Decode Your Greatest Challenge

Decision-Making for Leaders

To compete against the best, does your team need to problem-solve in new ways?

How do you benchmark against your peers in decision-making?

What is your most effective tool for sustained competitive advantage?

Will you get your decision right when it matters the most?

To compete against the best, does your team need to problem-solve in new ways? • How do you benchmark against your peers in decision-making? • What is your most effective tool for sustained competitive advantage? • Will you get your decision right when it matters the most? •

  • “MAILANDER HAS THE RARE ABILITY TO TAKE COMPLEX CONCEPTS AND SHARE THEM IN AN ACCESSIBLE FORM.”

    — Andrew Jones, Director,
    Climate Interactive

  • "MAILANDER DISENTANGLES THE MYRIAD FORCES, INFLECTION POINTS, AND DECISIONS THAT SHAPE THE TRAJECTORY OF EVENTS THAT LEAD TO CRUCIBLE MOMENTS."

    — Nathan Vitan, Chief Legal Officer, Public Storage

  • “AS A CEO AND LEADER, CHRIS LEADS FROM THE FRONT.”

    — William P. Schwab, Esq., Colonel,
    Aviation, US Army (retired)

Chris Mailander has worked with leaders around the world

Cross-Industry Impact

  • Bancomer

    MasterCard

    Visa

    Chicago Board of Trade

    Federal Home Loan Bank System

    Bear Stearns

    Bessemer Venture Partners

    Norwest Venture Partners

    Fairmount Partners

    Bain Capital

    VentureSouth

    JPMorganChase

    Bank of America

    Merrill Lynch

    Dubai International Financial Centre

  • U.S. Senate

    U.S. Department of Defense

    U.S. State Department

    Republic of Iraq

    Ukraine

    U.S. Federal Communication Commission

    U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

    The World Bank

    Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

    Asian Development Bank

    Overseas Private Investment Corporation

    Center for Strategic & International Studies

    U.S. Agency for International Development

  • Atlas Organics

    S&P Global Market Intelligence

    Terra Firma Organics

    Climate Interactive

    Terra Fiber

    Crush-It

  • Millicom

    Telmex

    Alcatel-Lucent

    Nextel

    Sprint

    Motorola

  • Springfield Energy

    First Energy

    Whitney Logistics

    Miles Ahead Brands

  • SAP

    Amazon Web Services

    Microsoft Azure

    Dell

    Medici AI

    IBM

    CSC

    RF-SMART

    AOL

    SourceFuse

    Cognizant

    NJ Transit

    Cisco

    Sun Microsystems

    Washington Post

    New York Times

    Unisys

    Siemens

  • Pfizer

    Genentech

    Anthem

    Health Access Solutions

    Alignment Healthcare

    Himark

    AltaMed

    CareMore

    Valley Health Plan

    Ascension

    Merck

  • KPMG

    BearingPoint

    PWC

    CapGemini

    Accenture

    Deloitte

    West Monroe

    Omnicom

YouTube Videos

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Latest Episode

The Intangibles: Underdogs Embrace the Unconventional

Underdogs. We revel in them. We identify with them. Their stories become ours. They are the clever ones who find innovative ways to achieve victory over the bigger and stronger. The methods of the underdog apply equally well to the private companies and innovators seeking to compete with their much larger brethren. For those CEOs and management teams seeking extraordinary outcomes, the methods of the underdog may be their most effective method for competing.

Books on Decision-Making Methods & Strategies

JUDGMENT

This is essential reading for CEOs.
- Scott Bauer, Partner, PwC

Judgment is equal parts a thrilling, suspense-filled tale of high stakes decision-making, and a sophisticated deconstruction of who won, who lost, and the lessons learned in those crucible moments.
- Robbie Bach, Former President and Chief Xbox Officer, Microsoft

This is more than a CEO field guide; It’s a journey into the nexus of action and consequence in high-stakes environments. A truly immersive and enlightening read.
- Eliot Puplett, CEO & Co-Founder of Medici AI

THE CRAFT

The Craft is one of the most well-written business books i’ve read in the last decade.
- Angelique Rewers, CEO & Founder of BoldHaus

The Craft is a playbook for corporate executives seeking to become the kind of ‘super-athletes’ who have the ability to redefine the entire game.
- Dana Frix, a former managing partner of Chadbourne & Park LLP

Great take-aways. Can’t wait to put them to use.
- Derrick Raymond, principal for corporate development and M&A, KPMG LLP

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PODCAST

Drawn from 30 years working quietly in the sealed-off conference rooms of global corporations, national governments, and leaders of innovation, A-ha with Chris Mailander reveals strategies and methods for improving your decision-making.  

  • The greatest opportunities, as well as threats, often lie in what the CEO and leadership team cannot yet perceive due to the inherent biases, tendencies, and patterns in their decision-making processes. Great teams push into what it is that they do not know or cannot fully understand in order to set the course for achieving their most significant corporate objectives.

  • Great leadership teams scan the horizon looking out over the next year or more to define the critical moments that will determine their success or failure. They then prepare for this moment with the understanding, acumen, and domain expertise to get it right when it will matter the most.

  • The architecture of your decision-making process will determine your ability or inability to achieve your greatest objective. It is the foundation, and it must be intentionally and carefully curated for the journey ahead.

Sign up for expert guidance on impactful decision-making.

Chris Mailander is a frequent commentator on those decisions that affect our corporate, economic, political, and global security Interests. 

Articles & Interviews


  • Immersive work with CEOs and leadership teams to develop their internal decision-making processes to create significant competitive advantage.

  • Curated gameplans informed by extensive options analysis, competitive analysis, and financial modeling, distilled into actionable playbooks to manage the complex conditions the company must navigate.

  • Executive-level project management of diverse internal teams and outside advisors seeking to operate as a unified team able to achieve momentous corporate objectives, coupled with real-time negotiation and decision-making strategies.

What Are Your Most Audacious Objectives?
What Are Your Greatest Challenges?

CORPORATE STRATEGY • DECISION-MAKING • CREATIVITY • PSYCHOGRAPHICS • LEADERSHIP • INNOVATION • CULTURE • TECHNOLOGY • GROWTH • RISK-TAKING • CHANGE • B2B / B2B2C

CORPORATE STRATEGY • DECISION-MAKING • CREATIVITY • PSYCHOGRAPHICS • LEADERSHIP • INNOVATION • CULTURE • TECHNOLOGY • GROWTH • RISK-TAKING • CHANGE • B2B / B2B2C

CORPORATE STRATEGY • DECISION-MAKING • CREATIVITY • PSYCHOGRAPHICS • LEADERSHIP • INNOVATION • CULTURE • TECHNOLOGY • GROWTH • RISK-TAKING • CHANGE • B2B / B2B2C

CORPORATE STRATEGY • DECISION-MAKING • CREATIVITY • PSYCHOGRAPHICS • LEADERSHIP • INNOVATION • CULTURE • TECHNOLOGY • GROWTH • RISK-TAKING • CHANGE • B2B / B2B2C

Chris Mailander

Chris Mailander counsels companies and governments managing the arduous decision paths which precede extraordinary outcomes.

His client roster has included MasterCard, Bank of Montreal, the Federal Home Loan Bank System, Unisys, Visa, KPMG Consulting, BearingPoint, the President of Nigeria, the Government of Iraq, and a host of mid-market leaders and Silicon Valley innovators seeking to transform industries. He has negotiated tenders and commercial transactions in more than forty countries across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, including in conflict and post-conflict economies.

Mailander was previously an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School and an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. He is author of Judgment (2023) and The Craft (2019), host of A-ha with Chris Mailander, and is a contributor to Fast Company. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.