Mike Morgan, Buisness Development Manager, Changing Age for Business
There is growing evidence from research at Newcastle University that older people live longer and more healthily when they have active lifestyles and live independently in their own homes.
But businesses have been overlooking the massive opportunities this presents to provide the largest growing section of the population with the products and services they need to maintain their lives in this way.
As Mike Morgan, Business Development Manager of Changing Age for Business, points out: “In the UK at the moment the over 50s own 80% of the wealth and are responsible for 40% of consumer spending, but only 10% of marketing money is spent on them.
“That’s a killer fact and it just doesn’t make sense for businesses.”
Helping businesses develop
Changing Age for Business was created by the University to help companies wake up to the opportunities they were missing – and to offer them its extensive expertise to help them seize those opportunities.
Mike is a graduate of Newcastle University who spent nearly 25 years working for IBM UK in a variety of roles encompassing business development, sales and marketing, with a focus on emerging markets.
Two years ago his career brought him back full circle to the University. He says of his current role: "A lot of the work I do is viewing what's happening in ageing as being an emerging market, which is really built on the skills and knowledge I brought with me from IBM."
Business incubator space
Mike works from the second floor of the new Biomedical Research Building on the Campus for Ageing and Vitality in Newcastle. With the backing of £2.5m from the European Regional Development Fund the building and support team can now accommodate up to 15 businesses.
He is engaging with companies ranging from human resource enterprises looking at the implications of the changing workplace, to IT firms developing digital technologies to make lives easier and better for older people. Others are involved in a long list encompassing housing, transport, nutrition and financial services.
"We are linking those companies and their ideas to the research base of the University, and helping them build their projects," he explained. "They can develop their solutions and services much more quickly and cheaply by using the expertise here at the University than by trying to do it on their own.
"What we want are companies that have some aspect of ageing in terms of their products or services. We are trying to facilitate a whole ecosystem around developing new business ideas, based alongside the research excellence we have at the University.
Not only do businesses share premises with research scientists, they are being accommodated in an environment that encourages collaboration, which itself offers huge opportunities for sparking and nurturing new business ideas.
Silicon Valley for Ageing
"I look at what we are doing on this business floor as being a microcosm of what will happen on the full Campus for Ageing and Vitality as it develops," added Mike.
"There are 250 word class researchers working on the medical side of ageing on this campus as well as many others in the larger Faculty of Medical Sciences and other disciplines within the main part of the University.
That’s a great privilege and something that is very unique.
"The opportunities this offers are so exciting that I’ve invented a phrase for it: the Silicon Valley for Ageing. I think it has that kind of potential in the years ahead."
Contact Mike Morgan about helping businesses develop.
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