Strategy | Execution | Results
Our Story
After years working inside large, complex operations, I noticed a consistent pattern:
Organizations don’t struggle because they lack data. They struggle because no one fully trusts it enough to act.
Dashboards multiplied. Reports conflicted. Meetings stalled.
AI pilots launched and quietly died.
Not because the tech was bad, but because the trust behind the numbers was gone.
That was the turning point:
The work wasn’t about better dashboards.
It was about building the systems that restore trust, speed, and ownership in decisions.
That became the Data Trust Index™, the first diagnostic built to expose where confidence breaks down across culture, governance, and analytics.
And it led to the Data Trust Framework™, a 4-pillar operating system that rebuilds that confidence — so decisions flow again.
Because in manufacturing and supply chain, slow decisions don’t just waste time. They drain margin, kill momentum, and cost the future.
That’s why Great Lakes Analytics exists.
Not to add more tools, but to fix the trust that turns data into confident decision making.
Meet Great Lakes Analytics
Stephen Gnidovec
Founder & Chief Data Strategist
Stephen helps leaders solve the biggest decision risk in their business: data they can’t trust, and decisions that can’t move.
After years inside complex manufacturing and supply chain environments, a consistent pattern emerged.
That pattern became the Data Trust Index™, the first scoring model built to diagnose where confidence breaks down across culture, governance, and analytics.
He later developed the Data Trust Framework™, a 4-pillar operating system that restores clarity, alignment, and decision velocity.
Stephen is the author of The Data Culture Handbook and a keynote speaker on operational decision-making, data leadership, and the economics of trust. His work bridges strategy and execution, not with dashboards or hype, but with the systems that make data a reliable business asset, not a reporting chore.
Credentials
- Elmhurst University MBA (2021)
- Elmhurst University M.S. Data Science (2020)
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (2021)
Publications & IP
- The Data Culture Handbook (2025)
- Building Confidence in Data: The Data Trust Index™ Framework (2025)
Core Expertise
- Data Trust & Decision Systems
- Operational & Supply Chain Analytics
- KPI & Performance Architecture
- Data Governance & Quality
- Executive Readiness & Adoption
Industry Focus
We work with organizations where decisions move materials, money, and margin, not just dashboards.
Primary Focus
- Manufacturing & Industrial Operations
- CPG
- Industrial
- Food & Beverage
- Automotive
- Specialty Production
Decision-Critical Functions
- Supply Chain
- Planning
- S&OP
- Logistics
- Network Ops
- Distribution
- Fulfillment