As careers last longer, older people can play a valuable role in designing and marketing products for their age-mates
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As one of three co-teachers of a Stanford Graduate School of Business course on the rapidly growing importance of older consumers and workers, Rob Chess likes to say that his colleague Laura Carstensen, the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, is the expert on aging; his fellow lecturer in management, Susan Wilner Golden, has the entrepreneurial angle covered; and he represents the demographic in question. “I just got my Medicare card,” he says with a chuckle.
A serial entrepreneur who has founded and led several successful biotech companies, Chess is having a bit of fun at his own expense. But the growing cohort of older adults he belongs to — and the opportunity it represents — is no joke.
This piece originally appeared in Stanford Business Insights from Stanford Graduate School of Business. To receive business ideas and insights from Stanford GSB click here: (To sign up : https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/about/emails ) ]