Senior data and AI leadership, on demand — from strategy through to delivery.

We help New Zealand organisations turn their investment in data, analytics and AI into commercial return — without the cost of a permanent executive hire.

The problem

The money is largely spent. The value largely isn't.

New Zealand organisations have invested heavily in data and marketing technology over the last five years — Snowflake, Databricks, Salesforce, CDPs, governance tooling, AI platforms. Most of that capital is now committed. The returns have not followed at the same pace — and the reason is rarely the technology itself.

Platforms boughtAdoption thin.
AI mandatesWithout prioritisation.
Customer dataThat isn't activated.
No honest viewOf the return.
Layer one

Platform investment

Bought, built and largely delivered.

The gap — the layer nobody owns

Operating model, prioritisation, adoption, capability

And an honest commercial view.

The outcome

Commercial return

The outcome the investment was signed off for.

This layer is rarely anyone's job. Implementation partners hand over and leave. Internal teams are consumed by run. And the data leader accountable for it usually has nobody to think it through with.

Why us

Three seats, one career.

Our leadership team has sat on all sides of the table. That's rare — and it's the point.

The consultancy

Grew a well-established analytics & insight agency from its early days to CEO of a 30+ person practice. Knows delivery economics, scoping and why engagements go wrong.

The client

GM Data & Analytics at One NZ. Has held the budget and the vendor relationships, and knows what good delivery looks like from the inside.

The practitioner

Hands-on across the full delivery lifecycle — from data models and segmentation logic to campaign operations and production support. The conduit between stakeholders and the technical team, keeping complex engagements on time, on budget and to brief.

The combination is the point — we bring strategy that has actually been delivered, and delivery that understands the commercial case. No juniors. No hand-offs. You work with the people who know the problem.

Independence is the product.

We carry no implementation revenue. No vendor alignment. No incentive to recommend a bigger platform than the problem needs. Our only interest is the right answer for your business.

Vendor-neutral evaluationNo alignment, no commissions, no preferred stack.
Commercial case written for your CFONot for scope.
Advice you can act onWithout buying anything else.
What we do

Three ways to work together.

/ 01

Fractional & interim data leadership

Senior Data, Analytics and AI leadership for organisations that need it and can't justify — or fund — a permanent GM or CDO. Two days a week. Transition cover, transformation leadership, or standing capability.

/ 02

Independent advisory

Data and AI strategy, operating model, business cases and investment prioritisation, vendor and platform decisions, AI activation and adoption, and coaching for data leaders.

/ 03

Hands-on programme delivery

Getting initiatives out of slide decks and into production. Platform and tooling consolidation, AI ambition to execution, data product operating model.

The scale we've operated at

We've done this inside big organisations.

4 to 1

Consolidated data platforms from 4 legacy platforms to 1 modern data platform, and operational uplift across the business, resulting in 40M+ personalised data-led customer communications per year.

30%

Reduction in time-to-insight for executive decision-makers, through AI-powered conversational analytics we built and launched in-house.

11

AI Activators embedded across business domains — a working intake and adoption model we put into practice, not a strategy document.

30+

Analysts and data scientists in a consultancy grown from its early days, with sustained year-on-year profitability.

Where we'd start

A fixed-fee value diagnostic.

Three to four weeks, defined price, no open-ended commitment.

Week 1

Listen

Interviews across data, marketing, technology and the executive sponsor.

Week 2

Assess

Platform, capability, operating model and spend assessed against what it's returning.

Week 3

Prioritise

Where the value is leaking, what to fix, and in what order.

Week 4

Present

Written diagnostic, prioritised roadmap and executive-ready commercial case.

Presented, not emailed. The roadmap is yours to keep and act on, whether or not we work together beyond it.

How we'd work together

Small and senior by design.

Fixed fee

Diagnostic

Three to four weeks. Defined scope, defined deliverable, defined price. The right place to start.

Monthly retainer

Fractional

A set number of days a month, minimum three-month term. Scoped to outcomes, not hours.

Fixed fee

Project

Strategy, operating model, platform selection or activation — priced against a defined scope.

No bench to keep busy, no pyramid to feed. Small and senior by design — the people you meet are the people who do the work.

Where is the value leaking from your data investment?

Worth a conversation. Even if the answer is that you already know.

Direct contact

Claire Bonham Holden

Start a conversation