See the future. Today.
With clients ranging from large multi-nationals to small owner operated companies, our approach to business improvements is applicable wherever there is a need for improvement.
Knowstosis solves problems and improves current businesses with knowledge in a unique and effective way.
Whether you need a business model re-engineering or an incremental change to a business process, our logical application of knowledge driven decision making will always result in the desired improvement.
Our services include:
We have a very unique approach to developing solutions.
Based on accurate information.
Contact us to discuss how we can improve your business
Exactly what the phrase suggests. Too many companies (including consulting firms) make assumptions about market conditions when deciding which products, distribution, pricing, advertising media to use when approaching the market. We don’t make assumptions.
We have developed a unique top-down approach to gaining market knowledge which resembles the process that a good news journalist or detective would follow when gathering information.
The aim being to capture the essence of the forces driving the market, rather than blindly going through the motions of analysis.
Companies often have problems which they cannot solve. Most often because the actual problem has not been defined.
We specialise in finding the problem and we do so through speaking to stakeholders: customers, clients, employees, etc.
Once the problem is identified we set out to gain knowledge about the problem and the conditions in which it is set (see above). With the knowledge in hand and the problem defined, the solution is a natural product of the process.
Louis D. van Niekerk completed a B.A. at the University of the Free State and a B. Engineering (Industrial) at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1998 he joined Knowstosis (then The Marketing Shop) as a Project Manager. He spent two years servicing existing clients with new and innovative products, while developing Knowstosis‘ strategic division. When the board of Billboard (then owners of The Marketing Shop) decided to merge The Marketing Shop with other entities in the group early in 2000, he decided to move on in search of corporate experience.
At the end of 2000 he joined First National Bank in their branch network as a project manager. In 2001 he was invited to be the strategic assistant to the CEO of FNB and was asked to be part of core team investigating disintermediation in banking for FNB Exco at the turn of that year. Following this, he was transferred to SCION (FirstRand Bank Incubator) early in 2002 to incubate a business concept stemming from the disintermediation project.
Corporate life did, however, not suite the young entrepreneur and Louis rejoined Knowstosis as shareholder and director in July 2002. At the end of 2002 Louis acquired an MBA (cum laude) through the University of the Free State. His MBA would prove to be the vital component required to combine the engineering and business skills obtained, into very meaningful consulting.
In October of 2004, Louis acquired the remaining shares in Knowstosis.
Since then, he established the company as the authoritative solution provision company in the automotive sector of South Africa, whilst expanding horizontally into other sectors such as education, government, agriculture, transport and hospitality.
His corporate experience at FirstRand has proven most fruitful with his corporate client base as he not only understands the difficulty of obtaining information the corporate world, but also the tediousness of strategy implementation.
This real experience has proven to be of critical importance in his consulting make-up. The most advanced development in the forecasting arena came from Louis’ combined business and engineering skills. He developed a forecasting model, which is now widely used in South African and have been exported to the UK, Europe and Australia.
Since 2012 Louis is a member of Mensa SA.
During his first period with Knowstosis Louis did various strategic developments for companies such as Autoquip Ltd., the University of the Free State, Khula Enterprise Finance, Ate, Steinmüller, SABS Corporate and SABS Engineering services.
He was in charge of the developement and design of the marketing component of the AfricaSpeaks Cellular bid for the third cellular license (Cell-C won the bid) in 1999. This was a blue-sky development and included market research, marketing strategy, distribution strategy, branding strategy, company launch and bid packaging. In the bidding process, the aspect was the outright winner.
At FNB he implemented a post-restructure culture change program and sales competitions throughout the branch network.
During the past 20 years his influence in various sectors has been strongly felt. He as developed as the country’s leading expert with regard to market analysis for the automotive parts sector. His client base reads like the who’s who in the automotive trade including Mercedes-Benz SA and Netherlands, BMW SA and UK, Toyota SA, Nissan SA, GMSA, Honda UK, VW Group SA, Midas Group, Autozone, Federal Mogul, etc.
His experience range across sectors with projects ranging from diagnostic analysis to problem solving and strategy formulation.
His new business development skills are also evident in his ability to approach new clients in the Europe without any referencing and successfully negotiating contracts that are currently being fulfilled from South Africa.
In recent years, Louis has diversified his consulting experience most specifically in assisting large companies with turnaround strategies and actual day-to-day operational turnaround activities. In this arena his business and consulting experience has allowed diversification into virtually any sector (to date: education, government, agriculture, hospitality, manufacturing, services).
His most recent experience in this regard involved a R 500M+ company in distress. His wealth of practical corporate and consulting experience combined proves to be a very formidable skill set in these particular contexts.