Partners
Partner Profiles
Name: John W. Martin
Title: President & CEO
Company/Organization: Southeastern Institute of Research & Boomer Project
ODP Partner Since: December 10, 2007
ODP Committee Affiliation: Business Readiness, Civic Engagement, Community Readiness, Financial Readiness, Health & Long-term Care, Shared Database Research, Founding Member
Summarize your professional background relevant to Age Wave preparedness.
I am the head of the Southeastern Institute of Research (SIR), a 44-year-old marketing research firm based in Richmond. My professional experiences at SIR, other marketing positions in my career and many of the extraordinary people I have met in the aging services industry have all been relevant, at least to me, in age wave planning.
Early on in my career, I had the wonderful experience of serving on the marketing teams responsible for promoting Virginia, as well as Fairfax County, in the fiercely competitive world of economic development. I learned how important “quality of life” measures and perceptions of quality of life are to the overall attractiveness of a community -- as a place to work and live.
Now at SIR, I get to lead marketing studies for Chambers of Commerce and economic development organizations, examining the relative appeal of communities and what drives the perceptions of attractiveness. Through the lens of research, I see how important age wave-related issues are becoming -- like “services for the aging population” and “family leave.” I suspect these will become more and more important as the age wave heads our way.
Lastly, I have had the great opportunity to work directly with some of Virginia’s brightest experts on aging like Dr. Richard Lindsay and Gordon Walker on JABA-related research, Dr. Sheldon Retchin and Peter Boling at VCU Health Systems, Peter Thompson at the Charlottesville Senior Center, Thelma Watson with Senior Connections and many other noted aging services experts.
What expertise or other strengths do you bring to the Older Dominion Partnership?
The expertise I bring to the ODP is knowing a lot about Baby Boomers -- the marching army of 76 million Americans who make up the age wave.
In addition to my work with SIR, I am also part of the Boomer Project, a national research-based marketing “think tank” that tracks generational trends and provides strategic consultation on how to effectively communicate with each generation. We base our Boomer-related insights on a body of ongoing research tracking Boomer attitudes, beliefs, hopes, dreams and aspirations. Every month we review and report Boomer-related findings and insights from a 7,000-person survey.
From what we can tell, most cities and states that have started age wave planning simply take stock of the current aging services infrastructure. Future plans often call for ramping up these services to serve the expected doubling of the senior population. We believe this type of planning is flawed as it’s based on the needs of today’s seniors. Understanding where Boomers are headed is the key to successful age wave planning. We believe that based on the generational differences between the Silent Generation and Boomers, Boomers will transform what it is like to grow old in America. They will expect and demand a different kind of aging services infrastructure.
Sharing our intelligence on where Boomers are headed is what I think we can offer the Commonwealth.
What do you believe are the most pressing issues in Age Wave-preparedness in Virginia today?
From my perspective, I see several pressing issues.
- Support to fund operations and services: We all own a big thanks to the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (RMHF) for their early vision and financial support for the ODP. More than anyone, they made the ODP possible. But the ODP is a shared collaborative and will live and die by a shared sense of funding responsibility. All ODP members need to contribute at some level beyond simply intellectual contributions. This could include everything from in kind services to actual hard dollars. And, now as a 501(c)(3), the ODP must move away from having so much of its support coming from the RMHF. It’s the law. We either do it, or fold.
- Inspiring communities - bottom-up planning: The ODP must stay true to its mission -- to serve as a catalyst, think tank, planning forum and planning resource. The real planning action should take place community by community by community leaders, following the excellent examples of Fairfax, Charlottesville and Culpepper.
- Patience: We can’t and shouldn’t try to do everything all at once. After all, we have a decade plus in planning time. Our planning efforts should be strategic and organic. We must be thoughtful and deliberate like the tortoise. For example, the first and most important step is to simply build awareness of the age wave and its impacts, inspire localities to get started with planning, and to the extent possible, assist them. Once this bottom up, community-based planning approach takes root, we will be ready to ask the General Assembly for a community-level age wave preparedness planning certification and incentive program. To do so at this time would put the cart before the horse. We must resist the constant urge to do too much too soon. Crawl, walk, run!
What advice do you have for age wave planning in Virginia?
The road is the way, get on the road. While we can benefit from reviewing what other states and cities outside of Virginia are doing, I honestly believe we will not find any inspirational age wave planning models to follow. I think we are becoming the, de facto, national model on how this is all done.
The facts speak for themselves. Our planning effort was not started by a governmental edict. We have created a coalition of the willing that includes so many sectors (business, government, foundations, aging, non-profits, academic, etc.). We have created a 501(c)(3). We have an incredible group of motivated big picture thinkers. We are basing our research-inspired planning on where Boomers are headed, not today’s seniors. And, we are focused on making sure our age wave planning ultimately makes the Commonwealth a great place for people of all ages. In a word -- Wow! So I guess it should be no surprise, but we’re now getting calls from around the country wondering how we are doing all of this in Virginia.
So my advice to the ODP at this stage -- let our collaborative work and early successes serve as our inspiration. Viva Virginia!