Øivind Kirksæter’s first 100 days at OpusCapita

As a new CEO, your first 100 days are crucial to success – your own and of the organization you lead. We decided that there is no better way to cover this topic than to get together with our CEO, Øivind Kirksæter for a short interview.

As you reflect on your first 100 days at OpusCapita, what are the things that kept you up at night?

Covid-19 has been a crisis unlike any. It has touched every single employee and every part of the company and our customers, creating a high degree of uncertainty. Getting the right perspective means engaging with people – both customers and employees and hearing what concerns they have. Effective communication is crucial and it was the first time I started in a new company not meeting the people physically and really getting to know them. Taking decisions from my home to steer the company through the Covid-19 crisis, managing risk, and digitalizing operations – is what has kept me up at night.

At the same time, I’m very impressed by the efficiency and the way our people are cooperating even though there are no physical meetings. Also that our company culture is very strong and people mostly appreciate working with their colleagues, even if only on a remote basis.

What are the biggest challenges a CEO faces?

OpusCapita has been through an impressive journey during the latest years. There have been a lot of changes, acquisitions, divestments, changes of ownership, etc. Now it will be a period of consolidation. We are now in a face where we focus on optimizing the way we work, improving quality, and stabilizing our deliveries. In the next 6-12 months we will not be that active in getting new logos. It is because we want to take better care of our existing customers. In a few months we will be back in the market, even meaner and leaner, and start building up our market share again.

While we are in the depths of the Covid-19 crisis, it can sometimes be hard to maintain a positive attitude, but I am really impressed by the speed and force our employees are showing in this improvement work.

l aim to ensure the right information gets to the right level of management and to empower managers at all levels to take prompt and effective decisions to improve our deliveries.

What is OpusCapita’s digital strategy and what are the obstacles?

Our strategy is to digitalize the customers. One by one, because we can’t have ambitions to digitalize the whole of Europe at once. We are focusing to support our customers to change how they operate to unleash their full potential as a digital business where processes can be automated and business models can transform. It is a way more effective way of doing business. It ensures high quality and much higher speed.

Mostly the obstacle is that it takes time. There are thousands of players out there who need to cooperate on this. We have been facing challenges in our paper invoice processing services and complex project deliveries. We are continuously working to strengthen our teams and ways of collaborating with our partners. The main challenge is not technical or competence, it is actually the lack of speed in the market is moving in. Most agree on digitalizing as a target, but still, it takes a lot of time.

What is OpusCapita doing well and where is the opportunity to grow?

We are developing the right systems and implementing the customers on very new cutting-edge technology. Of course, it will take time to consolidate into the most modern platforms. After that, there is no doubt that we have a very good offering in the market and we are able to compete with the very best ones globally. We plan to expand OpusCapita’s offering, with a sustained focus on helping customers digitalize their source-to-pay processes. We believe this will create significant value for our clients and partners.

What has most positively surprised you at OpusCapita?

The people with their values-driven culture and the strong will to be a beneficial partner to our customers and to serve them the best we can. The result is a remarkably flexible and innovative company. The greatest asset, the organization’s future, is our people. People who want to make a contribution and be proud of what they do. OpusCapitans take responsibility, exercise initiative, are accountable for their own success and for that of the company as a whole.

What do you wish for our customers in the upcoming New Year 2021?

Speeding up the migration to our newest and best platforms would be really good for both our customers and OpusCapita, and the same for the speed that we are transforming paper into digital formats.

Before we enter 2021, I wish all our customers time to relax and spend time with their families!