Japan is the country in the world with the highest proportion of centenarians in its population. In fact, one in every 3500 Japanese is 100 years of age or older. Some other developed countries, most notably Italy, are not far behind. 

This increased longevity, combined with reduced fertility is leading to an ageing of the human population worldwide. Japan and Italy are just the leading edge of this global meta-trend that will have significant implications for business strategy everywhere.

 Just think what this ageing will mean in the near future for business critical capabilities such as recruitment, operations, product and service development to touch on just a few. There are great challenges here for businesses but also massive opportunities.

 Consider this, world population will peak and begin to decline sometime between 2030 and 2050 according to demographers. Indeed, in the developed world, the population will peak much sooner than this. In strategic terms, this is just around the corner. 

 What strategies is your business putting in place now to cope with this coming reality? If you haven’t already done so, I suggest you try this for a starter – envision what your business will have to look like, sound like and feel like in the future to thrive in this environment and then consider what has to start changing now for that to become a reality. You might be surprised at the energy that this generates. Let me know how you get on.