They are all rediscovering a forgotten asset: multi-competent professionals over 50, alongside a role shifting from "nice to have" to the core of every strategy: the Head of Culture. A silent revolution is redefining growth in the phygital, cultural era.
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Most giant corporations with major issues in expansion and real-world experience amplification—such as McDonald's, Nike, Starbucks, Victoria's Secret, and Disney—made a decisive pivot in 2024 and 2025 to bring back experienced 50+ multi-competent talents as CEOs and Heads of Culture.
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Clearly, speakers and consultancies are now raising their voices to rebuild multi-area physical-digital "action" teams and cultural ecosystems, led by talents with vast cross-functional capabilities and deep trajectories, to execute these challenges.
THE "SECRET" MIAMI HAS ALREADY EMBRACED
In 2023, while the obsession with digital youth was at its peak, a countercurrent began in the offices of Brickell, Wynwood, and Miami Beach—one that started placing immense value on the 50+ demographic, with their broad experience and toolkits. In 2025 and 2026, this countercurrent is now the most valuable secret.
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Jeff Bezos, in a private meeting with Latin American Ventures investors, stated: “The next great disruption isn’t coming from an algorithm, but from a combination we had archived: decades of operational experience + expansive cultural vision.” He didn’t say it publicly, but his actions confirmed it: Amazon Web Services accelerated the hiring of engineers (and "generalists") over 50 to lead applied AI teams. Furthermore, his self-promulgated practices—developing papers instead of digital presentations, team reading sessions, collaboration and co-creation, daily challenge implementation, and cross-thinking—are forging his company's character and culture based on multi-competent talents that only years of experience across multiple sectors and phygital formations can develop.
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For his part, Elon Musk, after acquiring a series of startups in video games and immersive entertainment, appointed a 58-year-old executive with a background in the music industry, film, and retail as Chief Culture Officer of the new division. “She doesn’t just understand technology; she understands how people have consumed culture over the last 40 years. That is what builds real brand universes,” Musk declared in an off-the-record comment picked up by tech media.
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This movement is not anecdotal. LinkedIn data shows that in the last two quarters of 2025, hiring of professionals between 50 and 63 for senior roles in tech, entertainment, fashion, services, art, and food companies—in the USA, Miami, and Latam—increased by 30%. And 36% of those positions included the word “culture” in their description.
THE REVOLUTION OF THE "HEAD OF CULTURE": MUCH MORE THAN EVENTS
The Head of Culture has ceased to be the organizer of happy hours. In the 2026 vision, they are the ecosystem architect. They translate brand values into phygital experiences, cross-media narratives, artist alliances, organic product placement, and communities that transcend the digital.
Here lies a huge opportunity for broad-spectrum external teams that can internally accelerate the culture of transversality and real, physical–digital action, which has been nearly forgotten over the last decade.
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Concrete example: LVMH’s ultra-premium tequila brand Volcán de mi Tierra hired a team of former music festival directors over 55, experts in hospitality events and millionaire weddings, as well as "great connoisseurs" who have worked in the fashion and media industries.
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The mission: to create a “universe” around the tequila integrating concerts, exclusive events, contemporary Mexican art NFTs, and presence in artist residencies, hotels, restaurants, and cooking shows. The result: a 140% growth in engagement and a brand valuation that doubled in 18 months.
This is based on a disruptive truth: in the era of content saturation, what endures is brand culture embodied in actions, amplified experiences, and new brand categories that expand the product into crossed lived experiences—a living fabric of meanings, rituals, and belonging that can only be woven by minds with multidisciplinary experience and human depth.
15 CONCRETE (AND SIMPLE) TIPS TO APPLY THIS VISION IN 2026
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Hire for "Lived Universes," Not Isolated Skills: A 50+ professional who has worked in retail, music, and media understands connections a young specialist does not. Re-create roles and logistics to build thematic brand universes and possess the human capacity, multi-channel infrastructure, and cross on-off capability to implement what matters most: the real experience amplified phygitally.
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The Head of Culture Must Report to the CEO (and in some areas co-lead). Otherwise, they will be an event manager, not a strategist.
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Create "Councils of Sages": Advisory teams of veterans to consult and co-create product launches and, above all, new cross-business categories.
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Seek "Cross-Pollinators": People who have breathed at least three different industries.
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Culture is Measured in Relational Capital: Map the networks of your cultural leaders.
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Phygital is Not Digital + Physical: It is a unique emotional experience, designed by someone who knows both worlds and AMPLIFIES.
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The Product Placement of the Future is "Cultural Placement": Place your brand in cultural movements, not just in TV series.
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Celebrities are Storytellers: Choose those who embody the values of your brand culture, not just the most famous ones.
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Your Office Should be a "Cultural Laboratory": Spaces that stimulate the creation of universes. For this, you need multi-talented people with various experiences and tools simultaneously who know how to cross them. Must-have combinations: activation-promotion-sales, retail, merchandising, creativity, logistics, communication, engineering, technology, design, leadership, arts, digital arts, coaching, public speaking, production, administration, strategy, biology, anthropology, psychology, economics, spacing, research, writing.
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Algorithms Love Authenticity: Genuine culture, built with experience, generates massive organic engagement.
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Translate "Legacy" to "Legacy Code": Analog experience is a code for deciphering human trends.
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Reverse Mentoring is Key: But let the young teach tech, and the 50+ teach human connections.
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Create "Brand Rituals": Recurring events that become cultural landmarks of the city.
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Diversity Includes Age Diversity: A team with wide age ranges is more innovative.
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Measure Cultural ROI in Terms of "Legacy Followers": Not just conversions, but generational loyalty.
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THE GREAT DISRUPTOR: "CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE" (CQ)
In 2026, IQ and EQ are no longer enough. Leading brands measure and seek Cultural Intelligence (CQ): the ability to read, interpret, and design cultures. This is what professionals with decades of transversal experience possess: a radar tuned to human, social, and symbolic frequencies.
Miami is the perfect epicenter because it is a melting pot of cultures, an interface between Latin America and the Anglo world, between street art and high finance, between the analog and the digital. Whoever understands Miami, understands the future.
THE MOST OVERVALUED ASSET IS YOUTH; THE MOST UNDERVALUED IS MULTI-COMPETENT EXPERIENCE
The next unicorns won’t be founded solely by 25-year-old geniuses, but by teams combining that impetus with the operational wisdom of the 50+. And their core will be a Head of Culture acting as the brand’s "Minister of Human Relations."
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According to María Laura Palacios*, CEO of G&L Group, an Argentine tech solutions company, some companies are still reluctant to hire people over 50 due to false beliefs and culturally ingrained prejudices. "There is the idea that people of a certain age are out of the market or that they don’t want to update themselves. However, hiring people over 50 has great benefits for business," states the entrepreneur, who employs 117 people over 50 years old, representing 27.8% of G&L's payroll.*
(Source: iProfesional magazine)
The final revealing truth: in the attention economy, the most valuable currency is meaning. And meaning is built by those who have seen decades of change, who have failed and restarted, who connect dots others don’t even see.
Hiring a multi-competent 50+ professional is not an act of nostalgia; it is the most avant-garde investment you can make in 2026.
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