This is the fascinating story of Ivar Kreuger, the most famous Swedish person and probably the most successful business person you’ve never heard of.

In his prime during the roaring twenties Ivar built up a fortune worth $100 billion in today’s money

He invented many of the financial instruments that are still being used to this day- the stocks and bonds of his companies were the most widely held securities in the world

He lent billions to cash strapped governments and became a personal advisor to the US president. And yet, if you google him now, he’s mentioned in the same breath as Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff

Was Ivar a scam artist or one of the most brilliant business minds of the 20th century? Or was he both?

The book "Barbarians at the Gate" is probably the best business story ever told. It’s a riveting account of the leveraged buyout of the tobacco and food giant  RJR Nabisco in the late 1980s, 

The story gives a great insight into what exactly leveraged buyouts are.

We learn how Henry Kravis and his cousin George Roberts formed the legendary LBO firm KKR.

We see how banks and LBO firms manage to profit handsomely even when deals go bad.

And we see how industry titans end up playing second fiddle when they open their doors to the sharks on wall street. 

It’s full of drama, rivalries, big ego’s and lots and lots of money and we hope you enjoy it. 

This was one of the biggest business scandals of the 1980’s when British Airways financed a dirty tricks campaign in an attempt to publicly blacken Richard Bransons name and put his fledgling airline out of business

We find out why Richard Branson got into the airline business?

How he managed to get under the skin of British Airways

We discuss why British Airways, one of the biggest and most respected companies at the time, decided to wage a dirty tricks campaign against Branson’s tiny new airline.

And who were the people within BA behind it all?

It's a cracking story and we hope you enjoy it as well

New Coke- probably the worst product launch in the history of business. 

This is the story of how, in 1985, Coke’s superstar CEO, the man who could do no wrong, decided to replace the 100 year old coke formula with a new sweeter tasting coke.

Who was this CEO and what were the reasons that led to this decision?

Why was there such an intense backlash?

And how did Coke not anticipate the backlash?

Was it all just a conspiracy?

It was definitely one of the worst product launches in consumer history and it makes for a great story- we hope you enjoy it 

A great business story thoroughly researched and brought to life by Caemin. New episode released every Wednesday