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 bet
Fueled 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 landscape
Why “making ALS livable” was a radical break from traditional nonprofit goals
The internal restructuring required to align 20 organizations into one
The early signs that a livable future for ALS patients is possible
What 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 bet
Juna 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 giants
The boardroom challenge that led to a history-making promotion
What to do when you see a gap and need to step in to fill it
Why "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 bet
In 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 would
How back-office scale unlocked growth for independent dentists
The bold move from Syracuse to Chicago—and how it unlocked talent for the next phase
Why Aspen cannibalized its own denture business to embrace implants
How 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 bet
Canon 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 forward
How Craig turned resistance—internal and external—into momentum
What it takes to lead transformation when the clock is ticking
The customer conversations that validated the bet
How 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 bet
While 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:
👉 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:
👉 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 bet
Octane 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:
👉 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 bet
While 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:
👉 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 bet
Most 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:
👉 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 bet
While 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:
👉 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.
