Introducing Chris Coode, a seasoned industry leader and the Founder of Hutchison Lea ConneXions Inc. With a passion for finding companies that deserve capital to get to their next stage of growth, Chris founded this company. With Hutchison Lea ConneXions, Chris is helping to connect deserving companies with capital. In this insightful interview, the Founder speaks about the start of his professional journey, challenges, working on employee satisfaction, maintaining a balance between the operations, and his desire to leave behind a strong legacy.
The Beginning
To learn about the beginning of Chris Coode’s professional journey, we asked, “Can you walk us through your professional journey and how it led to where you are today?” we asked -Chris Coode
Chris shared, “Absolutely. I entered the work world back in 1986 as an Assistant Marine Mammal Trainer. However, later I resigned from that position to focus on my degree, which I obtained in 1991, a BA with a core focus on Philosophy. My education taught me one thing that has stuck with me for all these years, being that the more focused you are on one area the less you know about other areas. This is how I have been blessed to have three diverse areas of specialization in my career.
The first is owning my own Sound and Video contracting firm. The second is my vast experience in the recruitment industry. And finally, the third is my entrance into the world of acting as a catalyst for getting some of the most promising upcoming new companies getting funded, or the arena of Venture Capitalism.”
Adaptability Amidst Adversities
Every business faces certain inevitable challenges. To learn how Chris Coode overcame them, we inquired, “Reflecting on your career, what have been some of the most significant challenges you’ve faced, and how did you overcome them?”
Chris responds, “I have the right attitude, and the ability to not only work hard but also work smart. A huge part of working smart is the people that you surround yourself with. And that’s the key thing that can assist anyone to achieve anything they want. It has been proven to me every time.
The first time I encountered it was when I was applying for the role of Assistant Marine Mammal Trainer. I interviewed the then Director of the Aquarium Murray Newman. He saw something in me and hired me on the spot. I have been so blessed to have been in the right place at the right time and that is what has allowed me to not only succeed, but also to be open to new opportunities.”
“Being ‘open’ is all about attitude. If I had a closed mind about things, or even partially saw the glass half empty, then I never would’ve gotten to the place where I am today. I always see the potential for things, and that is part of my can-do attitude. It’s also about having faith that the universe has a plan for all of us, and if you want to succeed you need to know that no one person is smart enough to see all the ways that the universe is helping you, or like I said before, have faith that many things which are in the works that you cannot see which will allow you to get there from here.” He added.
Maintaining A Balance All Throughout we asked-Chris Coode
To understand how Chris Coode balances the operations and visions of the company, we questioned, “How do you balance long-term vision with short-term operational needs?”
He passionately responded, “Long-term vision is something that I use to see the potential for things that can happen, while short-term operational needs are optimizing your immediate needs to keep whatever venture you have going. I am always planning for the future, but to get there from here, you not only need a decent business head on your shoulders, but you also need to have an amazing team with you. I am at present doing some hiring for Associates for my latest company Hutchison Lea ConneXions, which my background in recruiting has prepared me for.”
Current Offerings And Projects
Eager to learn more about the services and projects Chris and his team are working on currently, we asked, “Tell us more about your services and if you are planning to add something new in the future.”
Chris replied, “I have at present two fully operational companies. The first one is Hutchison Lea Executive Search the second is Hutchison Lea ConneXions Inc. (HLC). While both companies are fully functional and operational, I am devoting most of my resources to HLC. It is devoted to finding not only some of the most promising upcoming companies and getting them funded but also can facilitate start-ups.
Our financial backer has liquid assets and can in very short order fund any company with up to an almost unlimited amount of capital. One of the most important aspects of my job is to do my due diligence on companies that are looking for capital. Every company that I put forward to my financial backer carries with it my reputation, and in business, you are only as good as your reputation and your word. This company is in the very early stages, so yes there are an almost infinite number of services that I have the potential to add.”
Analyzing Latest Trends
To start ahead of the curve it is paramount to stay updated with all the latest market developments and adapt to them accordingly. We asked, “What methods do you use to analyze market trends, and how have these influenced your business decisions?”
“I am always in touch with industry leaders and am regularly engaging them in where they see their market segment going. I do this with a select group of people, whose words I trust implicitly. By doing this I can stay on top of what businesses merit consideration of getting funded.” Chris replied.
AI And Businesses Currently
We further asked, “How has digital transformation affected your business model?”
He added, “When I first began my entrance into the work world a cell phone wasn’t even a thing. They just didn’t exist, and then shortly thereafter there were the old bricks. Over my time in business, the world has changed, and it has become so much smaller. AI was a thing I studied in philosophy, but it was all theoretical and now it is something that isn’t just for the books, but you can use your thin tiny sleek phone and engage with multiple Apps and harness AI.
It’s interesting, because when I studied philosophy, we devoted a lot of time to the dangers of AI and the implications of anything except a living thing becoming sentient, and how that would have a potentially hazardous impact on the world. It seems that this issue has been looked over and forgotten but remember that if a thing becomes sentient that means it can potentially make decisions for itself, and when that happens, it can be quite hazardous.
Let me refer you to something that most of us can relate to. Think of the Terminator movies. But are we truly facing the dangers that were illustrated in these movies? No, I don’t have much of a fear that the movie will become real life. But it is important to remember that there are some very real implications once we allow computers to make the decisions for us. The awareness of anything other than something living becoming a reality is still far away.”
Envisioning The Future
To further understand the perspective of Chris Coode on the role of AI in his industry in the coming years, we asked, “What emerging technologies do you believe will have the most significant impact on your industry in the next five years?”
He shared, “Without question, AI is going to have the biggest impact on my industry in the next five years. I was reading some of Gate’s Notes the other day and that opened my eyes as to how some industry leaders are teaching AI how to learn. The old saying truly illustrates the strength of this being ‘your output is only as good as your input’. How and who teaches AI to learn is the core strength of what empowers AI.
If you don’t have strong input, then the output will reflect the veracity of whatever you’re getting AI to do. For instance, if you are teaching a car to become autonomous, then you aren’t going to have drivers who have a terrible track record of not obeying the local regulations and who are prone to accidents. Of course, that should be a part of it, but not make up the core of the input group.”
Employee Satisfaction
For long-term success for any business, it is crucial to prioritize employee satisfaction. So, we asked, “What strategies do you implement to maintain high levels of employee engagement and satisfaction?”
He replied, “I don’t have employees, I have people I work in association with, meaning that the word employee, to me, implies some sort of subservience. Whereas if you treat people for their true value, then you know that your organization cannot function without them. If you look up the term employee in the dictionary you will find that to be true.
Multiple dictionaries define an employee as ‘a person employed for wages or salary.’ But it’s the second part that got me when I looked up the word – ‘the company has over 500/2000 employees.’ The terminology used here found on multiple sources for the term employee, including Oxford, Dictionary.com, and Merriam-Webster assumes that an employee is just a number, and that kind of anonymizing of people devalues them. Which is why old thinking, to me, has got to change.”
Chris added, “The world has got to see the value of each person, I don’t care if you have thousands of employees. If you treat each of them as they should be treated as a unique individual who has a rich history of years behind them also each person will come with a rich cultural heritage, then they will reflect that appreciation in overall performance.
If you want to empirically validate that statement, then check the metrics for all variables: a large company that has employees vs a large company that treats each person as an individual. I guarantee that the latter will always be superior if they are effectively managed as unique people with their own cultural backgrounds and unique problem-solving abilities. Every person must be celebrated if this thing we call life on the planet is to grow.”
Securing A Strong Legacy
We ended the interview by asking, “How do you want your business to be remembered, and what steps are you taking to secure that legacy?”
Chris replied, “I want my businesses to reflect the excellence of whom they have been founded after Thomas Hutchison McClelland and Marjorie Lea McClelland. Every day when I wake up I go through my mental checklist of how I can make the most profound impact on whatever it is that I do. For instance, I spent about three hours going over how to best create a social media campaign, and I always had in the back of my mind…how would Grandfather or “Pa” as I called him do it.
Whenever I get the chance to let someone know where the name comes from I show them the Presidential Medal of Merit that my Grandfather received from the President of the Philippines, also the silver plate that was awarded to my Grandmother for inaugurating the MV Ibis on Nov 4th, 1981, also the silver plate that was awarded to him for being the President of the BC Mining Association in 1971, and the copper plate that was awarded to him for the opening of the copper mine in Codelco Chile, and the brass surveying tool that he was awarded by opening one of the many mines that he opened during his tenure as the Chairman of the Board of Placer. Placer Development Corp was, at the time arguably one of the biggest mining companies in the world, producing hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold. He was responsible for an almost billion dollar business and always kept his base salary low, because although he could pay himself any amount of money that he wanted, he had principles and knew the true value of money. If I leave his name in a positive light, then I will be very happy with where my career has taken me.
He was the most principled businessman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and he was my Grandfather. You can see pictures of him on my website my LinkedIn account or my Facebook page. He was also connected to the final flight of Amelia Earhart and had his hand in the biggest non-wartime airlift. These were both in Papua New Guinea at Placer’s airstrip in Bulolo.”
Follow Chris Coode on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Find Hutchison Lea ConneXions on LinkedIn and visit their website www.hutleax.com.
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