You're never too old to learn

When John Haddon, 57, left a 22-year career in financial services in 2004, like many of us, he wasn't expecting the storms that lay on the horizon. One financial crisis later, he realised that, despite his years in the field, as an entrepreneur he was still lacking some of the skills required to navigate through choppy economic waters and a global business environment. "Although I'd been in financial services for a long while, I didn't have all that was required to 'speak the language'. I concluded that I needed to upgrade my skills," he recalls.

… Executives can feel other benefits from this dialogue, says Sujata Madan, director of the MBA programme at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. "They will learn the latest in business thinking and equip themselves with a deeper understanding of some areas, while updating and enhancing their skill sets," she says, adding that spending time with younger counterparts "could lead to refreshing, novel ideas".

Read full article: The Independent, October 17, 2012