dispatches from the new world of work

Not. Yet. Done.

I had a great time in Copenhagen last week. I talked to senior European banker clients of Affinion. They are the masters of the likes of Loyalty programs. As occasionally happens, I scrapped my speech halfway through. I decided to "go long" (boy football metaphor—sorry) on risk. I decided to pummel one topic. Period.

And that topic was Women-Boomer-Geezer market potential. As I said: Period. I claimed (and I believe) that a loyalty program for women, for instance, has to start from a fundamentally different premise than one for men. One basic idea-differentiator: Men are "transaction oriented"; women are "relationship oriented."

I insisted that anything short of Fundamental Strategic Re-alignment around the women-boomer-geezer opportunity was, well, stupid. Stupid. Negligent. Whatever.

I've changed my "women's thing" lately—added a third leg to my argument's stool. In the past I've featured (1) women's purchasing power and (2) the attendant need for women's increased leadership role.

The implicit idea is that companies are not doing enough to orient themselves—big time—toward this under-appreciated market. Fine enough. And true.

But a much bigger point is that the Degree of Market-Wealth Control by women is going through the roof. As the Economist put it in a Special Survey in April: "Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth Is Driven by Women." In short, (1) women have taken two of every three new jobs for decades. (2) The pay-for-same-job differential is falling. (3) Women are occupying more and more senior roles. (Over 50% of managers, in the United States.) (4) Most senior Boomers are men—and about to retire by the million. (Within a few years, 10,000 additional men per day eligible for retirement.) Women will fill most—the overwhelming majority—of those slots. (5) Boys, soon to be men, are rapidly falling behind women in the education race. (6) Etc.

Hence the "third leg" of my stool is Rapidly Growing Women's Control of the World Economy.

Perhaps "Womenomics"?

Consider this from Aude Zieseniss de Thuin in the Financial Times, 10.03.2006:
"One thing is certain: Women's rise in power, which is linked to the increase in wealth per capita, is happening in all domains and at all levels of society. Women are no longer content to provide efficient labor or to be consumers with rising budgets and more autonomy to spend. ... This is just the beginning. The phenomenon will only grow as girls prove to be more successful than boys in the school system ... For a number of observers, we have already entered the age of 'womenomics,' the economy as thought out and practiced by women."

Amen!
Amen?

I've attached two Special Presentations. The short one is my new "section opener" on the women-boomers-geezers issue. The long one is the Whole Deal, the entire women-boomer-geezer section from the Master Excellence Always presentation.

Why the title "Not. Yet. Done."? Consider this invented exchange between me and an Amazon.com reviewer of the Trends book in the Tom Peters Essentials series:

Amazon Reviewer: "Trends is old news!" (1 of 5 stars!)
TP: "Repeating it doesn't make it 'old.' It ain't old if it hasn't been implemented!"

The reviewer's part of the exchange is the real thing—my response is the contrived bit. But it is exactly the point. Yup, I've been ranting about "all this" for a decade. But the results are disappointing—and then there's that "Third Leg" argument that the enormity of this opportunity grows by the day.

To summarize, in shorthand (one slide from the Short presentation):

1. Women's CONSUMER GOODS purchases.
2. Women's COMMERCIAL GOODS purchases.
3. WOMEN ARE THE MARKET. Not an "initiative."
4. Women-owned BUSINESSES (absolute #s, acceleration of startups, relative growth).
5. Women's "brand" of LEADERSHIP SKILLS.
6. Women's DRAMATICALLY INCREASING-COMMANDING WEALTH—absolute, relative. (Jobs. Longevity. Education. Entrepreneurial. Decline of BOYS. Retirement of MEN/Senior MEN.)
7. DEMOGRAPHIC TSUNAMI. WOMEN. Women as solo HEADs-OF-HOUSEHOLD. THE WOMAN-BOOMER-GEEZER LOOOOOONG-TERM GLOBAL PHENOMENON.
8. SPEED of "change." Mother of all "megatrends."

Tom Peters posted this on 10/11/06.

Comments

That's what I like about you, Tom. It works. It has not been implemented as it should.

That's what makes the Stephen Lewis Foundation work in Africa intriguing: they are working with the grandmothers because they are the ones who are left around to care for the next generation http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/grandmothers.htm

Posted by Valeria Maltoni at October 11, 2006 3:02 PM

Finally someone realizes that women are not just men in drag.

My partner and I started up our financial blog because so much financial info out there is male skewed info with the "he" replaced with "she".

We may be equal but we're not the same. We don't talk the same. We don't find the same things important. We don't relate to the universe around us in the same way.

Sell to us differently.
Please!

Posted by Kimber at October 11, 2006 5:04 PM

Thank you Tom. You've done it again. You are the clarion call.

Thanks also to Valeria for sharing about the Stephen Lewis Foundation. It is not the first time that Grandmothers have stepped in. My own dear friend did just that when her son had an addictions issue and she had the children placed with her till he could be clean and sober, which he now is. Thanks to Grandmothers everywhere!

Nellie

Posted by Nellie Moore at October 11, 2006 6:00 PM

With just 2 days to go before marriage to my beloved Annie, this post is a timely reminder 'who really wears the trousers' :-).... Just joking â€“ we, needless to say, have a totally equal relationship!!!

The serious point I want to make is when the Economist calls it 'Women's rise in power' I would love to think that is actually a compliment to men growing to respect women in business BUT, sad to say, I see and hear too many examples of the lack of awareness among my fellow men to allow me to believe my idealistic view of the world.

I think for Tom to â€˜rattle the cageâ€™ is a genuine plea from his heart.

Him excused I get fed up about the â€˜banging the drum for womenâ€™ thing because in my experience women are ALAWYS their own best advocate. The job of men is to listen, look and try to learn â€¦ â€™twas ever thus as my late Dad and Grandad told me when they were alive! :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 12, 2006 5:51 AM

8. SPEED of "change." Mother of all "megatrends."

EQUALS women consuming and spending US into record DEBT and OBESITY - thank YOU la femme de la creme.

Posted by sean at October 12, 2006 8:40 AM

Despite the smarminess, we should take Sean's idea seriously. He has put this thought into comments many times in these pages and never been addressed. It is IMPORTANT (if you put it in caps everyone pays attention--I learned that here).

To wit: A + B = C. A is the fact that women control all financial decisions for the family, according to this blog. B is the fact that the average American family holds ZERO savings and $10,000 in credit card debt (at about 19% APR). C is the derived truth that women have spent us into the debtors' prison and nobody wants to acknowledge or address this issue. Instead, everyone wants to jump on the POWER TO WOMEN bandwagon. Y'all can't have it both ways. The WOMEN-BOOMER-GEEZER thing has a downside, too. And I won't even get into the fat thing, but the logic train is the same (he says as he watches fat women take fat kids into the BK Lounge across the street).

Posted by Chicago at October 12, 2006 3:26 PM