ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the different ways that businesses will need to prepare and implement career and succession planning. It reviews a current promotion policy to ensure that it is age-neutral. The trend for giving older workers early retirement that took place in the 80s and 90s has resulted in a loss of skills and knowledge in certain business areas. Older workers frequently report that unless they have got into senior management positions by their early forties it is unlikely that they will be promoted or developed after that time. People grow up seeing older people as authority figures. The 'old fogey' stereotype can be misleading as a recent survey showed that, while people imagine that young people are the most successful entrepreneurs, many businesses and consultancies that have been set up by those in the over-50s age group are, in fact, highly successful.
