Bernard Salt

Leading business advisor, author, speaker & columnist

Bernard Salt is a leading commentator and advisor on consumer, cultural and demographic trends who has earned an international reputation as a trend forecaster for business and government. He  is also a best selling author, a columnist with The Australian and Melbourne Herald Sun newspapers and in high demand as a speaker. Bernard heads a group of consultants within KPMG providing demographic-based advice to business.

Bernard Salt's best selling book The Big Shift predicted a surge in the demand for lifestyle and residential property underpinned by the imminent retirement of the baby boom generation.

His second book, also a best seller, The Big Picture, looks at how work, life and relationships are changing in the developed world in the early decades of the 21st century.

Bernard authored and released a global study of Generation Y commissioned by KPMG International and called Beyond the Baby Boomers in July 2007 which attracted front page coverage of the Financial Times as well as coverage by The Economist.

Bernard has an understanding of the way in which demographic change shapes consumer markets. He attributes recent trends, and even fashion, to the shifting of the mass market from one stage of the lifecycle to an other. The Age describes his style as 'part stand-up comedian, part number-crunching economist'. A Queensland journalist described him as 'quick witted and dynamic as a public speaker; he is articulate and holds an audience exceptionally well.'

Bernard Salt's views are regularly sought by the business community and by the general media. He appears regularly on radio and television programs including Sunrise, Today Tonight, A Current Affair and 60 Minutes.

Bernard is also a compelling and entertaining speaker employed by blue-chip companies to stimulate thought provoking discussion at conferences, seminars and workshops.

He travels Australia extensively and is equally at home speaking about suburban growth and culture in Dubbo and Busselton, as he is about the opportunities for business in the hip-&-happening empty nester residential markets of inner Sydney and Melbourne.

Bernard Salt holds Bachelor of Education and Master of Arts degrees and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Bernard Salt talks about:

Bernard bases his presentation on hard-edged numbers reflecting the most recent demographic, business and social information available.  His research into almost every market in Australia enables him to talk authoritatively about trends in any part of the continent, as well as the cultural differences within regional Australia.

His style is informative, witty, incisive and very 'human'; it is a unique blend of substance and humour.  Indeed, he has been described as "having the content of Hugh Mackay and the delivery of Phil Ruthven".  All of Bernard's presentations are tailored to the client and to the client's industry.

Bernard provides a fast paced and dynamic exposé of cultural change and demographic shifts, focusing on the outlook and implications for business over the next two decades. His topics include

• Who is the 'other' Bernard Salt?
• How does the Australian Bernard consistently leverage page 1 exposure with a story on demographics?
• What are the common denominators between the fastest growing localities on the Australian continent?
• What is the 'Manhattanisation' of our largest cities? When did this all start? And why?
• How do shifts in Australian values impact upon towns and regions? And what is the 'Sigrid Factor', anyway?Why have we moved from hippies, punks, dinks and yuppies to boomers, Xers, Ys and Dotcoms? And why do baby boomers like wearing black?
• Why is it fashionable to be forty? And when will it be trendy to be fifty?
• At what age do high-income earners reach their peak income-earning capacity? But what happens then?
• Do our Top Guns really ride Top Bikes?