A conversation with Niek De Taeye, Partner & Head of Solutions at Madison Partners
The Data Elephant in the room
Every company wants to be “data-driven,” and it shows. Organisations are spending more than ever on cloud infrastructure, AI pilots, analytics dashboards, and automation. According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending reached $5.1 trillion in 2024, a record high.
Yet too many of those projects fail. Not because the technology didn’t work, but because the people using it weren’t aligned, empowered, or even informed.
“Technology can make life easier. But inside organisations, that only happens if people are part of the solution. If you want transformation to stick, it has to work for the people.”
Trust before technology. Always.
Time and again, we find that the most persistent obstacles to transformation aren’t technical; they’re cultural, structural, and deeply human.
Think of it like a dishwasher. It was a revolutionary invention, but only because people could quickly see and feel its benefits. It saved them hours of manual scrubbing and freed up time for things they actually enjoyed. It was simple, intuitive, and easy to integrate into daily life. But if people didn’t understand how to use it properly, if the instructions were unclear or the design felt complicated, it would’ve just been an expensive kitchen ornament gathering dust.
And that’s why real transformation doesn’t start with systems, it starts with people. If you want them to adopt change quickly, they need to trust it and see how it makes their lives better.
We invest the time to deeply understand context first: Who’s using the systems? What’s slowing them down? Where is trust missing? We listen, observe, and understand how work really happens before suggesting a single solution.
“Real transformation starts from the ground up. You can’t fix what you don’t see. And you can’t align people if you don’t understand their reality.”
And this isn’t just our belief. Harvard Business Review reports 70% of digital transformations fail, and the top reason isn’t technology. It’s people.
Culture before governance: How we build real change
Let’s talk data governance, but not in the traditional sense: At Madison Partners, we work with a modern data operating model. The truth is that governance isn’t about checklists. It’s about making data usable, trustworthy, and truly aligned with how people actually work.
“You can’t install a data culture that doesn’t fit your company culture. It won’t stick.”
McKinsey found that organisations that integrate people-centred change management are 6x more likely to succeed in digital transformation. Yet many companies still try to force a top-down model.
Our philosophy is to co-design systems that reflect how teams already communicate, collaborate, and make decisions.
“Too often, governance gets reduced to rules and obligations. However, real governance is about how people interact with data and with one another. That’s what makes it stick.”
Automation is not a shortcut. It’s the final step.
Everyone loves automation. And why wouldn’t they? It saves time, boosts accuracy, and scales operations, but only if you’re automating something that already works.
Take the service-desk agent as an example: How hard can it be to just ask for someone’s email address on the phone?” Well, pretty hard if they’re juggling three screens, sixteen applications, and a target to end calls in eight minutes. If you try to automate that broken process first, you’re just cementing inefficiencies and frustration.
Or picture a factory investing in high‑speed robotic arms on an assembly line riddled with issues. If the processes are unclear and workers feel left in the dark, those robots will simply produce flawed products at record speed. Worse, the people—the very heart of the system—will feel replaced by a broken system.
No surprise then that, according to Forbes, 45% of AI projects fail, not because the tech doesn’t work, but because foundations aren’t ready. Processes are shaky, data is messy, and people feel change is happening to them, not with them.
"At the centre of success lies people. When teams see automation exists to empower rather than replace them, adoption soars, resistance fades, and lasting results follow."
Invest in skills. It’s the highest ROI you’ll ever get.
This is the heart of it. Companies spend millions on platforms, but skip the basic human infrastructure. No training, no involvement and no shared language.
“Data doesn’t change companies. People do.”
We take a different path. From day one, we involve teams as co‑owners of the solution. We focus on context, build trust through dialogue, and create shared understanding before implementing any tool.
Because the most sophisticated system in the world is worthless if the people it’s meant to empower don’t understand it, or worse, don’t believe in it.
According to Deloitte, every $1 invested in learning and development returns $4.70 in productivity. Yet PwC reports that while 74% of CEOs are concerned about critical skills gaps, only 18% have taken concrete action to address them.
So, why wouldn’t we take just 10% of the technology budget and invest it in training instead?
What If…
Let’s reframe the question:
- What if we invested as much in people as we do in platforms?
- What if we truly listened more before designing?
- What if we stopped scaling broken systems and started solving the right ones first?
When people are equipped, empowered, and aligned, they don’t resist transformation. They lead it.
“Real transformation isn’t built on dashboards. It’s built on trust. On people who understand the why, believe in the how, and feel empowered to make it work.”
The future of business isn’t just digital. It’s human. And the companies that realise that fastest will win.
