Business Leader

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

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

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? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 e

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 bi

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. N

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'

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 docto

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 opport

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