Interview with Møyfrid Øygard, Managing Director at Admincontrol
Admincontrol provides software solutions for secure collaboration and easy sharing of documents in business processes, such as board and management work. In this interview, Managing Director Møyfrid Øygard gives us an insight into what has made the company an ongoing Nordic, as well as European, success story.
Good day, Mrs Øygard. It is a pleasure to have this interview with you today. Can we start by asking how do you jump-start a busy day to make sure that you are best prepared to make quality decisions?
What I need to make a good decision is simple: a good night’s sleep, a walk with my dog, and a light breakfast, accompanied by a glass of water.
You mentioned that decision-making nowadays is harder than ever before. Can you tell us how Admincontrol’s solutions empower decision-making? What are the unique features that set you apart from your competitors?
We believe that good decision-making is all about accessing the right information at the right time. In Admincontrol, our mission is to provide the ultimate solution for decision-makers. If what we do does not enhance the moment of a decision, we don’t do it. On top of that we have passionate staff who are always ready to help their customers. The enthusiasm our employees show towards our customers every day is truly unique.
Decision-making is a crucial process that can lead to the success or failure of any organisation. As an expert in enhancing decision-making, would you tell us some indications that business leaders are making bad decisions? How can we avoid habits that could lead us down the wrong path?
We provide an effective channel and tool for sharing and collaboration between the board, management and other stakeholders but, at the end of the day, it is the business leaders who are making the decisions. Indicators of a company not making good decisions are often seen in the financial developments, the culture and the employee turnover.
Admincontrol was founded in 2005 in Norway and has since become established across the Nordic region and in selected markets in Europe. Would you tell us about the story and the vision of the company and some important milestones so far?
We were fortunate enough to get a major listed company as a client early on. They had experienced a leak ahead of a quarterly presentation and being on the stock exchange, needed to find a secure solution for their board documents. Admincontrol came up with a digital solution for sharing information and knowing who it had been distributed to. Getting this listed company as a client was clearly a major turning point for us. Other important factors are that, early on, we delivered one of the first serious business apps and a succeeded with our internationalisation process. I also think it is worth mentioning that we have performed well and delivered consistently across three different ownerships.
Admincontrol has secured exceptional satisfaction rate from its customers, with a 98-per-cent customer renewal rate from year to year. Would you share with us the best feedback you have received so far?
Daily, we get direct feedback from our customers about how helpful our employees are. In my opinion, this is the best feedback we can get. It is our passionate employees who make the difference. And our solutions help people to have better, more efficient workdays.
Continuous innovation is the key to sustaining the success of a company. How does Admincontrol leverage the latest technologies to innovate and what else can your customers expect in the near future?
We have been cloud-based since inception and have a great team that continuously works on improvements in our solution. We are bringing AI integrations and new apps to the market next year, meaning exciting times ahead for our customers. Software as a service is by default a promise of continuous innovation; you have to deliver on year-on-year, and we do our very best every day to make this happen.
Companies in the Nordic regions are well known for being at the forefront of practising sustainable development. Can you tell us how Admincontrol contributes to this philosophy in terms of its products and corporate strategies?
The Nordic region is also known for being in the forefront of practising digitalisation. Admincontrol has been a big contributor towards making due-diligence processes and boardrooms more digital, which represents sustainable development.
Admincontrol has become a data room provider for companies with successful merger and acquisition deals and other complicated business-critical projects. Can you tell us how your solutions contribute to the success rate of such processes?
Security, efficiency and confidentiality are key words. Word-of-mouth recommendations for our expertise in this process is also crucial.
Lastly, can you give us a glimpse into how Admincontrol’s management team make decisions? What is the best decision you have made so far for yourself and for the company?
In Admincontrol, we are using our own solutions, we have a great deal of openness, and involve each other in discussions and in making good foundations for decision-making. The best decision I have made is to say yes to becoming Managing Director of Admincontrol in 2018. As a company, we dare to be ambitious and to make tough decisions. I also think geographic expansion has been important and a result of being ambitious.
Thank you very much Mrs Møyfrid. It was a pleasure speaking with you.
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Our Future Depends on the Quality of Decisions If you take a closer look at successful companies and their strategies, you`ll find they have made some good decisions along the way. Yet, decision-making is not easy today, in fact, I would argue it’s harder than ever before Hundreds of emails every day are cluttering our inboxes, 24 hour news cycles, a constant flow of social media updates and smartphones always at hand. The information overload is paired with megatrends such as globalised competition, disruptive technologies and new threats in the form of cyber-attacks, fake news and more. I’m sure we can agree that our decisions are influenced from left, right and centre, and that decision-making is in fact hard.
BAD DECISIONS – BIG CONSEQUENCES In this day and age, it should be no surprise that bad decisions are as common as good decisions. When McKinsey surveyed 2207 senior executives, 72 per cent of respondents said they thought bad strategic decisions were about as frequent as good ones or were the prevailing norm in their organisation. Can you imagine the impact this can have on crucial areas such as growth, revenue and culture, not to mention the very future of the company? History is full examples of bad business decisions. I’m sure you have heard of many. One example is Kodak, which actually had the inventor of the first digital camera on its payroll but decided not to continue developing it. Another example is the former video rental giant Blockbuster. The board and management at Blockbuster were failing to see how the industry was shifting, first when Netflix disrupted the market by launching its DVD-by-mail business, and later on, as Netflix moved on to streaming. It does not stop there; did you know that Blockbuster early on had the opportunity to buy Netflix but decided against it? Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010, while Netflix’s estimated value today is $159.57B, which is more than 10 times what Blockbuster was worth at its peak. While we are on the topic of mergers and acquisitions, deciding to buy another company is not always a smart decision. According to Harvard Business Review, the failure rate for M&A sits between 70 per cent and 90 per cent. You should do your due diligence thoroughly and make sure you’re get these decisions right.
HOW DO WE FACILITATE GOOD DECISIONS? So, how exactly can companies increase the speed of decision-making and the quality of their decisions? When it comes to making good decisions, there are many factors that come into play. Much is, of course, depending on the quality of the decision maker(s), that they are able to analyse, reflect and adapt. It is also about timing, guts and sometimes luck. And not to forget, the ability to act. Having the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively is a trait many successful decision makers have in common. Research from Harvard Business Review finds that people who were described as “decisive” were 12 times more likely to be high-performing CEOs. Some even go as far as to say that it’s better to make a decision, good or bad, than not to make a decision. “Fail fast” has become a mantra in the startup-world. Ultimately it is about information at hand. At Admincontrol we believe that good decision making is all about accessing the right information at the right time.
«CRAZY ABOUT DECISION-MAKING» At Admincontrol we are passionate about decision-making. It is in our DNA, it is at the core of our company. Our philosophy is simple: if what we do doesn’t enhance the moment of a decision, we don’t do it. Because we believe that our future depends on the quality of decisions and our ambition is to be a world-class enabler of decision-making. We offer a smart and secure collaboration platform for boards, management and other key stakeholders, where they can access, share, discuss and process information efficiently. Have you made any good decisions lately? |
About the Interviewee
Møyfrid Øygard, Prior to joining Admincontrol early 2017, Øygard worked as Country Manager Norway for the Swedish IT company Apsis. She has 20 years of sales and sales management experience.
Admincontrol offers web-based solutions as well as a separate iPad and iPhone app for secure collaboration and easy sharing of documents in business processes such as board and management work, due diligence, capital injections and stock exchange listings. Users save time, gain better control and are better prepared, which in turn results in better decision-making.
