Ideas put to work
Guided by our principles of intimate partnerships and user-centered design thinking, your business can achieve unprecedented simplicity, transformation and sustained competitive advantage.

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About Us

Since its formation in 2007, Freethinking has become South Africa’s leading boutique consultancy for clients in Financial Services.

As a member of The EOH Group (Africa’s biggest ICT conglomerate), we’re able to keep a sharp focus on our clients – while benefiting from EOH’s shared services, and cost-effectively accessing financial, human capital and enterprise technology resources.

We help you achieve sustainable business transformation by integrating strategy, customer insights, technology and operations.

Guided by our principles of intimate partnerships and user-centered design thinking, your business can achieve unprecedented simplicity, transformation and sustained competitive advantage. Unlock new value streams and business insights with Freethinking’s unique approach to shaping strategies and developing your capabilities.

Our diverse team of specialist consultants spans design, UX, development, strategy, product management, data science, change leadership, marketing, and more. We’re able to assemble high quality, multi-disciplinary teams for you – embedding new ways of thinking and quite literally ‘putting those ideas to work’.

Our strong growth and track record of success emanates from our set of guiding principles:

OBSESSED WITH CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Our user-centered design approach is aimed at ensuring your customers receive exceptional experiences.

PEOPLE-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP

We’re passionate about getting your business ready for the future by embedding new thinking into the organisation.

DEPTH OF INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE

Our immersion in Financial Services ensures you benefit from deep industry knowledge and its ever-changing dynamics.

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PARTNERSHIP MODEL

Combining our core strategy team and world-class specialists, we create tailor-made teams to fit your needs and work with your staff in carrying out meaningful change.

BLENDING CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING

We assemble teams with broad diversity of thinking, to unearth, explore and develop new opportunities for innovation.

Leadership

Mike Harbinson

CEO

Lisa Heggie

Executive

Derrick Cooks

Executive

Warwick Gill

Principal Consultant

Wessel Olivier

Head of Design

Julie Robinson

Principal Consultant

Dean Addison

Principal Consultant

Brandon Madgwick

Principal Consultant

Lauren Strydom

Principal Consultant

Read about our leadership

Expertise

To ensure our clients get maximum value from our teams of skilled consultants, we’ve structured our consulting services into six areas of expertise.

These capabilities can be pulled together to form multidisciplinary teams that create lasting impact and true transformation.

NEW WAYS OF WORKING

We enable you to become more effective by building sustainable, empowered teams, delivering newer and leaner models of management thinking, and placing experience design at the centre.

DESIGN & INNOVATION

With our relentless focus on great design, we create beautiful, simple experiences for your users.

ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN & PERFORMANCE

As you face up to the demands of unprecedented scale and complexity, we partner with you to drive radical transformation.

ANALYTICS & INSIGHTS

By creating the instrumentation to gather richer feedback from your users, we lay the foundation for user-centered solution design within your organisation.

ARCHITECTURE

We assist in blueprinting a new style of enterprise architecture for your business, for you to capitalise on the brightest technology opportunities available.

EXECUTION EXCELLENCE

We deliver true business value with our results-oriented approaches to programme management, product management, business analysis, change management, and governance and compliance.

Success Story

“The Freethinking team has been instrumental in assisting our organisation to manage the change, business readiness, organisation performance and communication required to realise our group digital platform vision.

Freethinking has deployed an integrated change team to great effect, successfully supporting the new ways of working required to ensure our digital product organisation is a source of sustainable competitive advantage.”

Executive
South African Banking Sector

Start your Career

“It’s great to be part of this team because I’m constantly learning from my extremely intelligent and motivated co-workers. People here truly care about the work they do and I’ve built life-long friendships here.”

Chanetsa MukahananaUI Designer

“Being part of the Freethinking family has not only enabled me to do what I do best, but it has also inspired, elevated and empowered me to do even more! Now that’s what I call a company that strives for greatness!! The best part?…
I get to be a part of it!”

Michéle De SousaUX Designer

“As a Freethinker I have the opportunity to not only work as an individual, but to also have a platform to drive my individual career needs in a way that still meets the broader business focus.”

Keshnie NaidooChange Manager

“I feel part of a close knit family and have a great sense of belonging. I have met great people here and felt that my wellbeing has been taken to heart. Freethinking is an environment where you are given opportunities to grow and thrive in your career.”

Matsie MatsabuBusiness Analyst

“I enjoy working for Freethinking as it is a company made up of dynamic and driven people, with an energy that is contagious from top down. It’s a place where seeking solutions and pursuing ideas beyond traditional boxes becomes a part of who you are.”

Tracey Wolstenholme UX Designer

“With the guidance, support and mentoring of Freethinking Management I started my career as a project manager in February 2015. I am currently working on my 3rd and 4th project since February 2015 and still receive ongoing support and guidance from Freethinking Management, thank you for believing in me and making my dream come true!”

Pat schoemanProject Manager

“Championing design-thinking, and bringing the customer to the core of the clients service strategy, Freethinking is the nimble and strategic David, to the corporate Goliath that is the move to digital.”

Diego SnayersUX Designer

“Freethinking lives and breathes a culture that allows individuals and teams to bring the best of their diverse skills-sets to the table. It is a dynamic and responsive business consulting organisation, underpinned by the values and leading expertise that set us and our clients up for success in a disruptive and constantly changing world.”

Iain CampbellConsultant

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Our Blog

Through our series of insights, our team of Freethinkers aims to stimulate conversations on the biggest issues facing businesses in Africa. We aim for original, incisive commentary; uniquely African perspectives on global trends; and creative solutions to today’s challenges.