The Bold Decision Behind the Rise of Engine

Best Friends' Radical Race to a No-Kill Nation

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 law * How moving a deadline forward by 10 years transformed the organization’s energy * Why a "corporate" approach to data science was the key to solving the problem * How 69% of U.S. shelters have already reached no-kill status * The 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.

Unity’s Bold Bet on Outcome-Based AI

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 bet In 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.

The Bold Decision Behind the Rise of Engine

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 episode * The 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.

WWF’s Leap Into the Future: AI, Blockchain, and Purpose

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 bet In 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 work * Why Dermot bet on AI, blockchain, and impact investing long before they were mainstream * The cultural and operational changes needed to drive innovation at scale * Lessons from building ventures that blend philanthropy and investment returns * What 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.

Telstra’s Massive AI Infrastructure Bet

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 customers * How Telstra is betting on core connectivity when others are diversifying * Leading 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.