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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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