Katherine Rose of Elysian Residences: Purpose, progress, and inclusivity in retirement living

You’ve had a rich career across global consumer brands and retirement living operators. What drew you to the retirement living sector specifically?

Having experience on brands with older customers at the BBC and Readers Digest, I was approached about working in retirement living.  I was initially slightly unsure, a bit like some of our customers! Was it mainstream enough?

The turning point was visiting an Audley site. I was hit by the power of the offer – an amazing lifestyle, swimming pool, views, beautiful apartments, all along with an underlying sense of safety. A relative had passed away having fallen and not been found - this would never happen in an IRC. It felt like a sector with a real sense of purpose.

Additionally, I knew older people are invisible in the commercial world, ignored or patronised, despite their financial value (let alone their value as people!)

I wanted to be part of building a business in a sector with the opportunity to change that.

You mentioned being a beneficiary of WiRL’s work. Could you share a moment or experience that particularly impacted you?

Whilst I was excited about the idea of WiRL, in what is quite a patriarchal industry, it was one of the early networking events that had a huge personal impact on me. When Sonia Parol told her menopause story, her loss of confidence and how it had affected her work life I was deeply moved. It was an authentic, brave and, I would say generous, thing to do. It really resonated with me and I hadn’t realised until then the extent that this was part of my recent experience. It helped me reframe choices I had made and what I wanted going forward.

I would also say that all the stories and experiences shared in events, webinars and posts have made me see that none of us is alone in facing the inclusivity challenges in our sector. Which is so empowering to know.

What unique perspectives do you hope to bring to the WiRL board, especially around brand strategy and innovation?

I have been hugely impressed with the clarity of WiRL’s vision and its articulation in a thorough business plan. Where I hope to help is in ensuring a strong strategic alignment of our aim - a more inclusive sector - with the activities we undertake and the financial approach to deliver it.

So really challenging ourselves on what, big picture, will need to change, what has to happen for the sector to be more inclusive and what are the steps required within that. We can then identify the finances required to achieve this. For example, it is exceptional that we have so many paid members - is that a sufficient, or indeed the best, source of revenue for what we want to get done?

I’m sure there are also more pragmatic areas where I can help (website, data, research etc), I’m excited to understand this as I get more involved.

How do you balance commercial objectives with the need for empathy and inclusivity in designing services for older adults?

I love this question as it’s at the heart of my approach. All my experience and many, many studies have shown that ensuring empathy and inclusivity, whatever the sector, leads to better commercial outcomes, so they should not be in conflict.

Listening to customers is essential, understanding their needs with research and feedback. This should be the basis for judgements about where the value lies for customers in creating products and designing services. That in turn informs how to best meet the commercial requirement for both short and long-term profit.

It is the diversity of the team making these judgements, even with a basis of research and data, that is essential as it brings different perspectives, not just in our sector. At its simplest, our decision is primarily made by women and yet many of our developers have none, or only one, woman in senior leadership roles

How do you envision WiRL’s role in shaping a more inclusive and progressive retirement living industry over the next five years?

I can see that WiRL is already making an impact with the authentic and open discussions about the experience for women and other under-represented groups in our sector. As I’ve said, many of us are coming to realise we’re not on our own, which is in itself empowering.

In a more strategic way, this is at the heart of our purpose as a board. To understand how we can make this shift happen for the benefit of those working in the sector and for the success of the sector itself. I know that WiRL has the capability, through the different streams of mentoring, information sharing, networking and supporting, to be right at the centre of the move to the more inclusive and progressive sector that we need and want.