Episode 23: Demographics
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Looking Outside is for curious people looking for a fresh take on familiar topics, in business and beyond.
In this episode of Looking Outside we look closer at the numbers and what they are telling us, exploring the predictive human powers of Demographics. For this we chat with fellow Aussie, Bernard Salt, Founder & Executive Director of The Demographics Group.
As a well known personality, famous for injecting a bit of humor into his public speaking events and newspaper columns, Bernard shares his philosophy on presenting the numbers in a way that is engaging and compelling. He speaks to how to establish the facts, make a strong case, demonstrate your credibility … and be bold enough to have a bit of fun with it.
Demographics is a field anchored in sociology, and the numbers, charts, tables of figures are boring standalone; it’s the narrative they tell you about people that’s interesting. Jo and Bernard discuss the importance of letting the numbers form a story about people, and then sharing that through a compelling narrative that “reaches back in time” and presents future opportunities in context.
Bernard also shares his personal experience presenting numbers to senior leaders, or ‘sharks circling the water’, how he formed the self-confidence to brave this as someone from a small country town, and his observations of the changing lifestyle and culture of Australians.
To look outside, Bernard focuses on popular culture. When changes happen they don’t just show up in the figures but in culture around us, and small actions observed in public can be telling about individual, collective and expressed value shifts. People watching can “speak volumes” about where communities are and where they are headed.
Bernard Salt is an Australian business advisor, corporate speaker and newspaper columnist.
Bernard has had a long career in corporate consulting mostly as a Partner with KPMG Australia. He founded KPMG Demographics (2002) where he popularized the use of demographics to interpret future business and consumer trends.
He has written 6 popular books (2002-2014), hosted a TV show (The Next Five Years 2017-2019) on SkyNews Business, hosted a popular podcast series (What Happens Next 2020-2021), currently writes 2 weekly columns in The Australian newspaper (one since 2002), and for 20 years has delivered more than 100 corporate presentations per year across Australia, New Zealand and beyond including the US.
He uses long-term (mostly UN) datasets to show megatrends like the rise of the consumption era (1990-2020) and the advent of the baby bust (2020s) on a country by country basis.
He has invented acronyms to describe social trends like pumcins (professional urban middle class in nice suburbs) and VESPAs (virus escapees seeking provincial Australia/America). His 2016 column on smashed avocado went viral globally.
Bernard is founder and executive director of The Demographics Group (www.tdgp.com.au).
He was an adjunct professor at Curtin University Business School 2011-2020, a board member of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) 2014-2018, appointed a member of the Council (board) of the National Museum of Australia in March 2022.
He was made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2017 for his services to demographics.
All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2022.
OBOY and Cast of Characters music features in Episode 23.
