Retiring From The Suite

Senior Executives Might Move Into Retirement Knowing Financial Security, But Money Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Happiness.

- Lachlan Colquhoun

Global car giant Toyota cut the number of paid advisory positions handed to top executives after retirement from 61 down to nine in June this year. For a company well known for looking after its people over the long-term, this was a significant move.

Where previously many C-suite executives could rely on Toyota from the professional cradle to grave, now more will have to make their own plans and create their own retirement solutions.

While Toyota’s move is a particular case, the decision is an example of how retirement for the C-suite is changing. For an increasing number of executives across the Asia–Pacific region, the move to retirement is not the easy segue into board positions, consulting and golf that many might have imagined.

The reality is that today most executives, while they may be financially comfortable in retirement, will have to work a little harder at reinventing themselves and structuring their lives to make retirement enjoyable and fulfilling.

Tim Roche is the Australian country manager for ManpowerGroup Australia and has been advising C-suite executives on their careers for more than two decades. From his recent experience with a number of retirement-age executives, he has observed two trends.

“I’ve seen the ones who have planned it and the timing has been all theirs,” says Roche. “One in particular was head of a functional area in a global bank and had carefully crafted his exit. He had been manoeuvring towards it for a number of years and the exit was part of his planning process.