Business Leader

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... Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized...

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 Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized UK compa...

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 chall...

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...

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 mor...

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 w...

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...

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... Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized UK companies, designed to help them grow with purpose through strategic support, peer-...

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...

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...

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 t...

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...

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...

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...

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 pra...

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 positio...

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 year...

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 Nationa...

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 speak...

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 becomin...

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 Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEO...

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 this first episode, she speaks to Tom Ryder, the found...

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 me...

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. H...

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 i...