The Markham Institute
Perspectives
Essays, video briefings and commentary drawn from the work of making change happen.
Published fortnightlyEvidence reviewed by the InstituteArchive since January 2025
Featured · Commentary
Australia’s data-centre boom is becoming an infrastructure problem
Australia’s data-centre build-out is not short of investor interest. The harder question is where these facilities can actually be built. Hyperscale and AI facilities need power, water and connectivity at scale, which makes this a siting problem rather than a land problem.
Field Notes19 August 20263 min
Commentary
NewAustralia’s data-centre boom is becoming an infrastructure problemCapital is not the constraint. The constraint is finding sites where the power, water and connectivity already exist.19 August 2026 · 3 minEssay
The discipline of fewer prioritiesConcurrent priorities behave like load on a structure. This essay works out where the limit sits.14 July 2026 · 8 min readEssay
Where the operating model gets in the wayWhen leadership attention, decisions and capacity do not match the ambition, performance pays.June 2026 · 1 min readCommentary
On the return of the operating committeeA quiet structural shift is underway in mid-market governance. Most boards have not noticed.June 2026 · 4 minEssay
Decision velocity is a balance-sheet itemSlow decisions carry a carrying cost. We put a number on it across 40 organisations.May 2026 · 11 minEssay
The implementation gap, quantifiedStrategy documents promise 100%. Operations deliver 34%, on median. Where the other two-thirds go.April 2026 · 12 minEssay
When a full agenda becomes a stalled oneThe business cost of asking people to carry too much change at once.April 2026 · 1 min readCommentary
AI programmes are transformation programmesTreating AI adoption as an IT project is the fastest way to write it off. A note on ownership.March 2026 · 5 minEssay
What boards should ask in month threeThe early signals that separate a transformation that will hold from one that will drift.February 2026 · 9 minCommentary
Against the two-year roadmapLong roadmaps flatter certainty that does not exist. Commit in drawn phases instead.January 2026 · 4 min