Hudson Talent Solutions used to be something worth being proud of. A genuinely profitable business with exceptional people, deep regional expertise, and a real track record of winning clients and delivering results. Leadership understood this market, the team understood the clients, and the company understood what it stood for. That version of Hudson is gone and what replaced it is a cautionary tale in how quickly a strong organisation can be destroyed by the wrong person in the wrong role.
The rot set in when the current CEO took the helm. No prior experience in this type of leadership role. No understanding of the APAC region. Based in the USA, apparently unbothered by either of those facts. What followed wasn't transformation, it was demolition. Methodical, indifferent, and seemingly consequence-free for everyone except the people who actually built something here.
The story has been predictable and depressing, systematically push out the experienced regional leaders who carried all the knowledge and client relationships built over years, and replace them with a parade of personal connections imported from a previous employer. These aren't strategic hires, they're favours. Many are visibly unqualified for the roles they now occupy. Others are simply not good at the job. The output speaks for itself.
The APAC operation is a shadow of what it was. The people who genuinely understood this market, who had the relationships, the context, and the credibility, have been made redundant one by one. What remains is, bluntly, the bottom of the barrel. Not through any fault of those individuals, but because the talent pipeline was starved the moment anyone competent became a perceived threat.
The commercial results are what you'd expect. Hudson hasn't won a meaningful new client in years. More alarmingly, they appear to be actively working their way through the ones they still have. There is no coherent strategy visible from the inside. There is no inspiring vision. There is no accountability. There is just a rotating cast of mediocre decision-makers one business junkets we can't afford and propped up by an employment market that hasn't yet given people a safe exit strategy.
That will change. When this one does, the exodus will be swift and substantial and Hudson will be left with whatever skeleton crew couldn't find somewhere better to go. At that point, the damage done by this era of leadership will be impossible to overlook.
If you are a client considering Hudson, look elsewhere. If you are a candidate considering a role there wait for something better. If you are a shareholder or board member reading this, I'd be concerned.
One star, and that's being generous.
