ON CHANGE & ADAPTIVITY

by | May 18, 2018 | Articles by Ilse Baxter, Insight in Action

At CatalytIQ we understand business in a changing world. We know the key to success in a changing world lies in our ability to adapt. That little word – “adapt” encapsulates so many challenges that we, and our clients face on a daily basis. So the definition of the word “adapt” seems to suggest a few things
  • “To make suitable for a new purpose” – In much of what we do in the transformation space we focus on understanding what exists, what our clients believe the industry and their clients require for them to stay relevant, what they believe they need to be successful and what the shift from point A to point B means. Sometimes this means introducing fundamentally new capabilities (systems, practices, competencies etc.) – but often it is about taking what exists and working with it to ensure that it supports the new vision. Repurposing, reimagining, retraining and refocusing teams, capabilities and systems.
  • “To become adjusted to a new condition” – so much of the Transformation journey deals with not just the rational, tangible aspects of the changes at hand (the systems, processes, organizational changes, business rules etc.) but the intangibles – the so called “soft” aspects of people building the resilience to deal with ambiguity, the highs and lows of the change process, the reality of unrelenting change and what it takes to survive it. Over the years I have realized that despite my training and background (which favours the concrete and rational) – the magic and secret to success lies in our ability to rally people to a common, clearly articulated and often simple cause. Part of that rallying process relies on our ability to work with leaders within the business to support people through this adjustment process.
No matter what form the change you are facing may take – be it economic, regulatory, consumer, cultural, strategic or organizational – our single minded focus is to help you become more adaptive by supporting you through understanding the nature of the change, the impact on your organization and sticking with you every step of the way through leading the change required to make your vision a reality.

Ilse Baxter

NEW, FRESH WEBSITE

by | May 17, 2018 | Articles by Ilse Baxter, Insight in Action

CatalytIQ turned 12 in May 2016. To celebrate this achievement – we worked with partners that have been part of our CatalytIQ family for many years to update our web presence. We are extremely excited to present the new, fresh face of CatalytiQ to you – in the form of our new responsive website.

Whilst we have refined our proposition to match what we believe our clients are reaching for and we have streamlined and updated our site to match the world we work in – we have a few key people to thank for this new face

Firstly – Lourens Lombaard and his team at FDesign (www.fdesign.co,za) You guys have been part of our journey for many years. Your creativity, professionalism and resilience to deal with my creative whims have meant that you are the go-to guys no matter what we dream up as our next creative challenge. Thanks for sticking with us for all of these years!

Secondly – Brent Abrahams from Wempic Photography (www.wempic.co.za) . Brent – we worked together In a previous life – and I am supremely grateful for the fun experience and extremely professional output from our photo shoot. You are a dream to work with!

Lastly – the team at CatalytIQ. Our success – is tied to the people that make up the CatalytIQ team. We are tremendously excited and proud about the phase we are in – and that is down to you. Thank you for the passion, professionalism and enthusiasm you put in day in and day out. We couldn’t do it without you!

Ilse Baxter

CATALYTIQ CELEBRATES 12 YEARS!

by | May 17, 2018 | Articles by Andy Baxter, Insight in Action

Twelve years ago, CatalytIQ was born.
It started out as being a very technology focused company with just myself and my first collaborator, Ryan Tracey (ex Thawte), helping clients with open-source tools and products. My personal favourite was building an online chess gaming database and I remember Ryan and I sweating over a pair of home built Linux servers, struggling to cram every game of chess ever played into a MySQL database. Those boxes ran round-the clock, flat-out and I vividly remember the relief when we passed through the billion row mark with a pretty tricked-out database setup and some fearsome perl code in the engine room. Who says you can’t have fun in your work?

Anyway that was then – we’ve walked a long road since those early days and I’m very proud of the fact that we’re more vibrant than ever 12 years down the line. We have a great team of consultants taking on far bigger and more complex business initiatives than I could ever have thought possible back in 2004 and we still have fun doing it!

Recently, I was reading an article which talked about the failure rate of new companies and it made for pretty sobering reading – new companies lasting 10 years are only 4% of those that start out. Yes – only 4% survive that long historically. So I guess we’re a bit of a rarity – if only statistically! But that’s one of the reasons why I am very passionate about helping new start-ups to make it through all of the hurdles they have to face and I’m very proud to be able to offer advice when other consulting companies keep their distance.

So here’s to the next 12 years of adventure, the future beckons and we’re proud to be a part of it!

Andy Baxter