Business Leader

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224

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Richard Harpin grew his business HomeServe from a single idea to a £4.1bn sale. On the Business Leader Podcast , he speaks to entrepreneurs and business leaders about the moments that shaped their success and failure, unlocking original advice and practical insights for anyone building or leading a business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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60 recent

September 1, 202650 min

PizzaExpress CEO: "You Need To Obsess About Your Product"

When Paula MacKenzie took over as CEO in 2022, PizzaExpress had been through seven CEOs in eleven years, a billion-pound debt restructuring, 73 restaurant closures, and a pandemic that decimated the casual dining sector. Four years on, she has refurbished three quarters of the estate, grown a loyalty app to four million members, and is targeting 1,000 restaurants worldwide by 2030. In this episode, Sir Richard Harpin, the host of the Business Leader podcast, delves into the numbers, the decisions, and the leadership thinking behind the business turnaround — including why profits fell even as revenue rose, what a refurbishment actually does to a restaurant's economics, and how MacKenzie is expanding PizzaExpress into new formats and new markets.They also cover her career journey — from Ernst & Young auditor to Diageo, GSK, Innocent Drinks and eleven years at KFC — what it takes to go cross-functional and make yourself the obvious CEO candidate, and the leadership lessons she has taken from four years running one of Britain's most scrutinised businesses. And, her advice to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this episode: What PizzaExpress actually looked like when MacKenzie walked in — and the one thing the business needed most Why she changed much of the leadership team in her first months, and what a CEO transition coach told her before she even started How the loyalty app grew to four million members The refurbishment programme — and why underinvested restaurants are delivering 5–10% revenue uplifts The 1,000 restaurant target — and the new formats, franchise markets and US ambitions behind it Her four-stage playbook for any new CEO: arrive, assimilate, articulate, accelerate Why she believes you cannot overcommunicate — and how she mystery shops her own restaurants Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast for weekly entrepreneur stories from founders and CEOs who’ve built and scaled great businesses. Join the Business Leader community for coaching, peer to peer forums and exclusive learning events. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 25, 202643 min

How Quooker UK Built a £100m business out of hot water taps

Sir Richard Harpin talks to Stephen Johnson, Managing Director of Quooker UK & Ireland, about how to scale a business to a £100m turnover without sacrificing culture. Stephen Johnson spent 26 years in his father's fitted furniture and kitchen business, Neville Johnson, then couldn't get hired anywhere else. Rejected by employer after employer who saw no value in "just working for your father," he eventually talked Quooker's Dutch owners into a six-month trial. With a hire car and 40 taps, he sold 999 hot water taps in his first year and that was the start of Quooker in the UK. Now he’s running a business with 750,000 customers, Johnson tells Sir Richard how he grew the business from his home office to £100m turnover, and why he's employed a full-time psychologist and a Premier League performance coach along the way. Also, the rationale behind his mantra of doing better than yesterday. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast for weekly entrepreneur stories from founders and CEOs who’ve built and scaled great businesses. Join the Business Leader community for coaching, peer to peer forums and exclusive learning events. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 18, 202645 min

Emmie Faust secured a Dragons' Den deal - now she's helping Female Founders Rise

Emmie Faust founded 11 businesses - some of them failed and some of them succeeded - one sold for £7 million. She now runs Female Founders Rise, a 12,000-strong community helping women build, grow and scale their businesses. Faust talks to Sir Richard Harpin, host of the Business Leader Podcast, about the advantages of bootstrapping and scaling a business without outside investment, the real story behind her Dragons' Den investment from Theo Paphitis and why it ultimately failed, and how a personal health crisis during the pandemic led her to build a community for female founders - backed by Google, Shoosmiths, and the British Business Bank. Faust explains how she is supporting women in business at the early stages, through 127 angel investments in women-led businesses, and gives advice for founders preparing to pitch for investment. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast for weekly entrepreneur stories from founders and CEOs who’ve built and scaled great businesses. Join the Business Leader community for coaching, peer to peer forums and exclusive learning events. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 11, 202637 min

How a Police Officer built a £100m business: Mehma Bridgen's Fuel Store

Mehma Bridgen co-founded The Fuel Store with her husband Jamie after leaving the police force — where she was working on a covert operation at just 22. Starting with nothing but cold calling and a small Birmingham office, she helped build a fuel card and fleet management business turning over more than £100 million. Bridgen talks to the host of the Business Leader Podcast, Sir Richard Harpin, about scaling a business from zero — the discipline, the mistakes, the moment they knew they needed an external CEO, her sales philosophy, and what working with your spouse is really like when the pressure mounts. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast for weekly entrepreneur stories from founders and CEOs who’ve built and scaled great businesses. Join the Business Leader community for coaching, peer to peer forums and exclusive learning events. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 4, 202644 min

Moonpig Founder Nick Jenkins: "We Came Close To Failing Several Times"

Nick Jenkins, founder of Moonpig, former Dragons' Den investor, and now a prolific angel investor with over 38 investments to his name, talks to Sir Richard Harpin on the Business Leader Podcast about the lessons he has learned along the way. Jenkins reveals how the business nearly collapsed several times and how a single comment from an investor director (raising the price of a card from £1.99 to £2.99) turned Moonpig from a business on the brink into a survivable, scalable company — and how a bold £50k TV advertising bet snowballed into £1.2 million a month in spend, taking turnover from £3 million to £45 million in three years. Also, how the money on the table in Dragons’ Den is not all real. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast and sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 28, 202651 min

Dame Irene Hays: “Never one penny of debt” | How Hays Travel reached £3 Billion

In 1980, a young couple opened a travel agency in the back of a baby-wear shop in County Durham. Forty-six years later, Hays Travel is the UK’s largest independent travel agency with over 500 branches and more than £3 billion in annual turnover. It has never taken on a penny of debt. Dame Irene Hays talks to Sir Richard Harpin, the host of the Business Leader Podcast, about acquiring the entire retail estate of collapsed travel giant Thomas Cook in a matter of days, saving nearly 3,000 jobs with little due diligence and no safety net. Then the covid pandemic hit and her husband died suddenly — leaving Dame Irene as sole leader of a company haemorrhaging £1million a day. She didn't just hold it together. She built it into something bigger. Dame Irene explains what the golden thread of the business looks like — putting her staff at the heart and how nearly half of Hays Travel's senior managers started as apprentices. Also, she reflects on her success as part owner of Sunderland FC and the importance of sport for young people. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast and sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 21, 202645 min

She turned £6k into a £1bn business

£6,000, 399 meetings and one idea. Mia Drennan, founder and CEO of GLAS, turned a gap in bank-led loan administration into a global platform for servicing institutional debt that manages over $850 billion assets under management. GLAS, Global Loan Agency Services Limited, is now valued at over £1 billion. On this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, host Sir Richard Harpin unpacks how she bootstrapped her way to a successful business without giving up a single share until 2022, how she scaled it internationally and how to encourage more female-founded unicorns. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast and sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 14, 202643 min

Loveholidays CEO: From Covid to £350m revenue and the road to IPO

Donat Rétif joined Loveholidays in December 2019 — just three months before Covid shut down global travel. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, the CEO of the UK's largest online travel agent for package holidays talks to Sir Richard Harpin about how he not only survived that crisis but used it to triple the size of the business, build one of Britain's most impressive tech-driven growth stories, and put Loveholidays on course for an IPO. Also, what it's really like to run a private equity-backed business — and he advises CEOs to never deviate from your North Star. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast and sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 5, 202644 min

Barclays CEO Venkat: business turnaround, cancer, capital requirements and an £800m crisis

C.S. Venkatakrishnan — known as Venkat — took over as Barclays CEO in 2021, inheriting a bank with a share price under pressure and no shortage of sceptics. Four years on, profits are up, returns are up, and Barclays has committed to returning over £15 billion to shareholders by 2028. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, host Sir Richard Harpin asks the Barclays chief executive to unpack the strategy behind one of the UK's most closely-watched banking turnarounds. Venkat shares his lessons from 22 years at JP Morgan and working with Jamie Dimon, the inside story of Barclays' 2024 restructuring, why he believes the UK's Consumer Credit Act of 1973 is holding back consumer lending, and what banks should — and shouldn't — be liable for when it comes to motor finance, heat pumps and solar panels. He also opens up about being diagnosed with cancer four months into the top job, working through treatment, and the leadership lessons that got him — and Barclays — through it. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast and sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters . 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 30, 202646 min

Seams Impossible: How Nadine Merabi built a £40m fashion brand

Manchester-based Nadine Merabi played Hockey professionally for England, bought a £250 sewing machine from Argos and taught herself how to sew. With no formal training she sold a collection to Selfridges and from there she stitched together a £40 million luxury fashion business. She talks candidly with host Sir Richard Harpin about the resilience needed to build a business from scratch —the only thing standing in entrepreneurs’ way is themselves. Merabi pivoted during covid into a Darcie pyjama line, which was worn by celebrities and still makes up a significant proportion of sales, but she draws the line at loungewear. She reveals why growing 800% in a year was her biggest mistake and what it taught her about culture and leadership. And her why her mantra has shifted from "pressure makes diamonds" to "planning makes profit". Also, she explains how her decision to hire a CEO frees her up to focus on what she does best: giving women confidence. Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast and sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters 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-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.