Strategy
Why Your Data Strategy Is Failing at Execution
The five structural failure modes that kill data strategies — and why better communication isn't the fix.
Mal Wanstall
AI, strategy and building what comes next.
VP AI & Data at Cochlear. 15+ years turning AI & data from strategy decks into shipped products & awesome experiences.
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Research
View allThe Strategy-Execution Gap
A diagnostic methodology for identifying execution failure patterns in organisational liminal spaces.
12 min read
A Practitioner's Data Product Taxonomy
A classification system for data products based on organisational function and consumer type, not technology.
10 min read
Defensive and Offensive Data Strategy
A framework for balancing foundational data management with value-generating data initiatives.
11 min read
The Pilot-to-Production Chasm
Why AI pilots succeed and AI programmes fail, and why the gap between them isn't a technical problem.
11 min read
The AI Governance Paradox
Why the governance frameworks most organisations are building for AI will become the primary reason AI never delivers value.
12 min read
GenAI and the Data Foundation Reckoning
How generative AI is exposing the data foundation debt that organisations have been accumulating for years.
11 min read
Latest Articles
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Data Leadership
How to Structure an AI Team Without Creating a Silo
The way you structure your AI team determines whether AI becomes a strategic capability or an expensive research lab. Here's what I've seen work.
Data Leadership
You Can't Install a Data Culture
Data culture isn't a project you launch or a tool you buy. It's a byproduct of how your organisation actually makes decisions.
15+
Years shipping AI
1,000+
Person org built
50+
Speaking events
700K+
Lives impacted at Cochlear
Built AI at Cochlear Westpac The Smith Family
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Work with me on strategy execution
I work with a small number of organisations on data strategy execution, AI capability building, and the structural challenges that conventional consulting doesn't reach.
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Keynotes, podcasts, and workshops on AI strategy, innovation, and what it actually takes to ship AI in the real world.
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