Cycles:How We Will Live, Work, and Buy

We are at the beginning of a new era, a lifestyle revolution that will transform who we are and what we do, as people and as consumers. When the average life span was shorter, the linear pathways of past generations -- from school to marriage to work to children to retirement -- made sense.

Now, life expectancy has soared to age 77 and promises to rise further, and we are starting to make decisions less on age -- and more on life stage.

In her new book, Cycles, Maddy Dychtwald, a leading expert on generational marketing, offers a radical new view of how Americans live, work, and buy. She describes the new freedoms and responsibilities of our shifting age demographics, and the staggering implications for the marketplace, the workplace, and our lives.

For nearly 20 years, Dychtwald has been actively involved in analyzing and forecasting lifestyle and consumer marketing trends. In 1986, she and her husband, Ken Dychtwald, founded Age Wave, the nation's premier think tank and strategic consulting group focused on Boomers and the mature market. She has delivered speeches to more than 200,000 business leaders worldwide, including such diverse clients as Allstate, Chevron/Texaco, and New Balance.

Drawing on her studies of demographics, Dychtwald examines how age is becoming less of a determining factor in our choices, and less relevant to how we are defined in our own eyes and by society at large. She brings into focus the wealth of opportunities opened up by the new cyclic approach.

Dychtwald also investigates how companies might best respond to the ways our new lifestyles are reshaping the workplace and the economy. How can a business satisfy and profit from the new ageless consumer? How can companies benefit from a cyclic workforce? For individuals and companies alike, the ideas in this summary will open up exhilarating new possibilities!