This Way Forward

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society, the organization leading the charge to make the United States a no-kill nation.Together, they explore the radical shift from a "catch and kill" system rooted in the 1800s to a data-driven movement that has slashed the number of animals killed in shelters from 17 million annually to under 400,000 today.The bold strategic betWhen Julie took the helm, the organization’s roadmap projected reaching no-kill status by 2035. Julie made a high-stakes call to move the goalpost forward by a full decade to 2025.To hit this near-impossible target, she bet on something the nonprofit world often ignores: granular data. By building an in-house data team and the award-winning Pet Lifesaving Dashboard, Best Friends mapped every shelter in America, identifying exactly where resources were needed to save lives. It was a move that turned a sentimental cause into a precision-engineered mission.In this episode:Why the modern shelter system was originally designed for "catch and kill"The moment Julie chose a life of advocacy over a career in lawHow moving a deadline forward by 10 years transformed the organization’s energyWhy a "corporate" approach to data science was the key to solving the problemHow 69% of U.S. shelters have already reached no-kill statusThe future of animal welfare: Using AI and machine learning to match pets with homes👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company—or in this case, a national movement.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Patrick Brown, Founder and CEO of Unity Communications, a global business process outsourcing (BPO) firm. Together, they explore the counterintuitive decision to disrupt his own revenue model before the market did it for him.The bold strategic betIn the BPO world, profit is traditionally tied to heads: the more full-time employees (FTEs) you provide, the more you make. But Patrick saw a different future.He made the bold bet to abandon the industry-standard labor model in favor of an outcome-based pricing model powered by AI. Instead of selling human hours, Unity began selling results. By upskilling his workforce into AI-certified hybrid operators, Patrick bet that delivering twice the value with half the headcount would not just save his clients money, but would make Unity an indispensable partner in an automated world.In this episode:The Death of the FTE: Why the traditional BPO valuation model is a death sentence in the AI era.Cannibalizing Revenue: The logic behind choosing lower headcounts to secure higher margins and stickier clients.Overcoming Internal Resistance: How Patrick persuaded a workforce afraid of displacement to become AI-certified.The Private Equity Trap: Why large competitors are kicking the can down the road instead of retooling.Transitioning to Outcomes: How to hybridize billing between automated tickets and human-led problem solving.👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything. In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Elia Wallen, Founder & CEO of Engine, a modern travel management platform disrupting how SMBs handle lodging, flights, and car rentals. Together, they explore the high-stakes decision Elia made in 2019: walking away from his role as CEO of a highly successful, profitable company to lead a small, unproven internal project—just months before a global pandemic.The bold strategic betWhile most leaders would cling to the safety of a market-leading business, Elia did the opposite.He bet that the massive Total Addressable Market (TAM) of the broader travel industry outweighed the security of his dominant position in corporate housing. He made the difficult call to hand over the leadership of his established, bootstrapped company to a deputy so he could focus 100% of his attention on Engine.The timing could not have been more challenging. With travel revenue dropping to nearly zero globally shortly after the move, the bet was immediately put to the test. By pivoting the strategy to support essential healthcare logistics, Engine didn't just survive—it tripled in size while the rest of the industry stalled.In this episodeThe Founder's Dilemma: Why Elia left a profitable, market-leading business to lead a high-risk startup.Focus vs. Opportunity: Navigating the "popular belief" that starting a second business deflects critical resources.The COVID Pivot: How Engine tripled its business during the pandemic by housing essential workers and recovery patients.Trusting the Context: Why leaders should prioritize their own internal data over the opinions of outside advisors.Fintech as the Next Frontier: Why Engine is now doubling down on integrated spend management with EngineX.👉 Subscribe for new 15-minute episodes each month, each focused on one bold decision that changed the trajectory of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Dermot O’Gorman, CEO of WWF-Australia, to explore how one of the world’s most recognized conservation organizations made a radical bet to reinvent itself for the future.The bold strategic betIn 2016, WWF-Australia faced a challenge familiar to many mission-driven organizations: how to scale impact in a rapidly changing world. While others doubled down on traditional philanthropy, WWF made a bold move—redefining its role from a conservation charity to a catalyst for innovation, technology, and impact investing.The organization embraced AI, blockchain, and blended finance to bridge the gap between philanthropy and profit, proving that purpose and performance could coexist. The shift wasn’t easy. It required cultural reinvention, new risk systems, and rethinking what it meant to deliver impact. But the bet paid off—WWF built social ventures like OpenSC, now operating in 19 countries, using blockchain and AI to verify sustainability claims across global supply chains.In this episode:How WWF used future forecasting to identify three “mega trends” reshaping purpose-driven workWhy Dermot bet on AI, blockchain, and impact investing long before they were mainstreamThe cultural and operational changes needed to drive innovation at scaleLessons from building ventures that blend philanthropy and investment returnsWhat it takes to keep a 60-year-old global brand future-ready👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Josh Blandy, Head of Performance Strategy at Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company.Together, they explore a strategic bet that is happening right now: Telstra’s massive investment to rebuild its network for the unprecedented demands of the AI era.The bold strategic betThe demand for bandwidth is exploding, but the type of demand is changing. AI requires synchronous (two-way) data flow, not the one-way (asynchronous) traffic of the streaming age. The old networks weren't built for this.While facing intense competition and regulation, Josh and the Telstra team made the call to invest heavily in new, core network infrastructure capable of handling this new wave of AI-driven demand. They also bet on "Network as a Product," exposing core capabilities, like on-demand bandwidth, directly to customers.To maintain focus, this meant divesting other parts of the business (like its cloud services) to go all-in on connectivity. It’s a high-stakes bet on a future where the network is the critical enabler of the AI revolution.In this episode:Why AI demand is different (Synchronous vs. Asynchronous)The high-stakes trade-offs required to focus (like selling their cloud business)What "Network as a Product" means for B2B customersHow Telstra is betting on core connectivity when others are diversifyingLeading a strategic bet when the full implementation plan isn't yet known👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that changed the trajectory of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Nicole Eck, Chief Strategy Officer at the ALS Association, the nonprofit leading the global fight to make ALS a livable disease.Together, they explore the moment when the ALS Association moved away from chasing short-term fundraising goals and instead made a bold long-term bet: to make ALS livable by 2030.The bold strategic betFueled by the unexpected windfall of the Ice Bucket Challenge—which raised $115M in 60 days—the ALS Association faced a choice: double down on short-term revenue targets or aim for a transformational goal. Nicole and her team chose the latter.They reorganized the entire Association, merging 20 chapters into a single unified organization, embedding accountability into every initiative, and aligning stakeholders around one question: Does this make ALS livable?It wasn’t the obvious choice. Skepticism was high, progress in ALS had been slow, and “livable” was a concept many in the community struggled to define. But with new therapies reversing symptoms in patients and unprecedented global collaboration, Nicole and her team saw the chance to reframe the fight against ALS forever.In this episode:How the Ice Bucket Challenge reshaped the ALS landscapeWhy “making ALS livable” was a radical break from traditional nonprofit goalsThe internal restructuring required to align 20 organizations into oneThe early signs that a livable future for ALS patients is possibleWhat other leaders can learn from betting on long-term change over short-term wins👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company—or in this case, an entire cause.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Elaine Zhuang, General Manager of Strategy, Transformation, and Value Delivery at nbn, Australia’s National Broadband Network. She unpacks a pivotal moment from earlier in her career where a single boardroom challenge not only transformed a struggling hotel chain but also earned her a promotion to the Executive Committee, making her the youngest in the group's history.The bold strategic betJuna Hotels was a struggling state-owned group, losing ground to global giants. Its growth plan was to keep building expensive, capital-intensive hotels with a dismal 3% ROI. As a junior observer in the boardroom, Elaine saw the flawed model and made an unprecedented bet: challenge the chairman and abandon ownership.Her vision was a radical “three-way partnership”—uniting developers (to build), an international brand (for marketing), and Juna (for management). It was a career-defining risk that nearly got her kicked out of the room. But that single bet created an asset-light model that doubled the company’s portfolio and beat international incumbents at their own game.In this episode:Why building new hotels was a losing strategy (and the 3% ROI that proved it)The three-party partnership model that outsmarted global giantsThe boardroom challenge that led to a history-making promotionWhat to do when you see a gap and need to step in to fill itWhy "scale does not require you to own everything"👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Alex Weiss, CFO of The Aspen Group, the parent company of Aspen Dental and other retail healthcare brands. Together, they explore the pivotal decision that turned Aspen from a single office into one of the largest dental networks in the United States.The bold strategic betIn the late 1990s, dentistry in the U.S. was almost entirely fragmented—thousands of independent offices with dentists juggling patient care and back-office operations. Aspen made a different bet: build the first coast-to-coast, nationally branded dental support network. By taking on the administrative burdens—real estate, marketing, insurance, billing, procurement—Aspen freed dentists to focus on patients and scale their practices.It wasn’t obvious. Dentists had to legally own their practices, making franchising impossible. Skeptics doubted doctors would give up control. But Aspen proved the model, grew to hundreds of locations, and later made another bold pivot—cannibalizing its core denture business to double down on dental implants. That shift now drives nearly a billion dollars in revenue across Aspen and ClearChoice implant centers.In this episode:Why Aspen bet on a national dental support model when no one else wouldHow back-office scale unlocked growth for independent dentistsThe bold move from Syracuse to Chicago—and how it unlocked talent for the next phaseWhy Aspen cannibalized its own denture business to embrace implantsHow lessons from dental are shaping Aspen’s expansion into vet care and medical aesthetics👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Craig Manson, former Executive Director of Canon Australia and current board advisor and operator across multiple businesses, to unpack the bold decision that helped rescue a legacy business from decline—and reposition it for growth.Together, they explore how Craig led Canon out of the shrinking printer market and into a future powered by software, workflow automation, and managed services.The bold strategic betCanon Australia was bleeding tens of millions annually. Customers were printing less, workflows were digitizing, and the core business was slipping. Craig made the call: stop selling just photocopiers and start solving end-to-end workflow problems.The shift wasn’t easy. Sales teams resisted. Customers doubted. Headquarters in Japan questioned the move. But by doubling down on automation, partnering with software experts, and reshaping how value was delivered, Craig transformed Canon Australia into a profitable, future-facing business.In this episode:Why printing was no longer Canon’s path forwardHow Craig turned resistance—internal and external—into momentumWhat it takes to lead transformation when the clock is tickingThe customer conversations that validated the betHow Canon leveraged its brand and relationships to win in new markets👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 20 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Siddhartha Jha, Founder and CEO of Arbol, the company reinventing insurance by building financial infrastructure for climate risk. They explore the pivotal decision that led Arbol into the collapsing property insurance market just as most major players were exiting regions like Florida and Hawaii.The bold strategic betWhile the industry was retreating, Sid saw an opening. Arbol acquired a property insurance carrier and rebuilt the model from the ground up. By combining AI, parametric insurance, and access to new sources of capital, they began writing policies where others wouldn’t.That decision not only revived a struggling market but positioned Arbol as a leader in the future of climate resilience.In this episode:Why Arbol stepped into a market others were abandoningHow technology and data changed the economics of insuranceThe obstacles that nearly stopped the deal from going throughWhat it takes to reinvent an entire insurance supply chainLessons for leaders tackling high-risk, high-reward markets👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and focuses on one transformational decision that changed the course of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Brett Knowles, CEO of PM2, a strategy consulting firm that partners with executive teams to strengthen strategic planning and execution.Together, they explore the bold move Brett made when others held back: bringing AI into the core of strategy.The bold strategic bet:While most leaders focused on AI for operational gains, Brett saw a larger opportunity. He applied AI to strategy development and execution, where adoption remained limited and resistance was high.Despite concerns around accuracy, privacy, and disruption, Brett built an AI-powered agent to support strategic thinking and challenged the traditional consulting model from within.That decision is now transforming how PM2 delivers value and redefining how companies think about strategy in the AI era.In this episode:Why AI adoption in strategy still lags behind other functionsHow Brett designed an AI framework to support decision-makingThe turning point that proved market demandWhat the consulting industry stands to lose by staying putHow AI will reshape the way organizations plan and lead👉 Subscribe for new 15-minute episodes each month, each focused on one bold decision that changed the trajectory of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Jason Guss, Founder & CEO of Octane Lending, the fintech company transforming how consumers finance recreational vehicles—from ATVs to lawn tractors.Together, they dive into the make-or-break decision that turned Octane from a failing aggregator into a $7B+ lending powerhouse.The bold strategic betOctane launched as a lender aggregator—but the model didn’t work. With over 70% of revenue gone overnight, Jason made a bold call: abandon aggregation and launch Octane’s own lending operation.It was a full pivot. No credit team. No capital markets expertise. No room for error. But that bet rebuilt the business and unlocked a multi-billion-dollar opportunity in a market most lenders ignored.In this episode:Why Octane’s original model failed and what they did nextHow a single pivot reshaped the company’s futureWhat Jason learned from 50+ cold calls to capital markets expertsThe investor meeting that could’ve ended it allWhy overlooked markets can be the biggest opportunities👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Gary Hoberman, Founder & CEO of Unqork, the enterprise tech company behind a revolutionary no-code platform used by some of the world’s largest insurers, banks, and governments.Together, they unpack the bet that led Unqork to challenge 40 years of software development orthodoxy and build a $2B company without writing a single line of code.The bold strategic betWhile the tech world embraced faster code, better code, and AI-generated code, Gary made a contrarian bet: that code itself was the problem.He set out to eliminate code entirely, along with runtimes, replication, and vulnerabilities baked into traditional software development. The result? A secure, enterprise-grade platform where anyone can build complex applications, and no one ever has to write or maintain fragile code again.In this episode:Why the entire software industry is built on flawed assumptionsHow replication became a hacker’s dream and a CIO’s nightmareThe 300 investor rejections that led to Unqork’s $2B breakoutWhat most people still don’t understand about incentive misalignmentWhy Gary thinks coding was always the wrong solution👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this first episode, Charlie Newark-French, CEO at Cascade, sits down with Wayne Ting, CEO of Lime, the world’s leading micro-mobility company operating bikes and scooters across more than 30 countries.Together, they explore the pivotal decision that helped Lime go from a struggling startup to a market leader in urban transportation.*The bold strategic bet*When the industry said "cut hardware," Wayne did the opposite. He made the call to keep Lime’s hardware in-house, betting that control over design, durability, and costs would be the key to long-term success.That decision led to Lime’s Gen 4 vehicles, built to last five years instead of 30 days, unlocking profitability, better rider experience, and a sustainable business model others couldn't match.*In this episode:*- Why hardware became a core strategic advantage- How owning the product lifecycle changed Lime’s economics- The risks, doubts, and boardroom conversations behind the decision- How small improvements added up to a market-defining lead- Lessons for CEOs making non-obvious, high-stakes choices👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Tom Wright, founder and Chief Product Officer of Cascade, the world’s leading strategy execution platform.Together, they retrace the origin story of Cascade. How a disconnect between strategy and operations inside a global bank sparked a bold bet to create something entirely new: a system built for strategy.The bold strategic betMost organizations treat strategy as a static exercise—slides, workshops, disconnected goals. Tom saw it differently. He bet that strategy could be systemized, mapped, executed, and measured with the same discipline as finance or sales.What started as a scrappy prototype became a full platform. And that platform is now powering a new software category: strategy-led performance.In this episode:The moment Tom first saw the strategy-execution gap from inside HSBCHow Cascade’s early product nearly didn’t exist until it had toWhy “strategy is everyone’s business” became a guiding principleThe inflection point that led to hiring a new CEOWhat strategy-led performance means and why it’s the next frontier👉 Subscribe for new 15-minute episodes each month, each focused on one bold decision that changed the trajectory of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Brett Shockley, CEO of Journey—a company redefining how businesses authenticate customers and eliminate fraud across contact centers.Together, they unpack the non-obvious insight that led Journey to rethink identity, security, and customer experience from the ground up.The bold strategic betWhile others chased point solutions, Brett built a platform around the entire customer journey. The bet? That trust, privacy, and seamless interactions could coexist—if you started with the user, not the system.That vision led to the creation of Journey’s Zero Knowledge Network, a privacy-first approach to identity that eliminates data exposure while accelerating transactions. The result? Fraud-proof CX at scale, adopted by some of the world’s biggest enterprises.In this episode:Why the industry missed the signal—and how Journey didn’tHow a smartphone-centric experience slashed call times from 4.5 minutes to 49 secondsThe tech behind Journey’s Zero Knowledge NetworkWhat it took to win over CISOs, analysts, and Fortune 500 buyersWhy the best ideas often start by sitting in the contact center👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.

Welcome to This Way Forward, the podcast where C-suite leaders unpack the bold strategic bets that changed everything.In this episode, Charlie Newark-French sits down with Race Strauss, CFO of Virgin Australia.Together, they explore a different kind of strategic bet: a personal career gamble. Race unpacks the decision to leave a secure role at Qantas—the market leader—to take the helm of a competitor that had just entered voluntary administration.The bold strategic betWhen Race joined Virgin Australia, the airline was in the middle of its demise, having lost its way by trying to be "everything to everyone." While the safe play was to stay with the incumbent, Race bet on the rebuild.Backed by Bain Capital, he saw the opportunity to strip the business down, rebuild the finance function from scratch, and pivot the airline's strategy to something sustainable.That decision required navigating a grueling three-year restructuring, a sale of 25% of the business to Qatar Airways, and preparing for a public listing—ultimately saving the airline and restoring competition to the Australian skies.In this episode:Why Race left the safety of Qantas for a bankrupt competitorThe flaw in Virgin’s original strategy that led to administrationHow private equity ownership changed the airline's trajectoryThe mental resilience required to work through a total business rebuildHow to assess risk vs. reward when making career-defining choices👉 Subscribe to catch new episodes each month. Every conversation is under 15 minutes and laser-focused on one transformational decision that shaped the future of a company.