This article is sponsored by Twenty20 Management. As senior living providers look to elevate the resident experience and bring new thinking into the industry, Twenty/20 Management is setting a high bar for innovation, standards, and leadership. In this Voices interview, Senior Housing News sits down with Louis Coetzer, COO of Twenty/20 Management, to learn how his background in South Africa and outside industries informs his approach, what makes Twenty/20’s model stand out, and how the company is helping shape the next era of senior housing.
Senior Housing News: How did growing up and living in South Africa shape your perspective and approach to leadership?
Louis Coetzer: South Africa is a relatively small country. I think it could probably fit inside Alaska, with about 60 million people. But within that, you’ve got huge economic disparities. There are people surviving on a dollar a day, and others who’ve made millions through industries like gold mining. It’s a beautiful place with warm, welcoming people, but you also see intense contrast. There’s beauty, and there’s struggle, both political and economic.
Until 1994, most of the population couldn’t vote. That kind of history leaves a mark. On top of that, unemployment is close to 30 percent, so people have to be entrepreneurial just to get by. Walk around any city and you’ll see all kinds of small businesses, whether food stalls, craft vendors, or anything else people can do to make it work. It taught me a lot about perseverance and problem-solving.
My background is in industrial engineering, and I also earned my MBA. I previously worked for large multinational companies. Leading teams in that environment meant managing a heavily unionized workforce. For many of those workers, union representation was their only real voice. You had to understand where they were coming from and be willing to listen. The Western approach to leadership just didn’t apply in the same way. You’re surrounded by different cultures with 11 different languages, and that kind of diversity teaches you to listen first and speak second.
Over time, I realized leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about creating space for others to bring their perspective. I had to shift from being a typical Type A personality who wants to drive results to someone who pauses, listens, and builds understanding before taking action. That was a big lesson.
Another reality in South Africa is constant change. You’ve got political volatility, economic uncertainty, and a lot of instability. For example, there’s only one state-run power utility, and rolling blackouts are common. You can lose electricity for multiple hours a day, which forces business owners to find their own solutions. You start thinking about solar panels, backup generators, anything to stay running. It builds resilience. And that’s just how it is. People adapt, they get creative, they push through.
Humor is a big part of it too. South Africans tend to have a very dark sense of humor, which helps us deal with all the chaos. When we moved to the US more than 20 years ago, we quickly realized not everyone gets that humor.
But it’s how we cope. You make do, you find workarounds, and you keep going. For me, all of that shaped a leadership style that’s calm, steady, and focused on what’s within your control. It also made me really value people and community.
One of the most important cultural ideas I’ve carried with me is something called Ubuntu. It’s a deep part of South African Black culture. It means “I am because we are.” That mindset completely shifted how I think about leadership. It’s not about being at the top. It’s about understanding where your team is coming from, building trust, and working toward a shared purpose. It’s about empathy, connection, and helping others grow.
Success isn’t just about hitting business targets. It’s about the people—how they grow, how they thrive. When they’re thriving, they’re motivated. And when they’re motivated, the business gets better results. That sense of community and humanity is where leadership really begins.
You worked outside the senior living industry before joining Twenty/20. How have you brought fresh ideas and systems from other industries into this one?
I’ve been in this industry for about four years now, and one of the first things I noticed is that senior living grows out of a deep love for caring for people. There’s a strong emotional core. A lot of the community and corporate leaders I’ve met started their careers on the front lines, providing care directly. They moved up through the care track into leadership roles.
That mission-driven mindset is important, and I fully support it. But what I’ve also seen is that sometimes, because of that care-first culture, financial performance can unintentionally become a secondary priority. And that can create tension with owners, stakeholders, or shareholders. Coming in from the outside gave me the perspective to see that dynamic and ask: how do we drive performance while still honoring the care mission?
One thing I’ve brought in is a data-driven approach to decision-making. In this space, we often rely on instinct or anecdotal feedback, but we need more than that. We need systems, technology, and visibility to help us make informed decisions. Emotion plays a role, absolutely, but data has to be part of the equation.
Another focus for me has been breaking down silos. In many organizations, care can sometimes operate as its own world. But we also have finance, maintenance, training, human resources—all pushing toward the same outcomes. We need to create more cross-functional collaboration, so the entire team is aligned and working in sync.
That led to a larger initiative we’re now rolling out: creating centers of excellence across the organization. And I look at that in two ways. First, where do we have the internal capacity to build excellence in-house? And second, where do we need to partner with external experts?
Over the past two years, we’ve made strategic moves on both fronts. For example, we outsourced human resources to Procare HR. They’re not just a payroll vendor, they’re a true partner, fully integrated into our support structure. We’ve done the same in procurement, working closely with HPSI through our GPO. But we also developed an internal procurement team to drive compliance and maximize the value of that partnership.
Learning and development is another key area. We saw a huge opportunity there and partnered with a content and LMS provider to deliver high-quality content and training. They’ve helped us move beyond checkbox training into something more strategic — where we understand what our people know, how they’re executing, and how to build from there.
Financial leadership was another shift. We initially outsourced our accounting, but we brought it back in-house and built internal leadership aligned with our systems and workflows. We wanted that control and visibility back. We also structured our operations with a clear focus on outcomes. It’s not about activity, it’s about results.
Now we’re tackling talent acquisition. Turnover is a massive issue in this industry, especially at the care level, but even at mid-management and corporate. We’re investing in building that capability internally. We want to understand what’s driving turnover and take action to address it.
Across all these initiatives, the goal is to blend operational rigor with customer-centric thinking. In senior living, we have to ask ourselves: is the resident our customer? Is it the family? Maybe it’s both. Getting clear on that changes how we serve.
I’ve tried to bring in a culture of innovation, but still keep that strong sense of purpose that defines senior living. It’s a balance where we’re applying lessons from other industries while staying true to what makes this work meaningful.
We’re not there yet, but we have a clear roadmap. And bringing in that outside perspective has helped us make progress and set the foundation for more to come.
What makes Twenty/20’s standards different from traditional senior living models?
For context, our Twenty/20 logo is a three-link chain, and that represents our DNA. This organization started as a family venture. Mike Williams, our founder, always saw it as something rooted in people. People caring for people. That’s still central to how we operate today.
The three links represent our residents, our employees, and our stakeholders. Those are the relationships that hold everything together, and they’re what guide our standards and decision-making. We don’t just say “people first,” we structure our entire operating model around those three groups.
From there, we’ve defined what we call our operating intent. Excellent care is our license to operate. It’s the baseline. Then there’s management competence, which drives profitability. That’s what allows us to sustain the organization. And finally, leadership excellence, which builds a strong, positive culture across the company.
We’re deeply committed to all three. But what might set us apart is that we’re also very self-critical. We know where we came from. We’re honest about where we are now. And we’re clear-eyed about where we still need to grow. Even though we’ve made a lot of progress reengineering the organization, we know we’re still on the journey. That mindset of continuous improvement is built into our culture.
We’re a small team, but we’ve created the space for people to pivot and evolve. A lot of our team members have taken on new roles through that transformation. There’s a willingness here to learn, to innovate, to stretch into new challenges. That hunger to improve, both at the individual and organizational level, is something we really embrace.
So if I had to boil it down, I’d say it’s that self-awareness. We’re proud of what we’ve built, but we’re not resting on it. We’re constantly asking, “How can we be better?” That attitude is woven into everything we do.
Can you share an example of how those standards have positively impacted residents or team members, or any stakeholders, for that matter?
Training is a great place to start. If you’re aiming for excellence (and we are), you can’t just expect people to get there on their own. We all need development. One of the things Mike, our founder, always emphasizes is excellence in everything we do. But that has to be intentional. It has to be built.
When we stepped back and took a critical look at how we were approaching training, what we found was eye-opening. The content was outdated. In many cases, it just wasn’t engaging. Onboarding might mean going into a room, watching a video, and checking a box. That wasn’t unique to us either; it’s something you see across the industry.
We also found the delivery of training was fragmented. Most of it was happening locally, and that made it really hard to ensure consistency across our communities. On top of that, a lot of it was still analog. Paper-based processes, outdated videos, nothing centralized. That made it nearly impossible to track progress, measure compliance, or even know if the training was effective.
So we made a change. We created a Center of Excellence for Learning and Development within our corporate group. We call it Sencare Learning. The entire model is outcomes-based. It focuses on developing team members in a way that’s specific, measurable, and aligned with the results we want to see.
The learning management system (LMS) we implemented allows us to customize and deliver digital content quickly and effectively. Administering training has become much easier. We’ve built in reporting capabilities, so now we can actually track what’s happening and how each team member is progressing.
But we didn’t stop there. We’ve also added in-person clinical training capacity. We have trainers who can deliver instruction in the field. It’s not just digital, it’s a hybrid model. And right now, we’re building out a Train-the-Trainer program to strengthen that even more. We want to ensure the training being delivered is consistent, high-quality, and reinforced on the ground.
That local reinforcement is key. We can develop content at the corporate level, push it out through the LMS, attach it to an employee’s HR profile, test for comprehension, and monitor compliance. But sometimes you still need that human connection—someone physically present to observe, coach, and make sure the training is translating into action.
This engine we’ve built is making a difference. It supports our residents by developing more skilled, more confident team members. It helps our team feel prepared and supported. And it gives us the ability to respond quickly when something changes. If there’s a new policy or a lesson we need to share from a recent incident, we can create training content and roll it out across the organization in a single day.
That kind of responsiveness affects everything. It improves care. It strengthens our culture. And it reinforces our standards in a way that’s scalable and sustainable. Everyone benefits across our teams, our residents, and our broader organization.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for innovation in senior living right now?
There are a few areas, but I’d like to focus on the technology-related challenges. Right now in senior housing, there’s a proliferation of systems. More and more tools are being developed and brought to market constantly. One of the biggest opportunities for innovation is in systems integration. We’re not seeing a true one-stop shop for the systems we rely on across our communities.
What we really need is real-time data portability and harmonization. That applies to everything from our CRM and EHR platforms to our HR and applicant tracking systems, finance and billing tools, maintenance tracking, and even our Microsoft 365 and Azure ecosystems. All of these systems run in parallel, but they don’t necessarily speak to one another. That lack of integration is holding us back.
It’s not just about bringing in new technology. Any new systems we implement have to integrate seamlessly with our existing infrastructure. That’s critical for the leadership team, but it’s also just as important for our frontline employees and care staff. They need tools that are easy to use, with fast access to the information they need to do their jobs. Logging into multiple disconnected systems shouldn’t be part of the workflow. Ideally, there should be a consolidated and streamlined interface that ties it all together.
Even if a perfect one-stop shop doesn’t exist, we need stronger integration. That’s a big area of focus.
Along similar lines, I think we’ll also see growing expectations from residents and families around mobile access and in-community technology. As baby boomers and future generations start moving into our communities, they’re coming in much more tech-savvy. They’re using smartphones, streaming, and connected devices in their everyday lives. Meeting those expectations is going to be key not only for enhancing the resident experience, but also for improving operational efficiency.
What excites you the most about the future of Twenty/20 and the role it’s playing in shaping the next era of senior living?
I think what excites me most is that we’re already seeing the results of the business process reengineering we started two years ago. It’s making a real difference for our residents, our employees, and our stakeholders. And we know that impact is only going to grow as we continue advancing along the maturity roadmap I mentioned earlier.
Our ownership and senior leadership are fully committed to maintaining an entrepreneurial, outward-looking mindset. But what’s equally important is that it’s backed by a well-designed, structured, and agile operations engine. That combination of vision and execution is what positions us to move the industry forward.
I’m confident we now have both the foundation and the internal capability to deliver on our growth agenda. We may not talk about it publicly, but internally, we have a very clear view of where we want to go, and everyone on our team is aligned and confident in our ability to get there.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Our Twenty/20 Mission is to serve our Residents with the care and hospitality they deserve, provide a workplace of mission, growth, and professionalism for our Caregivers, and be the best-in-class operator in senior housing for all of our stakeholders. Please contact us about operational/asset/development management in senior housing:
540-443- 8615 or Twenty20mgt.com
The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].
