The Book

“This is a very timely, rigorous and inspiring book that should be read by everyone. Young people, parents, grandparents, employers and policy makers will all be challenged to radically change their thinking about life journeys both now and into the future. We all must seize the opportunities and space that a longer, active life offers and support people in learning to move from ‘recreation to re-creation’, one of the great insights that Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott provide.”

Dame Mary Marsh

Non-executive Director of HSBC Bank plc, member of the Governing Body, London Business School, UK

“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

Former Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children

“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

“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

“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 life’s opportunities? Gratton and Scott’s 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 prac- tical insights, this book helps readers to build and live a life worth living.”

Boris Groysberg

Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

“Gratton and Scott’s must-read treatise helps us see crucial patterns in modern life, where we’re 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.”

Professor Stewart Friedman

Director of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project., Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

“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

“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 20th century. To understand how and why things may change, there can be nowhere better to start than with the fascinating The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity.“

Professor Alison Wolf

Baroness Wolf of Dulwich, the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London

“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 of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and previously Chairman of UK Pensions Commission

“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 Scott’s wonderful book prepares us — indi- viduals, organisations and societies – for the possibilities of this brave new world of longevity and teaches us what it will take to thrive in it.”

Professor Herminia Ibarra

The Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning, Professor of Organizational Behavior, INSEAD

“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

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

Martin Gilbert

Chief Executive Officer, Aberdeen Asset Management

“Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott have written an important and highly read- able 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 today’s kids will live to be 100. This has implications for much more than just our personal finances. Our entire lives, they argue convinc- ingly, 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 at Harvard University

“This is a timely, fascinating and thought provoking book, full of wonderful information about the potential of a 100-year life. A bril- liant 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

“A life-time 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 organisations can adapt to this change and make the most of it.”

N. Chandrasekaran

Chief Executive Officer, Tata Consultancy Services

“In ‘The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity’ Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton dissect the phenomenon of an ever increasing life span along a remarkable number of aspects. Building on an in depth review of past and present demographic forecasts, they question the three life stages of education-work-retirement which our societies are still resting on. This is an exciting book that takes as far beyond the discussion of longevity in the context of social security systems and pension age. It explores life and society as it unfolds in the next couple of decades and takes us in a world that feels quite different and is yet so close. This is a most interesting read for all those who like to, or have to think a generation ahead.”

Contents

Summary

Endorsements