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Scale Your Business With Data with Crawford McMillan

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by Graeme Crawford

5.0(5 reviews)

37 episodes

Updated Daily

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Podcast Overview

Private equity meets data. Conversations with deal teams, operating partners, and portfolio company leaders about the data problems that kill deals, slow exits, and destroy value. Hosted by Graeme Crawford, founder of Crawford McMillan. 20 years leading data programs at Fortune 100 companies. Now helping PE-backed companies fix data before exits so the numbers hold up under scrutiny. New episodes cover diligence red flags, value creation playbooks, and the real stories behind successful (and failed) transactions.

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5/2/2025

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Engagement32

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Recent Episodes

July 9, 2026

Why 90% of AI Pilots Fail Before They Start

Behind every value creation plan, there's a data problem nobody wants to talk about. In this episode, I sat down with Ben Banks to get into why the vast majority of enterprise AI deployments are delivering no measurable P&L impact, and what AI readiness actually means beneath the slogan. Ben brings 30 years of operational experience, with 18 of those leading global transformations and exit readiness programs across complex PE-backed platforms. The conversation gets real fast.We went deep on business coherence as the actual gating factor holding companies back, not technology. The Zillow Offers story alone is worth the listen. $881 million in losses, 2,000 jobs gone, and every single layer of the transformation stack implicated. We also got into why most AI pilots are structured to fail, what PE firms are missing when they rush to deploy, and how the companies getting AI-ready right now will be the ones buying their collapsed competitors for pennies on the pound by 2027.TimestampsBehind every value creation plan, there's a data problem nobody wants to talk about. In this episode, I sat down with Ben Banks to get into why the vast majority of enterprise AI deployments are delivering no measurable P&L impact, and what AI readiness actually means beneath the slogan. Ben brings 30 years of operational experience, with 18 of those leading global transformations and exit readiness programs across complex PE-backed platforms. The conversation gets real fast.We went deep on business coherence as the actual gating factor holding companies back, not technology. The Zillow Offers story alone is worth the listen. $881 million in losses, 2,000 jobs gone, and every single layer of the transformation stack implicated. We also got into why most AI pilots are structured to fail, what PE firms are missing when they rush to deploy, and how the companies getting AI-ready right now will be the ones buying their collapsed competitors for pennies on the pound by 2027.Timestamps[00:04:27] | AI pilots missing the foundation[00:07:45] | Transformation theater and AI hype[00:09:45] | Workflows vs. replacing humans[00:21:25] | Zillow's $881M AI failure[00:31:50] | Business coherence explained[00:36:36] | Dirty data starts at the top[00:43:37] | AI readiness and exit valuation[00:46:47] | 60-second diagnostic toolGuest InformationBen Banks has spent 30 years inside complex operational systems, with 18 leading global integrations, transformations, and exit readiness programs across tier-one PE funds in the upper middle to large cap market. He built the Growth Engine, an operating framework designed to reduce acquisition lifecycle cost, improve integration velocity, and build cleaner exit stories from day one. He works with PE operating partners and portfolio companies preparing for liquidity events.Companies MentionedZillowIBMCapital OneMcKinseyForresterMITOpenAIAnthropicNvidiaAmazonWebsites Mentioned<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-banks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-banks</a><a href="https://www.zillow.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.zillow.com</a><a href="https://www.forrester.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.forrester.com</a><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.mckinsey.com</a>Takeaways90%+ of AI pilots are failing to deliver measurable P&L impact. Getting business coherence right, not technology, is the thing that determines whether enterprise AI works or wrecks a company. PE portfolio companies that are not AI-ready going into a sale in the next 12 months are facing real valuation discounts from buyers who will price in the remediation work.Guest InformationBen Banks has spent 30 years inside complex operational systems, with 18 leading global integrations, transformations, and exit readiness programs across tier-one PE funds in the upper middle to large cap market. He built the Growth Engine, an operating framework designed to reduce acquisition lifecycle cost, improve integration velocity, and build cleaner exit stories from day one. He works with PE operating partners and portfolio companies preparing for liquidity events.Companies MentionedZillowIBMCapital OneMcKinseyForresterMITOpenAIAnthropicNvidiaAmazonWebsites Mentionedhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-bankshttps://www.zillow.comhttps://www.forrester.comhttps://www.mckinsey.comTakeaways90%+ of AI pilots are failing to deliver measurable P&L impact. Getting business coherence right, not technology, is the thing that determines whether enterprise AI works or wrecks a company. PE portfolio companies that are not AI-ready going into a sale in the next 12 months are facing real valuation discounts from buyers who will price in the remediation work.

June 5, 2026

Why Hiring Works More Like Sales Than HR

We covered why the Rolodex only approach keeps failing, how to write job descriptions that pull in the right people, and what private equity teams can do to build discretionary effort after an acquisition. Frank also shared a simple metric that too many teams ignore: quality of hire, measured early and consistently, not months later when everyone is already frustrated. The theme that stuck with me was clarity.Chapters:<ul><li>00:04 - Acquiring Candidates: A Sales Funnel Approach</li><li>04:39 - The Importance of Effective Recruiting</li><li>07:52 - Understanding Onboarding and Probation Periods</li><li>15:56 - The Seven Deadly Sins of Recruiting</li><li>24:53 - The Seven Deadly Recruitment Sins</li><li>32:36 - The Intersection of Dating and Recruitment</li><li>38:30 - Transitioning to Discretionary Effort in Private Equity</li><li>45:42 - Navigating Leadership and Clarity in Private Equity</li></ul> Companies MentionedIBMCapital OneGoogleLinkedInIndeedCanvaWebsites Mentioned<a href="http://tankrecruiting.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tankrecruiting.com</a><a href="http://youtube.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">youtube.com</a>Guest InformationFrank Lofaro runs Tank Recruiting and helps companies build a recruiting operating system, not just fill a single role. Their process focuses on qualification, amplification, evaluation, and closing so teams can hire faster and reduce reliance on placement fees.Brief TakeawaysQuality of hire needs an early signal. Weekly red yellow green feedback prevents surprise failures at month six. Job descriptions work better when they lead with the role’s pull, the results expected, and a clear picture of success.

April 30, 2026

Why PE Firms Are Asking the Wrong Question About AI

Elon Salfati joined me this week to break down what most PE-backed companies are getting wrong about AI. Not the surface-level stuff, not the board slide version. The real operational gap between clicking a button and actually changing how a business runs. Elon advises PE firms, enterprise operators, and has consulted the UK House of Lords on AI policy alongside leaders from Microsoft and Palantir. His firm, Safari Group, works with businesses to replace manual, people-dependent processes with governed AI systems that scale without adding headcount.What stood out most in this conversation was the idea of decision sovereignty. When a company hands all its strategic thinking to an LLM, it loses its competitive edge. An LLM echoes the past. It will not discover gravity if an apple falls on its server. The real opportunity is flipping the model so the company reaches out to the human for creative judgment, not the other way around. Elon walked through a real case study with Key Loop where they reduced churn by rethinking the entire process workflow before touching the technology.[00:06:43] Wrong question vs right question[00:08:42] Point solutions on broken processes[00:10:39] Political resistance to change[00:16:08] Why AI initiatives stall[00:29:09] Decision sovereignty explained[00:36:09] Human with an army of agents[00:41:19] Turning service companies into software[00:47:01] Personal AI at work and homeGuest InformationElon Salfati is the founder of Safari Group, a Zurich-based AI consultancy. His background spans cybersecurity, scalable systems, and applied AI research. He is currently completing his PhD at Imperial College London focused on building secure AI systems and organizational AI culture.Companies MentionedSafari GroupKey LoopIBMCapital OnePepsiCoBlackrockNewsCorpPalantirMicrosoftAnthropicWebsites Mentioned<a href="https://www.safari-group.ai" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.safari-group.ai</a>TakeawaysAI without process redesign adds chaos, not speed. The companies winning are the ones asking what the operating model looks like when AI runs the operational layer, not just what AI tool to add. Decision sovereignty keeps your competitive edge intact. The shift worth building toward is an army of agents that surfaces decisions to the human, not humans triggering every automation manually.

37 total episodes available

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What is Scale Your Business With Data with Crawford McMillan?: Private equity meets data. Conversations with deal teams, operating partners, and portfolio company leaders about the data problems that kill deals, slow exits, and destroy value.

Hosted by Graeme Crawford, founder of Crawford McMillan. 20 years leading data programs at Fortune 100 companies. Now helping PE-backed companies fix data before exits so the numbers hold up under scrutiny.

New episodes cover diligence red flags, value creation playbooks, and the real stories behind successful (and failed) transactions.
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates daily.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: Information about guest appearances is not available.

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