Business Leader

"I can't quit" - Olivia Jenkins built a jewellery brand in honour of her mum

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At the height of Covid in 2021, Olivia Jenkins felt her life was in "the perfect storm". Foremost in her mind was the loss of her mother, to cancer. It was at this moment that she decided with her partner (and now fiancé) Jack, that they would start a jewellery business, named after her mother. Jewellery was an area she was passionate about and had some retail experience in. She developed stylish and hard-wearing stainless steel products designed to work well with activewear. She was able to tap into the wellness industry boom and by 2026 her annual revenues would be close to £12m. Olivia explains to Sir Richard Harpin how she overcame imposter syndrome to build the business and reveals the lessons she has learnt along the way, covering everything from product development, to trade shows, external investment and marketing spend.

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"I don't like being switched off" - Stuart Machin, CEO of M&S, on work-life balance

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:45:00 GMT

Stuart Machin, CEO of Marks and Spencer, talks to Sir Richard Harpin at the Business Leader Summit about leadership and encouraging "positive dissatisfaction". He also says he doesn't like to use the c word - cyber - as that was one of the hardest things he and the company have ever gone through. He gives a run through of his typical morning as a CEO, how he walks the floors of stores and the secret of protecting the magic of M&S whilst modernising the rest.

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'From €200m to €24bn - How I built a global glass empire'

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Gary Lubner, the former CEO of Belron, discusses his journey scaling the vehicle glass giant from a value of €200 million to €24 billion over 23 years. Lubner explains to Richard Harpin how the company achieved global dominance through strategic acquisitions, a standardised operational model known as 'The Belron Way', and the iconic "Autoglass repair, Autoglass replace" jingle – which Richard sings along with him! Lubner reflects on his upbringing in apartheid-era South Africa, which instilled a deep sense of social responsibility and influenced his people-centric leadership style.

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Rentokil CEO: ‘This industry is unglamorous but gets in your blood’

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

After just over 12 years as CEO of global pest firm Rentokil Initial, Andy Ransom shares what he has learned as he prepares to step down. In that time the share price has quadrupled and profits breached $1bn. Ransom discusses how he progressed from a working-class background to a legal career at ICI, where he took charge of a legal case in the US that cemented his reputation. When he joined Rentokil, it was involved in many business areas, from parcel delivery to laundry. One of his first decisive actions, he explains to Sir Richard Harpin, was to focus the business on pest control. Ransom explains how he prides himself in being a deal-maker and has used a strategy of M&A to grow the global business and make it more efficient through operational “density”. He also discusses the challenges of cracking North America, which is responsible for half the global pest-control market.

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Dash Drinks: The challenger brand scaling patiently

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Dash Water is a UK-based, challenger drinks brand that was founded in 2017 by Alex Wright and Jack Scott. With a team of just 35 people, it sells more than 60 million cans of fruit-flavoured, sparkling water drinks a year. It focuses on a new category of mass market drinks which promise to be healthy and sustainable. In this Business Leader episode, Wright explains his growth strategy with Richard Harpin. He explains how Dash tackles food waste by using “wonky fruit”, which would otherwise go to waste – like 40% of the food globally that is made but never consumed. Wright also shares how they found investors to help them grow (with three rules for choosing them), how he’s built a healthy workplace culture while scaling and how to use a combination of coaching and mentoring to improve as a leader.

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The Beauty Tech Group: From start-up to IPO

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The Beauty Tech Group is a British business success story. Laurence Newman founded the home-use beauty tech firm in Manchester in 2009. It’s probably best-known for its LED face masks for skincare treatments. In late 2025 it went public on the London Stock Exchange, valued at more than £300m. Newman explains to Dougal Shaw how he scaled the business, in an emerging category that not everyone had faith in. He set out by focusing on four key pillars of aesthetic technology, including LED and radio frequency, to offer clinical results at home – treatments usually associated with expensive aesthetic clinics. He shares insights on the challenges of securing investment in a niche market and the complexities of managing international regulation and manufacturing and supply chains for a global e-commerce brand.

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Ben Askins of Gaia: Scaling and exiting with a healthy company culture

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Ben Askins is the co-founder of Gaia, a green technology company that builds online tools for companies within the environmental space. But he cut his teeth as an entrepreneur by creating a digital marketing business for luxury brands, which he scaled and successfully exited. He shares with Richard Harpin practical advice on interview techniques to hire the best candidates, building an engaged and happy workforce and how to scale a start-up with a future exit in mind.

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Sam Stoffel and Outplayed: Betting against yourself to make millions

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Sam Stoffel is the entrepreneur who founded the matched betting platform Outplayed, taking a punt on the online betting space. He explains to Richard Harpin how he bootstrapped a simple idea into a multi-million pound enterprise by copying and refining existing business models and mastering digital marketing. He shares the leadership lessons he picked up along the way, including the dangers of "shiny object syndrome". The interview explores the technicalities of subscription-based revenue, the risks of rebranding while you scale, and the importance of well-planned delegation. Stoffel also discusses his exit and transition to his latest venture, Subspot, sharing his ambition to scale a globally successful software platform.

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Tenzing: How to scale a challenger energy drink

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Hub van Bockel shares his story with Richard Harpin about founding Tenzing, a natural energy drink brand inspired by Himalayan sherpas. Drawing on his marketing background at Unilever, MTV, and Red Bull, van Bockel explains how he identified a gap in the market for low-sugar, plant-based alternatives to artificial energy drinks. But how do you take on incumbents in such a competitive space? He explains his bootstrapping strategy, which to begin with focused on niche communities like climbing and running. He also explains how he slowly wooed major retailers like Tesco and Sainsbury's. But it all really began with a pitch deck he presented to convince his wife of the risks.

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Caspar Lee: ‘How I turned attention into business leverage’

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode of The Business Leader podcast, Richard Harpin interviews Caspar Lee, the YouTube pioneer who successfully transitioned from influencer to powerhouse entrepreneur. Lee reveals the strategies behind co-founding Influencer.com, a marketing agency with multi-million pound revenues and his subsequent move into venture capital with Creator Ventures. The conversation explores vital insights for scaling businesses. Lee explains why hiring 'big company' veterans can backfire in mid-sized firms. He also outlines how partnerships can be used to drive organic growth when building communities. He also shares his tips for personal branding, reflecting on the strategies he used to build his own following.

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Rory Sutherland: The advertising guru's tips to scale your business

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Is cost cutting really a strategy or is it quietly holding businesses back? In this episode of the Business Leader podcast, Sir Richard Harpin sits down with advertising and marketing legend Rory Sutherland. Sutherland challenges some of the most deeply held assumptions in modern business, from efficiency and procurement to marketing, pricing, and customer experience – all through the lens of a marketer. Drawing on decades of experience at the advertising group Ogilvy and in behavioural science, Rory explains why an obsession with cost reduction and short-term efficiency can destroy long-term value, and why businesses need to think in terms of opportunity, not just spreadsheets. This episode is essential listening for founders, CEOs and senior leaders who want to grow sustainably without sacrificing innovation, trust, or long-term opportunity. Subscribe for weekly conversations with the thinkers and leaders shaping the future of business.

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Rohan Blacker: Learning the lessons from Sofa.com

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Rohan Blacker is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Sofa.com. Blacker shares his journey with host Dougal Shaw, from an unfulfilling legal career to becoming a pioneer in UK e-commerce. He left Sofa.com in 2015 when a private equity firm took over. Today he’s still very much in furniture retail, running Pooky.com and Schplendid sofas. Blacker tells the story behind acquiring the Sofa.com domain name, explaining why he and his co-founder felt a "nuts name" was essential for success, in the brave new world of online branding. Blacker also explains why he thinks Sofa.com declined after his exit, citing "death by a thousand cuts", including excessive discounting and high rent overheads. He explains how he is now using the lessons learned from his Sofa.com days to power his latest venture, Schplendid, which aims to champion sustainable sofas in a world of "fast furniture".

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Skin + Me: James Mishreki on scaling a UK skincare phenomenon

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

James Mishreki is the founder of the UK-based, fast-growing skincare brand Skin + Me. In this episode Mishreki discusses with host Richard Harpin his unconventional entrepreneurial journey. It began in childhood with selling copied CDs at school and included a stint as a professional poker player, a role he credits with building his resilience. The conversation explores how Skin + Me aims to disrupt a £140bn beauty and cosmetics market plagued by a 55% customer dissatisfaction rate. Mishreki details his company’s innovative personalised subscription model, which provides prescription-grade treatments through a vertically integrated system, including their own pharmacy and factory. Mishreki shares his philosophy on "rejection training" and explains why he transitioned from CEO to Chairman to focus on his core strengths.

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The FlightStory ‘sisters’ helping Steven Bartlett scale Diary of a CEO

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

FlightStory CEO Georgie Holt and Chief Revenue Officer Christiana Brenton discuss with Dougal Shaw how they are pioneering podcasts and new media alongside Steven Bartlett, creator and host of The Diary of a CEO. Moving beyond traditional audio, they operate an end-to-end studio scaling global IP across newsletters, live events, and commerce. The duo explains how they "kill the guesswork" using proprietary technology like Guest Radar and Creator Radar to identify high-potential talent through data. They delve into their collaborative leadership, the necessity of "killing the romance" to avoid stagnation, and the role of Flight X in disrupting their own success. Finally, they highlight the transition from digital consumption to real-world communities, arguing that "packaging" long-form content for algorithms is essential for maximising global human impact.

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The banking CEO helping 'extraordinary' people afford homes

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Sue Hayes, CEO of Nottingham Building Society, joins Dougal Shaw on the Business Leader podcast to explore how she’s been transforming a 175-year-old institution into a modern mutual. Hayes discusses her key strategy, defined as "together we fight for the extraordinary". Her mission is to target underserved borrowers, like Gen Z and side hustlers with irregular incomes, and help them buy homes. She explains how her building society leverages AI and fintech partnerships to modernise mortgages while maintaining its purpose-driven ethos. From rebranding to the future of high street branches, Hayes shares insights on leadership and staying relevant in the modern banking sector. She was speaking to Dougal Shaw in early November 2025.

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The AA

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Few businesses have more than 17 million customers and can say the Queen was one of them. But that's the AA. However, it has had a difficult time recently. It was drowning under £2.7 billion of debt and was taken off public markets following a takeover by the private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Towerbrook. Since then chief executive Jakob Pfaudler has been working on a turnaround of this unique business. This is the story of the AA and that turnaround...

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Sanjay Poonen: Getting fired was the best thing to happen in my career

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

He leads a US tech firm valued at $8bn, but Sanjay Poonen puts his success down to a major career setback. Poonen is CEO of US cybersecurity and AI company Cohesity, based in Silicon Valley. He grew up in Bangalore, India, but a scholarship to Dartmouth College in the US to study computer science brought him to the US. On graduation, he rose up the ranks of a Who’s Who of Silicon Valley tech companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Symantec, SAP and VMware. It was while he was vice president of marketing at Informatica that he suffered his first major career setback – he was fired. Poonen explains to Dougal Shaw why this moment of rejection ultimately made him a better, more mature and compassionate leader. He also gives advice on how to hire the best talent in the competitive world of tech.

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From elite sport to elite business: Bob Skinstad’s journey

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, host Josh Dornbrack speaks with Bob Skinstad, former Springbok and Rugby World Cup winner, about leadership, elite performance and transitioning from professional sport into business. He shares lessons from rugby, venture capital, consulting and building winning teams in high-pressure environments.

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The revival of Debenhams

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

The department store chain Debenhams was founded in 1778 but went bust in 2020, leading to thousands of job losses and the disappearance of one of Britain's best-known high street names. But now it is back, reimagined for the digital age. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Debenhams chief executive Dan Finley tells the story behind this turnaround. Dan Finley was appointed the boss of Debenhams in 2022 after the brand was bought by Boohoo. Now he is chief executive of the whole Boohoo group, which has been renamed Debenhams. That has brought its own unique challenges...

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Alibaba.com's president explains how AI tools let SMEs access global supply chains

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

It’s a magnet for side hustlers around Europe. The CoCreate event was held this November in London, the first time it’s come to Europe. It’s an event run by Alibaba.com, a global online marketplace for b2b wholesale trade. Small businesses use it to source in bulk products from manufacturers and trading companies to then sell to consumers themselves. Alibaba.com is part of Alibaba Group founded by Jack Ma in China in 1999. Alibaba.com now connects 50 million buyers with 200,000 global suppliers, many of them based in China. At CoCreate there are suppliers showing off their wares, including everything from robot vacuum cleaners to skincare products and fashion items. Dougal Shaw spoke to the entrepreneurs who flocked to this event before catching up with Kuo Zhang, the president of Alibaba.com, to find out how small companies can access global supply chains, with AI making the task increasingly sophisticated.

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Katharine Viner: The editor taking the Guardian into the TikTok age

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Many prime ministers don’t make it to 10 years in office. US presidents only get eight at most to secure their legacy. Katharine Viner has had a decade and counting as editor-in-chief at the Guardian newspaper. She is also the first woman to hold the role. She’s made radical changes to an institution more than two centuries old, while returning it to profit. Dougal Shaw took a trip to the Guardian HQ in London to learn about the reader revenue model that took everyone by surprise, commercial innovations like The Filter and how she plans to attract younger audiences while navigating the perils of social media.

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Viral video to viral brand

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Lucie Macloud reveals the unexpected story behind Hair Syrup’s meteoric rise—from a homemade solution shared on TikTok to a multi-million-pound beauty brand. In this episode of the Business Leader podcast, she joins Lucy McPhee and Josh Dornbrack to talk about battling self-doubt, navigating Dragons’ Den, handling explosive growth and learning how to lead long before she felt ready.

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Mountain Warehouse and Mark Neale

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

The story of how one of the best-known high street chains was built. Mountain Warehouse now has more than 400 shops and generates more than £450m in annual revenue. But, as founder and chief executive Mark Neale tells Graham Ruddick, this story starts with a shop selling roller blades...

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Thea Green: The beauty entrepreneur behind Nails.INC

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Thea Green, the founder of Nails.INC, is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs in the beauty and self-care space. Her early background was in journalism, but she spotted a gap in the fashion market back in the late 1990s – and grabbed the opportunity. When the world was crazy about everything “dot com” and coffee shops, she saw that the UK hadn’t caught up yet with the American trend for getting a regular manicure at nail bars. She first built her beauty empire around nail bars on the high street and in department stores. These days she presides over a multi-million-pound retail business that is based on innovative nail products like varnish, art packs and polishes. Last year Nails.INC was acquired by a private equity firm in a reported £30m deal. Thea Green remains at the top of the company she founded. Dougal Shaw went to her HQ in Mayfair, London to learn how she has evolved as a leader and what others can learn from her experience...

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The business funding SMEs

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Iwoca is one of the UK's most promising new businesses. It has a fascinating mission - to finance one-million small businesses. Christoph Rieche and James Dear founded Iwoca in 2011 to solve one of the biggest problems facing the UK economy - how to get more funding to small and medium-sized businesses to help them grow. As Christoph Rieche tells Graham Ruddick, they are making real progress, but this is just the start...

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The truth about personal branding and what leaders get wrong

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Most people measure success in likes and views — but not Amelia Sordell. In this unfiltered discussion, she sits down with Lucy McPhee and Josh Dornbrack to explain why virality is meaningless without credibility and connection. Sordell shares the frameworks she uses with CEOs, founders and global enterprises to turn content into clients. She also demystifies what actually works on platforms like LinkedIn and reveals why leaders must stop outsourcing their voice. Learn how to build a brand that survives algorithm changes, drives revenue and resonates long after the scroll stops.

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Airwallex: The founder explains the incredible story behind his fintech unicorn

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Jack Zhang founded Airwallex in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. It has now gone global and is valued at more than $6bn by investors. Zhang has moved to London in order to help Airwallex scale globally. He tells Dougal Shaw why there was a unique window of opportunity to build his fintech platform and why traditional banks still have a lot of catching up to do if they want to capitalise on the new revolution in artificial intelligence.

Airwallex is a tech-first financial operating system helping businesses scale across borders faster, by doing things like processing international payments. Zhang was born and raised in China but moved to Australia aged 16, without his family, to pursue his education. While working for several large companies as a computer programmer, he also ran multiple side hustles. It was a coffee shop venture that led to the idea for Airwallex, as he encountered the high costs associated with global payments between currencies...

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The mindset behind a World Cup winner

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Former England scrum-half, British & Irish Lion and Rugby World Cup winner Matt Dawson joins host Josh Dornbrack for an honest and inspiring conversation about performance, leadership and reinvention. The conversation goes far beyond rugby. Dawson shares how the values forged on the field - discipline, communication, accountability and the idea of “borrowing the shirt” - have shaped his life in the corporate world. Now working with global real-estate firm JLL, he reveals how elite sporting principles can transform businesses, strengthen team culture and help leaders unlock performance in fast-moving environments.

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James Reed on building a family business and why capitalism needs to change

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 05:00:40 GMT

James Reed is the chairman and chief executive of Reed, the recruitment business, which was founded by his father. He has also written a new book called Karma Capitalism, in which he says capitalism needs to change. In this podcast episode, James Reed speaks to Graham Ruddick about building a family business with annual revenues of more than £1 billion and his big ideas about the future of capitalism...

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Bloom & Wild: The business that blossomed with feedback

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Aron Gelbard is a founder and CEO obsessed with feedback. The business he has built is Bloom & Wild, which made its name with flower delivery but has now expanded into other gifts, such as brownies and whisky. It pioneered the idea of letterbox delivery, where flowers are packaged in flat boxes that can be assembled into bouquets at home.

Gelbard tells Dougal Shaw how an obsession with feedback, including A/B Testing and NPS (Net Promoter Score), has been the secret to growing his business, which is now international and has annual revenues of more than £110m. If you truly embrace feedback you can turn disappointed customers into your greatest fans...

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Zygi Kamasa: How to build a movie business

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Zygi Kamasa is building a new movie business called True Brit, which is focused on British films. Kamasa is the former chief executive of Lionsgate UK and Europe as well as Marv Studios, one of Business Leader's Growth 500, the fastest-growing businesses in the UK. He tells Graham Ruddick the story behind why he is building his own business, the story behind his global hits like Bend it Like Beckham, and how to deal with the setbacks, like turning down blockbusters such as Slumdog Millionaire...

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From pop star to founder: Rochelle Humes on reinvention and resilience

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 06:00:00 GMT

From chart-topping pop star to powerhouse entrepreneur, Rochelle Humes has built a career defined by creativity and reinvention. As the founder and creative director of My Little Coco, one of the UK’s best-selling baby and family brands, Humes has shown how passion and purpose can drive lasting success.In this episode, she opens up about the challenges of starting a business during a global pandemic, learning the power of saying no and building a brand that celebrates inclusivity and family. Humes also shares her lessons on leadership, trusting your instincts and embracing vulnerability as strength.

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The transformation of Autotrader

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Autotrader has gone from a dying print magazine to one of the UK's biggest tech businesses. Autotrader made 60 per cent of its revenue from the print magazine in 2007. But today it makes nothing from the magazine, having stopped it in 2013. Yet Autotrader is now a much bigger business. It is part of the FTSE 100 and valued at £7bn. So how did this extraordinary transformation take place? Graham Ruddick speaks to Nathan Coe, chief executive of Autotrader, to find out...

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Beyond the Game: Francesca Brown on leadership, sport & social impact

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Francesca Brown is the award-winning founder of Goals4Girls and a champion of female youth development. She has turned her love of football into a transformative programme that empowers girls aged 11-16 in marginalised communities, boosting their confidence, leadership skills and educational outcomes. Josh Dornbrack and Lucy McPhee dive into her journey from aspiring athlete to social impact pioneer, her vision for sustainable development pathways and the unique role sport plays in unlocking opportunity.

If you’re a founder, executive or aspiring leader seeking tangible inspiration from outside of the boardroom, this episode will leave you equipped with both mindset shifts and actionable takeaways. From leveraging networks and finding mentors, to creating a culture of opportunity and designing programmes with real-world impact, Brown's journey is a powerful case study in leadership, social enterprise and growth.

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British Land: Making big strategic calls

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

How do you make the big strategic decisions that will define the future of your business? How do you gather the information to make that decision? Simon Carter, chief executive of British Land, one of the biggest property companies in the UK, bet on offices when many said that office-working was dead. Graham Ruddick speaks to Simon Carter about making that contrarian decision, running a FTSE company and the future of shopping, with British Land owning retail parks across the country as part of its £10bn portfolio...

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John Amaechi: It’s not magic, it’s leadership

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

John Amaechi is an organisational psychologist, best-selling author and a professor of leadership at the University of Exeter Business School. He is quick to dismantle the myth that great leaders are “born, not made.” In this candid conversation, he reveals that the skills which make leaders exceptional, from emotional literacy to effective storytelling, aren’t magic tricks. They’re basic, learnable tools that anyone can master with intention and practice.

Amaechi shares how leaders often hide behind the excuse that “it just comes naturally to others” to avoid confronting their own fears. Whether it’s public speaking, conflict mediation or building trust, he argues that leadership is about consistent work, not innate talent. This episode will leave you inspired and equipped with a new mindset: if leadership excellence isn’t magic, then there’s no reason you can’t achieve it too.

Presented by Josh Dornbrack and Lucy McPhee

John Amaechi's book, It's Not Magic: The ordinary skills of exceptional leaders, is out now.

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Saul Klein: The top investor in promising businesses

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The biggest investor in promising businesses in Europe is Saul Klein's venture capital firm, according to new research from Dealroom. He is the name behind many of Britain's fastest-growing tech businesses. So what does he look for in a business? How can UK businesses take on the US tech giants? And what did he learn from being co-founder of LoveFilm, the UK answer to Netflix? Graham Ruddick went to his offices in London to find out...

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Plusnet boss Joanna Carman on modern leadership

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Joanna Carman leads the Plusnet broadband brand, which is owned by BT, and also serves as its chief marketing officer. She joined BT in 2019 and took up the Plusnet role two years later while still in her mid-thirties.

Dougal Shaw caught up with Joanna Carman at BT's London HQ to learn about forging a leadership style that appeals to Gen Z...

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PocDoc: A son's quest to tackle heart disease with tech

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Steve Roest experienced a traumatic event 25 years ago that changed his life. When he was 14 his father collapsed in a restaurant, crashing through a table, due to an undiagnosed heart condition. He survived but was left with long-term health issues.

Steve Roest wants to prevent other families from experiencing a similar episode. He co-founded PocDoc with his wife in 2019. It makes at-home digital diagnostic kits so people can do health tests for chronic conditions like heart disease. The company can make up to 200,000 tests per month. It already has 40 employees and millions of pounds in revenue.

Dougal Shaw went to PodDoc's warehouse and headquarters outside Cambridge to hear the story.

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Hilton Hotels

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 07:23:23 GMT

How do you build one of the biggest hotel brands in the world? Simon Vincent is president of Hilton hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is responsible for around 1,000 hotels. Vincent joined Hilton in 2007 and looks after more than 85,000 employees, 18,000 of whom are based in the UK.

In this episode, Simon Vincent takes Dougal Shaw on a personal tour of the Park Lane Hilton, speaking to him in the luxury penthouse suite that has welcomed rock star Jon Bon Jovi and many others. Hilton reveals the detailed calculation that goes into the slow, steady expansion of hotels. This involves scouting and testing potential locations, but also figuring out the best balance between managing your own hotels and finding a franchisee to work with.

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How Thierry Garnier turned around Kingfisher, owner of B&Q and Screwfix

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

B&Q and Screwfix are two of the biggest retail brands in the UK, but when Thierry Garnier arrived as chief executive of Kingfisher, the owner of the chains, it was a business under pressure. Thierry Garnier has got Kingfisher firing and is pioneering new ways to shop, including online deliveries within 30 minutes. Much of what he has learned about retail and leadership comes from China, where he spent eight years as the boss of Carrefour's business there. China may offer a glimpse of the future, and Thierry Garnier is keen to learn what that looks like...

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The 100-day blueprint for business turnarounds

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

What would you do if your company had just 90 days to survive? That’s the reality turnaround expert Bill Canady has faced more than once. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, we speak with him to unpack the three drivers of business transformation: growth, fear and exit. Canady shows how focusing on profitability first, leveraging the Pareto 80/20 principle and taking tough but necessary decisions can set a business back on course.

From restructuring teams to repricing products, his insights cut through complexity with actionable advice. Whether you’re battling cash flow problems, stalled growth or preparing for a strategic exit, this conversation will help you reframe your challenges as opportunities.

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OakNorth and Rishi Khosla

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Rishi Khosla, the co-founder and chief executive of OakNorth, joins Graham Ruddick to tell the story of how OakNorth was built. Founded in 2015, OakNorth was valued at $2.8bn (£2.1bn) in its last funding round and is generating annual profits of more than £200m. Khosla and co-founder Joel Perlman set-out to revolutionise banking for small and medium-sized businesses. Despite some ups and downs, they are doing just that...

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The secret to building a truly innovative culture

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Innovation isn’t reserved for tech giants. It’s the beating heart of any business that wants to grow and stay relevant. In this episode, we dive into what it takes to build a culture where innovation thrives. From uncovering hidden skills in your workforce to reshaping how teams collaborate, you’ll discover practical steps to spark new thinking.

We speak with David Keene, the co-founder and CEO of tech firm Aurrigo, Nathan Thomas, Ricoh Europe’s director of innovation, Richard North, president at innovative toy manufacturer Wow! Stuff, Zoe Harris, travel company On The Beach’s chief marketing officer and Andrea Morgan-Vandome, the chief innovation officer at supply chain software provider Blue Yonder. They share hard-won lessons on fostering curiosity, reducing fear and creating environments where bold ideas can take root.

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Coffee Nation, Costa Express and the UK's coffee revolution

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

It was not until 1998 that Starbucks opened its first UK coffee shop. Around the same time, Martyn Dawes, who suspected that people wanted easier access to quality coffee, started putting Coffee Nation coffee machines into shops.

Today, coffee shops are everywhere and Coffee Nation has become Costa Express, which is owned by Coca-Cola after a blockbuster £3.9bn takeover. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Martyn Dawes, the founder of Coffee Nation, explains how a trip to the US inspired the business, why his initial idea was wrong and whether he regrets selling too early.

Martyn Dawes is now a Business Leader facilitator, overseeing peer-to-peer forums between CEOs and founders. To find out more about Business Leader membership, visit: https://businessleader.co.uk/membership

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What AI can really do for your business today

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

AI has been called the biggest business shift since the internet but what does that actually mean for your business? In this episode, Matt Weaver of OpenAI explains how businesses can move beyond experiments and embed AI into daily operations. He reveals why literacy, executive sponsorship and experimentation are the three critical levers leaders must pull.

You’ll also hear how Virgin Atlantic is using AI to extend its trademark personal service and why the real win isn’t about replacing jobs but removing repetitive tasks so people can focus on higher-value work.

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The British CEO behind WD-40

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

WD-40 is one of the world's best-known brands. You probably keep a can somewhere in your house for unjamming locks and stopping squeaks. The company was founded in San Diego, California in the 1950s and the secret formula used in WD-40 was devised by a team working on missile maintenance in the aerospace industry. Today the company is worth around $3 billion and listed on the stock market in the US. But it is run by a Brit, Steve Brass, who speaks to Dougal Shaw about the story behind the company, why it is important not to get distracted from your core product and why Sir Alex Ferguson is his ultimate role model...

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The real power of emotional intelligence in business

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In today’s competitive business landscape, technical skills and strategy are no longer enough to lead effectively. Emotional intelligence, the ability to understand yourself, manage your emotions, and connect with others, is increasingly becoming the defining trait of successful leaders.

In this episode, we speak to Amy Jacobson, who has written a book titled The Emotional Intelligence Advantage: Mastering Change and Difficult Conversations. We explore her five-pillar framework for building emotional intelligence. From owning your wiring to handling difficult conversations with empathy, she explains how leaders can turn emotional intelligence into a practical, measurable business advantage.

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Vue cinemas and Tim Richards

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Tim Richards tells the story of how he founded Vue International and built it into one of the biggest cinema chains in the world...

Hosted by Graham Ruddick

Produced by Anouszka Tate

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CLASSIC EPISODE: Wizz Air

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for travelling as people enjoy their summer holidays. Many of you will have travelled on Wizz Air, one of the biggest airlines in Europe and a business that has emerged as a new low-cost rival to Ryanair and EasyJet in recent years. In this classic episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Graham Ruddick speaks to Jozsef Varadi, the founder and chief executive of Wizz Air, about what it takes to build an airline.

This episode was originally released in April 2024. Business Leader is sharing classic episodes throughout August in response to demand from our fantastic audience. We will be sharing the best founder and scale-up stories from our archive...

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The Turnaround episode 5 - Success, succession and starting again

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 02:00:00 GMT

In the finale of series 1, we look at Chiefs' attempt to achieve their goal by winning the double, when to take tough personnel decisions and break down the full anatomy of the turnaround.

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CLASSIC EPISODE: Castore

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The start of the new football season is here, which means lots of new football kits, including many made by Castore, the UK's answer to Nike and Adidas. In this classic episode of the Business Leader Podcast from early 2024, Graham Ruddick sits down with Castore co-founder and chief executive Tom Beahon to hear the story of how he and his brother Phil have built a new sportswear giant...

Business Leader is sharing classic episodes throughout August in response to demand from our fantastic audience. We will be sharing the best founder and scale-up stories from our archive...

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The Turnaround episode 4 - How culture can beat complacency

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 02:00:00 GMT

What happens after you reach the top?

In the fourth instalment of our five-part series, Exeter Chiefs claim their first Premiership title but then face a new challenge: staying there.

We explore how a solid culture can negate complacency, how focusing on what they could control got Chiefs through a major scandal and the Covid lockdown and much more.

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CLASSIC EPISODE: Gordon Sanghera and Oxford Nanopore

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 02:00:00 GMT

Gordon Sanghera, the co-founder and chief executive of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, has announced he will step down as boss after more than 20 years of building the business into a £2bn unicorn at the forefront of science and technology.

In this classic episode of the Business Leader Podcast from early 2023 (back when it was called Business Studies!) Graham Ruddick speaks to Gordon Sanghera about the story behind Oxford Nanopore...

Business Leader is sharing classic episodes throughout August in response to demand from our fantastic audience. We will be sharing the best founder and scale-up stories from our archive...

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The Turnaround episode 3 - The final they had to lose

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT

What do you do when you've come so close, only to fall short again and again?

In this third episode of our five-part series, we dive into Exeter Chiefs’ toughest year, which included four major heartbreaks in 14 months, a painful Premiership final loss and a crisis of confidence.

We find out about the behind-the-scenes team meeting that changed everything. It’s a raw and inspiring look at resilience, accountability and the power of emotional reset.

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CLASSIC EPISODE: Monzo

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 02:00:00 GMT

You asked, we delivered. Our fantastic Business Leader audience is growing fast and you have been asking us to share our favourite episodes from the back catalogue. So throughout August we will be doing just that and re-publishing some of our best founder and scale-up stories.

This episode on Monzo is a classic scale-up story. How do you turn a popular consumer brand into a business that actually makes money? Graham Ruddick met TS Anil, the chief executive of Monzo to find out. Under his watch, Monzo has gone from a loss-making business into one reportedly working on a stock market floatation that could value the digital bank at more than £6bn. As TS Anil says: "A mission without a business plan is a bumper sticker. Anybody can write one."

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How to Make a Billion episode 4: Simon Sinek

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Simon Sinek, the best-selling author of Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last, joins Richard Harpin and Graham Ruddick to discuss how to build a successful business.

To listen to previous episodes of How to Make a Billion and get updates when new episodes go live, subscribe to the series via the links below:

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-make-a-billion-in-9-steps-with-richard-harpin/id1825363917

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5aPBAfRKnqW8A2kN44X37w

In this show, Richard Harpin, who built Homeserve into a £4.1bn business, explores his nine steps to building a billion-pound business. To find out more about Richard’s nine steps and how to build a successful business you can buy the book How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps at Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Make-Billion-Nine-Steps/dp/0349445389

This is a Business Leader podcast hosted by Graham Ruddick and produced by Lucy McPhee. Filmed at Spiritland studios in London

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The Turnaround episode 2 - The night everything changed

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 04:30:00 GMT

This is the second episode of our five-part series, where we revisit the night Exeter Chiefs rewrote their destiny. From underdog mentality to promotion glory, hear how grit, resilience and leadership took this Devon side into the Premiership for the first time. Discover how strategy, culture and character won out over money and reputation, and what business leaders can learn from one of sport’s most unlikely success stories.

In this episode, we look at the galvanising effect of being counted out, the power of opening your eyes and believing what you see and how Chiefs’ academy system tested the coaching team's leadership.

To listen to the rest of the series, subscribe to The Turnaround feed.

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Nike

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Nike historian Scott Reames joins Graham Ruddick to discuss the story of how the world's biggest sports brand was built. They discuss:

-The origins of the Nike name and swoosh logo

-What Phil Knight was like as a founder and chief executive

-How challenges in the 1980s lay the foundations for Nike to go from good to great

-The other key people who helped build Nike, such as Rob Strasser

-What the film Air gets right and wrong about the story of how Nike signed Michael Jordan in 1984

-Why Nike has faced challenges in recent years

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The Turnaround episode 1 - First bold steps

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 05:00:00 GMT

What does it take to turn around an organisation? Take it from struggling to thriving? Rock bottom to the top? The Turnaround will tell the stories of the organisations and people who have done just this.

In series one, we look to the world of sport and the remarkable story of how a small rugby team in Devon went from amateurs to English and European champions. That team is Exeter Chiefs.

You will hear from the management, coaches, players and those who were watching it as it happened. You will hear about the ambition that launched the turnaround, the false starts it suffered, and how, just when they thought they had made it, they realised they still had so much to learn.

This is the first episode of our five-part series. To listen to the rest of the series, subscribe to The Turnaround feed.

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The CEO burn-out clinic

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

What causes CEO burn-out? What can be done to avoid it? And how do you help CEOs who have burned out? Welcome to the Paracelsus Recovery clinic, which has been treating CEOs in Zurich since 2013. Patients are assigned therapists who live with them during their stay and are on-call 24/7. A team of 15 people, including psychiatrists, nurses, nutritionists and personal chefs, are responsible for each client. Clients may stay for up to two months at a time and get VIP treatment that costs around £85,000 per week. Dougal Shaw travelled to Zurich to speak with Jan Gerber, the founder and CEO of the clinic, to find out why CEOs fly in from all over the world to be treated here...

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How to Make a Billion episode 2: Steve Hewitt on Gymshark

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In this new podcast series, Richard Harpin, who built Homeserve into a £4.1bn business, explores his nine steps to building a billion-pound business. In episode two, Richard speaks with Steve Hewitt, the former chief executive of Gymshark, about three of his steps. These steps are:

-Bricks, clicks and paper

-Hire your replacement

-Go global with locals

To find out more about Richard’s nine steps and how to build a successful business you can buy the book How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps at Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Make-Billion-Nine-Steps/dp/0349445389

You can subscribe to this new series via the links below:

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-make-a-billion-in-9-steps-with-richard-harpin/id1825363917

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5aPBAfRKnqW8A2kN44X37w

This is a Business Leader podcast hosted by Graham Ruddick and produced by Lucy McPhee. Filmed at Spiritland studios in London

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The investor who wants to scale-up your business

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The financial crisis nearly destroyed Britain's banks, but from the remnants of this chaos the Business Growth Fund was created. BGF, backed by the biggest UK banks, is now the most active investor in small and medium-sized businesses in the country. If the UK is to turn more promising businesses into large companies then BGF will be key. It has already invested £4.5bn into more than 600 businesses since it launched. So now what? Graham Ruddick meets Andy Gregory, the chief executive of BGF, to find out...

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How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps with Richard Harpin: Episode 1 with Touker Suleyman

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In this new podcast series, Richard Harpin, who built Homeserve into a £4.1bn business, explores his nine steps to building a billion-pound business. In episode one, Richard speaks with Touker Suleyman, the Dragons' Den star, about the first three of his steps. These steps are:

-Copy and pivot

-Get an investor

-Get some coachment

To find out more about Richard’s nine steps and how to build a successful business you can buy the book How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps at Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Make-Billion-Nine-Steps/dp/0349445389

You can subscribe to this new series via the links below:

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-make-a-billion-in-9-steps-with-richard-harpin/id1825363917

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5aPBAfRKnqW8A2kN44X37w

This is a Business Leader podcast hosted by Graham Ruddick and produced by Lucy McPhee. Filmed at Spiritland studios in London

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Sir John Hegarty: Why brands still matter in the social media age

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Sir John Hegarty is one of the most revered figures in the UK advertising industry. Starting out in ‘swinging Sixties’ London, he went on to be a founding partner of Saatchi & Saatchi in the 1970s and co-founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) in the early 1980s. With BBH he masterminded adverts that became part of the national conversation, including the Levi's 501 jeans adverts with model Nick Kamen stripping in a launderette. He also helped to create the famous "Vorsprung durch Technik" campaigns for Audi.

These days he is creative director of The Garage Soho and runs a course called The Business of Creativity. In a wide-ranging interview about creativity, he explains to Dougal Shaw that “practices change, but principles remain”, sharing his thoughts on social media influencers, how to find beauty in business and the best way to approach artificial intelligence...

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How GoFundMe raises money and makes money

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

GoFundMe is one of the world’s biggest crowdfunding platforms. It focuses on charitable donations and has generated over $30bn in funds since it launched in 2010. It is based in San Diego, California and has more than 800 employees. But it has been led by a Brit, Tim Cadogan, since 2020.

Dougal Shaw speaks to Tim Cadogan in the latest episode of the Business Leader Podcast. Cadogan grew up and studied in the UK, before moving to California in order to pursue his dream career in tech. After two stints with big management consultancies, he worked at Yahoo! for five years, before co-founding his own adtech start-up, OpenX. He discusses the unique challenges of operating in the donations space, how AI can help digital fundraising and how his business makes money...

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How Kenny Wilson grew Dr Martens

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Kenny Wilson speaks to Graham Ruddick about the story behind how Dr Martens, the famous footwear brand, trebled its annual revenues to £1 billion while he was chief executive. It is a story that begins with Kenny Wilson as a promising footballer at Aberdeen while Sir Alex Ferguson was manager, involves learning about brand and leadership at Levi's, and has some challenges along the way...

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Bookshelf: The best business books

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

What are the business books you should be reading right now? What are the leading CEOs and founders reading? Josh Dornbrack, Graham Ruddick and Sarah Vizard get together to discuss what the business world is reading and what they would recommend to you. Plus, they do a blind-ranking of some all-time classics...

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Growth 500: The surprising stories behind Britain's fastest-growing businesses

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Who are the fastest-growing businesses in the UK and what are the stories behind them? Graham Ruddick, Sarah Vizard, Dougal Shaw and Robert Watts get together to discuss what Business Leader has founded by building the Growth 500, the most comprehensive guide ever to Britain's fastest-growing businesses

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Victoria Price meets Imran Hakim

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Imran Hakim is a serial entrepreneur and has built Hakim Group into a collection of independent opticians across the UK. But he also found extraordinary success through Dragons Den and invented a toy that became one of the UK's most popular Christmas presents. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Victoria Price speaks to Imran Hakim about building his business, Dragons Den and the challenge of being a parent and chief executive...

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Gtech: The window-fitter who became an inventor

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Nick Grey is the founder and owner of Gtech, which he has built into a multi-million-pound technology business. Gtech started out with vacuum cleaners, but has since expanded into power tools, hair dryers and much more. Grey is the inventor behind many of its original designs, initially working from his home in Worcestershire. He founded Gtech in 2001 having previously worked as a window-fitter on building sites and a lab technician at Vax.

Dougal Shaw went to meet Nick Grey at Gtech Community Stadium, where football club Brentford play, to hear the story behind this innovative UK success story...

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Great British Billion-Pound Businesses

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Graham Ruddick and Sarah Vizard are joined by Rob Watts and James Whittaker, the head of UK wealth management and chief executive of Deutsche Bank UK, to discuss what it takes to build a billion-pound business in the UK. Who are the people who have done this? What are their stories? And what are the 56 businesses on Business Leader's list of Great British Billion-Pound Businesses? All this and more is covered in the latest episode of the Business Leader Podcast.

This episode is sponsored by Deutsche Bank Wealth Management

To see the full-list of Great British Billion-Pound Businesses please click this link: https://businessleader.co.uk/feature/gbbpb

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Yotel: How to scale-up with small hotel rooms

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Dougal Shaw checks-in to a Yotel for a guided tour of the business with CEO Hubert Viriot. The brand is known for its compact, functional but stylish designs. It was started by British entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe, who also founded the Yo! Sushi food chain. Inspired by high-end, long-haul travel and the minimalism of Japanese hotels, he opened the first Yotel at Gatwick Airport in 2007. The idea was successful and expanded to other international airports. Hubert Viriot joined the business as CEO in 2014 with a mission to supercharge the concept with global expansion, taking it into urban areas. It now has 23 hotels in cities around the world, in places like New York, Miami, Singapore, Geneva and Edinburgh. So what’s the secret formula for Yotel and how do you scale a new hotel brand?

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The wasteful entrepreneur: How Bruce Bratley built First Mile

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Bruce Bratley has gone from studying for a PhD to building one of the UK’s most successful recycling businesses. He founded the waste management and recycling company First Mile in London in 2004. It now has 200 employees, an annual turnover of £50m and helps more than 30,000 businesses around the UK with recycling solutions. Its clients include large companies like Pret, Caffè Nero, Netflix and Amazon, as well as small businesses ranging from clothes stores to restaurants. First Mile collects more than 65,000 tonnes of waste every year using zero and low-emission vehicles and electric cargo bikes, which it takes to recycling centres. Bratley explains to Dougal Shaw how he built the business from scratch as well as offering some tips on how to recycle more intelligently...

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How a student accommodation start-up became a £4bn FTSE 100 company

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Graham Ruddick meets Joe Lister, the chief executive of Unite Group, to hear the story behind how this business went from a student start-up in Bristol to a FTSE 100 company. Unite's unique culture is at the heart of it all...

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Three tech unicorn CEOs on how they scaled-up

Thu, 29 May 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Here are three business leaders who all have one thing in common - they lead US-based, SaaS companies valued at more than $1 billion. SaaS (software as a service) businesses are the lifeblood of the modern economy. Their products help with everything from sales calls and marketing to employee onboarding and supply chain management. These days all companies are awash with data, but artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to put that data to use. Dougal Shaw speaks to the three CEOs about how they scaled-up their business. He speaks one-on-one with Katherine Kostereva of Creatio, Chet Kapoor of Datastax and Doug Winter of Seismic.

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The venture capital firm helping UK businesses take on the US (and what it looks for in founders)

Tue, 27 May 2025 03:00:00 GMT

Highland Europe was founded on the basis that promising European businesses, including those in the UK, can take on the US tech giants if they get the right funding. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Fergal Mullen, the co-founder of Highland Europe, explains what he looks for in founders and promising businesses (and what he avoids). And why Europe could take on the US by merging the major stock markets across the continent, including London

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How do you build a nuclear power plant? (and not be Mr Burns)

Thu, 22 May 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Julia Pyke is joint managing director of the Sizewell C nuclear plant and she thinks nuclear power has an image problem. She blames a lot of this on The Simpsons cartoon and in particular, the evil character Mr Burns. However, as Pyke explains to Dougal Shaw, she is trying to challenge that stereotype while building Sizewell C in Suffolk, which is due to switch on in the mid-2030s.

The UK hasn’t turned on a new nuclear plant for three decades. The climate crisis has made nuclear energy more appealing. However, nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima still loom large in the public imagination. Pyke explains how she is building a nuclear workforce that is diverse and reflects modern society, while also making the case for the safety of the nuclear industry.

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The story of Thomson Reuters

Tue, 20 May 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Thomson Reuters is a modern news and information giant. It is worth more than $85 billion (£64 billion) and is one of the leading sources of news around the world. Paul Julius Reuter started Reuters with an office in 1851. Since then it was the first to tell the world about the sinking of the Titantic, the construction of the Berlin Wall and, in more modern times, that Mark Zuckerberg planned to float Facebook on the stock market. It's also won a string of Pulitzer Prizes. However, today, the bulk of the company's revenues comes from law, tax, accounting and other specialists areas

In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Graham Ruddick speaks to chief executive Steve Hasker about the story so far and what may come next, including all the work that Thomson Reuters is doing on artificial intelligence

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Neil Mullarkey: How comedy skills can help you in business

Thu, 15 May 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Dougal Shaw takes a trip to the Comedy Store in central London to meet a legend of improvisational comedy, who has a few tricks he can teach businesses.

Neil Mullarkey has been performing with the Comedy Store Players every week for three decades. He has also worked closely with Mike Myers, who starred in the Austin Powers films. These days, as well as performing unscripted comedy, Mullarkey runs staff workshops with businesses and coaches individual CEOs, showing how the tools of his trade can help them.

So how does improvisational comedy help you get ahead in business? Mullarkey shares tips on teamwork, presentation skills and getting comfortable with spontaneity.

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The FTSE 100 director who quit and built a new FTSE 100 company

Tue, 13 May 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Andrew Jones was the director of a FTSE 100 company and highly regarded in the business world. But he was concerned he was missing a big opportunity. So, inspired by Warren Buffett, Jones decided to risk his career and launch his own business. It proved to be a great decision. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Andrew Jones tells Graham Ruddick what happened next - he built a new FTSE 100 company of his own...

This episode covers:

-The story behind London Metric (market capitalisation of £4bn)

-Raising money from investors

-The wisdom of Warren Buffett

-Modern retail and property trends

-Negotiating with top entrepreneurs

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Jake Humphrey on why high achievers aren't that different

Thu, 08 May 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Jake Humphrey has spent years examining the habits of world-class performers. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Graham Ruddick and Josh Dornbrack sit down with the Business Leader columnist and host of the High Performance podcast to find out how you can apply these principles to build high-performing teams and cultures.

From managing confidence to maintaining momentum, he offers practical, powerful insights on what drives long-term success and what most leaders get wrong. We also discuss his new podcast, The Room Where It Happened, which gives insight into the conversations that shaped businesses, offering a rare glimpse into the defining moments of top entrepreneurs and industry leaders.

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How John Roberts built AO.com, with Graham Ruddick

Tue, 06 May 2025 09:05:19 GMT

Graham Ruddick travels to Bolton, Lancashire, to hear how John Roberts built AO.com into a leading online electricals retailer with more than £1bn of revenue and 12 million customers. AO is one of few online success stories in the UK and it all started with a £1 bet. Since it was founded in 2000, AO's story has included a high-profile stock market flotation, a U-turn on the chief executive position and, as Roberts explains, a rethink on fun. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, learn the story behind how a cutting-edge online retailer was built.

John Roberts is a supporter of OnSide, a charity that is building and opening youth centres across the UK. You can find out more via the link below:

https://www.onsideyouthzones.org/

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Victoria Price meets Henrietta Rix of Rixo

Thu, 01 May 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In a special series for the Business Leader Podcast, Victoria Price is meeting entrepreneurs from around the UK to hear the personal stories behind their success. In the third episode, Victoria Price speaks to Henrietta Rix, the co-founder of Rixo, about building a new fashion brand.

Victoria Price is head of private capital at Alvarez & Marsal, the consultancy firm, and has spent over 20 years in professional services in a collection of senior roles. In previous episodes, Victoria Price spoke to Tom Ryder of Applied Nutrition and Clare Roberts, the co-founder and chief executive of Kids Planet.

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Ordnance Survey with Dougal Shaw: Inside Britain’s digital brain

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Are you ready to take a tour of a uniquely British organisation? The Ordnance Survey was founded in the 18th century to protect Britain from Napoleon’s armies. Its job is to map Britain in detail. That task didn’t change that much for two centuries. But now it's undergone a digital reboot. Dougal Shaw went to meet the CEO Nick Bolton to find out how modern maps are made, which includes the National Geographic Database, the so-called digital brain of Britain. Bolton also explains what it’s like working for an organisation that is owned by the government but given a mandate to operate like a business. And he explains how the Ordnance Survey is leading the way with artificial intelligence and wants to deliver "digital dividends for the country”.

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Victoria Price meets Clare Roberts of Kids Planet

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In a new limited series for the Business Leader Podcast, Victoria Price meets entrepreneurs from around the UK to hear the personal stories behind their success. Victoria Price is head of private capital at Alvarez & Marsal, the consultancy firm, and has spent over 20 years in professional services in a collection of senior roles.

In the second episode of the series, Victoria Price speaks to Clare Roberts, the co-founder and chief executive of Kids Planet, which has more than 200 nurseries around the UK. The interview explores how a need for flexible childcare inspired the business, being a female entrepreneur and how Kids Planet secured backers such as BGF

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How Professor Sir Peter Donnelly went from brilliant statistician to entrepreneur

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 05:00:00 GMT

You haven't heard from anyone like Professor Sir Peter Donnelly before. He is a statistician, professor, a knight of the realm and an entrepreneur. Not only has he given a Ted Talk about statistics that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, but he is now working on genetics tests that could save lives and change the world by helping people understand how predisposed they are to becoming obese or getting certain illnesses. Donnelly left his career in academia to become the co-founder and chief executive of Genomics, which is developing these genetic tests and is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the UK. But this may only be the start of its story, as Graham Ruddick explains...

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How Kiki McDonough built a jewellery brand fit for the Royals

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Graham Ruddick meets Kiki McDonough to tell the story of how she built a luxury jewellery brand which has been worn by the Princess of Wales, the Queen and Princess Diana. But despite gaining worldwide recognition, Kiki McDonough has decided to only have one shop in London. Find out why in the latest episode of the Business Leader Podcast

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NEW SERIES: Victoria Price meets Tom Ryder of Applied Nutrition

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this first episode, she speaks to Tom Ryder, the founder and chief executive of Applied Nutrition, who has gone from a scaffolder in Liverpool to the man behind one of the biggest stock market flotations in the UK over the last year. Applied Nutrition listed on the stock market in 2024 with a valuation of £350m. We hear the story behind him growing up in Liverpool, his love of drama, nutrition tips and the one piece of advice he would give to budding entrepreneurs...

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Tariff special with Times political editor Steven Swinford

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 15:26:34 GMT

What do President Trump's tariffs mean for politics, the global economy, businesses and consumers? And what is going on in the corridors of power in the UK?

The Business Leader team – Graham Ruddick, Sarah Vizard, Dougal Shaw and Josh Dornbrack – are joined by the political editor of The Times and Business Leader columnist Steven Swinford to cover what you need to know about the tariffs and the meltdown in financial markets.

The eyes of the world have been on the US in the last few months since President Trump's inauguration but nothing has held its attention as much as his announcement on tariffs. As businesses countries across the globe scramble to understand how the tariffs will affect them, China has retaliated and more could follow. What will the UK do?

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The strategic genius of Taylor Swift

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Steve Jobs. Jeff Bezos. Taylor Swift? A new book makes a compelling case for why the world’s biggest pop star belongs in the pantheon of business masterminds.

In this episode, Josh Dornbrack talks to Harvard Business Review senior editor Kevin Evers to explore the bold strategic decisions behind Taylor Swift’s rise, from redefining fan engagement to mastering reinvention in a disrupted industry. Her $2bn Eras Tour wasn’t a fluke, it was the product of long-term thinking, relentless innovation and "anti-fragile" leadership. Tune in for sharp insights that will change how you think about strategy, brand and customer connection.

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Pip & Nut: Passion project to supermarket hit

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Pip Murray founded Pip & Nut in 2013. Her original peanut butter recipe was based on a power snack she developed at home to help her prepare for long runs as a keen jogger. She wanted a natural recipe that avoided additives and palm oil.

Her recipe proved such a hit with friends that she saw the potential to turn it into a business idea, believing there was a gap in the market. Peanut butter is, she discovered, a “permitted indulgence” for consumers. Twelve years later, you will find her jars and other products in most supermarkets.

The brand has retail sales of more than £25m and employs more than 30 people. Pip Murray explains to Dougal Shaw how she took her idea from the kitchen table to supermarket shelves, through food markets, rigorous product testing and a few failed product ideas along the way.

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How Udemy and AI will revolutionise how we learn

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Udemy is the San Francisco-based company changing how we learn new skills. Udemy offers online courses ranging from how to use Microsoft Excel to how to build high-performing teams. Now it plans to use new AI technology to provide personalised coaching and training. In the latest episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Graham Ruddick meets Udemy chief executive Hugo Sarrazin to talk about its plans and the challenges of scaling-up a new tech giant

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Bonus content: Greggs on the high street

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 06:00:00 GMT

What does Greggs look for in a shop location? What is the state of UK high streets? With more than 2,600 shops in the UK, Greggs is ideally placed to answer these questions. In a bonus episode that follows-up our main podcast interview with Roisin Currie, Graham Ruddick speaks to the Greggs chief executive about shops and high streets...

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The glory of Greggs with Roisin Currie

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 06:00:00 GMT

What is the secret behind the success of Greggs? How has this Newcastle-based bakery chain grown into a business with more than 2,500 shops and celebrity fans all over the world? Graham Ruddick travels to Greggs HQ in Newcastle to speak to chief executive Roisin Currie and find the answers...

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How to build a personal brand that drives business success with Amelia Sordell

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Tired of cookie-cutter LinkedIn posts and empty personal branding advice? In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Josh Dornbrack sits down with Amelia Sordell, an online marketing expert and author of The Personal Branding Playbook, to uncover the truth about building a personal brand that actually works.

Forget chasing viral fame – Sordell reveals how authenticity, clear goals and strategic content can transform your reputation into a powerful business tool. Whether you're a CEO, founder or just starting your career, you’ll learn how to leverage your personal brand to win clients, attract talent and open doors you never thought possible.

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How the Geek Way helped Allica Bank become Britain's fastest-growing company

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Allica Bank has been Britain's fastest-growing company over the last few years according to a collection of different reports that track this. This growth has been driven by Richard Davies, the chief executive, who arrived at Allica in 2020 from Revolut to what was effectively a blank sheet of paper - the bank had a licence and funding, but its founder had departed and it made only £5m of loans. Since then Allica has been transformed into a thriving digital bank for small and medium-sized businesses. At the heart of this transformation has been an approach inspired by what Davies has learned from his varied career and a book, The Geek Way, that provides a playbook for modern businesses...

In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Graham Ruddick speaks to Richard Davies about the story behind Allica, why small and medium-sized businesses need a better bank and the outlook for the UK economy.

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Bonus episode: How to fix UK Plc?

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 06:00:00 GMT

The UK economy is stagnating, productivity is falling and fewer than one in 20 promising businesses goes on to become a large company. So how do we fix this? It is a question that politicians, economists, and investors are struggling to answer. But there are solutions. The Business Leader team - Graham Ruddick, Sarah Vizard, Dougal Shaw and Josh Dornbrack - get together to discuss the state of play and the way forward. In the process they preview the new edition of Business Leader magazine and the Business Leader Summit...

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Grind: How to build a coffee empire

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 06:00:00 GMT

David Abrahamovitch founded the Grind coffee brand in 2011 in Shoreditch, east London. Its pink branding made the company stand out in our coffee-obsessed world and it has built a cult following. Grind now has more than 14 physical locations serving coffee and food, as well as a huge roastery where it prepares its coffee. It has also expanded into a direct-to-consumer offer (which sends its compostable coffee pods to homes) and is in supermarkets. Dougal Shaw went to meet David Abrahamovitch at Grind's headquarters in Shoreditch, a stone’s throw away from the original café where it all began, to find out how he built his coffee empire and its loyal customers

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LinkedIn's UK strategy

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 06:00:00 GMT

LinkedIn is the leading social network for businesses around the world. Now it wants a stake in real-life interactions too. Dougal Shaw has been given exclusive access to its new Experience Centre, which has just opened in central London, where he meets Janine Chamberlin, head of LinkedIn in the UK. The space is designed to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing in the new world of hybrid work. Chamberlin explains her personal remit in the UK, the way LinkedIn has evolved from primarily a recruitment platform into a place for sharing original content, especially in video, the impact of AI – and much more.

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The story behind Gousto recipe boxes: "Al Gore mentored me, Tony Blair hasn’t replied yet"

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Timo Boldt is the founder and CEO of Gousto, the company that sends out recipes in a box for people to cook at home. The business started in 2012 and now has annual revenues of more than £300m. In this episode of the Business Leader podcast, Boldt offers Dougal Shaw a tour of the company’s kitchens in west London where chefs experiment with new recipes. Boldt explains how AI tech has been deeply embedded within Gousto since the outset. He also explains how coaching and mentorship has transformed him as a leader. He is a certified coach, which has helped him spot his own biases and “flex his style”, he admits. And to this day he still sends out up to 100 cold emails and letters a year asking people to mentor him.

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Quantum and AI: What the future holds for British business

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Nicola Hodson is the chairman of IBM in the UK and Ireland and one of the most senior women in tech. IBM has a long legacy in pioneering technology. It’s working closely right now with British businesses to implement artificial intelligence, while also working at the cutting edge of Quantum computing. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Nicola Hodson and Dougal Shaw discuss what could happen next, including how the Wimbledon tennis tournament and a football club looking to improve its talent scouting operation are already using the new technology...

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How Justin King rescued Sainsbury's

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

The turnaround of Sainsbury's under Justin King is one of the most famous in UK corporate history. This episode of the Business Leader Podcast is the story of how it happened.

When King arrived as chief executive of Sainsbury's in 2004 the supermarket chain was in crisis. It had gone from the biggest food retailer in the UK to the third biggest behind Tesco and Asda, and sales were still falling. By the time King stood down in 2014, Sainsbury's sales had grown by more than 50 per cent, profits had tripled and the brand had been revitalised.

More than a decade on, King now looks back on the story with more candour and insight than ever before, including the story behind his rivalry with Tesco and chief executive Sir Terry Leahy.

With Graham Ruddick

For more Business Leader case studies and masterclasses check-out www.businessleader.co.uk

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How Disney is creative

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Ever feel like you're stuck in a loop, doing the same things but hoping for different results? In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Josh Dornbrack sits down with Duncan Wardle, former head of innovation and creativity at Disney, to explore how breaking the mould can transform a business.

From his humble beginnings as a Disney coffee boy to orchestrating some of the company’s most iconic creative campaigns, Wardle shares his toolkit for fostering innovation. Learn how exercises like “yes and” and “what if” can unlock your team’s creativity, build collaboration, and propel your business into a new dimension. Whether you’re leading a team or looking to spark change, this is a masterclass in creativity and a guide to thinking differently.

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Beauty Pie founder: From facials with Madonna to consumer hits at Boots

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Serial entrepreneur Marcia Kilgore has scored several hits in beauty and wellness since the 1990s, including Bliss Spas (sold to LVMH), FitFlop sandals and the Soap & Glory bath range (sold to Boots). Since 2016 she’s been working on Beauty Pie, a membership club that lets people buy cosmetics online, bypassing traditional retailers. This is her most disruptive concept to date. Beauty Pie currently has 200 employees in the US and UK and annual revenues of $100m.

In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Kilgore shares the secrets to her success, including how to develop original consumer products and hire the right people...

With Dougal Shaw

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Bonus episode: The working from home v office debate

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

It's the biggest debate in the modern business world: working from home versus working in the office. But do you know all the sides to the argument and the latest developments? In this special episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Graham Ruddick, Sarah Vizard, Dougal Shaw and Josh Dornbrack get together to discuss the history of the debate, who is on both sides of the battle, and what the research actually shows. Then they take a vote - based on what they have learned, which side is winning?

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Melanie Smith on running the UK's biggest events, Ocado/M&S and the benefits of walking hundreds of miles

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Melanie Smith is the chief executive of the NEC Group, the owner of the NEC in Birmingham, the largest event venue in the UK. Before that she ran Ocado's retail business with Marks & Spencer and started her career with McKinsey. Originally from New Zealand from a family with little business background, Smith has fought her way to the top of the business world.

In this episode we cover the "extraordinary" Blackstone conference where Smith gets to meet and learn from other chief executives, why she has the best job in Britain, why private equity ownership is better than being listed on the stock market, the opportunities that HS2 will bring to the economy, the challenges of M&S/Ocado and why she walks hundreds of miles on her own in some of the remotest parts of the world.

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Jordan Schwarzenberger: The opportunity on LinkedIn is staggering

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Jordan Schwarzenberger is just 27 years old but one of the most sought-after creative thinkers in the business world. He dropped out of university to join Vice and LADbible, before setting up his own social media talent agency. He was then talent-spotted himself to join the large agency YMU. He was a C-suite executive at age 20.

Schwarzenberger went on to co-found Arcade Media and manage the Sidemen. The Sidemen are a YouTube collective that is the biggest in the UK with more than 130 million followers. It includes KSI, the man behind Prime drinks. As well as making entertainment shows, the Sidemen have branched into areas like food products (Sides) and a vodka brand, all under Schwarzenberger’s guidance.

In this episode of the Business Leader podcast, Jordan Schwarzenberger joins Dougal Shaw to share his advice on how to connect with Gen-Z and stand out on social as a business leader.

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Zenobe: The British unicorn leading the energy revolution

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

You may not have heard of Zenobe, but it is working on technology that could change the world. Zenobe is a British unicorn - a company valued at $1 billion or more - that is developing technology that will benefit our children and our grandchildren's generations, according to co-founder James Basden. Donald Trump, the US president, may have caused uncertainty for fast-growing technology businesses, but he won't stop the energy revolution.

In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, James Basden joins Graham Ruddick to talk us through the story behind one of the UK's fastest-growing companies and one that could be key to driving long-term economic growth

Zenobe is on Business Leader's list of Great British Billion-Pound Businesses. To see the full list, brought to you in association with Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, click on the link below

https://www.businessleader.co.uk/great-british-billion-pound-businesses/

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How Stuart Machin turned around Marks & Spencer (part two)

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Who is the leader behind the turnaround of Marks & Spencer? And what does he think are the challenges still ahead?

In part two of our interview with Stuart Machin, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, he discusses his leadership style and why he has concerns about the UK economy and government in 2025.

Marks & Spencer is probably the best-known business in Britain. But when Stuart Machin joined in 2018 it had been struggling for years. Since then he has led an extraordinary turnaround of the high street retailer. This is the story of how he did it, in his own words. In part one of this interview, Stuart Machin discussed his strategy and approach for M&S. You can find that via the link below:

https://www.businessleader.co.uk/podcasts/business-leader-podcast/stuart-machin-turn-around-marks-spencer-part-one/

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How Stuart Machin turned around Marks & Spencer (part one)

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Stuart Machin, the chief executive of M&S, talks to the Business Leader Podcast about how M&S is changing its shops, products, and, crucially, the culture within the business. One thing stands out – how much he obsesses over the detail (no-one buys more men's clothes from M&S than him). That is not easy given M&S has more than 60,000 employees, nearly 1,500 shops, annual revenues of £13bn and pre-tax profits of £673m in its last financial year.

In part one of this two-part special, Stuart Machin discusses his strategy and approach for M&S. In part two, we will look at his career in retail, why he has such passion for the sector and what he thinks are the challenges ahead...

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John Cleese on creativity: Lessons from a Monty Python mind for business leaders

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 06:00:00 GMT

What can a comedy legend teach you about business? Plenty. In this episode, John Cleese reveals how creativity isn’t just for the arts — it’s a vital skill for problem-solving, strategy and innovation in business. Drawing from a fascination with creativity that spans five decades, Cleese shares how “play” and the “tortoise mind” can unlock ground-breaking ideas, why interruptions kill creativity, and how trust in leadership fosters innovation. Packed with practical tips and humour, this conversation will inspire you to think differently and tackle your biggest challenges with fresh ideas.

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Paul McKenna masterclass: The science behind strategic thinking

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Best-selling author, behavioural scientist and hypnotist Paul McKenna explains the powerful role that manifestation can play in business success and debunks some myths. From Sir Richard Branson's game-changing Virgin Atlantic vision to practical exercises that rewire your brain for achievement, McKenna shows how "manifesting" is simply strategic planning in disguise. In this episode, you will learn how to harness this science-backed approach to overcome challenges, fuel innovation and achieve your biggest goals

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Docusign CEO Allan Thygesen on the AI revolution

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Docusign made its name in the early 2000s by pioneering the idea of e-signatures in digital contracts. Since then it has grown into a multi-billion dollar tech company. The technology came into its own during the Covid-19 pandemic, helping businesses to keep running when everyone worked remotely. However, that dramatic spike in demand ultimately unsettled the company. Thygesen joined from Google in late 2022 to steady the ship. He’s finding growth by revolutionising the world of digital contracts once more, but this time harnessing the power of artificial intelligence.

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2025 predictions with the Business Leader team

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 06:00:00 GMT

What are the news stories, issues and trends that will matter to businesses in 2025?

In this special episode, the Business Leader team - Graham Ruddick, Sarah Vizard, Dougal Shaw and Josh Dornbrack - get together to share what they have been hearing from business leaders, what they are looking forward to in 2025 and what they want businesses to stop doing in the year ahead

The episode includes:

-What the turmoil in financial markets means for UK businesses and why it matters

-Why 2025 could be a tipping point for Elon Musk and Tesla, as well as the back-to-office debate

-What next for AI in 2025

-Plus, why Sir Andy Murray, Andy Farrell and Arsenal are on our minds...

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Will Shu on building Deliveroo, founder mode v manager mode and what he wishes he had done differently

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 06:00:26 GMT

Is being in the details, micro-managing and following your instincts the key to building a business? Has an obsession with professional managers blinded us to what really matters in founding and scaling a business? Welcome to the debate about founder mode v manager mode, which was started by Brian Chesky, the co-founder of Airbnb, and Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y Combinator.

Will Shu, the chief executive and co-founder of Deliveroo, is an ideal person to ask about this. He founded Deliveroo, the online delivery service, in 2013 alongside Greg Orlowski. 12 years later he is still the chief executive. But Deliveroo is now a very different business. It is worth more than £2bn, listed on the London Stock Exchange and has had highs and lows. How does he think a founder should run a business?

In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Will Shu looks back on building Deliveroo, how his role has changed, how he strives to keep a start-up culture at the heart of the company, and his own views on the founder mode v manager mode debate. Shu also says what he wishes he had done differently in building Deliveroo - and the answer may surprise you….

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What to expect in 2025? A roundtable with top investors

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 06:00:12 GMT

What will the business world look like in 2025? What do big investors think about the UK and UK businesses? Are they optimistic or pessimistic about 2025 given the fall-out from the UK Budget and the election of Donald Trump in the US?

Business Leader's editor-in-chief Graham Ruddick gathers three of the biggest investors in UK businesses to discuss these key questions for 2025. The investors are:

-Jeremy Taylor, the chief executive of Lazard Asset Management

-Gervais Williams, the head of equities at Premier Miton

-Kiran Nandra, the head of equities at Jupiter Asset Management

Happy New Year to all our listeners from everyone at Business Leader!

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SPECIAL EPISODE: Best of 2024 with Graham Ruddick, Sarah Vizard and Dougal Shaw

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 06:00:31 GMT

In this special episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Graham Ruddick, Sarah Vizard and Dougal Shaw get together to discuss what they have learned in 2024 and their top business tips. This includes:

-The healthy paranoia that drives successful business leaders

-How to really be authentic at work and why it matters

-Why you should seek to operate below full capacity to perform at your best and why trying to give 110 per cent effort is a management myth

-Why the biggest challenge for a business is not overcoming a crisis but the mundane day-to-day grind of just executing your plan

-The importance of not just hiring people smarter than you but listening to them

Featuring Simon Arora of B&M, record-breaking cyclist Mark Beaumont, and restaurant chain Hawksmoor

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Ikea part two

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 06:00:01 GMT

Why has Ikea been such a success in the UK? Why did it open its first shop in Warrington, Cheshire? What is "chuck out your chintz" all about? And what does this unique business look for in staff?

In part two of our look at how Ikea became one of the biggest retailers in the world, Graham Ruddick speaks to Peter Jelkeby, the chief executive and chief sustainability officer for Ikea in the UK and Ireland, and a man who started his career with Ikea as a forklift truck driver.

Then, Graham speaks to Dougal Shaw about what they have both learned about Ikea and the reasons for its success after studying the business. In case you missed it, in part one of our look at Ikea, Dougal Shaw spoke to Jesper Brodin, the chief executive of Ingka Group, the business that runs Ikea shops around the world...

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Ikea part one

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 06:00:43 GMT

From humble beginnings in rural Sweden in the 1940s, Ikea has grown into one of the best-known brands in the world. But do you know the story behind it?

Over two episodes, Dougal Shaw and Graham Ruddick will look at Ikea from two different perspectives for Business Leader. In this first episode, Dougal speaks to Jesper Brodin, the CEO of Ingka Group, the business behind Ikea's global retail operations. They meet at a new store on Oxford Street in London as it undergoes a renovation. In the next episode, Graham will speak to Peter Jelkeby, the CEO of Ikea in the UK and Ireland, to find out how the UK fits into Ikea's global strategy.

Ikea is still best-known for its mammoth, out-of-town warehouses and flatpack designs. There's no other business quite like it in terms of the concept. And its size is staggering. Ikea's retail arm employs more than 162,000 people and it generates more than €40bn a year in revenue. But in the past decade this vast company has reinvented itself. Realising it was slow to adapt to the rise of digital shopping, Ikea has been focusing on a new omni-channel strategy, spearheaded by new, smaller, inner-city stores.

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MorphCostumes: From side-hustle to multi-million Scottish success story

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 06:00:42 GMT

Fraser Smeaton co-founded MorphCostumes with his brother and a friend in 2009 in Edinburgh. It began as a side-hustle specialising in a particular kind of striking, head-to-toe party costume made of Spandex, the "Morphsuit". An immediate success, the co-founders quit their jobs and the company turned over £1m in its first year. However, by 2014 it was clear the company was becoming a victim of its own success. The product was no longer novel and the business was in real danger of going under. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Fraser Smeaton explains to Dougal Shaw how they were able to reinvent themselves to find success all over again, in a new guise - with lessons for others.

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How to run a sport

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 06:00:56 GMT

What does it take to run a sport? What does the job involve? And how do you end up in a job like that? Simon Brownell is the chief executive of the World Snooker Tour. He is in charge of running the top snooker events and trying to expand the sport's audience around the world. Snooker is a quirky sport in many ways, but its growth in China is extraordinary and many businesses would love to be able to match it. In the latest episode of the Business Leader Podcast we look into Simon Brownell's unusual job, the success in China, how to balance tradition and innovation, and why his biggest challenge is finding table-fitters

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How to sustain success and relevance by the owner of Andrex and Kleenex

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 06:00:49 GMT

Kimberly-Clark was founded in 1872 in Wisconsin in North America. It initially operated paper mills and today owns Andrex, Kleenex, Huggies nappies and other well-known consumer brands. More than 150 years after it was founded, the company is still thriving and relevant to consumers. Kimberly-Clark was one of the companies that featured in Jim Collins' definitive business book Good to Great, which looked at why an exclusive collection of companies have been able to deliver extraordinary results over not just the short-term but a sustained period of time. We take a look into the culture of Kimberly-Clark and how it has sustained success. We speak to Dan Howell, the managing director of Kimberly-Clark in the UK and Ireland. The episode covers:

-Why health is foundational to success and high performance

-How to adapt to changing consumer tastes

-The latest thinking on marketing for Andrex and Kleenex

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Masterclass: Why you need to be purpose-led to get the best out of yourself

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:52 GMT

What does being purpose-led actually mean? How do you make it a reality? And why do you need to be purpose-led to get the best out of yourself and others?

John Blakey is an executive coach for FTSE 100 chief executives, founders and top public sector officials. He has written a new book called Force for Good: How to Thrive as a Purpose-Driven Leader.

In the new episode of Business Leader we hear his teachings on how to be a purpose-driven leader who can get the best out of yourself and your team.

You will learn:

-Why "performance = motivation x ability x opportunity"

-How to boost your motivation by identifying your radiators and drains

-How to be a force multiplier by thinking long-term, not short-term

-Why you should set five-year goals and share them

-How to ensure that reality doesn't get in the way of that five-year vision

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The company that launched the air fryer

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 06:00:11 GMT

Philips is the electronics brand behind a host of household appliances and it launched the air fryer, one of the most successful new products of the 21st Century so far. The history of the Philips brand dates back to the 1800s. Today the company that makes Philips products for consumers is called Versuni and the chief executive is Veronique Pauwels. In this episode of the Business Leader podcast we speak to her about the business, why it is capable of producing innovations like the air fryer and why playing chess makes you a strategic thinker...

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Monday.com: How to build a global software giant with Dougal Shaw

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 06:00:43 GMT

Monday.com is a global software giant worth more than $14bn (£11bn) that has emerged from outside Silicon Valley. It lets companies build their own work and project management tools. This approach is often referred to as low code or no code. It gives teams the flexibility to build their own apps and control workflows. Monday.com was founded in Israel in 2012 and went public in the US on Nasdaq in 2021. It now has more than a quarter of a million customers in over 200 countries and the UK is its second-largest market globally. Co-founder and co-CEO Eran Zinman tells Dougal Shaw how the company has scaled so rapidly.

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The rise of Huel: How to recruit Hueligans, market your product and succeed in the US

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 06:00:40 GMT

Huel is one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK. The food and nutrition business has ambitions to be the next billion-dollar food brand and has already succeeded where many other UK brands have failed by breaking into the US. This is the story behind Huel's unique recruitment, marketing and growth strategy...

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CEO roundtable: Why housing associations can solve the housing crisis and how to lead a not-for-profit organisation

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 05:00:28 GMT

In this episode of Business Leader we speak to not one but four chief executives. They will help you understand housing associations and why they are the biggest organisations you have never heard of, why they left jobs in big business to lead not-for-profit organisations and how to tackle the housing crisis in the UK.

We speak to the chief executives of four of the biggest housing associations in the UK. They are Patrick Franco at Notting Hill Genesis, Andy Hulme of Hyde, Sarah Jones of Anchor and Greg Reed of Places for People, who all share their learnings in a unique roundtable discussion

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Dr Mark Slack and CMR Surgical: The world-leading robot

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 05:00:08 GMT

CMR Surgical is one of the most exciting businesses in the UK, but you probably haven't heard its story. Until now. Dr Mark Slack, the co-founder and chief medical officer, guides us through how CMR built a robot to do keyhole surgery and became a business valued at more than $3bn (£2.3bn), backed by investment giants like SoftBank and Tencent. It is a story that involves a failed athletics career, military service and a meeting of minds in Cambridge akin to The Beatles getting together...

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How to build a unique whisky brand with Dougal Shaw

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 05:00:21 GMT

Since 2017 Fawn Weaver has been building a new global whisky brand from Tennessee in the US, called Uncle Nearest. It stands out because it is inspired by the first known African American master distiller, Nathan “Nearest” Green. He was a former slave who worked very closely with Jack Daniel. It’s a story that fascinated Weaver when she first learned about it in 2016, so much so that she relocated from Los Angeles to Tennessee with her husband to learn more about the Green family – and ultimately launch a new spirits brand. That brand hit annual revenues of $100m in 2022. She is something of a trailblazer herself, as a woman of colour leading a major spirits company. She discusses her business journey - from leaving home at age 15 in Los Angeles to the strategies that helped her create a successful challenger brand, in an industry notoriously difficult to break into…

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Alex Depledge: How to build a business for the second time

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 05:00:22 GMT

Alex Depledge and Jules Coleman sold their first business Hassle.com for nearly £30m. But instead of taking the opportunity to take a step back and enjoy life, they went again and launched a second start-up - Resi. So, what is it like building a business for the second time? What is different? And why do it all again?

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James Daunt masterclass: How to run successful shops

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 05:00:46 GMT

James Daunt has turned around Waterstones in the UK and Barnes & Noble in the US. That gives him a unique insight into what it takes to run successful shops on both sides of the Atlantic at a time when many high street businesses are failing. In this podcast episode, we take a detailed look at how Daunt runs his book shops and the strategy that is required to succeed...

If you enjoyed this episode, then you can find out more about the story behind Daunt Books, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble in our previous interview with Daunt, which looks at the history of the businesses. You can find that here: https://offtolunch.substack.com/p/james-daunt-the-boss-who-saved-the

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How Monzo became a £4bn business

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 05:00:31 GMT

Monzo is one of the most promising and fastest-growing companies in the UK. But when TS Anil became chief executive of the digital bank in 2020, there were question marks about its business model and whether it could grow beyond its loyal collection of millennial fans. Today it is worth £4bn and has more than 10 million customers. This is the story of how Monzo scaled-up into a big business and took on the established banks...

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Marketing masterclass: How Serie A is taking on the Premier League

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 05:00:18 GMT

In the 1980s and the 1990s, Serie A was the best football league in the world. The Italian league was where players wanted to play and what fans wanted to watch. Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten and Roberto Baggio were superstars and playing in Serie A. But in recent years that has not been the case. Serie A has been overtaken by other leagues, notably the English Premier League. Now, however, Serie A is fighting back. In this episode of Business Leader, Michele Ciccarese, the commercial and marketing director of Serie A, explains how...

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How Sir Rocco Forte built another billion-pound company after losing the family business

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 05:00:58 GMT

Sir Rocco Forte has led two businesses worth more than £1 billion. The first, Forte Group, was founded by his father, Charles. It owned hotels and restaurants and was one of the biggest companies in the UK. But in 1996 it was lost. Forte was taken over by Granada after a hostile bid battle and then dismantled. Sir Rocco had to start again. At first he had no properties and couldn't even use the family name. But Rocco Forte Hotels is now valued at £1.2 billion. This is the story about how Sir Rocco fought back and his thoughts on how to grow a business

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Dougal Shaw on how Hims & Hers is trying to revolutionise healthcare

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 05:30:26 GMT

Andrew Dudum founded Hims & Hers to try to bring healthcare into the digital age. The business is a wellness platform that specialises in treatments for conditions that traditionally have a stigma attached, such as hair loss, acne and erectile dysfunction. It allows people access to over-the-counter drugs and prescriptions following an online consultation with a qualified doctor. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021. It is now valued at more than $3.5bn (£2.7bn) and has more than 1.7 million subscribers. Dudum says he has built the business while aspiring to be “the least interesting person in the room”. This is the story behind how he did it...

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Bruntwood: How the Oglesby family built one of the biggest and most important businesses in northern England

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 04:00:16 GMT

Chris Oglesby succeeded his father Michael as chief executive of Bruntwood in 1999. Since then he has grown Bruntwood into one of the biggest and most important businesses in northern England. Bruntwood is responsible for much of the regeneration work in Manchester in recent years and is working on property developments across northern England. The company thinks there is an opportunity to transform the economy in northern England. But the Oglesby family has recently been hit by tragedy

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The business that changed nights out

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 04:00:19 GMT

Matt Grech-Smith and his business partner Jeremy Simmonds had an idea a decade ago that they called “competitive socialising”. They’ve gone on to create a mini-golf entertainment empire that is a thriving global business with annual sales of more than £35m. It all started with a warehouse in east London, an email that went viral, and a website that crashed. Now Swingers is heading for Las Vegas and Dubai. Dougal Shaw presents the story behind a business that has changed how people socialise at night

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How Joanna Knight went from failed start-up to CEO of Moneypenny, one of the fastest-growing businesses in the UK

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 04:00:45 GMT

Joanna Knight was an entrepreneur running a business that imported components for laser printer cartridges into the UK. But it was struggling. Her mother urged her to get a job. So Joanna Knight did. She joined Wrexham-based Moneypenny as its first sales director. More than a decade later she is now the chief executive of Moneypenny, one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK. "Failure is just another step to success," Knight says. This is the story of how she went from failure to CEO, the challenge of adapting to that role and the future of Moneypenny

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Hawksmoor: How to build an award-winning restaurant chain from scratch

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 04:00:50 GMT

Hawksmoor was founded by friends Will Beckett and Huw Gott in 2006 and the pair now have 10 restaurants in the UK. From humble beginnings in a former Turkish restaurant in London, Hawksmoor generated sales of more than £90m in 2023 and is now expanding overseas.

In this episode of Business Leader, Dougal Shaw looks at the story behind a culinary and business success. “People don’t like being miserable," says Beckett. "One of the joys in life is spending time with people in restaurants."

Beckett and Gott are childhood friends and lifelong foodies. Their parents also worked in the food business. In their mid-twenties the co-founders ran several London bars. These didn’t take off, but it taught them valuable business lessons about hiring and venue location.

They hit on a winning formula with Hawksmoor, realising that there was a gap in the market because steak meals were associated with French bistros or American-style diners: “In a country really famous for beef, there wasn’t a British restaurant, that idea of Britishness made a difference."

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Airbus

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 04:00:05 GMT

Airbus is one of the biggest manufacturing businesses in the UK, Europe and the world. In this episode of Business Leader, we look at Airbus's business in the UK, its commitment to manufacturing in the country and its concerns about the geopolitical situation. We speak to John Harrison, the chairman of Airbus UK, the most senior Brit in the company and also its general counsel

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Sage and Steve Hare: The story behind a UK tech success

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 04:00:13 GMT

Sage is exactly the sort of company the UK needs more of. It is the biggest UK technology company on the stock market and is valued at more than £10 billion. Not only that, but it is based in Newcastle and outside the south-east of England. This is the story behind how it went from a promising business to a FTSE 100 giant and the leadership of chief executive Steve Hare, who rebuilt his career after being told he would never work in the City again...

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How the UK became a world-leading hub for motorsport and advanced manufacturing

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 04:00:19 GMT

David Richards has built successful teams in rallying, Formula 1 and business. This is the story of how he built Prodrive, which became a world leader in motorsport and advanced manufacturing. Why is the UK so successful in these industries? What can other businesses and industries learn from this? And how do you manage Formula 1 drivers and factory workers? You will find the answers in this episode of Business Leader

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Eventbrite with Dougal Shaw: A new way to buy tickets

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 04:00:30 GMT

In 2006 Julia Hartz started a company with two co-founders in Silicon Valley. They wanted to shake-up how people bought tickets for events through using mobile phones and QR codes. Eventbrite started by facilitating meet-ups in the tech community. But last year it issued more than 300 million tickets for 5 million events around the world and the company was valued at more than $1.8bn when it floated on the stock market in 2018. In this episode of Business Leader, Julia Hartz, the chief executive of Eventbrite, explains how her background in television gave her a vital skill for scaling-up a business - how to tell a story - and the story behind this business.

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Mark Beaumont: The record-breaking cyclist who became a venture capital investor

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 04:00:46 GMT

How do you turn a bold idea into reality? How do you deliver when things get really hard? Mark Beaumont might be the expert on this. Anyone can come up with an idea and anyone can talk about performing at a high level. But Mark Beaumont has delivered on both. He holds the world-record for cycling around the world and has now turned his considerable skills to being a venture capital investor. But that is only part of his remarkable story, which also includes capsizing in the Atlantic Ocean, making documentaries for the BBC and writing books. This episode of Business Leader is a story about endurance, setting new standards and getting things done...

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Motorway with Dougal Shaw: The story behind a British unicorn

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 04:00:54 GMT

In 2017 Tom Leathes decided it was time to give the second-hand car market a digital update. With his two best friends and long-time business collaborators, Alex Buttle and Harry Jones, he co-founded Motorway. Investors spotted the potential and by 2021 the company was another British unicorn, valued at more than $1bn. The platform handled £2.2bn worth of transactions in 2023, helping customers sell their second-hand vehicles to a network of more than 5,000 verified car dealers. The three co-founders have a shared history as a team of serial entrepreneurs. They've set up more than five companies. Failures and setbacks, it turns out, have taught them as much as the successes.

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Lord Mark Price: Waitrose, working in government and happiness at work

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 05:00:39 GMT

Lord Mark Price spent more than 30 years working for the John Lewis Partnership, including eight years as the boss of Waitrose. He then joined the government as trade minister before founding his own business, WorkL, which tracks the happiness of employees. In this episode of Business Leader we explore what he has learned about running a business as well as the past, present and future of the John Lewis Partnership, and why businesses are underestimating the importance of their staff being happy. Plus, we explore what it was like trying to do post-Brexit trade deals and how he initially wanted to be a professional golfer...

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Travel Counsellors: The best reviewed company in Britain?

Tue, 21 May 2024 05:00:00 GMT

The story behind Manchester-based travel company Travel Counsellors and why it might be the company with the best reviews in the UK. Steve Byrne, the long-serving chief executive, explains why customers and staff rate it so highly, why you may not have heard about the company until now, and why it has ambitious plans for the future.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit offtolunch.substack.com

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IWG and Mark Dixon: Highs, lows and the future of work

Tue, 14 May 2024 05:00:00 GMT

In 1989, Mark Dixon had an idea - the traditional office didn’t work for many businesses and they needed something more flexible. More than 30 years later, he has been proved right. IWG, the business he founded, is now worth more than £2 billion and runs 4,000 serviced offices around the world, which millions of people use to do their jobs as flexible working has taken off.

But it has been a challenging and sometimes lonely battle to get IWG to this point. This is a story that involves rapid growth, Chapter 11 bankruptcy and flashy new rivals…

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Virgin: How do you manage one of the most famous brands in the world?

Tue, 07 May 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Josh Bayliss was appointed as the chief executive of Virgin Group by Sir Richard Branson in 2011. He works with an array of Virgin branded-businesses, 70,000 employees but just one shareholder - the Branson family. It is a unique job with unique challenges and unique opportunities. This is the story behind the Virgin brand and how Josh Bayliss ended up running it…

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From property to the Premier League

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Kevin McCabe tells the story of how he built a property empire and then ended up running Sheffield United, his beloved football club. It is a story that has highs, lows, controversial goals and legal battles.

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Tide: How to grow a business after replacing the founder

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

In 2018 the founder of Tide, George Bevis, stood aside as chief executive and was succeeded by Oliver Prill. Since then Tide has grown rapidly. It has gone from being a promising financial technology start-up to a company whose online banking services are used by one in 10 small and medium-sized businesses in the UK. In this episode of Business Leader, Oliver Prill discusses the challenges of becoming chief executive, how to disrupt the financial services industry and why regulators may hold back innovation in the UK.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit offtolunch.substack.com

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Wizz Air

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Wizz Air has emerged as one of the biggest airlines in Europe and a new low-cost rival to Ryanair and EasyJet. Its first flight was in May 2004, travelling from Katowice in Poland to Luton in the UK. Today it carries more than 60 million passengers every year and is valued at well over £2 billion after floating on the stock market in London. In this episode of Business Leader, Jozsef Varadi, the founder and chief executive of Wizz Air, discusses how he founded and built the airline, the challenges he has faced and his fascinating views on what it is like running a UK-listed business.

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The 250-year-old business

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

How does a business survive for 250 years and still be controlled by the same family? Rankin Brothers & Sons was founded in 1774 and is celebrating its 250th birthday in 2024. It has seen the creation of the United States of America, two World Wars, and the Covid-19 crisis. Jim Rankin is the sixth generation of the family to lead the business, which supplies corks and caps for beer, wine and spirits. He has been in the business for 30 years, but when he was younger he didn’t want to join it and feared he would fall-out with the rest of his family…

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From the SAS to building a business

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Floyd Woodrow and Peter Malmstrom had illustrious military careers in the SAS, the special forces unit of the British Army. Now they are using what they learned about leadership, team-building, and negotiating to build a business. That business - Quantum Group - is already worth hundreds of millions of pounds, and they have ambitions to make it much bigger.

This episode of Business Leader is the story of what the military taught them about how to build and scale-up a business. And it includes the key points from the elite coaching courses that Floyd Woodrow gives to professional sports teams and businesses.

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The former journalist at centre of $40 billion tech giant

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Duncan Clark was an environmental journalist at The Guardian, pioneering a new way of telling stories through data visualisation and graphics. Now he is at the centre of one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the world - Canva, which offers free online tools for graphic design and has been valued at $40 billion (£32 billion). This is the story of how he built a business, sold it to Canva, and is now leading the company’s ambitious expansion plans in Europe

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit offtolunch.substack.com

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Robinhood and launching in the UK

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Robinhood is one of the fastest-growing companies in America and claims it is helping to democratise finance by offering commission-free share trading for all. Now it is coming to the UK. Jordan Sinclair, the president of Robinhood UK, explains how it is approaching a UK launch, the story behind the business and the challenges it has faced along the way…

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Learning from failure

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 06:00:00 GMT

A failed athletics career and an unfulfilled Olympics dream. A successful business. A failed business. Another successful business and a redemption story. This podcast episode could be four stories in one. But remarkably it is one story, which is why it is slightly longer episode of Business Leader than normal. This is the story of John Stapleton.

He co-founded the New Covent Garden Soup Company and Little Dish, two successful food businesses. But in between those success stories he suffered a big failure with Glencoe Foods, which he had to close. And before all of that he had dreams of competing in the triple jump at the Olympics. This is a story about how failure can teach you more than success. And how luck - good and bad - will always play a role…

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The woman who raised $1 billion

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Ophelia Brown is the founder of Blossom Capital, a venture capital firm which has raised around $1 billion (£789 million) from investors since she launched it in the UK in 2018. Blossom uses the money it has raised to invest in promising businesses in Europe. Blossom is a rare success story - it is a female-led start-up and venture capital firm but is also thriving away from the traditional heart of this industry in Silicon Valley. This is the story of how Ophelia Brown founded the business, raised the money, and what she has learned along the way.

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Simon Arora and B&M, part two

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 06:00:00 GMT

It’s time for the second episode in our story about how B&M went from a small discount chain in the north of England to one of the biggest retailers in the UK. In part two we look at B&M’s transition from a promising medium-sized business to a FTSE 100 giant. This is a transition that many businesses fail to make. For B&M, it was about keeping your focus despite constant distractions. But it was also about learning and evolving - in terms of strategy and people. At the end of the episode we speak to Simon Arora about why he stood down as B&M’s chief executive and what may come next for him and the business.

If you missed part one of the B&M story, you can find it here

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit offtolunch.substack.com

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Simon Arora and B&M, part one

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 06:00:00 GMT

The story behind how Simon Arora and his brothers Bobby and Robin turned B&M from a small discount chain in the north of England into one of the biggest retailers in the UK. In part one, we speak to Simon Arora about how he found B&M, the strategy behind building the business, and how it nearly all ended after less than a year…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit offtolunch.substack.com

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Marc Allera and EE

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Marc Allera explains how EE went from being an upstart mobile phone brand to a key part of BT and a business with big ambitions for the future. Plus he explains what he learned from launching Sega’s Dreamcast games console and mobile phone brand Three in the early 2000s, which had mixed success.

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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and easyJet

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 05:00:00 GMT

It is nearly 30 years since Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou founded easyJet in the mid-1990s and helped to transform air travel in Europe. In this episode of Business Leader, Sir Stelios discusses how he built the airline, how he used distinctive marketing to fight fierce competition, how fly-on-the-wall documentary Airline became one of the most popular shows on television, and why he has launched a new award for young entrepreneurs.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit offtolunch.substack.com

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CEO to VC

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 06:00:00 GMT

How do you get to the top of the venture capital industry? Why should CEOs be concerned about burning out? And what does a promising business actually look like? Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton Capital and one of the leading venture capital investors in Europe, explains all of that and more in our latest episode.

He tells the story of his journey from working at Autonomy to being the founder and chief executive of a promising technology company and then leaving all that behind to become a venture capital investor…

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How Castore took on Nike and Adidas

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Tom Beahon, the co-founder of Castore, explains how he and his brother Phil built a sportswear brand in North West England that is taking on Nike and Adidas. The story begins with Beahon failing to make it as a professional football with his beloved Tranmere Rovers.

Castore is now worth nearly £1 billion and makes kits for the England cricket team, Newcastle United and other high-profile teams and athletes. But the journey for this British success story has taken twists and turns…

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How to steer a business through a crisis

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 06:00:00 GMT

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” Mike Tyson, the boxer, once said. So what does a business leader do when life doesn’t turn out as expected? That is the question behind this episode of Business Leader. A sharp drop in passenger numbers, strikes by workers, an accounting scandal, a row with the government and a takeover bid.

That is what Christian Schreyer faced after taking over as chief executive of Go-Ahead Group, one of the UK’s largest rail and bus companies. He stood down two years later after a whirlwind period in charge. “Life is what happens when you have other plans,” he says…

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Peloton and how to build a community

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 06:00:00 GMT

The story behind Peloton and how it has tried to change the way people exercise. Peloton has enjoyed big success but also faced big challenges. Amanda Gilmore, Peloton’s general manager for the UK and expansion, discusses how the company has built a community of loyal users around the world and changed how people keep fit, as well as how to improve diversity in the business world

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Seedrs, crowdfunding and how to succeed a founder as CEO

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 06:00:00 GMT

Jeff Kelisky, the chief executive of Seedrs, the crowdfunding platform, tells the story of what it is like to succeed a founder as boss of their own company and how crowdfunding is helping businesses scale-up

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Self-driving cars and Wayve

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 06:00:00 GMT

The story behind why a company based in King’s Cross in London, not Silicon Valley or Detroit in the US, may hold the answer to self-driving cars being on our roads

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SSE, Alistair Phillips-Davies and being one of the longest-serving FTSE 100 chief executives

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 06:00:00 GMT

What skills does it take to run one of the UK’s biggest companies for a decade? What does a business leader do when an activist investor demands you change your strategy? How is the UK really doing with its net-zero ambitions? And why should a leader be concerned about wet paint? All of that and more are covered in the latest episode of Business Leader as we speak to Alistair Phillips-Davies, one of the longest-serving chief executives in the FTSE 100…

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The Metro newspaper and DMGT

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 06:00:00 GMT

The story of how Metro became the most-read daily newspaper in the UK after launching in 1999. How did this newspaper - which is free - disrupt a highly competitive industry and then survive a string of big challenges? We speak to Deborah Arthurs, the editor-in-chief, and Richard Thomson, the managing director…

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The Crown Estate and Dan Labbad

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 06:00:00 GMT

The story of how Sydney-born Dan Labbad rose through the property industry to become chief executive of the Crown Estate and be tasked with the extraordinary challenge of “creating lasting and shared prosperity” for the UK. This episode explores the history of that unique organisation, its £16 billion collection of assets that range from Regent Street in London to the seabed around the UK, and how Labbad’s approach to management has been shaped by the discrimination his Egyptian father suffered in Australia, a disregard for hierarchies and a belief that you need to nudge the world in the right direction rather than change it…

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Why a business fails (and what we can learn from it)

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Why does a business that was previously thriving end up failing? What tips a struggling business into insolvency? Find out all that and more in the new episode of Business Studies. Retail boss Ian Shepherd discusses what it was like being chief executive of video game retailer Game when it collapsed into administration and what his experience and the demise of discount chain Wilko tells us about why businesses collapse. A summary of our discussion: “Gradually, then suddenly.” Ian Shepherd now writes the superb Moving Tribes newsletter on business strategy which you can read here

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The rise and future of Uber

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Andrew Brem, the general manager for Uber in the UK, discusses the growth of the taxi app, the controversies it has faced, and why London and electric cars are key to its future

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Why private equity is a friend and not a foe

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Garry Wilson, the co-founder and managing partner of Endless, explains how he built one of the UK’s largest private equity firms and why his journey from Belfast to Leeds helps to explain why the private equity industry does not deserve its controversial reputation

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How to turn a promising start-up into a tech giant

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Former Google and Stripe executive Claire Hughes Johnson tells the inside story of how those two companies went from promising tech start-ups to big businesses, and how it was often chaos behind-the-scenes…

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How to wake up a sleeping giant

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Richard Price, the managing director for clothing and home at Marks & Spencer, explains how he is trying to put the spark back into one of the UK’s leading fashion brands and how, after years of false dawns, success should be sustained this time. Plus he discusses a career in retail that has spanned Next, Sir Philip Green and Tesco. And why Brian Clough is such an inspiration…

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How to build a £4 billion company

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 05:00:00 GMT

We look at the story of how Yorkshireman Richard Harpin built Homeserve into a £4.1 billion company despite the business nearly failing twice in its early years. It is a story that involves unexpected twists, setbacks and lessons about how you really build a business that Harpin now wants to share with other entrepreneurs and leaders.

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Arm

Tue, 23 May 2023 05:00:00 GMT

The remarkable story of how Arm became one of the most successful and talked-about technology companies that Britain has ever produced. What does Arm actually do so well? Why is Apple so key to this story? And should the £24 billion sale of the company to Japanese investor Softbank and its charismatic founder Masayoshi Son have been stopped in 2016?

All of these questions and more are explored with James Ashton, author of a new book on Arm called The Everything Blueprint: The Microchip Design that Changed the World.

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Brett Wigdortz, Teach First and childcare

Tue, 16 May 2023 05:00:00 GMT

The story of how Teach First became the biggest graduate recruiter in the UK, the legacy it has left, the controversies it faced, and why Brett Wigdortz, the founder, is now focused on improving pre-school childcare in the UK

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Gordon Sanghera and Oxford Nanopore

Tue, 09 May 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Oxford Nanopore Technologies is one of the most promising and exciting companies operating in the UK today. Its handheld devices read genomes and mark a new era for how easily and quickly DNA can be sequenced, which should have significant benefits for health and fitness. In this episode of Business Studies we speak to Gordon Sanghera, the chief executive and co-founder, about how the company was built, how it was inspired by the Arctic Monkeys, Brian Clough and Rinus Michels, and why he is unlike most other FTSE bosses…

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What business can learn from sport

Tue, 02 May 2023 05:00:00 GMT

What can businesses really learn from elite sport? How to sustain performance over a long period of time, according to Catherine Baker, author of a new book called Staying the Distance: The lessons from sport that business leaders have been missing. We speak to Catherine Baker about her new book and the lessons that matter from sport, including insights from the New Zealand rugby union team, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Sir Chris Hoy, and Mel Marshall, coach of Olympic gold medalist swimmer Adam Peaty…

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Will Shu and Deliveroo

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Will Shu founded Deliveroo with his childhood friend Greg Orlowski in 2013. Ten years on, Deliveroo is listed in London and worth nearly £2 billion. But a lot has happened in-between. In this episode of Business Studies, Shu discusses the story behind how Deliveroo was founded, how he built the business as CEO, its difficult IPO and the future for the online food delivery service…

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Skydiving through the glass ceiling

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Women were first allowed access to the London Stock Exchange only 50 years ago. There has been progress since then, but men continue to dominate the City, as well as the world of start-ups and venture capital. That makes Clara Melia a pretty rare success story. She worked in the City and then set-up her own business, Equitory, which helps companies with investor relations. In this episode of Business Studies we look at how she built her business, why women are still under-represented in the City and start-ups, and how she came to represent Great Britain in skydiving.

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Lessons from the Dot-com crash

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 05:00:00 GMT

In the year 2000 the Dot-com bubble burst. The stock market value of internet-based companies had surged in the previous months and years. Suddenly their world collapsed. Many went bust and disappeared. In this episode of Business Studies we explore what happened, why it happened and what lessons can be learned and applied to the modern-day, when public and private markets are recovering from another sharp drop in the value of tech-based businesses. To do that we speak to Rob Hornby, the managing director for AlixPartners, the consultancy firm, in London…

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DS Smith: Thinking outside the box

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Miles Roberts has transformed DS Smith since becoming chief executive in 2010 and made cardboard boxes interesting. Today, DS Smith is a FTSE 100 company that makes recyclable packaging and paper, spanning 34 countries with 30,000 staff, including 36 sites and 4,300 employees in the UK.

In the latest episode of Business Studies, Roberts, the sixth longest-serving boss in the FTSE 100, explains why packaging is way more interesting than you might think, how DS Smith got caught-up in the chaos around Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, how he became a FTSE 100 chief executive after leaving school at 16 and why longevity is an underrated asset at the top of a business.

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OakNorth: Trying to buy Silicon Valley Bank UK

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Rishi Khosla, the co-founder and chief executive of OakNorth, tells the story of how OakNorth bid for Silicon Valley Bank UK during a frantic weekend in March 2023 and why the eventual deal with HSBC could be bad for innovation and start-ups.

Aside from recent events, Khosla talks about building OakNorth into the most valuable fintech in the UK, the challenges it has faced since then, and his concerns about listing in London. Finally, the OakNorth boss sets the record straight on whether he is a donor to the Conservative Party or not…

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Waitrose and employee ownership

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 06:00:00 GMT

Not so long ago Waitrose and John Lewis were lauded as model retailers. They had enjoyed years of rising sales and profits and, as part of the John Lewis Partnership, were owned by their employees. But now Waitrose is battling to turnaround falling sales and the partnership is losing money. Is being owned by staff part of the problem? Has it meant that Waitrose has been too slow to react to changes in how we shop? James Bailey, the boss of Waitrose, addresses those questions in the latest episode of Business Studies. It is an issue that is even more important after reports emerged following the interview that the John Lewis Partnership could sell a minority stake to an external investor and dilute its ownership model. Bailey also discusses the status of the Waitrose brand, the future of food, what he learned from his mentor Mike Coupe, and why he nearly got fired by Sainsbury’s for promoting flexible working…

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The FTSE 100 chief executive who wrote a book

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 06:00:00 GMT

Andre Lacroix thinks that just about every major crisis in the 21st century was caused by a failure of leadership. He is so concerned about the quality of leadership that he has written a book about it - Leadership with Soul. Why is understanding risk so important for leaders? What can be learned from Ayrton Senna? Why is Toyota such an incredible organisation? Why did Lacroix go from wanting to being a surgeon to wanting to be a CEO? And why is London still the perfect place to base an international business? Find out all of that and more in the last episode of Business Studies as we speak to Lacroix, who has been chief executive of FTSE 100 company Intertek since 2015 and before that was at car dealer Inchcape, Disneyland Paris, Burger King and PepsiCo.

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A Northern Powerhouse at last?

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 06:00:00 GMT

Does Northern Gritstone, an organisation investing in promising start-ups coming out of Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield, hold the key to levelling up the UK economy?

In this episode of Business Studies we speak to Duncan Johnson, chief executive of Northern Gritstone, about his ambitions to build a new Silicon Valley in northern England, why businesses in the north haven’t been supported enough, the terrible state of the transport network, and how to spot a promising business…

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Erik Fairbairn: The electric car revolution

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 06:00:00 GMT

“Who holds back the electric car?” sang the Stonecutters in a 1995 Simpsons episode. You could ask the same question in 2023 Britain. The electric car revolution still feels a long way off for many people - cars are too expensive and it is difficult to find a working point charging point.

But in this episode of Business Studies, Erik Fairbairn, the founder and chief executive of Pod Point, one of the largest providers of electric car charging points in the UK, explains why we all be buying electric vehicles by 2030, why criticism about the reliability and lack of charging points is unfair, and how he created the business more than a decade ago when the prospect of any electric vehicles on the road was just a dream.

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James Daunt: The boss who saved the bookshop

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 06:00:00 GMT

James Daunt founded his own independent book shop and then rescued two nationwide chains that were heading for oblivion - Waterstones in the UK and Barnes & Noble in the United States. He has arguably done more than anyone else to ensure the survival of the local bookshop despite the rise of Amazon and e-reading. He is also one of the few business leaders to have enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic. In this episode of Business Studies Daunt explains with remarkable clarity how he did it and why he quit a successful career in banking to run bookshops.

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Oxford, innovation and the future of the UK economy?

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 06:00:00 GMT

The UK has world-leading universities. It is one area where the country really can claim to be world-leading. But Britain’s universities have not been as good as their international rivals at turning brilliant ideas into brilliant businesses. That may be about to change though. The University of Oxford is thinking more than ever before about how to turn its ideas and research into businesses. In this episode of Business Studies we look at how. We speak to three people at the centre of a collaboration between the university and the private sector. They are: Professor Chas Bountra, pro vice-chancellor for innovation at the University of Oxford, Baroness Nicola Blackwood, previously the minister for innovation and now chair of Oxford University Innovation, which manages the university’s intellectual property portfolio, and Alexis Dormandy, the chief executive of Oxford Science Enterprises, which invests in ideas spun out of the university and helps turn them into businesses…

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Roger Madelin, King's Cross, Canada Water and how to transform an area...

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 06:00:00 GMT

Roger Madelin led the transformation of King’s Cross in London over the last 20 years, one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe. An area once renowned for crime, prostitution and an ageing train station has been transformed into a modern, vibrant ecosystem that is home to offices, shops, bars, restaurants and families. It is a project with lessons for the rest of the UK as the country looks to boost areas that have been deprived of investment for years. How does a project like this happen? What was the vision at the heart of the scheme? Why was London 2012 so important? What were the big challenges? Why was luck so important? And why is Madelin now so excited about Canada Water? Find out all of that and more in the latest episode of Business Studies as we speak to Madelin…

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The founder who has promised never to sell

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 06:00:00 GMT

Is there a different way to do business? Is how we measure success all wrong? Richard Tang, the founder of Zen Internet, suggests there might be. After founding the internet service provider in 1995, Tang has never sold any shares in Zen and has said he never will. His leadership-style is inspired by the King of Bhutan. Zen has won a string of awards for the quality of its service and is exactly the sort of business the UK needs more of - a northern-based tech business that is the largest employer in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Zen has ambitious plans for the future, but Tang is worried about something else - what will happen to the company when he dies?

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Tom Hayes, Libor and prison...

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Tom Hayes was sentenced to 14 years in prison for rigging Libor in 2015. He was the first person in the world to be jailed for rigging Libor and one of the only bankers to be sent to prison after the financial crisis. This is his story of what happened, what life in prison was like and the battle to clear his name…

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Ed Smith, England cricket and making decisions

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 06:00:00 GMT

Ed Smith, the chief selector for England cricket from 2018 to 2021, discusses the recent success of English cricket, the art and science behind making good decisions, and what elite sport and business can learn from each other. In an episode that goes beyond cricket and sport, Smith, who has written a new book called Making Decisions, talks about the lessons from his time as England selector. This includes questioning the value of strategies, looking at the importance of communication, and considering what it takes to be innovative. Find out the stories behind the selection of Jofra Archer, Sam Curran and Jos Buttler - and why they matter…

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Inside 10 Downing Street

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 06:00:00 GMT

What is it like working inside 10 Downing Street? What do special advisers actually do? How did they get the job? How does the government interact with businesses behind-the-scenes? As Rishi Sunak builds a new team to run the country, these questions are more relevant than ever. In episode six of Business Studies, we get the answers from Jimmy McLoughlin, a former special adviser to the prime minister.

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Doing a Ratner

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 05:01:00 GMT

A new analysis of the extraordinary story of how a speech sparked the downfall of Gerald Ratner and the company he led, Ratners Group, at the time the largest jewellery retailer in the world. After describing one of his products as “crap” in 1991, Ratner’s name is now linked with all sorts of corporate and political gaffes. “Doing a Ratner” is used to describe anyone who makes ill-judged and unnecessary comments that inflict damage on their brand or products. But the story of what happened after the speech for Ratner and his company is more complicated than that. In this episode, Ratner discusses why he made the joke, the turmoil in his life after, and what lessons we should take from what happened, more than 30 years on…

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Ocado and Tim Steiner

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 05:00:00 GMT

The story behind one of the few British tech businesses to make it big. Ocado has made it to the FTSE 100, the index of Britain’s biggest companies, and expanded around the world. But along the way the online grocery company and its boss Tim Steiner have faced big challenges, big questions and big rivals.

How did Tim Steiner’s background in finance help? Has the grocery market changed slower than he expected? Why did Ocado and Waitrose split? What is the one bit of advice he would give his younger self? Find out all this and more as we speak to the co-founder and chief executive of Ocado…

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PureGym: Back from the brink

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 05:00:00 GMT

How does a business survive an existential crisis? What does a business leader do when their main source of revenue disappears overnight? In this episode, we speak to a chief executive who was in this position - Humphrey Cobbold, the boss of PureGym, Britain’s largest gym chain.

We explore the unprecedented challenges that businesses faced during the Covid-19 crisis, how the lessons learned during the pandemic can help in the future, and why speaking out publicly and going on Question Time on the BBC is important. Plus, we look at the challenges posed by the post-Covid world. Why has the best location for a gym changed? And how does a chief executive explain choosing to expand in Saudi Arabia amid concerns about its human rights record?

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Philip Morris, Vectura and the end of cigarettes?

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 05:00:00 GMT

A look at one of the most controversial takeovers in British corporate history, a business strategy like no other and whether those involved in creating an enormous global health problem - smoking - should be trusted to play a role in fixing it. In this episode, we interview Jacek Olczak, chief executive of Philip Morris International, the owner of Marlboro and the largest tobacco company in the world, on his stated ambitions to eradicate smoking and the cigarette - a product Mr Philip Morris started selling from a shop in Bond Street, London, in 1847.

Why did the cigarette maker buy Vectura, a company that makes treatments for respiratory diseases, and why should the tobacco industry be trusted? These questions and more are asked in an episode that raises issues that go well beyond business…

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Archie Norman

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 05:00:00 GMT

One of the most influential figures in British business over the last 40 years discusses his efforts to modernise Marks & Spencer, the 138-year-old high street brand, and his own illustrious career. Why does Archie Norman think M&S had a “manifesto for failure” and could collapse within a decade? Why does he now question whether selling Asda to Walmart was right decision? What was it like being an MP? Why did so many businessmen and women thrive while working under him and go on to successful careers? Find out all that and more…

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