CEO Chat with Chris Hanes of Officeworks

The workplace is changing faster than the conversations guiding it. We’re stepping up with a sharper plan for Season Seven: weekly episodes designed to spark action, challenge assumptions, and give you practical tools to build spaces and businesses that actually work.

Consolidation is speeding up across the commercial furniture and contract interiors industry, and the real question is how you lead while everything is changing at once. Sid sat down with Chris Hanes, CEO of Officeworks, to talk through what growth actually looks like on the dealer side: expanding across markets, integrating acquisitions, and building a resilient business without flattening the local culture that makes each city work.

They also get honest about differentiation when products start to feel interchangeable and big projects drift toward price-only competition. Chris shares why this remains a people business, how retention goes far beyond compensation, and what talent development looks like when four generations define “growth” in totally different ways. 

Along the way, they unpack the value of executive coaching and the underrated skill that changes sales, leadership, and client relationships fast: learning to listen with your eyes and your ears.

Then they zoom into the evolving dealer model itself. Office furniture dealers now curate choices, guide complex stakeholder groups, and reduce risk, while expanding into services like decommissioning, moves, adds and changes, asset management, and support for sustainability goals. 

They close with a practical look at AI in workplace strategy and operations, including why an AI readiness assessment helps you cut through the noise, get your data foundations right, and apply automation in ways that increase speed and accuracy without losing the human center of the work.

In this episode: