From data to decisions: management's reporting needs

Name: From data to decisions: management's reporting needs
Start: 2024-02-29T21:53:55Z
End: 2024-02-29T22:23:55Z

Per Kveim and Eivind Lofthus joined Frode Stenstrøm to discuss what data-driven management requires, from leadership backing to data quality and KPIs.

Frode Stenstrøm

Contributor:

Per Kveim

Held: February 29, 20242 min read

In briefShow morePer Kveim and Eivind Lofthus defined data-driven management as basing decisions on facts, noting that leaders control input factors rather than the result itself.

Per Kveim and Eivind Lofthus defined data-driven management as basing decisions on facts, noting that leaders control input factors rather than the result itself.
Leadership commitment and a long-term view were named as the key prerequisites, alongside systems that continuously capture and store data.
Kveim recommended starting small with a few clear KPIs and sharing the figures across the whole organisation to build an analytical culture.
Lofthus warned against decentralised figure production with conflicting definitions, and against leaders micromanaging exactly how a KPI should look instead of leaving that to specialists.
Both noted that customer-facing processes such as sales and service have historically been under-analysed compared with finance and logistics.

In this 2024 episode of ProsessPodden, Frode Stenstrøm was joined by Per Kveim, managing director of ProsessPilotene, and analyst Eivind Lofthus to discuss what management's need for insight and analysis actually entails. Kveim described data-driven leadership as making decisions on a factual basis rather than gut feeling alone, while Lofthus framed it as what he called "digitalisation 2.0": actually using the data that digital processes already generate.

A central point was that leaders control input factors, such as marketing spend or headcount in sales, rather than the result directly, so it is the input factors that need to be understood and measured. Both stressed that leadership commitment and a long-term view are essential, since the payoff from analytics work is often reaped years after the work began.

The conversation covered practical advice for getting started: identifying a few clear KPIs and sharing them openly across the organisation, centralising figure production to avoid conflicting numbers from different teams, and cleaning up data quality as close to the source as possible. Kveim also noted that customer-facing processes like sales and service have traditionally received less analytical attention than finance and logistics.

Towards the end, they discussed profitability analysis and revenue forecasting, and how early warning can give a business time to correct course. Their advice to listeners unsure about their own reporting was to be open and honest about the situation and share figures and challenges with employees, rather than avoiding the issue.

Watch the recording

Foredragsholdere

Frode Stenstrøm
Gründer og teknologistrateg
Som gründer og teknologistrateg i ProsessPilotene jobber jeg med å hjelpe virksomheter forstå og bruke teknologi som en strategisk kraft for bedre arbeidsprosesser, kundeopplevelser og beslutninger. Rollen kombinerer forretningsutvikling, teknologirådgivning, virksomhetsarkitektur og formidling. Jeg arbeider særlig i skjæringspunktet mellom AI, CRM, digitale plattformer, data, analyse og fremtidens arbeidsliv. En sentral del av rollen er å være brobygger mellom ledelse, fagmiljøer og teknologi. Det handler om å gjøre komplekse teknologiske muligheter forståelige, vurdere hva som faktisk skaper verdi, og bidra til at digitale løsninger blir en naturlig del av hvordan virksomheter jobber. Jeg bruker også rollen til å formidle faktabaserte perspektiver på hvordan AI og teknologi påvirker ledelse, organisasjoner, ansatte og kunder.
Per Kveim
Styreleder