Dominic Carter
Appearances
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Because there is skepticism around, I think people are very hopeful that we can improve lives, but I think that there's some justified skepticism around it as well. And as I say, working on the right projects, I think is really important.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
We started recruiting a user community about two years ago. And what we're asking these people to do is work with us to praise the technology. And these are ordinary people, like they have more than average, they have an interest in technology, but they're not terribly different from everyday people. And so last year we tested 26 different age tech
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
concept with them and we found several that we thought were very promising on that basis that the guys in the community themselves have said we're very interested in these and out of those there are two that we're working on the first is it's actually fiber technology that's a canadian company called comfort linen it's a pajama and sheet set that you have to wear the pajamas when you're in bed but the pajama fabric and the sheet fabric
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
to make it very easy for you to move around in bed because mobility in bed is a big issue, for example, for people with Parkinson's disease. But even just as we age, it can get harder to move around. We don't have as much sort of muscular power.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
to move around and so people can end up being very uncomfortable in bed and your ability to move in bed has a big impact on your sleep quality, which is something that I had no idea about. Like people that have the issue can relate to that idea very easily. We found, I would say much more than I expected, a lot of interest in the products.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
And then we took that product in home trials and the people that we worked with really were just raving about it. So we had people, we tracked people for a month, we gave them the product for a month and then at the end asking them how did it work for them and people were saying, well, I'm sleeping so much better now. And they really want to tell other people about it as well.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
So it's a really great product. So we're working hard on that with working to attain distribution and the correct adaptation of product at the moment. Another product we're working with is actually another Canadian company.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
It just happened that they're Canadian companies, but this company is called Steadywear and they have a mechanical device that you can put on your hand if you have essential tremors.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
so have shaky hands essentially you can put you can strap this onto your hand it's not too big especially the latest version is a lot the form factor is a lot easier for people to handle it's not as heavy as the earlier versions but that counteracts your tremors so there's a mechanism inside the device that as you if you tremble one way it counteracts so it can basically cancel out
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
So people who can't draw a straight line or they can't pick up a cup of tea or just do the basics in their daily routines, they can use this device and obviously it's going to change your whole life if you're able to do those daily tasks again. There are two examples. They're not even digital. They're not even digital tech, but it doesn't have to be digital tech.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
And of course, we're looking at things like Alzheimer's, trading apps. So certainly we are looking at digital tech as well. They're two examples of products where they're accessible. They make a very, almost immediate difference to people's lives.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
I want to see with the project we're working on, I want to see impact, a very visible impact on people's lives very early on, because I think we need that to get the momentum for all the rest of the projects that we want to take on.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Yes, given my background, it's probably unsurprising that I would say even at the point of conceiving your idea, it's very useful if you talk to users and the people that you're trying to help. You have to listen very objectively to what users are telling you. So it's very human for us to
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
hear the feedback and say, oh, I didn't really quite explain the idea well enough, or they didn't get, they didn't really quite get the idea, or I strongly believe that we're moving in the right direction, even though users are telling us they may have concerns or they're not so interested or, and I think you really, I think you really, you may need to change your idea.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
You may need to come up with a new one, or you may need to adjust the way that you're approaching it. So I've worked in consumer insights for long enough, almost 30 years almost. You really, over that time, you understand that the people who are successful are the ones that do tend to listen to what their users and customers are telling them.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
That doesn't mean that you're unable to lead the market or that the user's not going to be able to tell you what to do. necessarily in terms of how to deliver that innovation or what to create or whatever. But you really do need to listen to what they're saying. There's a little bit of a dance, but you really have to.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Sometimes you're leading, sometimes they're leading, but you've got to dance with them. If you're assuming that better what they want than what they know, like you're asking for trouble. So my advice is do that. Save yourself a lot of time, effort and money. It is much easier to pivot during the development process than to pivot once you're in the market.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
My advice to investors would be to probably do more due diligence around the whole perspective of the user around these startups that you're investing in. I think you probably increase your odds of success if you do that. Having said that, the opportunities are huge. There's a lot of goodwill around anything to do with aging-related innovation, age tech, and age tech's a huge area.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
It's not just care tech. When people think about Agetech, people go straight to, in our own minds, we tend to go straight to nursing homes. And that's, of course, a very needed area for technology to come into. But Agetech starts, I think, at age 50, around there. There's stuff that anything that we're
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
looking at to help us deal with the fact that we have some diminished capacity or we're concerned that we might or we want to prevent stuff happening that we hear about. Yeah, so in your 50s, even something like a fitness app or a nutrition app or even there are cognitive apps that people who are younger use. In Japan, cognitive training apps are used by people of all ages, right? Yeah.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
And that could be considered to be age tech. And then we can get into more, as we go into our 60s and 70s, there can be more active prevention technology. And then, of course, going into the 80s and 90s. So it's very wide. The whole area of innovation and technology for over 50s is like a really wide area. Even fintech has a big role to play for people who are aging.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Safety, helping people to prevent scams and so forth. That's a big problem in Japan. with not just elderly people, but certainly there have been some terrible cases of people who've been very badly exploited. So even those kind of countermeasures put in place for fraud, it's really a wide area. And the idea that it's a niche is actually crazy because, you know,
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Yes, I think a lot of people, and a lot of people my age too, because I just turned 50. And so a lot of people around our age are dealing with their aging parents. And I became, honestly speaking, I became very frustrated dealing with my parents because they
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Half the population is over 50, so you're marketing to half the population in one of the richest countries in the world for the people that actually have the money. It's a great opportunity, but just partner as much. Just think in terms of partnering with users. They're not subjects that you do stuff to. They're not just buyers. They're people who buy your product.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
They're people that you really want to partner with. to create a solution where you're commercially successful, but they're having their problems solved or their life improved.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Yeah, I think the culture is a very appropriate way of looking at it because, of course, I'm a foreigner in Japan, so I'm always confronted by those in my own experience here and people that want to sell into the market have to understand cultural differences. Actually, there are really big cultural differences between age groups in the same culture.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
So the culture of a 25 year old is very different from the culture of a 55 year old. And the culture of a 55 year old is very different from the culture of a 75 year old. But they're both over 50. So we're going to have this one term that says aging adults. There's a cultural difference in age between age groups, even in the same culture. But we have to take the same approach.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
I wanted them to be a lot more proactive about the way that they were managing their situation and the fact that their independence was gradually disappearing. I could see that happening. I think they were in denial, but my brothers and sisters And we were very concerned about it. So I started, I gave, I got dad an Apple Watch, for example.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
So I would say to people when they're coming to Japan, I would say, look, you have to listen to what people are saying. put, even though it's impossible not to, but try not to put it through your filters and apply your playbook, how you deal with everything.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Because often people that come into the market here, they just want to apply their playbook and they're doing research to give them permission to apply their playbook. And that isn't necessarily what people are saying. They have to listen. We can't apply our same playbook with aging adults. that we would apply, say, to people in their twenties or thirties.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
So I wish I had thought of this idea, but I did read a while back someone was basically saying that all user experience research should be done among elderly people first. Because every problem that you find in the tech with older people will immediately have that problem, right? Where younger people are compensating for it all the time and may not even notice that there is an issue there.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
It's listen, really. And I think if you do that, you've got a fighting chance of being successful. But we see a lot of, unfortunately, it can be heartbreaking because there are concepts that we really like and we think that they can really help, but they just need a lot of work. Doing it the right way is really starting from the basics.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
So I'd love to come back. So thank you for having me.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
We tried speakers and we tried the pendant that they wear. If they fall over, they can't. But it was very hard to get their cooperation.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
in Australia yeah my brothers and I have four brothers and sisters and they're still in Australia and I'm the only one in Japan I was looking at I just looked at their experience and I thought you've got to be better than this like I wanted to be better than this when I'm the same age as well because when we think about when we think about aging yes we want to help out we want to help our parents but we're also thinking of ourselves as well you've
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
And I'm thinking like when I'm in my mid-70s, I think these are the types of solutions that would be great to have around. And I certainly hope that I'll be able to access those and I'll have the capacity to help myself in a way.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
But very much looking at my parents' journey and all of the issues that they've had, I thought, yeah, this is an area of business where we can actually really, of course, there's a huge opportunity in a market like Japan. And Japan's not the only aging market, but it is the oldest market. So I'm 50, but the median age in Japan is 50. So half the population is over 50.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
30% of the population is over 65. The size of the market is massive and aging people in Japan tend to have more financial resources than younger people, interestingly. So it's a big business opportunity in that sense and there's a lot of interest in it globally.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
From the point of view of being able to work on projects that have a genuine positive impact for people, I think it's something that we can also feel very proud of. good about as well, because the products that we're working with really do help improve people's quality of life.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Yes, it's very hard and we can't really move faster than the user in that respect. So I think if we project out into the future, I think you and I will be very open to technology and every way that can benefit us as we age. But our parents there, in a sense, it is a little bit too late for them. There are certain, if we look at, When I say too late, I mean too late for them to fully embrace.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
There are some people who, there are some people who do, but they're the minority. At the same time, there's a philosophy, I think, especially in Japan, where people think aging is, rightly aging is a natural process. So these deteriorations that we face over time, they're actually natural. We accept them. So anything that's like too extreme of an intervention, I think
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
or it's helping too much, is in danger of being rejected because it doesn't really fit in with people's philosophy and their way of thinking. And frankly, people prefer other people to look after them.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Aging people in Japan still have people to look after them because the baby boomers who are the biggest or have been in the past the biggest portion of the population in Japan, they have children and the children, there are enough people to look after.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
the baby boomers for people who are our age though gen x you could think of them being there's a generation bulge in there called the baby dunkai the dunkai the baby boomers and the baby dunkai the children of the baby members but the baby dunkai are another big group in the population but they're really Beneath us, there's the people that were for our elders.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
I think the opportunity in aging tech is a long-term one. And I think it'll come, it really comes from people in their 50s who, yes, they may be able to gently introduce some solutions to their parents as they become available. So things like sensors and stuff that's fall detection and so forth, as that gets better, yes, that's a no-brainer that we can put that in with our parents.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
But that tech has to be very unobtrusive. You really can't be asking aging adults past a certain point to be really learning new technology and stuff. It just doesn't really work. But for us... Yes, as we age, I think, yes, we have almost a responsibility to be very conversant with technology. And especially in Japan, as I say, we don't have enough people who are younger than us to look after us.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
If we don't look after ourselves as we can, then we're really causing a problem to other people. And Japanese people understand that very well. They're very aware of their impact on other people and they don't want to cause a problem for other people. And being responsible as a person, being personally responsible is a really key value. I think that thinking, that way of thinking
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
actually works very well with tech, but I think it's going to take a while and it's really a generational curve that we're on in terms of getting to the point where aging technologies are really fully utilized. So we have to have the technology, but as you say, we have to have the mindset.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
And I think that our generation has that mindset, but I think we really need to get in early because hour over time, we become more set in our ways. And I think we just want to be aware that we are aging and that we might want to be thinking about this as we get older.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
I think that the first thing
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
to bear in mind is I think this is a huge task, like it has many aspects to it and there are many roles within that and many opportunities, but we're coming, we've of course started off as being researchers, which means that we've spent, for example, we've spent a lot of time in the last five years with people in their homes, for example, looking at how they, how do they prepare their meals as they get older?
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
How do they clean? How do people go shopping? So where can technology come to play a role in those daily tasks? Now, in the last three or four years, we've done about 25 projects just on those sorts of issues on robotics because we have clients that are looking, how do we build really good human-centric robotic solutions that people actually want to work with?
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Because people generally don't, just in the area of robots, they don't really know how to interact with them. And the attempts have been put on the market so far, they've had their limitations. So we're starting from a perspective as researchers, because I say we see, as researchers, we see a lot of stuff that doesn't work. We see the issues in people that make tech. They can see problem.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
In aging, problems are very easy to see. Sometimes in innovation... You can have the situation that we have a solution, but do we have a problem? That happens a lot, actually. In aging, the problem's really obvious. But what seems like a very reasonable solution from the point of view of the technologist, when you put it in the user's hands, it may not work.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
We've got examples of how that can be an issue. So I think that the first thing that I am working on is ensuring that we have a very good fit between user needs and what that technology does. So our first role in the whole area of aging tech is to filter the ideas that have potential from those that are much longer term.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
So the people that are producing these solutions, they have very well intended, they want to help people and they theoretically will help people, but we really need to work out what are the ones where we can bring them to market fairly soon. And then when we've identified that there's a really good fit with needs and it seems like a fairly practical solution,
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
solution, then we still have the job of adapting. Sometimes there'll be some elements of cultural adaptation that you need to do for Japan, selling it into the market here, but also just basic user experience, stuff that needs to be cleared up or worked on. And so when we've got a relevant product, we've optimized user experience. We can use that with our skills that we have in research.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
then we're facilitating commerce so what we're doing is because we're selecting the companies we then connect them up to distribution so that's the first stage of our project is identifying the companies check it appraising the user experience and then connecting them up to distribution stage one so we've got two companies that we're really advanced in doing that at the moment
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
Then after that, of course, we spend a lot of time with users, so we understand what the needs are. So if there are no solutions for certain needs, then we may want to develop those solutions and assemble teams to actually create products. So a venture studio is definitely in the works for us. And then in the big picture, too, there's an investment story around that as well.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
But really, for me, the key thing is that we can get some success with these early projects so that then we can expand it out to the bigger picture to make sure that the essentially that yes, if there are opportunities to create product. We can do that.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
If there are companies that we can facilitate investment for that we think will meet needs that we've validated and that we think that their products will address, then we want to facilitate investment for those businesses as well. So for us, that's a really interesting business. It's a good business. But as I say, it's about making sure that we get the right projects.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
I think that's where our focus on the user and that sort of really that active listening and that connection with the user. I think that really enables us to be able to really increase the chances of success of these because I'm concerned if we don't.
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
really have successful experiences with age tech people will lose interest in the area and they'll say oh okay the mindset of elderly people is too close-minded so therefore we tried it and and we're not going to do that anymore because it's too hard well It's only too hard if you don't listen to your users, right?
Chief Change Officer
#240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two
It may stop you putting lots of resources into a solution that just isn't something that people really feel that they need or creating a user experience that just doesn't really suit the way that people live and what their priorities are. And then I think the whole area of aging tech will get a lot more credibility and traction. Absolutely.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
You can partner with people. And I think if we look at the area of aging in particular, the problems that we have in Asia, the challenges that we face in aging and let alone trying to market products of people who are aging, unless we actually take a really collaborative approach with people, it's very hard to see how we're going to be successful.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
So that stretch is always connecting and reflecting back what people are thinking and feeling into commercial decisions.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
Yes, I think a lot of people, and a lot of people my age too, because I just turned 50. And so a lot of people around our age are dealing with their aging parents. And I became, honestly speaking, I became very frustrated dealing with my parents because
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
I wanted them to be a lot more proactive about the way that they were managing their situation and the fact that their independence was gradually disappearing. I could see that happening. I think they were in denial, but my brothers and sisters And we were very concerned about it. So I started, I got Dad an Apple Watch, for example. We tried speakers and we tried the pendant that they wear.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
If they fall over, they can't. But it was very hard to get their cooperation.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
In Australia, yeah. I have four brothers and sisters and they're still in Australia and I'm the only one in Japan. I just looked at their experience and I thought, you've got to be better than this. I wanted to be better than this when I'm the same age as well. Because when we think about aging, yes, we want to help our parents, but we're also thinking of ourselves as well. You do, yeah.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
And I'm thinking like when I'm in my mid-70s, I think these are the types of solutions that would be great to have around. And I certainly hope that I'll be able to access those and I'll have the capacity to help myself in a way.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
But very much looking at my parents' journey and all of the issues that they've had, I thought, yeah, this is an area of business where we can actually really, of course, there's a huge opportunity in a market like Japan. And Japan's not the only aging market, but it is the oldest market. So I'm 50, but the median age in Japan is 50. So half the population is over 50.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
30% of the population is over 65. The size of the market is massive and aging people in Japan do tend to have more financial resources. than younger people, interestingly. So it's a big business opportunity in that sense, and there's a lot of interest in it globally.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
From the point of view of being able to work on projects that have a genuine positive impact for people, I think it's something that we can also feel very good about as well, because the products that we're working with really do help improve people's quality of life.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
Yes, it's very hard and we can't really move faster than the user in that respect. So I think if we project out into the future, I think you and I will be very open to technology and every way that can benefit us as we age. But our parents there, it's in a sense, it is a little bit too late for them. There are certain, if we look at When I say too late, I mean too late for them to fully embrace.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
There are some people who do, but they're the minority. At the same time, there's a philosophy, I think, especially in Japan, where people think aging is a natural process. So these deteriorations that we face over time, they're actually natural. We accept them.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
So anything that's like too extreme of an intervention or it's helping too much is in danger of being rejected because it doesn't really fit in with people's philosophy and their way of thinking and Frankly, people prefer other people to look after them. And aging people in Japan still have people to look after them.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
Because the baby Burmese who are the biggest, or have been in the past the biggest, the biggest portion of the population in Japan. They have children and the children, there are enough people to look after the baby boomers. For people who are our age, like Gen X, you could think of them being, there's a generation bulge in there called the baby dunkai.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
The dunkai are the baby boomers and the baby dunkai are the children of the baby boomers. But the baby dunkai are another big group in the population, but they're really... I'm beneath us. There's the people that were for the, for our elders. I think the opportunity in aging tech is a long-term one. And I think it it'll come.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
It really comes from people in their fifties who yes, they may be able to gently introduce some solutions to their parents as they become available. So things like sensors and stuff that's fall detection and so forth as that gets better, yes, that's a no brainer that we can put that in with our parents. But that tech has to be very unobtrusive.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
You really can't be asking aging adults past a certain point to be really learning new technology and stuff. It just doesn't really work. But for us, Yes, as we age, I think, yes, we have almost a responsibility to be very conversant with technology. And especially in Japan, as I say, we don't have enough people who are younger than us look after us.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
Thank you for having me, Vince. It's a pleasure to be here.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
If we don't look after ourselves as we can, then we're really causing a problem to other people. And Japanese people understand that very well. They're very aware of their impact on other people and they don't want to cause a problem for other people. And being responsible as a person, being personally responsible is a really key value. I think that thinking, that way of thinking matters.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
actually works very well with tech, but I think it's going to take a while and it's really a generational curve that we're on in terms of getting to the point where aging technologies are really fully utilized. So we have to have the technology, but as you say, we have to have the mindset.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
And I think that our generation has that mindset, but I think we really need to get in early because hour over time, we become more set in our ways. And I think we just want to be aware that we are aging and that we may want to be thinking about this as we get older.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
I think that the first thing To bear in mind is I think this is a huge task, like it has many aspects to it and there are many roles within that and many opportunities, but we're coming.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
We've of course started off as being researchers, which means that we've spent, for example, we've spent a lot of time in the last five years with people in their homes, for example, looking at how they, how do they prepare their meals as they get older? How do they clean? How do people go shopping? So where can technology come to play a role in those daily tasks?
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
Now, in the last three or four years, we've done about 25 projects just on those sorts of issues on robotics because we have clients that are looking, how do we build really good human-centric products? robotic solutions that people actually want to work with because people generally don't, just in the area of robots, they don't really know how to interact with them.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
Sure. I think Japan tends to attract a certain type of person. And I tend to think the type of person it attracts is often people who feel that they don't really fit in very well in their home countries. I would say as a kid growing up in Australia, definitely I loved growing up in Australia. It's a great place to grow up.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
But I liked my fellow countrymen, but in some ways I felt like I didn't have so much in common with them as well. So I was always... looking outside and what would be, what I thought of what my life would be like as an adult. I always assumed that I'd be living overseas. I was very interested in Japan when I was a teenager.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
And so that led me to, when I was at university, I chose to study Japanese at university. I wish I'd studied harder. I always laugh because it would be so good if I'd put in the work early on to learn Japanese really well. But yeah, I was always fascinated. with everything that was outside of Australia and my existence at that time.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
And I guess I had like an idealized picture of what living overseas would be like and what Japan would be like. And I always thought if aliens came to visit the Earth, I really hoped that they'd do their first stop in Japan because people there are behaved and refined and have such an amazing culture. So I'm like, I think this might be best put forward for humanity if the aliens started there.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
But yeah, basically I'd always seen myself be working and living overseas and that was feeling sometimes as a little bit of an outsider in my own culture. And as I say, I think that's very common to people that come to Japan. I think they, in a way, we find something here that we can't find at home and we just feel very comfortable being here.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
And I think people who, I know people who've lived here for over 40 years and it's just really a home for us.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
No, I had my first job. So when I graduated from university, I started working in a market research in Australia. So I forgot about my Japanese studies. But very soon, I would say within about six months of me starting in that company, they had expressed an interest in opening up an office in Tokyo. So... I put my hand up for that.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
And so for the next two and a half years, because I was the only one who was really interested in it, and even though my Japanese was very scant at that time, it was more than anyone else. And so, yeah, so they groomed me to be positioned to go up there and participate in the opening of the business.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
So I was working in Australia for three years and I was 24 when they sent me to Japan to open up the office. And that's what I did. I did that. I did that for four years and it was successful four years, but it was very challenging personally. It was a lot of responsibility at a very young age. So I turned out a bit, to be honest, but yeah.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
But I left that job and then when I was at the airport going home, I gave in my what they call alien registration cards. If you're a foreigner, you have an ID card that you need to carry in Japan all the time. So I gave that in at the airport and I said, I'm not going to need this so you can have it. And so I went back to Australia and then within six months I was back.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
So it turned out that there were people who were still interested in working together and I launched the business within about six to 12 months of going back to Australia. So I was back and that was 2003. So now we're almost 2025. So I've been going all of that time.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
always be better but yeah I'd always wanted to have my own business that was something that I'd always you know when I was a when I was a kid I admired I looked up to the entrepreneurs I thought they were the people who were the real sort of pioneers and people who was building the country this was back in the 80s so we had very famous entrepreneurs in Australia Alan Bond is a famous one and
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
There was another one, Christopher Scase, but they both ended up in prison. Alan Bond ended up in prison and Christopher Scase ended up in Spain escaping prison. But basically, it was a time when there was a lot of celebration of entrepreneurship. And they were the heroes. And yeah, there was some of them crashed and burned.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
But I strongly believe that entrepreneurship is very important to advance culture and society. And I think entrepreneurs play a very important role in advancing society. They're obviously, I'm not saying that they're necessarily more important than other people or artists and so forth are really important and people who contribute a lot to the culture.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
But I think the entrepreneur has a role to play, an important role to play and economic and philosophical role. And I always thought that and I always wanted to have my own business. I thought this would be great. I don't really want a boss. And even when I was working in Australia, I don't think they really knew what to do with me. So I had a lot of autonomy even when I was quite young.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
So, yeah, I think it's just a very, it was just a very natural thing for me to do. And obviously very challenging. And we had, it was tough for a few years there and sometimes it's still tough, but I, yeah, I'm just really happy doing what I'm really happy with that choice of going out on my own really early.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
Yes, I started off the company that I had originally worked for. They're the global leader in brands and advertising research. So my job when I first came to Japan was testing ads, TV ads, clients like Unilever and Mars and so forth. That was a very interesting time because at the time, Those clients are spending a lot of money on TV advertising. Clients still do spend a lot of money on TV.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
But in those days, it wasn't the digital environment we have now. So there's a lot of focus on television. So there was a lot of the work that we were doing was considered to be very important. So it was actually quite high profile and high pressure.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
But I learned a lot from that about how to communicate with consumers and things like how to adapt communications for global companies so that it works in Japan. So on and so forth. And so that was the type of work that I was doing. And when I, when I had the opportunity to come back to Japan, it was a similar type of.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
It was a similar type of work that I was starting off with, but we did have the opportunity to work in the entertainment area as well. So we started working on fairly early on with Universal Studios Japan, which is a theme park, big theme park in Osaka. We were working on communications related projects and also
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
We ended up doing most of the marketing related research for Universal Studios, which we did until essentially until COVID came along. And that sort of unfortunately put an end to that business. But we were working very heavily in those areas of market research for some time. My interests aren't only in research. I have a research business, which is, we have a fairly, it's a fairly wide business.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
type of range of projects we do everything from sort of entertainment to insurance cars luxury to human-centered design and robotics we do a really wide range of projects i've got about 40 people in that team but i also have a software business in the ad tech area and i'm also working on what i think is going to be a very a very big project around aging tech and aging related
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
technologies which is a special interest that i have i've started off in research everything that i've done has got a connection to what happened before like i'm not a big believer in making completely crazy leaps of faith but there's always going to be connections that you've made and ideas that you've had and relationships that allow you to look at new areas and i'm always looking at new areas because i get bored easily and i like making new things now
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
I strongly suspect if I were more pissed on money, I'd be a lot richer than I am. Looking back, I think what I've tended to search for is connection all the time.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
So I think there is, if you're interested in connection with people and understanding of people, that whole world of consumer insights and market research is a very interesting area to work in because your projects relate to understanding people. I think we also, if you look at a social role for what we do in research, it is, it does relate to giving people a voice as well.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
And I think when I, when I think about it, everything that I've tried to do is about connecting with people, giving, giving voice to people, ensuring that their needs are reflected in the way that organizations that are more powerful than them relate to them. So this, of course, it can include stuff like government and whatever, but also companies that are making products.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
If they listen to their users, then the product's going to be so much more useful. It's great for the user. It's good for the company.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
So even with our projects in Agetech, where we're bringing Agetech into Japan, we're working on bringing interesting and breakthrough product in, still very much we're based on talking to users and using the skills that we have in consumer insights market research to make sure that we're bringing in the right products. And that we can help adapt them successfully.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
We're moving from, we do plenty of straight consumer insights related work. Now we're moving to more commercialization of those insights in our business, which I think is amazing. Something I've wanted to do for so long, but it still is based on that real active listening experience.
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
to people and ensuring that we're making active connections with people and that we are reflecting that back in the ways that we interact with people. So that's a very strong thread because you hear people say, we're not really quite sure
Chief Change Officer
#239 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part One
what to do or we've worked really hard on this problem that we have in our business and we just don't know how to move forward or we tried this and we tried that i i say look maybe you need to spend a lot more time with your users you need to spend a lot a lot of a lot more time with your customers or the people that you're trying to work with just ask them sometimes you don't actually have to come up with all of the solutions on your own