About Me
My interests have tended to lie in demographics and understanding people's lives and circumstances, their worldviews and how they make decisions.
I have a keen interest also in improving numeracy and taking away people's fear of numbers and maths, as well as in communicating numbers and data
Helping with research design and analysis is there too - I have spent many years as a troubleshooter in these areas
September 2016 to present
Independent Consultant, Somerset West
Neil Higgs has retired from TNS South Africa (now Kantar), his last position being Chief Innovation Partner. He has a B.Sc (Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics) from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He has been in research for 50 years and was at TNS for 31 years. His roles were technical consulting, innovation, troubleshooting and research-into-research, with a special focus on demographics, measures aimed at understanding people’s lives (such as socio-economic status, quality of life and people’s worldview), as well as advances in statistical analysis and reporting to clients. He was also the spokesperson for TNS for ten years.
He still does occasional part-time consulting under the name Neil Higgs Consulting. He enjoys passing on what he has learnt over the years by writing books and monographs.
Some Clients
Discovery and Telesure
Review of their research programme and approach
A full review of all research current and planned with a view to global best practice
Kantar
Consulting on Updating of SEMs (Socio-Economic Measure), PAMRO SES and related.
Miscellaneous analysis and sampling issues.
Basic philosophy: It must either pay very well or be super-interesting!