Simon Kuestenmacher is a Director and Co-founder of The Demographics Group based in Melbourne, Australia.

Simon holds degrees in geography from leading universities in Berlin and Melbourne and worked for several years as a business consultant with KPMG Australia.

In 2017 Simon, with Bernard Salt, co-founded The Demographics Group. The group provides specialist advice on demographic, consumer and social trends for business.

Simon has presented to numerous corporate and industry audiences across Australia and overseas on demographic trends, consumer insights and cultural change in Australia.

His presentations and quirky observations are enjoyed by groups from the financial services, property, government, education, technology, retail and professional services industries, among others.

Simon is a columnist for The New Daily newspaper and a contributor to The Australian newspaper and he is a media commentator on demographic and data matters.

Simon has amassed 300,000 global followers on social media, reaches over 25 million people every month and ranks as one of the world’s Top 10 influencers in data visualisation. If you can’t get enough of data that explains how the world works, make sure to follow him on Twitter or any of his other social channels.

TOPICS

Rebuilding a better Australia

New businesses, work practices and consumer behaviours will emerge, and local manufacturing will be prioritised. The experience of working from home delivers a new productivity, lessens commuting, upskills the workforce in self-sufficiency and creates new businesses in technology. This changes the urban landscape. Post-corona we will see a large nation-building infrastructure program strengthening the suffering middle-class.

Businesses and workers must prepare for the post-corona world right now. This is a unique chance to build a fairer and better Australia.

Global trends shaping Australia

Will China come out of the crisis strengthened? Is the US losing ground? How is the world changing and how is Australia positioned to succeed in such a world? Global demographics favour Australia as a destination for migration and international investment during the 2020s, our economic profile will serve us well in the short term but must be overhauled in the aftermath of corona.

Demographics are stronger than the virus and Australia will prosper yet again in the world post-corona.

How COVID shifted consumer behaviour

Relationships with our loved ones strengthened during corona. We rediscovered local products and our neighbourhoods. The early selfishness of hoarding and non-observance of lockdown shifted as the death toll rose and we focused on acts of kindness and love. Households will be more caring, more prudent, more cautious and perhaps also less narcissistic following this experience. The new businesses will have a stronger balance sheet. Relationships tested by adversity will be stronger. The home becomes a more important space and people demand larger dwellings

Australians will be kinder and stronger on the other side of adversity.

Creating opportunities for regional Australia

We will experience years of lower migration. The largest demographic driver in the 2020s are Millennials reaching the family formation stage, working from home and demanding larger houses. Four-bedroom houses are unaffordable in the inner city and Millennials can be encouraged to move to the regions if the case is made in the right way.

This is an extremely rare opportunity to strengthen our regions! We must get the planning and storytelling right though.