Behind the Growth

ML arteka

Not everyone makes the news. But behind every growth-driving experience, product, and transformation are the experts who shaped the outcome. Behind the Growth is a podcast for digital leaders and those aspiring to become one. Through candid conversations, we get into the journeys, decisions, and hard-won lessons that shaped today's leaders and the questions defining what comes next.

  1. Kristin Milchanowski on Redefining AI’s ROI

    20 hr ago

    Kristin Milchanowski on Redefining AI’s ROI

    Kristin Milchanowski, Chief AI and Quantum Officer at BMO and author of Return on Intelligence, believes organizations need to stop treating AI as a tool and start treating it as infrastructure. In this episode, she talks about what that shift looks like in practice, why automation is the wrong goal, how to connect AI investment to return on equity, and what it means to be quantum-ready before most leaders are even thinking about it.  Visit mlarteka.ai/podcast to learn more about each guest and read key insights for every episode.

    22 min
  2. Praveen Kumar on Taking AI From Demo to Production

    20 May

    Praveen Kumar on Taking AI From Demo to Production

    Praveen Kumar, Sr. Director, Data & AI at mobileLIVE, joins host Imran Mian on Behind the Growth for a candid conversation about why so many enterprise AI initiatives stall before they ever generate business value, and what it actually takes to move models from pilot to production.  Drawing on two decades of leading data and AI transformations across Fortune 500 banks, telcos, and retailers, Praveen opens with a story from a previous role: a team running pilots for over a year with nothing in production. His unlock wasn't pitching AI but asking a business partner which problem they'd want solved by tomorrow. From there, he reframes the AI conversation entirely, arguing that the model is roughly ten percent of the equation, with infrastructure and engineering carrying the other ninety.  The discussion moves into the seven skills required to operationalize AI, with observability called out as the most underestimated (because AI fails silently, not loudly). Praveen unpacks how resiliency, circuit breakers, and bounded tool-calling protect production systems in regulated industries like banking, and why weak data becomes more dangerous, not less, in the hands of AI. He makes the case for production-grade data products, product-owner thinking over a purely technical mindset, and treating AI not as a tool rollout but as an operating model change.   He closes with a sharp piece of advice for first-time AI leaders: start with business friction, not AI excitement, and build the trust bridge between demo and dependable system. That's what separates the eleven percent who scale from everyone still admiring their pilots.  Praveen weighs in on:  - Why pilots stall in purgatory  - The most underestimated AI skill  - Data as production-grade product  - Product thinking over technical mindset  - AI as an operating model shift  Visit mlarteka.ai/podcast to learn more about each guest and read key insights for every episode.

    30 min
  3. Svetlana Makarova on Why AI Isn’t Delivering P&L Impact

    7 May

    Svetlana Makarova on Why AI Isn’t Delivering P&L Impact

    Svetlana Makarova, AVP of AI Technical Product Management at IKS Health, joins Imran Mian on Behind the Growth to break down what’s actually happening inside organizations trying to adopt AI. She starts by outlining a fragmented landscape where some companies move quickly due to internal capability, while others struggle with change management and foundational readiness before AI can even be applied.  From there, Svetlana challenges how AI progress is measured; while many reports highlight productivity gains and positive sentiment, she explains that most organizations are not seeing direct business impact because they are not changing underlying workflows. Instead, they are accelerating existing work using copilots and SaaS tools, without rethinking how work gets done or tying initiatives to meaningful outcomes.  The conversation then shifts to where AI efforts stall. Svetlana points to people, skills, and organizational alignment as the primary blockers, not technology. Teams are often asked to implement AI without sufficient fluency, while leadership expectations are disconnected from execution realities. This creates friction across data, governance, and adoption efforts, with resistance and uncertainty playing a major role.  Looking ahead, she outlines what it takes to move forward. Workforce readiness depends less on technical fluency and more on judgment, domain expertise, and practical application. AI transformation happens gradually, starting with small use cases, building institutional capability, and evolving toward deeper workflow changes over time.  Svetlana breaks down topics like:  - What causes fragmentation in AI adoption  - Why AI isn’t hitting P&L   - Where AI initiatives actually stall   - What skills matter more than AI   - Why AI transformation feels slow  Visit mlarteka.ai/podcast to learn more about each guest and read key insights for every episode.

    37 min
  4. Roman Itskovich on What Businesses Get Wrong About Cyber Risk

    22 Apr

    Roman Itskovich on What Businesses Get Wrong About Cyber Risk

    Roman Itskovich, Co-founder & CRO at At-Bay, joins Mudassar Malik on Behind the Growth to unpack how cyber risk has evolved into a primary business risk—and why traditional approaches to managing it are no longer sufficient. Roman traces his path from military and fintech into cyber, highlighting how increasing reliance on technology has shifted risk from the periphery to the core of enterprise operations.  He explains why cyber risk behaves differently from other forms of risk. Unlike static business risks, technology environments are constantly changing, and so is the level of exposure. That shift requires a fundamentally different approach—one that goes deeper than surface-level indicators like industry or revenue, and instead focuses on understanding the underlying technology stack in detail.  Roman introduces At-Bay’s “insure-sec” model, which combines insurance with active security. Rather than simply underwriting risk based on limited inputs, this model continuously evaluates and improves a company’s security posture. He breaks down the two principles behind this approach: the need for technical visibility to assess risk accurately, and the ability to actively intervene to reduce that risk over time.  The conversation highlights how this model changes the role of insurance—from a static transfer of risk to a more dynamic system that informs better decisions. For enterprise leaders, it reframes how to think about cyber risk, not just as something to mitigate, but as something that can be measured, managed, and priced with greater precision.  Roman covers topics like:  - Cyber risk as business risk   - Technology stack risk visibility   - Insurance and security convergence   - Dynamic vs static risk models   - Underwriting beyond surface metrics  Visit mlarteka.ai/podcast to learn more about each guest and read key insights for every episode.

    26 min
  5. Ben Volkwyn on Why Dashboards Alone Don’t Drive Decisions

    8 Apr

    Ben Volkwyn on Why Dashboards Alone Don’t Drive Decisions

    Ben Volkwyn, Senior Vice President of Data, Analytics & Research at Triumph, joins Mudassar Malik on Behind the Growth to discuss what it actually takes to turn data from a reporting function into a real driver of business decisions. Rather than focusing on dashboards or tooling, Ben explains why the real shift happens when organizations connect data directly to operational workflows and the decisions people make every day.  The conversation begins with an unexpected lens: endurance sports. Ben shares how principles like pacing, consistency, and long-term discipline shape how he approaches leadership and building data teams. Just as athletic performance comes from sustained effort rather than one intense session, he argues that building an effective data function is a long game driven by repeatable habits, clear priorities, and steady trust with stakeholders.  From there, Ben reflects on lessons learned working across industries and markets. Early in his career, he assumed that dashboards would naturally lead to better decisions. Over time, he discovered that what actually drives decisions is trust, speed, and whether insights are tied to someone’s real work. More data doesn’t automatically create clarity either; in many cases, fewer signals tied to a clear decision can be more valuable than large volumes of reporting.  Ben also explains how leaders can move their organizations beyond the “data equals reporting” mindset. Instead of building more dashboards, he recommends focusing on one critical operational decision and redesigning it around data. When data becomes part of the decision itself—not just a report about what already happened—it starts to compound value across the business.  Ben explores topics like:  - Consistency over intensity in leadership  - Why dashboards don’t drive decisions  - Data embedded in operational workflows  - When less data improves insight  - Turning reporting into decision engines  Visit mlarteka.ai/podcast to learn more about each guest and read key insights for every episode.

    21 min
  6. Mike Bruno on Overcoming Change Management Friction

    25 Mar

    Mike Bruno on Overcoming Change Management Friction

    Mike Bruno, AVP of Digital at Co-operators, joins Imran Mian on Behind the Growth to unpack what digital transformation really looks like inside a large, regulated financial services organization and why it’s far more than launching a new platform or redesigning a website. Mike explains how enterprise transformation is layered, closely governed at the executive level, and ultimately anchored to one outcome: improving the client experience through coordinated, enterprise-wide change.  Early in the conversation, Mike digs into one of the most persistent friction points in transformation efforts: change management. Drawing on experience across multiple organizations, he explains why resistance is often rooted not in unwillingness, but in uncertainty, loss of control, and unclear communication. He outlines practical approaches leaders can take, like repetition, tailored messaging, and direct one-on-one conversations, to help teams adapt without burning trust or momentum.  Mike then shares a concrete example from a CMS implementation that nearly stalled when legacy applications surfaced unexpected dependencies. Rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all solution, his team slowed down, brought stakeholders together, and made pragmatic trade-offs, sunsetting some applications, creating temporary fixes for others, and preserving trust across the enterprise while keeping the project on track.  Mike also shares his views on digital hygiene, prioritization, and leadership under uncertainty. He breaks down why clear communication, disciplined execution, and knowing how much effort is “enough” are foundational to staying aligned in complex environments. Throughout the discussion, Mike emphasizes practical decision-making over theory, offering grounded lessons for leaders navigating legacy platforms, constrained budgets, and constant change.  Mike dives into topics like:  - Enterprise change beyond platforms  - Change management as transformation friction  - Hidden legacy system dependencies  - Digital hygiene in execution  - Prioritization under constant change  Visit mlarteka.ai/podcast to learn more about each guest and read key insights for every episode.

    32 min
  7. Saeed Shamsi on Sovereign AI Data Centers in Canada

    11 Mar

    Saeed Shamsi on Sovereign AI Data Centers in Canada

    Saeed Shamsi, Director of Engineering and AI Factory Lead at TELUS, joins Mudassar Malik on Behind the Growth to break down what it takes to build enterprise AI infrastructure that can ship fast, compliant, and within Canada’s regulatory boundaries. He opens by grounding the conversation in TELUS’s evolution beyond telecom, and why its expansion into data-driven businesses made sovereign AI a practical necessity, not a future bet.  Saeed explains why TELUS refers to its infrastructure as an “AI factory,” describing it as a system that turns power, cooling, and compute into usable intelligence at scale. He walks through how TELUS retrofitted existing Canadian data centres with GPU clusters designed to support model training, fine-tuning, inferencing, and modern AI applications without forcing customers into a single model, stack, or hyperscaler dependency.  The discussion then shifts to the problem facing Canadian enterprises: the gap between Canada’s AI talent and its lack of domestic compute. Saeed outlines why data residency, jurisdictional control, and regulatory compliance are critical for sectors like healthcare and financial services. He also explains how TELUS is addressing these constraints while giving startups and enterprises room to move, iterate, and retain their IP.  To close, Saeed gets specific about architecture and execution, from adopting NVIDIA’s reference designs to validating performance through global benchmarks. He looks ahead to scaling sustainable, sovereign AI infrastructure so Canadian organizations can compete globally without exporting their data, decisions, or innovation.  Saeed unpacks topics including:  - Sovereign AI infrastructure in Canada  - AI factories and GPU compute  - Data residency and regulation  - Enterprise AI performance benchmarks  - Sustainable, renewable-powered data centres  Visit mlarteka.ai/podcast to learn more about each guest and read key insights for every episode.

    31 min
  8. Kushal Munir on Evolving From Tech Owner to Value Creator

    27 Feb

    Kushal Munir on Evolving From Tech Owner to Value Creator

    Kushal Munir, Executive Vice President and Head of IT at Green Shield, joins Imran Mian on Behind the Growth to unpack what it really takes to turn emerging technology, especially generative AI, into measurable business value inside complex, regulated organizations. The conversation traces Kushal’s career from early startup and IBM roles into enterprise leadership, and how shifting from purely technical execution to outcome-driven leadership reshaped the way he approaches technology, teams, and decision-making.  Kushal walks through a real-world GenAI use case at Green Shield focused on improving member care. Rather than centering on models or tools, he explains why success came from defining business outcomes early, embedding governance and safety upfront, and integrating AI directly into existing workflows. He emphasizes that GenAI only scales when business partners are involved from day one and when solutions are designed to fit how people already work, not as standalone experiments.  The discussion then moves into the harder parts of AI adoption: managing hype, setting realistic expectations, and navigating risk in healthcare and insurance. Kushal shares how a fast but disciplined crawl-walk-run approach, paired with early investment in an AI Centre of Excellence, helped build trust across the organization. He also explains why involving legal, privacy, security, and compliance teams as co-designers, not late-stage approvers, creates the conditions for responsible innovation without slowing momentum.  Closing out the episode, Kushal reflects on leadership lessons shaped by past technology bets, including early cloud adoption, and shares how he cuts through AI noise today. His focus remains consistent: clarity over complexity, alignment over speed for its own sake, and anchoring every technology decision to real business value for customers and employees alike. Kushal breaks down:  - Why AI expectations break teams  - When governance speeds execution  - Making GenAI work in practice  - Customer experience over internal hype  - Why clarity drives momentum  Visit mlarteka.ai/podcast to learn more about each guest and read key insights for every episode.

    20 min
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About

Not everyone makes the news. But behind every growth-driving experience, product, and transformation are the experts who shaped the outcome. Behind the Growth is a podcast for digital leaders and those aspiring to become one. Through candid conversations, we get into the journeys, decisions, and hard-won lessons that shaped today's leaders and the questions defining what comes next.

Information

  • Creator
    ML arteka
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    84
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Behind the Growth
  • Show Website
    Behind the Growth