That is a great question!
I work at a company where data initiatives are at infancy stage. Partly, this is why I created this thread earlier:
What I've found is that any proposals you might have come easier if you have enough of career capital. In which case time and hard work are one's best friends.
Now, you may not have the time or the patience to gain career capital. In which case domain knowledge and expertise become even more important.
I guess I kind of leverage both things. Being at the company for over 5 years and earning a seat at a few tables, and also demonstrating that I know what I'm talking about at least some of the time helps me push some of the ideas forward...
Vacuum also helps. At my company, we weren't doing any ML or predictive analytics in general before I started it, so there was never a question if we should use R or Python. We use R because I know R
P.S. What never worked for me is showing how things are done elsewhere. I literally read out loud every StitchFix Multithreaded blogpost to my boss and my CIO (well, figuratively), but that hasn't help. I send my notes from every HBR webinar and discuss ideas, but it yet to yield any fruit... But it could be just my bad luck or poor communication.