Levs Fainglozs — a doctor of economics who studies how to make a business measurable

"Doctor of science": what does that mean in practice?

In marketing, an academic degree is usually a diploma on the wall. Here it isn't, for three specific reasons, and all three come from what he actually studies.

• Before drawing a conclusion, he checks whether the data supports it. Two weeks and forty emails aren't enough to claim that "this copy works better." You have to know when there isn't enough data, even when that's not the news you wanted to hear.
• A model is not confused with a guess. A forecast is a calculation built on assumptions that can be written down and tested. If the assumptions can't be written down, it's a guess, and it should be called one.
• Complex things can be explained simply. In science, the work isn't done until the result has been explained to others. The same applies to a client report: if you don't understand where a number comes from, the report isn't finished.

Why his research is directly relevant to your business

His publications run along three lines, and all three are about the same thing: how to tell, from the outside, whether a business is viable and well-run.

Generative AI in professional skills (2024). With co-authors, the study "Employers' Expectations of Students' Generative AI Skills" examines which generative AI skills employers actually expect. AI isn't a buzzword in our work: he studies it academically too.

Investment and company valuation (2014-2020). How business angels evaluate founders and startups, how investor activity is measured across Northern and Central Europe. The practical relevance: which signals outsiders use to judge a company's viability, the same signals your prospective customer checks on your website.

Manageability and processes (2008-2017). How to turn goals into results, how to increase a company's manageability through business processes, how to diagnose logistics and model service systems in real time.

In 2017 he received a Certificate of Honor from RISEBA University of Applied Sciences for his contribution to research on deferred corporate income tax as a growth factor for the Latvian economy.

How we check a number before it goes into a report

Every number you see in our report has gone through three questions. Where does the data come from, and is the source the same across all periods. How exactly is this metric calculated, and can it be reproduced. Is the difference large enough to even call it a difference, rather than noise.

If any of the three questions goes unanswered, the number goes into the report with a caveat, not as a conclusion.

Frequently asked questions