging? What role will consumer empowerment and self-care play in the new healthcare marketplace? This presentation previews how rising longevity, the aging of the population, and increasingly self-empowered consumers are converging to transform nearly every aspect of our healthcare system-from professional training and geriatric competency to IT, from facility design to service delivery, from high tech to self-care.

The New Experiential Marketplace
At this moment in history - with so many fears and worries - there is a deepening appreciation for the immeasurable value of great times with friends and loved ones, the satisfaction of continued personal growth and lifelong learning and the excitement of encountering new people, places and cultures. In addition, fueled by the dual liberations of empty nesting and retirement, tens of millions of men and women are beginning to enjoy more free time than at any other point in their lives. These forces are causing a massive shift in interest from a desire to purchase “things” to an unquenchable appetite for new, exciting, stimulating and challenging “experiences.” Learn how this change will transform the consumer marketplace and give birth to a new assortment of travel, leisure, recreation, rejuvenation, entertainment, infotainment, housing, volunteering and lifelong learning industries.