Betterwork

What Betterwork does

BetterWork is a Johannesburg-based design-led consulting firm founded in 2012 that helps organizations redesign how teams work and learn. The company serves enterprise clients primarily across Africa — disclosed engagements include Standard Bank's Human Capital team, RMB senior managers, a global mining firm (via a partnership with GIBS), ATKV in hospitality and resorts, and an unnamed leading financial technology firm — alongside a secondary startups segment and a leadership training audience. Customer segments span enterprise HR/L&D and OD teams, senior change-agent leaders, and ambitious leaders seeking to build design capability.

The core offering is the proprietary 'Change by Design' methodology, an integrated framework combining Agile, Lean, Behavioral Economics, and Design-Thinking principles that replaces big-bang change initiatives with continuous participatory experimentation. Delivery takes three forms: 6-week embedded on-site sprint cycles, full multi-month transformation programs with assessment, pilot testing, and playbook development, and shorter training workshops (Design Immersion, Service Design Immersion, Design for People Leaders, Design Team Leadership). The firm has productized parts of the methodology into two downloadable method-card decks — the 36-card Scale-Up Toolkit and the 56-card Team Deck / Employee Experience Design Deck — used by teams to redesign employee experience and scale sustainably.

BetterWork generates revenue through professional services engagements priced on a custom proposal basis, with multi-year contract structures and project-based billing tied to sprint or transformation scope. Go-to-market combines direct outreach ('Schedule a Call' / 'Book a Talk'), community engagement through the affiliated GoodWork Society NPO and GoodWork Lab social impact program, and thought leadership content on its website and Medium blog. The company has been operating remotely since 2018, runs with 1-10 employees, has no disclosed external funding, and frames its footprint as serving leading African organizations.

Name

Betterwork

Legal name

Betterwork

Website

https://betterwork.co.za

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

BetterWork is a Johannesburg-based design consultancy that helps African organizations redesign how teams work through embedded sprints, training workshops, and proprietary method-card tools, serving enterprise clients across financial services, mining, hospitality, and technology.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Organizational Design Consulting

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Professional and Management Development Training (611430), Other Specialized Design Services (54149)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Workplace & Collaboration Consulting (BPAHAEAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Performance Management & Productivity Consulting (BPAHAGAL), Onboarding & New-Hire Training Programs (BPACANAF)

Keywords

• Design thinking consulting
• Organizational change management
• Workplace transformation services
• Leadership development training
• Team design facilitation

Headquarters

HQ city

Johannesburg

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Design Training Workshops: Skills-based design training programs including 2-day Design Immersion, Service Design Immersion, and Design Team Leadership workshops conducted on-site with client teams.
2. Sprint Engagements: 6-week embedded sprint programs where BetterWork teams work on-site with clients to implement change in the flow of work.
3. Transformation Programs: Full organizational transformation engagements through the Change by Design process, including assessment, pilot testing, and playbook development for scaling validated solutions.
4. Work Futures Sessions: Facilitated sessions exploring how team roles and ways of working will need to change, helping organizations prepare for the future of work.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

BetterWork is a South African design-led consulting and training firm that helps organizations reinvent how their teams work. Its core offerings are embedded consulting engagements (6-week sprints and full Change by Design transformation programs) where a multi-disciplinary design team partners on-site with client teams, supplemented by 2-day immersive training workshops (Design Immersion, Service Design Immersion, Design for People Leaders, Design Team Leadership) and free downloadable method card toolkits (Scale-Up Toolkit, Employee Experience Design Deck).

Product overview

Betterwork is a South African consulting and training firm (operating since 2012) that helps organisations reinvent how they work through design thinking and experimentation. The offering comprises design training workshops (Design Immersion, Design for People Leaders, Service Design Immersion, Design Team Leadership), downloadable method card tools (Scale-Up Toolkit with 36 cards, Team Deck with 56 cards for employee experience design), and consulting services (Change by Design Sprint and Transformation programs, Work Futures Sessions, Team Acceleration). The company also runs the GoodWork Lab as a social impact initiative and the Good Work Society as a non-profit organisation. The core value proposition is blending design practices into everyday work to enable human-centred, creative, and purposeful organisations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GoodWork Lab: A South African Social Impact Lab that brings people together from different organisations to collaboratively address the U.N's Sustainability Goals.
• GoodWork Society

Products and services

• Design Immersion Workshop A 2-day on-site design workshop conducted with client teams to work through a design challenge, designed to simulate the experience of doing design and integrate active work streams.
• Service Design Immersion A 2-day action learning programme teaching how to apply Service Design methods to business challenges.
• Design for People Leaders Training program teaching leaders in HR, L&D, or OD how to bring diverse groups of people together to address challenges.
• Design Team Leadership Program exploring principles and practices of successful design teams, leaving participants with a custom playbook to embed design behaviour at work.
• Skills Based Design Training Training to develop design research, facilitation, collaboration, creativity, storytelling, or envisioning skills for ambitious leaders.
• Scale-Up Toolkit Method Cards A 36-card method deck designed to help scale businesses by deliberately designing organisation and employee experience for sustainable growth.
• Team Deck / Employee Experience Design Cards A 56-card deck enabling teams to redesign the ways they experience work, providing tools and methods to question how work is done and encourage better collaboration.
• Change by Design Sprint A 6-week sprint engagement where BetterWork embeds a multi-disciplinary design team on-site to partner with client teams and implement practical change in the flow of work.
• Change by Design Transformation Full Change by Design process including organisational assessment, removal of blockers, pilot testing and playbook development for scaling validated solutions.
• Work Futures Session A facilitated session exploring how team roles and ways of working will need to change in response to the 4th industrial revolution.
• Team Acceleration Embedded support for teams to pilot new ways of working through evidence-led cycles of experimentation to improve collaboration and problem-solving.
• GoodWork Lab A South African Social Impact Lab bringing people from different organisations together to address UN Sustainability Goals through design methods, combining learning design with doing good.

Quantifiable outcome

• R10 million added revenue for ATKV through internal creative transformation
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBetterWork partners with GIBS (Gordon Institute of Business Science) to blend learning into the flow of work. Together they have designed a process to embed ways to lead through change in the flow of everyday work in high-impact, participant-led sprints. GIBS is a South African business school.
• GoodWork SocietycoreOthersThe GoodWork Society (The GWS) is an N.P.O (2018/369655/08) which aims to enrich society by encouraging organisations to adopt more human ways of working. BetterWork is connected to this organization for community engagement, public lectures, events, and research activities.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• IDEO: Global pioneer of human-centered design consulting. IDEO offers design strategy, organizational innovation, and embedded team engagements that closely parallel BetterWork's embedded-sprint and design-thinking methodology.
• Livework Studio: Service design and innovation consultancy that helps organizations redesign services and ways of working. Overlaps with BetterWork's Service Design Immersion training and team acceleration offerings.
• The Ready: Boutique transformation firm helping organizations rethink how they work and adapt to the future of work. Closely comparable to BetterWork's focus on organizational transformation, experimentation-based change, and purpose-driven work.
• frog (Capgemini Invent): Design and innovation consultancy under Capgemini Invent, focused on product, service, and organizational design. Operates with a similar embedded multidisciplinary team model used by BetterWork on transformation engagements.
• InWithForward: Design consultancy applying design methods to social challenges and organizational change. Comparable to BetterWork's blend of design methodology and social-impact positioning through the GoodWork Lab.

Broad incumbents

• Deloitte (Human Capital practice): Global professional services firm offering organizational transformation, change management, and human capital consulting. Competes for enterprise mandates such as the Standard Bank Human Capital engagement BetterWork has delivered.
• McKinsey & Company (Organization Practice): Global management consultancy with a dedicated Organization Practice addressing change management, leadership, and ways of working. Competes for large-scale transformation mandates at multinational enterprises.
• Bain & Company (Organization practice): Global management consulting firm offering organizational design, change, and performance improvement services. Targets enterprise transformation clients comparable to those served by BetterWork.
• Designit (Wipro): Global design strategy consultancy owned by Wipro, offering innovation, organizational design, and digital transformation services. Operates at larger scale across multiple continents where BetterWork is regionally focused.

Emerging players

• Board of Innovation: Boutique innovation consultancy helping corporates reinvent through design and experimentation. Comparable to BetterWork's emerging-player status as a focused, methodology-driven change firm.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/BetterWorkZA

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Betterwork