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Insights help transform organisations and move people by inspiring them. Unravel the drivers behind your employees' and your customers' behaviour.
Recognize factors that are critical for your success in business.
catalyst [ kat-l-ist ] Noun
The World of Research and Marketing...
In Chemistry a Catalyst is substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected.
It is something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected.
It is a person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic.
A catalyst is an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.
At Catalyst Insights (Pty) Ltd we research and research! We provide actionable insights through our research that can support you, our customer, in making the very best business decisions and planning top marketing initiatives.
Research, be it customer, member, employee or product, is the platform upon which marketing is built. Reliable research provides a solid, trustworthy foundation from which great marketing can improve your Return on Investment.
Good leaders use this information to design better products, improve user experience, and craft a marketing message that attracts quality leads and improves conversion rates.
Factual Dynamics
The People behind Catalyst Insights
Gerhard Kriel - Director & CEO
Gerhard holds a BSc degree (Microbiology, Biochemistry & Dairy Science) in Food Science from the University of the Free State, as well as a Master of Business Leadership (MBL) from Unisa School of Business Leadership. Gerhard specialized in Advanced Strategic Management, Industrial Marketing (and Market Research), as well as Investment Analysis & Portfolio Management.
Gerhard has 29 years business experience working the the Food, Financial Services, Agriculture, Medical and Marketing industries.
He became Managing Director of Lusan Premium Wines at 36 years of age and has subsequently turned Entrepreneur. Various executive positions in Retail, Agriculture and Wholesale distribution/Logistics are part of his experience arsenal.
As founder of various businesses including the non-profit Friends of Agriculture farmer support network, administered by Agri Business Network (Pty)Ltd, Gerhard noticed the lack of a professional, yet affordable market research agency.
Good decisions need better research and Catalyst Insights was founded capitalizing on both directors' years of experience and the inputs of leading researcher, Manie Breytenbach.
Mandy Austin - Director & COO
Mandy Austin holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of the Free State and has 18 years of research experience in both the quantitative and qualitative fields.
Mandy has held the position of Researcher through to Associate Director at various Market Research companies; such as Consulta Research and Research International (Now TNS) (2004 – 2009) and was Head: Customer Experience Measurement for Nedbank Ltd (2009).
In 2010 Mandy became an independent researcher and has worked closely with various research and advertising companies since then. She has worked across a variety of industries which include banking and finance, insurance, Motor vehicles, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, communication, government, and agriculture areas.
In 2016 Mandy re-joined Manie at The Survey Workshop. Mandy’s focus areas are customer / member / staff satisfaction strategies and implementation initiatives. She has in-depth knowledge of the calculation of and use of Net Promoter Scores (NPS), Voice of customer scores (VoC), customer churn (CCI) and the design, implementation and maintenance of Customer experience management and assessment tools.
Mandy is also an Independent Member, in good standing, of SAMRA, The South African Market Research Association and abides to the code of conduct that governs the research industry.
Tribute: Dr Manie Breytenbach - Consultant R.I.P 12/02/2021
Dr. H. J. (Manie) Breytenbach spent a year at the Institute for Communication Research at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA, where he enrolled in their Ph.D. program, which included hands on research and formal theoretical courses on research methodology and data analysis.
He also held a Ph.D. from the University of the Free State, where he was a professor for number of years, lecturing research methodology at both pre-graduate and postgraduate levels.
He had extensive research experience, not only in the academic context, but also within the industry itself, where he had conducted research on an elaborate range of topics for various private and government organisations.
In 1992 Manie established The Survey Workshop with a strong focus on research from a practical, industry-focused perspective. He had conducted various forms of qualitative and quantitative research for small and medium commercial and private radio stations and has a number of years of experience in this field.
Manie also kept us up-to-date with the latest developments in research technology and methodology by visiting research professionals in Europe, Britain and Australia on a regular basis and had published various articles in both Communication Science and other scientific journals.
Manie was a true leader in his field and we honour him for the contributions he made, especially as Mandy's mentor, to the field of Marketing Research.