Ep 77 Chris Hudson: Catalysing change: Personal purpose at work

Episode Summary: 

In this episode of For Love & Money, Carolyn Butler-Madden is joined by Chris Hudson, Founder & CEO of Company Road, to explore how his own personal purpose has driven his work in catalysing organisational change.

Chris shares his journey from childhood to the Ad Agency world, through corporate marketing to entrepreneurship—driven by curiosity and a deep desire to challenge the status quo. They discuss how leaders can embed purpose into their work, create meaningful cultural transformation, and reimagine traditional business models through curiosity, storytelling, and innovation.

This conversation unpacks the emotional and strategic aspects of change-making, exploring how work can become more than a means to an end and instead a space for experimentation, personal fulfilment, and systemic impact.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Discover how Chris Hudson's personal purpose inspires him to drive business transformation, challenge leadership norms, and create innovative workplaces.
• How personal purpose can lead your work choices and inspire new business ventures.
• Why curiosity and questioning assumptions are essential for both innovation and leadership.
• The concept of 'intrapreneurship' and how employees can drive change within organisations.
• How designing customer experiences can be an experience itself.
• The parallels between performance in music, art, and leadership at work.
• How work environments can be stretched beyond conventional structures to foster engagement, creativity, and impact.
• The need to challenge traditional leadership archetypes and embrace humility in leadership.
• Why leaders must deeply understand their teams to create productive and fulfilling workplaces.

Key Themes Discussed:

• Curiosity as a Leadership Skill: Chris reflects on how his innate curiosity has inspired his career path and his belief that curiosity is a critical tool for fostering change.
• Intrapreneurs as Rebels: Chris highlights how intrapreneurs are the 'rebels' of an organisation, pushing against the norm to drive meaningful change from within.
• Work as an Expansive Concept: The conversation explores how traditional work structures can be stretched and reimagined to create environments that promote innovation, fulfillment, and purpose.
• The Experience of Designing an Experience: Chris discusses how designing a customer experience can be an enriching experience for the people creating it, not just the end users.
• The Art of Leadership as Performance: Using music and art as an analogy, Chris draws parallels between great performances and the leadership required to create an engaging work culture.
• Challenging the Alpha Leadership Model: Chris calls for a shift away from the traditional dominant leadership style, advocating instead for consultative and humble leadership that fosters collaboration.
• Understanding People to Drive Productivity: Leaders need to invest time in truly understanding their teams to create a work environment that is both high-performing and human-centered.

Featured Guest:

Chris Hudson – Founder & CEO of Company Road, host of the Company Road Podcast, and an advocate for purpose-driven organizational change.

Chris is an Intrapreneurship Coach and Founder of Company Road, a business transformation coaching and consultancy. He formed his business in response to seeing over-niching and specialisation as a significant barrier to change within corporates.
During his career, he’s worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.

Chris is also a fellow podcast host. The Company Road Podcast explores what it takes for intrapreneurs to change companies and organisations and inspire personal growth for themselves. I’ve listened to several episodes, as well as being one of his guests. What I love is the breadth of guests and experiences that he shares. There’s some real gold in there, sometimes from unexpected places.

Our interview explores Chris’ personal purpose and how it has inspired his work and the way he approaches his work in Intrapreneurship Coaching, business design, product design and experience design. It’s a fascinating insight into how to blend what you care about personally into your work.

Resources & Links:

• Company Road website
• Listen to the Company Road Podcast 
• Connect with Chris Hudson on Linkedin

How is personal purpose shaping your leadership style? Leave a comment or tag us on social media with #PurposeDrivenLeadership!