Susan Walsh - The Classification Guru

Fixer of dirty data ★ Spend data classification, supplier normalisation, and taxonomies ★ DataIQ100 x 2 ★DataIQ Data Champion 2022★ Author "Between the Spreadsheets" ★ Creator of COAT ★ TEDx - say NO to NO ★ DataVenger

I’m Susan Walsh, also known as The Classification Guru, a globally recognised expert in spend data classification, cleaning, and transformation. For over a decade, I’ve helped organisations fix dirty, unreliable data and turn it into insight they can actually trust.

In 2017, I founded The Classification Guru Ltd, rebuilding my career from the ground up after coming back from bankruptcy after my first business failed. What started as a solo consultancy has grown into a specialist business supporting 100+ organisations globally, particularly in procurement, sales, and marketing, where clean data underpins reporting, automation, and AI.

I work with mid-sized and enterprise organisations, consultancies, and technology providers that rely on complex, high-volume data but struggle with inconsistency, duplication, and poor structure. My clients include procurement, finance, sales, and marketing teams who need data they can stand behind, whether that’s for spend analysis, supplier management, CRM reporting, forecasting, compliance, or AI initiatives.

Keeping a business alive and growing for almost nine years hasn’t been about shortcuts or hype. It’s been built through real-world delivery, practical problem-solving, and a refusal to accept “good enough” data as acceptable. Along the way, I’ve developed frameworks and tools to help organisations embed sustainable data quality, including the COAT framework (Consistent, Organised, Accurate, Trustworthy) and Samification, a self-service supplier normalisation platform launched in 2024 to make clean, structured data accessible at scale.

I’m also an active contributor to the wider data and business community. I’m a TEDx speaker, international conference speaker, and recognised thought leader in data quality and classification. I’ve authored three books, including Between the Spreadsheets 1st and 2nd editions, and the upcoming Optimizing Sales and Marketing. I teach globally via platforms such as Pluralsight, O’Reilly, and the Analytics Institute. Through consistent, practical thought leadership, I’ve grown an engaged LinkedIn audience of 43,000+ professionals.

Alongside my commercial work, I founded the Women Who Speak LinkedIn group, a free initiative connecting women speakers with event organisers to improve visibility and representation. I hope my journey shows that you don’t have to fit a mould to build a credible business, lead in your field, or create meaningful impact.

My mission is simple: help organisations move from spreadsheet chaos to clean, organised, trustworthy data that actually works.

Founder/MD (Mistress of Data)

I love improving the quality of procurement spend data, giving teams clarity so they can make better business decisions and cost savings.

Why not let me take the pain out of laborious data issues and make your life easier?

Whether it's a small or large data set, the accuracy can be improved by identifying classification errors, conflicts or gaps. I can provide a data verification service to efficiently find and correct these in a fraction of the time it would take you or a team member.

And a crucial part of having accurate data is also working with a comprehensive taxonomy, something that can be easily overlooked. I can provide a taxonomy development service to ensure you have all the vital areas covered for the greatest visibility - job done!

If you struggle with the time, resources or willingness to tackle your data, why not get in touch to see how I can make your life easier.

Who does quiet, easing back into work in January? Not me!

Just had a wonderful evening up in London meeting Adita Karkera, Ph.D. and lots of fabulous ladies from Women In Data™️

Gonna need a lie in tomorrow now 🤣🤣

Thanks Shubhangi Goyal for organising and Samir Sharma for being an honorary woman in data! 

The Classification Guru Ltd Samification

Susan Walsh

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Ok 2026, I may not be ready, but let’s do this!

When you work for yourself there’s very few h&s measures in place, like a warm workplace.

I woke up to -4 outside and not much different inside, even with the heating on, so whoever gets on call with me today will find me like this. #sorrynotsorry

The Classification Guru Ltd Samification

It's baaaack!  That's right, lipsyncsunday is back in 2026, and this is the energy I'm bringing into 2026 - bad vibes we tell them bye bye!

And not just that, after years of resisting, I've now set up a TikTok account @classificationguru so give it a follow if you want even more crazy, and of course some great data tips, eventually...

What energy are you bringing into 2026?  

Oh and good luck in your first week back, take it easy!

The Classification Guru Ltd Samification

I asked ChatGPT one question: "Based on our interactions, how could I be leveraging you more?"

Because I want to work smarter, not harder this year.

And the answer wasn't, “write more posts faster," it was slightly unexpected - AI works best before things are polished, not after.

Which basically means that even with AI, I'm still a control freak, not delegating until the last minute, so that's something I'll be working on this year.

Here’s the recommendations I'll be taking forward:

 • Using it as a thinking partner, not just a writing tool
 • Pressure-testing ideas before they’re fully formed
 • Acting as an editor with opinions, not just a spellchecker
 • Repurposing one solid idea into multiple formats
 • Being a built-in “so what?” detector
 • Exploring bolder positioning without committing to it publicly
 • Preparing for talks, panels, and conversations earlier, not at the last minute

The biggest shift for me? Bringing AI in when things are messy, not when they’re “ready”. Drafts, fragments, half-formed opinions… that’s where the real leverage is.

So tell me, where in your workflow could AI take more of the heavy lifting, so you stay in your zone of genius? 

Why not try this prompt or a variation and let me know!

The Classification Guru Ltd Samification

Have you met the Dirty Data Villains?

Every dataset has them.
Some are obvious. Some hide in plain sight.
Together, they’re responsible for broken reports, failed joins, messy dashboards, and far too many “why doesn’t this match?” moments.

Here’s the current Dirty Data Villains lineup 👇

🟡 Rogue Punctuation
Commas, apostrophes, periods, and symbols turning up where they don’t belong. Breaking imports, splitting values, and causing errors that are frustratingly hard to spot.

⬜ Sneaky Spaces
Invisible troublemakers lurking at the beginning or end of values. The reason your “exact matches” aren’t exact and your duplicates refuse to reveal themselves.

👯 Duplicate Dan
The master of cloning. Same customer, same supplier, same invoice… entered twice (or more), often with just enough variation to avoid detection.

🔤 Typo Tracey
One wrong letter is all she needs. Misspellings, swapped characters, missing letters — causing failed lookups, bounced emails, and embarrassing mistakes.

📅 Format Fred
The chaos king of inconsistency. Dates, phone numbers, and text fields all formatted differently across systems, making automation and reporting painful.

💥 Why they matter
These villains don’t just make data messy; they undermine trust. And without trust, data can’t be relied on for decisions, insights, or AI.

The good news?
Once you can name them, you can spot them.
And once you can spot them, you can clean them.

More villains may be lurking… but for now, this is your most wanted list.  And if you need some help identifying them, ask me about our new data diagnostic service, more details coming soon!

Which Dirty Data Villain causes you the most pain?  And who would you add?

📘 Two books
📉 Big discounts
📊 Cleaner, calmer, more trustworthy data

Get more Susan for less!

🟣 Between the Spreadsheets from Facet Publishing – 20% off using NEW20
🔴 Optimizing Sales & Marketing Data from Kogan Page Publishing – 40% off with SALE40

What you’ll actually learn:

💡How to spot dirty data before it wrecks reporting
💡Practical ways to fix duplicates, inconsistencies, and naming chaos
💡Why “the tech will fix it” usually doesn’t
💡How to build data you can trust for decisions, automation, and AI
💡Real-world lessons from projects, not fluffy theory

If you’re wrestling with messy data, unreliable dashboards, or a CRM that feels held together with hope and pivot tables, these will save you time, frustration, and a few awkward meetings.

Built on real client work. Powered by the COAT framework. Zero nonsense.

Grab them while the discounts are live!

Shoutout to some fellow authors Jordan Morrow Tiankai Feng Nicola Askham Caroline Carruthers Kristen Kehrer Roberto Maranca Albert Bellamy Keith McCabe (MCIPS) Samir Sharma Dr. Joe Perez

The Classification Guru Ltd Samification

Sterling

Business Partner to Sterling's stakeholders across the globe.   I'm part of a team  that provides service, value, risk management, supplier innovation, and operational excellence throughout the business.

Senior Director - Global Procurement

Procurement Foundry

The largest digital, global community for Procurement and Supply Chain Management professionals. 

As Chapter Leader, I organize in person and virtual meetups as well as moderate content in our local community.  I enjoy helping people realize their full potential in the field of Global Procurement. I am doing my part in making procurement cool by ensuring fun and insightful learning and networking opportunities for the area's local professionals.

Community Chapter Leader

Technology Association of Georgia

Board Member

Institute for Supply Management - Atlanta

Vice President Board of Directors

Mastercard

As an executive consultant, I was embedded in the MasterCard Supply Management Team and worked on strategic projects in Corporate Real Estate, M&A Supply Chain Integration, and Supplier Diversity.

Procurement Strategy & Business Enablement (Executive Consultant)

New Seasons Market

In my role as an executive consultant, I worked collaboratively with the New Seasons Team to develop category management strategies with strong focus on supplier innovation and cost efficiency.

Procurement & Innovation (Executive Consultant)

Aclara

As the Head of Indirect Procurement at Aclara my efforts were instrumental in driving change and increasing profitability for the Company.   I worked with external consultants and advisors to establish a Procurement Council focused on finding and executing cost efficiencies in cross functional departments such as engineering, travel, people & culture, and facilities.

I also collaborated with our Engineering and Product teams by partnering with 3rd Party firms to accelerate product launches and revenue growth.

Head of Procurement & Business Partnership

Hager Companies

In this role as Head of Global Supply Management, I had the opportunity to lead a talented team of four in managing our global supply chain. We worked closely with our suppliers, achieving significant cost savings and improving delivery times. I also introduced innovative programs to enhance supplier quality and support new product development, ensuring everyone was aligned with our goals. Additionally, I established a regional team in Asia, which played a key role in building a strong, reliable supply base that supported our new projects and sustainability efforts.

Head of Global Supply Management

Eaton's Bussmann Business

I spearheaded the development of a category planning process, creating a comprehensive playbook that enhanced collaboration across all company functions for optimized procurement and operations. Additionally, I led various corporate and site-level projects, driving cost savings, operational improvements, and increased revenue through effective management of commodity teams in Plastics, Electronic Components, Fabrications, and Indirect Services.

Senior Manager & Category Leader

Ingersoll Rand

- Enterprise Category Director charged with driving culture and operational change across our network of international manufacturing sites for a $100 million global fragmented fastener spend.

- Led a team of 14 in a matrix organization that spanned across the globe.  The team's objective was to bring value to the organization, customers, and shareholders alike by optimizing relationships with the supply base.

Global Director, Sourcing

- Trained and advised with over 300 internal and external users and effectively ran various sourcing events consisting of RFQs and Auctions for all materials and services purchased valued at over $1 billion in spend

- Created standard work and a knowledge base for various e-sourcing tools that were deployed across the entire business.

E-Sourcing Manager

- Site Sourcing and Data Analytics Lead that implemented cost reduction and supplier improvement projects at high volume and high mix facilities.

- Advisor to the manufacturing staff and owner of local LEAN projects that involved supplier and customer integration and facility cleanliness (5S).

Sourcing Manager

- Gained exposure to the basics of supply chain management through the import and export of componentry that was used in the manufacture of products at facilities in Brazil, Mexico, and China.

Export Manager

I love working in Procurement as it has enabled me to engage with people and ideas all across the world.  It's put me right in the middle of challenging business scenarios and made me a better leader throughout my career.

With over 15 years of experience in Procurement and Supply Chain, I enjoy partnering with stakeholders to deliver service, value, risk management, supplier innovation, and operational excellence to the business.

I am well known for driving process and business improvement, supplier development and optimization, strategic planning, and procurement transformation in various industries such as manufacturing and fintech. I am passionate about building and empowering my team to achieve high-performance results.

I'm always open to connect and learning from others so let's get in touch.

You can email me at jonathan.townsley@outlook.com

Core Strengths
- Collaboration
- Supplier Optimization
- Procurement Transformation
- Process and Business Improvement
- Category Leadership
- Communications
- Value Creation
- Stakeholder Management
- Customer Focus
- Data Analytics
- Team Building

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Jonathan Townsley

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Jonathan Townsley

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