October 5, 2024

There comes a particular moment in our lives when the healthy intention of transcending those who need it most, leaving a mark and a path for others to follow, begins to be a topic of frequent reflection.

I have always seen the intention of entrepreneurship in social issues associated with philanthropy, and I desired to participate in them. However, I always questioned my subsistence while my passion and dedication to the cause consumed my productive time. Of course, it was disappointing to want to benefit society and think that while I worked hard for others, I was losing my ability to generate a quality life for my family environment.

Perhaps that is the central self-limiting belief that sets paradigms, for many irreversible, that social causes are for millionaires and that there is a deep contradiction between helping others and not dying trying if you are not extremely wealthy.

The day I turned 55, I felt happy because I had been a manager of a significant technology company for almost a year, and I carried out a task that represented a challenge for my professional life. I looked after risk management in an essential organization by leveraging the accumulation of more than 30 years of work experience and transversal studies, which I seasoned with a master's degree in risk management at a business school in Spain. That happiness was short-lived. At eight months, with all those self-imposed attributes, I was on the street, joining the population of "consultants," a species that thrives on those of us who learned something in life, met many people, and showed that we knew "something." Now we offer ourselves in a referral market to solve any problem of the company that calls us. Of course, there are other types of consultants; however, in Venezuela and many other countries, the professionals that the labor market no longer can absorb, we are "consultants" or "advisors", waiting for the opportunity.

But not all of us dare to sell ourselves as such. Many end up joining the list of premature retirees or resigned underemployed, both categories inevitably leading to the downward spiral of old age in poverty since we do not produce what we spend, and this generates financial paranoia where these characters question spending a dollar because they don't know if they can create it again. It would seem then that what we did not do at that moment will no longer do, and what we did is what remains with us until the end of our days.

Traveling through some exciting cities, I found that the "seniors," as they respectfully call us in Anglo-Saxon culture, enjoy, among other benefits, discount privileges in the public transportation system and even in stores. There, I began to understand that Society considered us people needing help, and perhaps they were right.

Then I discovered a social problem, of which I was eventually part, at least potentially, and which allowed me to develop a new form of companies that combines the solution of the problems of the people who need it most without evading the natural generation of the profit that every company demands to sustain itself, grow, generate jobs, and be successful.

A fascinating article came into my hands(1), written in 2008 by the senior professor at Harvard Business School, Daniel Isenberg, and titled "An Indian FOPSE", where he coins this curious term FOPSE, which he defines as "For Profit Social Enterprise" and which illustrates my current motivation around the ventures that I will be developing with my team.

In his article, Isenberg says, "I believe that FOPSEs deserve a unique label because they differ from non-profit companies in that for-profit mechanisms are intentionally used to provide sustainability for achieving social objectives. On the one hand, for-profit motivation gives the FOPSE a rigorous test in a competitive market that, if successful, results in financial viability, disciplined professional management, and organizational strength. This is not to say that nonprofit businesses cannot be professional or solid. However, the profit motive implies a widely accepted framework of entrepreneurship: first, conceive an innovative idea, then shape that idea into a business plan, including evaluating its potential benefits for all stakeholders, and finally, launch a company. The for-profit model also provides additional motivation to succeed. On the other hand, FOPSEs differ from conventional (dare we say "ordinary"?) for-profit companies in that their founders make explicit the fundamental social objectives of the company, and these objectives guide decision-making, resource allocation, and, in some cases, difficult compromises between conflicting objectives. These trade-offs are not theoretical. For example, if a company focused on eradicating ALS could develop a therapy to help treat or cure other neurodegenerative diseases sooner or more profitably, the corporate mission guides decision-makers down the seemingly least profitable path…"

Then began my study of what specialists have called "Silver Economy", in reference to the gray hair that is the common denominator of our target audience.

According to a renowned academic study2, the world's population over 55 years of age has doubled compared to 1980. Of course, this trend of increased longevity has consequences for all countries, consequences that, in some cases, have been addressed with due planning. In others, it is part of the political debt of governments without public policies to address this positive crisis dilemma.

According to the OECD (2014)3, the silver economy refers to "activities that produce and deliver products and services aimed at older people, shaping the environment in which those people cooperate and achieve success in their workplace, participate in innovative projects, help in the development of the market as clients and lead a healthy, active and productive life, counting on social innovation and gerontechnology as support to increase their level and quality of life."

The silver economy is an important stimulus for the development of our countries if it is based on ethical principles that promote social and economic inclusion and counteract the negative consequences of stereotypes, age discrimination, and social exclusion.

We start from the premise that it is viable to transform demographic threats into development opportunities. The essence of this process lies in creating a new paradigm for contemporary global development, which requires establishing a system of thought capable of generating ethical principles applicable to the promotion of the silver economy. This economy must be understood as a comprehensive concept encompassing multiple economic and social dimensions. It is not limited only to the production of goods and services aimed at the elderly population but also includes a variety of complementary activities. According to Enste, the areas in which the silver economy can encourage the development of market sectors, directly or indirectly, linked to the aging of the population are, among others:

• information technologies (IT) in healthcare.

• flat adaptation and services that make life easier, based mainly on IT.

• independent living based on the increasing use of IT.

• gerontological essential areas for the health economy, including medical technologies and e-health, vision and hearing technologies, prosthetics, and orthopedics.

• education and culture as a response to the desire for development and management of free time.

• IT and media combined with medicine, promoting independence and security.

• robotics services and promotion of independent living in the case of older people with serious illnesses.

• mobility and promotion of their constituents, such as road safety.

• leisure, travel, culture, communication and entertainment.

• fitness and well-being in response to raising awareness about a healthy lifestyle.

• clothing and fashion as a manifestation of the desire for social integration.

• services that facilitate daily functioning and other household tasks.

• Insurance is mainly related to the specific forms of risk of the elderly.

• financial services, regarding the protection of capital, the preservation of assets, and the prevention of loss of savings.

• motivation systems for successful entrepreneurship.

We want to dedicate the rest of our helpful lives to this problem. Every day, more clients are interested in it, and we are all prospects regardless of age because we all want to reach that age and have tools for insertion into a practical, satisfying, productive life.

We have registered Gnosis Consultores LLC (www.gnosisconsultores.com), bringing together a multidisciplinary team of successful professionals with the firm expectation of becoming a consulting firm that serves the silver economy segment through the generation of FOPSE ventures, where we can enjoy building a different world for an ever-growing public. From here, we offer total receptivity to any project that is in line with what is described. We are open to working for the well-being and quality of life of the experienced young people of the world.

Anticipating the expectations of one of our clients is a task that summarizes making the most of what they have learned in their career, studies, and experience, developing sufficient motivation and self-confidence to determine that being productive has no age, having physical health and necessary so that the work involved in being active does not constitute such a heavy burden, and above all a new mental scheme where stress has no place, where creativity emerges between spontaneous associations of peers determined to undertake new and productive businesses, and where we can build a society of owners, even after the age that was considered productive, because our motto must be: "Always Active."

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1.- Daniel J. Isenberg; An Indian FOPSE (Innovations Case Discussion: Keggfarms). Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization2008; 3 (1): 52–55. doi:https://doi.org/ 10.1162/itgg.2008.3.1.52

2.- Krzyminiewska, G. (2020). Ethical dilemmas of the silver economy.Economy and Prawo. Economics and Law, 19(1): 61–71.

3.- Enste, P., Naegele, G., & Leve, V. (2008). e discovery and development of the silver market in Germany. In F. Kohlbacher, & C. Hersta (Eds.), e silver market phenomenon: business opportunities in an era of demographic change. Berlin: Springer. doi:10.1007/978–3–540–75331–5_22.