Helping the best make the best decisions.
Marathon Decision Solutions was founded in April 2019 with a clear conviction: the quality of decisions is the single most under-examined, under-served, and yet most consequential lever in organisational performance. Across industries and institutions, leaders possess abundant information. What is frequently missing is the disciplined study of how decisions are actually made, and the systems required to elevate them consistently toward excellence.
We exist to bring the science of decision-making into the daily operations of the organisations that shape our world.
Where the firm came from
A simple observation, made early
The firm's origins lie in a simple observation made by Ola Michael, CEO, during his time as a junior data analyst inside a law firm. There was no shortage of information. What was lacking was care for the decision itself, for the process by which choices were formed, for the cognitive biases that quietly distorted them, and for the implementation that determined whether insight ever became reality.
A constraint that was human
The first significant demonstration of a different path came while supporting the lead strategist of an Asian power-generation company expanding into a new market. The data architecture was sound. The commercial case was clear. Yet progress stalled. The constraint was human.
Once the decision process and the human element were rigorously addressed, market capture accelerated exponentially. That experience confirmed a lasting principle: superior decisions are rarely the product of more information alone. They are the product of better process, clearer thinking, and sustained implementation.
Chosen deliberately
Decision excellence is not a sprint. It is a long, disciplined effort that compounds only when the process is embedded and protected over time.
Meet our founder
Ola Michael
Founder & CEOMarathon Decision Solutions is a specialised advisory firm focused on decision science, bias interruption, process improvement, and strategy. We work with first rank companies, governments & public policy, mid-market organisations, and institutions across production, artificial intelligence and technology, mergers and acquisitions, academia, strategy, customer experience, sales and marketing, and a wide range of other sectors.
With collective experience of over 11 years within the firm, and substantially more across prior professional contexts, our approach rests on a simple synthesis: intellectual rigor combined with intuition, experience, and expertise. We do not believe these elements are in conflict. We believe they become powerful only when deliberately integrated.
Present through implementation
We stay
We do not deliver recommendations and depart. We work with clients and for clients, remaining present through implementation so that improved decision quality becomes operational reality rather than temporary insight.
We build capability
This posture is designed to prevent the well-documented phenomenon of consultant capture, where organisations become dependent on external advice without building internal capability.
We keep it quiet
The nature of our work with senior decision-makers requires rigorous confidentiality. Much of our most significant work remains classified. The outcomes we are able to share publicly are therefore selective and anonymised, yet they illustrate the scale and character of impact we are structured to deliver.
To illuminate a domain that remains overlooked across nearly every industry and every department.
The architecture of decision-making itself. It is integral to strategy, operations, capital allocation, innovation, policy, and leadership. It is also routinely underserved.
Our purpose is to help leaders and core stakeholders improve decision quality and move the decision-making process toward near perfection, not as an abstract ideal, but as a practical, repeatable organisational capability.
We grow by helping the institutions and individuals who shape the future grow through better decisions.
The architecture of how we elevate decision quality, in practice, across engagements and industries.
Explore Our Methodology →