Business Leader

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 conc...

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 change...

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 b...

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, t...

“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...

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...

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 t...

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 lo...

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 t...

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

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...

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 mini...

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 unnec...

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...

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...

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 w...

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...