Catalyse
Catalyse, AWARE’s corporate advisory, consulting and training arm, has a two-pronged mandate:
i. It empowers organisations to build RISE workplace cultures that are Respectful, Inclusive, Safe and Empathic (RISE) for all employees.
ii. It generates profits to support AWARE’s gender equality services and programmes.
To capture our passion for a more diverse, inclusive and equal world, Catalyse devised a new model to guide our work in 2022: HEAL (Humility, Empathy and compassion, Adaptability and reflection, Listening skills). The HEAL approach has been well received across the many organisations and industries with whom Catalyse has worked.
2022 was a mixed year for Catalyse. While there was a sense of buoyancy at pandemic restrictions easing, fears of a global recession meant that many potential clients cut back on previously proposed roll-outs. The team weathered these changes by innovating with new pricing strategies that were more enticing.
Despite a slowdown in business growth, our team was able to secure new contracts worth over $1 million and generate a profit of more than $160,000 in 2022. Our profit margin remained healthy at almost 20%, even with the added expense of expanding our team to build a sustainable business model.
Our Activities
As the world gradually resumed “business as usual”, Catalyse saw a substantial increase in organisations requesting in-person workshops. Our facilitators adapted workshops to different modes as required. In 2022, we reached a total of 2,885 workshop participants.
2022 was also a year of further growth in our product offerings. Existing products were refurbished. Every workshop was refreshed and updated to be more relevant, engaging and applicable for the participants.
Our Products
In 2022, we introduced four new products: “Allyship”, “Male Allyship”, “Inclusive Leadership” and “Communicating & Negotiating with Confidence”. We also introduced a one-to-one “Anti-Harassment, Diversity and Inclusion” coaching and counselling programme. A new e-module was developed to explore how gender bias can be an obstacle to an inclusive and caring workplace. In addition, we secured and commenced a consultancy for Diversity & Inclusion benchmarking.
Special mention should be made of the Male Allyship programme we launched in 2022, in partnership with Dr Michael Kaufman, a renowned expert in this field. This programme was the first of its kind in the region, and created for a client in the financial services sector. It took a full year to develop and execute, involving detailed survey questionnaires, multiple focus group discussions, analysis, development and execution of several workshops. Determined to extend the programme’s reach, we held Train-the-Trainer sessions for leaders in the institution so that they could themselves conduct additional workshops across the organisation and thereby spread the importance of male allyship for gender equality. Notably, the programme was co-facilitated by a male and female team.
Our Clients
In total, we had an impressive list of 50 clients in 2022, and 51% of our engagements were with repeat clients. We enjoyed a 99% satisfaction rating from participants.
The distribution of clients by industry was varied. Catalyse continued to win projects in the education, real estate, technology and arts sectors, but also expanded with some major engagements in the financial, media, hospitality, medical, shipping and logistics sectors.
