Spearhead Analytics · Data leadership for decision-makers

Why it matters

The best companies turn data into decisions, alignment and growth.

Most leadership teams have plenty of data. What they lack is trust in it. Two dashboards disagree, a decision stalls, and gut feel wins by default. Competitors who decide on evidence pull ahead.

Spearhead exists to fix the foundation: a governed, modern data stack; metrics everyone trusts; AI that ships safely; and reporting your whole company actually uses. Built by someone who has done it, at scale, in environments where being wrong has consequences.

What good data does for the business

The edge your competitors are chasing.

Decisions you can defend

Replace "I think" with "we know." Put evidence behind every big call, so the room aligns faster and you size your bets correctly.

One company, one direction

What you measure is what people chase. A clear metric structure points every team at the same priorities.

See it coming

Forecasting turns next quarter from a guess into a plan you can act on for churn, demand and cash.

Sell with proof

Data-backed cases and ROI evidence give your pitch legitimacy. You close bigger deals with less discounting.

Cut cost & risk

Automate the busywork, retire duplicate tooling, and stay clean on GDPR and the EU AI Act. The efficiency shows on the P&L.

Find hidden revenue

Understand your customers, protect lifetime value, and surface the products and segments quietly worth the most.

How I help

How I turn your data into a business advantage.

01 / 06

01

One source of truth

Finance counts 10,000 customers. Sales says 11,500. Marketing, 12,300. Everyone is right by their own definition, and that is the problem. Decisions stall while people argue about whose number is correct.

The fix: I consolidate the sprawl into one governed source with shared definitions and a common language. Every report agrees, and the second-guessing falls away.

02

Data governance & GDPR

With everything in one governed source, you control who sees what through the BI tool. No more loose spreadsheets with customer PII copied around the business.

The fix: I build best-practice governance and access. Role-based permissions, a full audit trail, and GDPR-ready handling, so your data stays both useful and safe.

03

Focus the whole company

What you measure is what people chase. Put the few metrics the CEO cares about at the top, and every team's numbers ladder up into them.

The fix: I structure your metrics so strategy becomes daily focus. Departments and people pull toward the same priorities, and reviews target the few numbers that move the business.

04

Deeper insight & foresight

With the foundation solid, the real value begins. You learn why customers behave the way they do, and you see churn, demand and revenue coming before they land.

The fix: I bring the analysis and predictive modelling that turn your data into foresight: customer behaviour and segmentation, leading indicators, and forecasts your team can plan around.

05

AI enablement

Most AI pilots never reach production, and the ones that do often go unused. The blocker is rarely the model. It is the foundations, the guardrails and the rollout around it.

The fix: I set up the data foundations, the responsible-AI guardrails (EU AI Act included), and the rollout that gets AI adopted safely across the organisation, from strategy to working tools.

06

Skip the hard-learned lessons

Most companies grind through the same painful stages before data pays off: silos, numbers that don't match, years of rework. The real cost is not the tooling. It is the time lost in the detours.

The fix: bringing in an experienced data leader early accelerates you through the maturity curve and skips the expensive lessons others learn the hard way.

And I don't come alone. Analysts, data scientists, engineers and developers, brought in and scaled to the job at hand.

Offerings

Three ways to engage. Pick your entry point.

Start here

Data Health Check

A focused diagnostic of where you are, what's leaking value, and the three things to fix first. Low commitment, fast clarity.

You walk away with → a prioritised action plan. Enquire →

Foundations

I build the single source of truth, the metric structure, and reporting your teams use. Decisions stop being arguments.

You walk away with → numbers you can trust. Enquire →

Ongoing

Fractional Data Leadership

A senior data & AI leader in your leadership team, covering strategy, hiring, AI readiness and board reporting, for a fraction of a full-time hire.

You walk away with → a function that compounds. Enquire →

Track record

Numbers a board cares about.

€2M+

New revenue generated from data products & monetised reporting

67%

Customer churn reduced in targeted pilots, protecting lifetime value

−23%

Operational cost cut with AI-enabled tooling, +15% efficiency

1,000 → 60

Conflicting reports replaced by a trusted, self-serve suite

€100K+

Annualised savings through data-driven automation

15+ yrs

Leading data in regulated risk, healthcare AI & global tech

Who you're working with

A data leader who speaks business first.

I'm Brian Long. For fifteen years I've built and run data and AI where the stakes are real: automated risk decisioning at Paddy Power Betfair, enabled AI in a highly regulated healthcare / med-tech sector at BeyondBMI, and global scale at Meta and LinkedIn. I've reported to CEOs and boards with accountability for company-wide strategy.

My bias is commercial. I care less about the technology than what it does for the business: better decisions, an aligned team, lower cost, and growth you can defend. I'm as comfortable in the boardroom as in the detail.

Board & C-suite partnerData & AI strategyKPI frameworksForecasting & modellingResponsible AI · GDPR

Make your biggest decisions with evidence on your side.