By Sherry Koh | Jul 19, 2010
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| Founder and CEO of SILVER, Kim Walker |
Founder and CEO of SILVER Kim Walker, 55, is a business consultant who helps companies leverage on opportunities presented by the rapidly expanding 50+ (age) consumer market across Asia Pacific. His opinions on the subject are much sought after and in year 2009, he appeared on CNBC (Squawk Box), Bloomberg and Channel News Asia. Six years prior to establishing SILVER, Walker held several top management roles for global marketing communications groups including M&C Saatchi, (Asia President and CEO), Aegis Group APAC (Executive Director), Carat APAC (COO) and Isobar APAC (President). In these roles, he managed the successful expansion of the global networks into Asian markets such as Korea, Philippines, China, Taiwan, Thailand and India through the acquisition of companies and establishment of new businesses.
Walker is also a serial entrepreneur. In year 1995 he founded SPI in Tokyo, a company that introduced strategic media planning and media transparency to the Japan market. For this he was recognised as a “Global Media Innovator” by Advertising Age International magazine in July 1999. He eventually sold the business to Aegis Group PLC.
Walker is also the founder and chairman of APRAIS (www.aprais.com), the London-based, global leader in advertising agency performance evaluation, improvement and productivity, with 42 consulting partners worldwide. Business aside, Walker is an adventurer (having trekked Nepal three times and throughout Patagonia) as well as a published songwriter. He was also among the first wave of Singapore volunteers to reach the victims of the Asian Tsunami in Meulaboh, Aceh, in January 2005.
On August 3, 2010, Walker will be speaking on 'Building An Age-Neutral Society' at the Retirement Transformation Conference at the Sime Darby Convention Center.
Your topic for the conference is 'Building An Age-Neutral Society'. Kindly explain the term 'Age-Neutral'.
I would define age-neutral society as one which recognises and accepts the needs of people regardless of their age and accommodates those differences seamlessly into their society.
In a business sense, marketers have to learn that there is going to be less and less advantage to be gained by trying to squeeze differentiation using age as a mechanism to refine the emotional glue of their brand. But there will be increasing advantage in understanding the importance of physiological ageing to refine their interface with the consumer across all of the touchpoints. The physiological effects of ageing are categorised under the headings of cognitive effects (the ability to concentrate, multitask, and so on), physical (overall strength, flexibility, dexterity as well as cosmetic changes that we go through) and sensory (taste, smell, touch, eyesight, hearing).
What are the 18 principal effects (SilverAudit) that you mentioned in an article you wrote?
SilverAudit is a unique tool that measure the consumer touchpoints with a brand, against these physiological effects of ageing. The result is a score of age-neutrality or age-friendliness.
Do you know the percentage of Malaysians who are above age 50+ at the moment?
In 2010, Malaysia's 50+ population will be around 4.6 million or 16.16% of total population. However, in the following 10 years to year 2020, that number will grow by nearly 48% to reach 6.8 million people representing 20.35% of population!
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| Extracted from: http://www.silvergroup.asia/opportunity |
What have other country/countries in the region, with similar culture as Malaysia, done with regards to their ageing population? Are there any Governmental policies or marketing strategies by companies in this region that stand out?
While most governments have some sort of programmes under way, the most pro-active and visible activity is being undertaken by the Singapore Government with their attempt to consolidate the public face of their ageing efforts into one body called the Council of Third Age (C3A). Among other things, C3A promotes the notion of active-ageing through its various events and exhibitions. For governments to achieve success in this area, efforts need to be driven by one ministry.
According to the United Nations, Malaysia will be an ageing nation by year 2035. What are the immediate actions that organisations and the Government should do, in particular, with regards to the property sector?
While I have absolute respect for the UN, we should not use year 2035 as some sort of watershed benchmark. The fact is that in just 10 years, Malaysia will need to accommodate more than two million people over the age of 65. There are three obvious alternatives that should be explored.
One, multi-generational living where grandparents live together with their families. This will require some reconfiguration to the homes and apartments to accommodate such cohabitation as well as government incentives and education programmes.
Two, 'age-in-place' is fast becoming the preferred option among the next generation of older people. The building and construction industries need to be made aware of this trend and advised on what modifications are necessary to allow people to continue living in their residences until old age.
Three, retirement villages. The issue here is one of regulation to uphold standards of care to ensure the maximum quality of life for inhabitants and to minimise the possibility of unscrupulous practices.
Each of the above has significant strengths and weaknesses deserving of more discussion in the conference.
Many Malaysians have negative perception about ‘old folks home’ (which is nothing close to being like a resort). What are the key considerations that developers should bear in mind before building a home-concept such as a retirement village? How can they make ageing a more pleasant experience?
In an age-neutral utopian society, there would be no such thing as 'retirement homes' because all homes would be built with the needs of older people in mind thus obviating the need for such enclaves. That said, retirement homes will continue to provide a useful function in the foreseeable future. Being somewhat contrarian, I would challenge the industry on the mere use of the term 'retirement home' or ‘old-age home’ as both have outdated, ageist labels. Ask yourself, would you like to stay in a place that is labelled this way?
I think that if property developers can understand this stigma, and understand the needs, wants and concerns of older people about their living environment, they can conceive new kinds of developments and position them in a way that both the potential residents and their children will be more positive about them.
About Retirement Transformation Conference 2010
Retirement Transformation Conference – the first of its kind in Malaysia – will be held on August 3, 2010 at the Sime Darby Convention Center from 8.30am to 6pm.
The conference aims to share, identify, raise awareness and deepen understanding of retirement issues as well as create a platform for key stakeholders to learn from international best practices. This could facilitate the review and development of a national retirement blueprint in line with the Government Transformation Programme and leading to redefining retirement for Malaysia.
Special rate for StarProperty.my readers
RM425, with gifts worth RM600. The gifts are 4 complimentary half-day seminars encompassing:
• Retirement Planning Workshop
• Estate Planning Workshop
• Basic Personal Financial Planning Workshop
• Investment Planning Workshop
For more information, visit www.kmdc.com.my, e-mail start@kmdc.com.my or call Patrick at 03-7712 3212. Click here to sign up.
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