Meet the Capable Achievers

Learn more about the Capable Achievers – one of the most affluent segments identified in our Connected Citizens study.

Capable Achievers are independent, successful and satisfied with their life. They are pragmatic technophiles, using technology to improve speed and ease of access to services. They are self-reliant and happy to embrace digital innovation that offers them direct benefits. While this group comprises mainly high and medium-high income groups, many still have financial concerns – including about income in retirement. Capable Achievers trust governments to use their data appropriately, but they worry about it getting into the wrong hands and support greater regulation of big technology firms.

Capable Achievers are one of our largest groups, at 17% of the total population, and they are strongly represented in the UK, France and Australia.

Meet Connie – a Capable Achiever 

Connie represents the Capable Achievers segment.  She is 54 and lives with her husband in the house they own in the suburbs of Sydney. With two children at university, she enjoys a comfortable lifestyle, thanks to her well-paid job as an executive in a global media company. Connie has a good work-life balance, feels satisfied with what she has achieved and is optimistic about her future. Her salary has cushioned her from the worst economic and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but she is concerned about her longer-term financial security and whether her pension will be enough to afford the activities she enjoys once she reaches retirement age. To safeguard her lifestyle in retirement, she is worried that she might have to go on working longer than she would like. She has a global outlook and likes to keep abreast of world affairs. She’s concerned that too little is being done to tackle global issues such as climate change.

As well as financial security, Connie prizes personal safety and access to world-class health care. She also values the open space and clean air available at her doorstep, and would like to see government doing more to protect her local environment. She thinks it will be critical for the government to focus on rebuilding the local economy and creating new jobs to recover from the pandemic.

When it comes to technology, Connie is pragmatic and confident. She owns a smartphone and laptop and uses them daily for work, keeping in touch with friends and family, following the news, streaming her favorite TV shows, shopping online and managing her finances. She views technology as a positive force that has made everyday tasks easier. But it hasn’t infiltrated all aspects of her life – she has yet to buy any smart appliances or wearables, such as a fitness tracker.

Looking ahead, Connie appreciates that technology is likely to further change the way she manages her daily life. As a busy professional, she is cash-rich and time-poor. Hence, she prioritizes speed and convenience when she interacts with public services – which she does primarily for health matters (such as routine checkups) and administrative tasks (such as dealing with taxes and renewing her passport). She feels frustrated when she has to submit her personal details every time she accesses a government website, and would far prefer having a single portal and a unique digital citizen ID and log-in to cut down the hassle.

Connie would welcome other innovations too: having video consultations with her doctor, for example, or getting her DNA analyzed for personalized medical treatment. But she wouldn’t be comfortable with human interactions being replaced altogether, for instance, having surgery performed by a robot or having to communicate with government through a chatbot.

Overall, Connie is relatively positive about the public services she uses. These high levels of satisfaction and trust mean she has little personal interest in getting actively involved in how such services are designed and run. She trusts public bodies to use her personal data appropriately in order to inform decision-making on services, investigate crime and national security issues, and help with disease prevention and tracking. But she does worry about her data being shared with the private sector and supports strong regulation of technology companies.

Question for government: As Capable Achievers move toward retirement, how can governments help them support themselves, and so relieve pressure on public services?

Technical notes about the Connected Citizens study

These profiles are a representation of what a typical member of each segment might look like, based on the data from the EY Connected Citizens survey, constructed to illustrate some of the key characteristics of the segment. The Connected Citizens survey was carried out by Ipsos MORI for EY between July 2020 and September 2020. Interviews took place online with 12,100 participants of working age across 12 countries. Quotas were set by age, gender, region and working status in order to achieve a representative sample in each country. Data was weighted by age, gender, region, working status and education to correct for imbalances in the national samples. As the survey was carried out online, samples in emerging markets are likely to be more urban, educated and connected than the overall population. All surveys are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.