July 28, 2026
ProfitOptics is proud to share that Chief Data Officer Brandon Lassiter is a guest contributor in the July/August 2026 issue of Industrial Distribution, one of the most respected publications serving distributors and manufacturers. His feature, "Why Dashboards Don't Make You Data-Driven," appears in the magazine's Tech Talk column on pages 30–31. For decades, Industrial Distribution has been a trusted resource for those who keep goods moving, covering the trends and technology that shape the industry. Earning a seat in those pages is an honor.
In his column, Brandon opens with a story he has watched play out more than once. An executive announced his company had built more than 500 dashboards, and said it like a trophy. To Brandon, it was a warning sign, not a win. A number that big rarely means a team is data-driven. More often it points to noise, misalignment, and people who stopped trusting their own data a long time ago. Dashboard count, he argues, is a vanity metric.
Brandon explains why more dashboards tend to mean less truth. When every team spins up its own version of a report, the phrase "source of truth" quietly loses its meaning, and you are left with a library nobody uses and nobody can explain. His test for cutting through it is one short question he asks of every report, dashboard, and KPI: what should I do differently today because of this? Most fail it, and he says it clears up more confusion than any dashboard ever has.
Interesting data sparks conversation. Actionable data tells a buyer or a pricing analyst what to do differently today, and only one of those protects margin. The better measure of whether a distributor is truly data-driven has nothing to do with how many dashboards they can count.
The article is a candid, distribution-specific read on why visibility was never the goal, and what it really takes to turn data into decisions. Want the rest? Brandon's full column is in the July/August 2026 issue. Read it at inddist.com, and subscribe so the next one lands on your desk.
Brandon Lassiter is Chief Data Officer at ProfitOptics, where he helps distributors and manufacturers unlock measurable business results from their data. With over two decades of experience leading enterprise-scale digital transformation, AI strategy, and analytics innovation, Brandon bridges the gap between technology teams and business leaders to deliver clarity, ROI, and relevance in a rapidly evolving market.