In Season Six of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors we’re turning the spotlight onto host of the podcast Jeff Dewing. Jeff is Founder and CEO of Cloudfm Group, keynote speaker, bestselling author, and a leader who rebuilt his life and company by doing the one thing most people fear: the opposite.

What happens when you stop chasing numbers and start solving problems? Jeff and Sam explore why purpose-driven leadership isn’t just a feel-good philosophy but a practical strategy that changed everything at Cloudfm. Drawing on his years in corporate environments where financial targets trumped client outcomes, Jeff explains the moment he decided no one would ever be fired for missing their numbers—and how that single shift unlocked a culture built on honesty and accountability. Using the Carillion collapse as a cautionary tale of what happens when reported performance drifts from reality, he shows why truth has to be baked into the operating system, not bolted on afterwards.

They dig into the hard work behind defining a company purpose, including a gruelling three-day offsite that produced one sentence the entire team could carry: restore trust in a failing industry by changing the rules. Jeff walks through how values—humility, integrity, empathy, and freedom—were given plain-language definitions so they could be lived rather than laminated, and why saying no to misaligned clients protects the system that creates real value. Day to day, it comes down to a single rule on the wall: do the right thing, whatever it costs.

Culture becomes the engine for growth. Jeff shares how listening to detractors instead of removing them lifted employee engagement from around forty percent to eighty-five percent, and why the most engaged company on the planet makes oil in a can. They unpack why engagement must be measured at the manager level, how coaching replaces command-and-control, and what it means to invert the traditional pyramid so frontline teams can act fast for customers. Profit and purpose are not in competition here—profit emerges as the byproduct of solving meaningful problems with integrity and speed.

In 2026 Cloudfm Group celebrates its 15th anniversary. 

Find out more about Cloudfm here.

Hosted by Sam Walker 

Watch the podcast on YouTube

Discover Cloudfm Group:

Website  |  LinkedIn

Find the best-selling book Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing HERE