Looks matter more in business than we’d like to think. Appearance-c
onscious execs are even willing to submit to the knife if it’ll boost their business confidence, according to Director magazine.
City suits and senior executives are feeling pressured by increasingly youthful colleagues to stop the clock. One property developer claimed his lined face was a distraction in board meetings — like a creased shirt.
Cosmetic surgery is becoming mainstream — and it’s big business in Britain. We already spend at least £500m on cosmetic procedures, and the success of lunch-hour liposuction and other non-invasive procedures means that figure is likely to approach £1.5bn by 2011, says Datamonitor. A Sydney Morning Herald article claims plastic surgeons will soon be offering routine six-monthly check-ups for patients down under.
Growing old gracefully is not on the agenda for ‘FAMs’ — 40 or 50-year-old alpha males. In what London’s Harley Street surgeons have dubbed “the Sarkozy effect”, middle-aged men with younger partners are flocking to UK cosmetic surgeons, says the Daily Telegraph. Top FAM fixes include Botox, male breast (’moob’) reduction, microdermabrasion and eye-bag reduction.
But Lancaster University’s Cary Cooper believes the cult of youth is getting old: as the credit crunch bites, younger directors will look to ‘grey hairs’ for advice and may find those frown lines reassuring.
