Lynda Gratton - The 100-Year Life: Living and working in an age of longevity

The 100-Year Life

To Nigel and Diane

The 100-Year Life

Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott

Bloomsbury Information
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Praise for the 100-Year Life

This playfully original book goes well beyond existing single-dimensional discussions of the major demographic transformations of our age, arguing how a different, exciting and challenging new world might be awaiting us. Blending economics, psychology and sociology, it makes a compelling case that as our lives become longer and healthier, the future might just be very very different from what we have known until now.

Daron Acemoglu , Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A lifetime that lasts a century is a gift that few of us are prepared for. It will force all of us to change the way we plan and live every facet of life. Societies will have to transform and this thought-provoking book by Professors Gratton and Scott will compel leaders to think hard about how organizations can adapt to this change and make the most of it.

N. Chandrasekaran , Chief Executive Officer, Tata Consultancy Services

This is a timely, fascinating and thought-provoking book, full of wonderful information about the potential of a 100-year life. A brilliant read for individuals, but it should be mandatory reading for our politicians and those responsible for planning in health and social care.

Shirley Cramer cbe ,Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health

Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott have written an important and highly readable analysis of the problem that most governments and corporations would prefer to ignore. A lot of us are going to live a lot longer than our grandparents indeed, more than half of todays kids will live to be 100. This has implications for much more than just our personal finances. Our entire lives, they argue convincingly, will need to be reconfigured to deal with the unprecedented lifespans we are being granted. Required reading for baby boomers and millennials alike.

Niall Ferguson , Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University

Gratton and Scotts must-read treatise helps us see crucial patterns in modern life, where were headed, and what we can and must do now in both our private and public worlds to create pathways for greater human freedom during our expanding time on earth.

Stewart Friedman , Director, Wharton Work/Life Integration Project, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Getting the right investment of assets across a long life is not straightforward. The 100-Year Life presents a provocative and sophisticated analysis of both tangible and intangible assets and, in a series of fascinating scenarios, shows how it can be done. In doing so, Gratton and Scott have created a classic.

Martin Gilbert , Chief Executive Officer, Aberdeen Asset Management

This timely, important, easy-to-read and intriguing book will make you pause and think, as well as better plan your life. The lengthening of life is a very real phenomenon, bringing with it unpredictable changes and challenges, but also significant opportunities. With increased life expectancy, how do you get the most from your life? How do you leverage your abilities while at the same time taking advantage of lifes opportunities? Gratton and Scotts book is a wake-up call for individuals, organizations, governments and societies. Relevant to young professionals as well as seasoned leaders, this book introduces readers to a new reality: multi-stage professional and personal lives that encompass different careers and transitions. Full of practical insights, this book helps readers to build and live a life worth living.

Boris Groysberg , Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Longevity has been rising in rich countries at a continuing remarkable rate. How having a lot more time will affect our lives as workers, consumers and family members is a fundamental social, economic and psychological question that has received far too little thought. The authors discuss the implications of rising longevity for all these aspects of our lives, making sensible predictions and, at least as important, forcing all of us to think about these crucial issues.

Daniel S. Hamermesh , Professor of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London and Sue Killam Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin

I found hundreds of insights in this book about the 100-year life. The authors understand implicitly that not only is the world as we know it changing beyond all recognition but the way we lead our lives is too. This book could not be more timely or necessary.

Julia Hobsbawm , Founder and CEO, Editorial Intelligence Ltd and Honorary Visiting Professor in Networking, Cass Business School

Living 100 years and working productively for the greater part of them will soon be a reality. That means that life stages as we know them have to be reinvented. Gratton and Scotts wonderful book prepares us individuals, organizations and societies for the possibilities of this brave new world of longevity and teaches us what it will take to thrive in it.

Herminia Ibarra ,The Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning, INSEAD

With The 100-Year Life Gratton and Scott have accomplished the near impossible: a book that admirably provides both incredibly important personal advice and a public policy primer. The book delivers sound, straightforward and vital advice on both the risks and rewards of living much longer than we ever imagined would happen to us, and on how to make better decisions so that we are happier at each life stage. It also lays a strong foundation for policy makers to reconsider the unintended consequences of policies and regulations that both enable and inhibit our ability to live a century-long life to its fullest.

Alec Levenson , Senior Research Scientist, Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Too many books bemoan the economic problems facing ageing societies. This splendid book is quite different. It rightly sees increased rising life expectancy as a wonderful gift, but explores the multiple ways in which individuals, companies and societies must adapt if we are to seize the opportunities before us. Well written and combining insights from psychology and economics, it should be read by anyone who wants to understand how life chances and choices will be transformed in a world where living beyond 100 will become the norm.

Lord Adair Turner , Senior Research Fellow, Institute for New Economic Thinking; formerly Chairman of UK Pensions Commission

What happens when working lives extend to 80 years? In this provocative and insightful book the economist Andrew Scott and psychologist Lynda Gratton show what it takes to make this a gift rather than a curse. This book is destined to fundamentally change the way we think about long lives.

Jasmine Whitbread , Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children

The lengthening of life is set to have just as profound an impact on our lives as did the explosion in female employment and the transformation of the nuclear family which marked the late twentieth century. To understand how and why things may change, there can be nowhere better to start than with the fascinating 100-Year Life .

Baroness Alison Wolf , Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, Kings College London

Contents

We are in the midst of an extraordinary transition that few of us are prepared for. If we get it right it will be a real gift; to ignore and fail to prepare will be a curse. Just as globalization and technology changed how people lived and worked, so over the coming years increasing longevity will do the same.