Old dogs and old tricks

IS ADVANCED AGE a barrier to providing value to an organization?

- By Tony Samson

CEOs appointed in their mid-forties to take over a company under an orderly succession plan may not bother to challenge the enigma — Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Is it easier to just retire them? Aren’t they likely to be resistant to change? A recruited leader from outside the company wants to justify his signing bonus and disrupt the status quo on Day One.

Even when the selection committee of the board does not specify an age limit for new leadership positions, it has in mind a person south of 50 years of age. Attributes like dynamic, energetic, even disruptive attach more naturally to a youthful person, not someone who routinely gets a senior discount even when he doesn’t present any proof of age. (Do you want warm water?)

Business organizations have a mandatory retirement age as part of their corporate governance practice. After an executive blows out the one fat candle on his cake to represent 65, he may already be out of breath by the time he leaves the party. The much younger ones who stay on to eat the cake don’t have to worry about blood sugar levels.