Recreation
Elisabeth loves the bush and the sea (sailing, diving and contemplating the waves and stars from the hammock on her husband's boat). She enjoys water aerobics in her tranquil swimming pool, overshadowed by Table Mountain. She also loves dancing (strictly NOT ballroom) and meeting friends over bottomless cups of coffee to talk about the nature and meaning of life, the state of the world and how to save it; what's the most exciting movie, concert and exhibition in town; how to lose 10 kilos, grow herbs and make chocolate cake. However, her deepest passion is the exploration of human potential using herself as a case study.

Favourite books, quote, music
Her favourite book, quote and music depend on the mood, the occasion and the most recent in-formation she has been inspired by. Knowing that one cannot step into the river of inspiration twice, she enjoys swimming in its rapids of change.

Education
Her formal educational qualifications are a master's degree in socio-economic sciences (i.e. Mag. rer. soc. oec.) from Kepler University Linz, Austria (1971) and a PhD from the University of Cape Town (1997). Her PhD thesis applies Biomatrix systems theory to the analysis and design of large societal systems, using the education system of South Africa as a case study.

Work
Since 1991, Elisabeth Dostal is a management consultant, specialising in the theory and praxis of societal and organisational transformation based on the Biomatrix systems approach. She has worked with a variety of South African and international business organisations and NGO's facilitating organisation transformation as well as organisational problem solving and strategy development. She has also facilitated the formulation of public policy for several departments of South Africa's national and provincial government, as well as facilitating a transformation in public sector planning at provincial level.
As educator, she teaches systems thinking, systemic management and business futuristics in MBA programmes at several South African and European universities.
Until 1991 she was senior researcher at the Institute for Futures Research (IFR) of Stellenbosch University, specialising in socio-economic and political forecasting and scenario-planning in general and more specifically, in researching longer-term trends of South Africa's future. She also contributed to research on the theory of forecasting, planning and societal problem solving.

Publications
She has published a range of scientific articles on the Biomatrix systems approach in various scientific journals and has participated in and addressed many South African and international conferences on systems thinking, systemic management and futurism.

Book:

Dostal, E. in collaboration with Cloete, A. and Jaros, GG. 2004. Biomatrix: A systems Approach to Organisational and Societal Change. Stellenbosch, South Africa: SUN Press.

About the book
In her book she applies Biomatrix Theory to the management of change in organisations and society. Biomatrix Theory is a process based systems approach developed by György Járos and Anacreon Cloete. It integrates the key concepts of the most important systems models and approaches into one coherent theoretical framework, thereby providing a meta-systems theory.
The book applies this theory to the study of management, thereby providing a comprehensive theory of management as well as outlining how organisations need to be managed in the information age. It also deals with the systemic theory of managing change in society. It proposes ideas for new governance models of the information age (i.e. stakeholder democracy) and it describes systemic methods for addressing humanity's perplexing problems such as poverty, unemployment, unsustainable development, infrastructure problems, etc.
The book may be regarded as a textbook for management and governance in the 21st Century. Case studies are provided throughout the book.