EP 117: Adirupa Sengupta, Group CEO, Common Purpose: Startup Grit and Leadership Lessons from a Two-Decade Journey Across the UK, Asia, and Beyond

Adirupa (Adi) is Group Chief Executive of Common Purpose. She has been with the organization since 2001 and has held a variety of roles over the years, including CEO of Common Purpose Asia-Pacific, during which time she started a global hub out of Singapore and grew it to be a major player in the leadership field in Asia-Pacific.

Adi has a passion for developing talent and connecting people from different backgrounds. She has extensive knowledge and experience working across different countries, cities, and cultures to help leaders learn to cross boundaries in order to tackle complex problems. Her TEDx talk speaks to her passion for cross-boundary leadership - Adirupa Sengupta: Cultural Collisions: do we fight or flex? | TED Talk

Over the years, Adi has driven some key partnerships for Common Purpose including the American Express Foundation, BNP Paribas, GE, DBS, FWD, the UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, the ASEAN Foundation, and RMIT University to deliver leadership programmes for different generations across the world - these include the SG100 Young Leaders Programme (with the National Youth Council of Singapore), CSCLeaders (with The HRH Duke of Edinburgh Commonwealth Study Conferences (UK Fund)) and the ASEAN Leaders programme (with the ASEAN Foundation).

Adi is based in the UK but travels and works all over the world. She grew up in India, where she completed her Bachelor’s degree before reading for an MPhil in International Relations at St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

• Stepping onto the TEDx stage.
• Taking a leap of faith, trusting the promise of an idea.
• Leadership demands data, but often moves with instinct.
• Leadership also means knowing when to let others rise.
• Acknowledging someone else's truth helps build trust.
• Engaging with difference is not a liability; it’s a strength.
• A feisty grandmother who refused to let her settle for less.
• Giving up on people’s potential inevitably leads to suboptimal outcomes.
• Our greatest strengths can also turn into blind spots if left unchecked.
• Real leadership is knowing when to persevere and when to walk away.
• Sometimes, hope can cloud judgment, and stepping back is the wiser choice.
• You don’t have to give up on people, but sometimes, you do need to step off the journey with them.
• Avoiding difficult conversations, however well-intentioned, blurs lines of accountability.
• Complacency creeps in when we stop questioning; leadership calls for curiosity over comfort.
• Navigating the familiar and the unfamiliar is a core leadership skill.
• Lessons from the startup world: people don’t just buy ideas—they buy people.
• When you are unsuccessful, all sorts of weak thoughts come to your mind.
• Leadership is about becoming the version of yourself you know you need to be. It's about letting go.
• When cultures collide, it’s not a breakdown, it’s a breakthrough waiting to happen.

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