The Data Strategy That Separates Global Winners From The Rest
In Other Words · 2025-12-17 · 38 min
Episode notes
In this episode of In Other Words, Jason Hemingway is joined by Willem Koenders, Global Leader in Data Strategy at ZS, to get pragmatic about what separates AI progress from AI theater. Willem has guided more than 100 organizations across Europe, the US, Latin America, and Asia through the work of turning data into a business asset that supports growth and resilience. You can buy the latest AI tools in a week. Fixing the data underneath them can take years, and most companies start too late. The result is predictable stalled pilots, inconsistent outputs, and teams forced to work around the data instead of with it. Jason and Willem explore why the business case for governance cannot wait, how to balance global standards with local market realities, and what leaders should put in place to reduce risk while increasing speed, especially as AI moves closer to the customer through automation, content generation, and real-time experiences.