Business Leader

Rishi Khosla, the co-founder and chief executive of OakNorth, joins Graham Ruddick to tell the story of how OakNorth was built. Founded in 2015, OakNorth was valued at $2.8bn (£2.1bn) in its last funding round and is generating annual profits of more than £200m. Khosla and co-founder Joel Perlman set-out to revolutionise banking for small and medium-sized businesses. Despite some ups and downs, they are doing just that...

Innovation isn’t reserved for tech giants. It’s the beating heart of any business that wants to grow and stay relevant. In this episode, we dive into what it takes to build a culture where innovation thrives. From uncovering hidden skills in your workforce to reshaping how teams collaborate, you’ll discover practical steps to spark new thinking.We speak with David Keene, the co-founder and CEO of tech firm Aurrigo, Nathan Thomas, Ricoh Europe’s director of innovation, Richard North, president at innovative toy manufacturer Wow! Stuff, Zoe Harris, travel company On The Beach’s chief marketing officer and Andrea Morgan-Vandome, the chief innovation officer at supply chain software provider Blue Yonder. They share hard-won lessons on fostering curiosity, reducing fear and creating environments where bold ideas can take root.

It was not until 1998 that Starbucks opened its first UK coffee shop. Around the same time, Martyn Dawes, who suspected that people wanted easier access to quality coffee, started putting Coffee Nation coffee machines into shops.Today, coffee shops are everywhere and Coffee Nation has become Costa Express, which is owned by Coca-Cola after a blockbuster £3.9bn takeover. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Martyn Dawes, the founder of Coffee Nation, explains how a trip to the US inspired the business, why his initial idea was wrong and whether he regrets selling too early.Martyn Dawes is now a Business Leader facilitator, overseeing peer-to-peer forums between CEOs and founders. To find out more about Business Leader membership, visit: https://businessleader.co.uk/membership

AI has been called the biggest business shift since the internet but what does that actually mean for your business? In this episode, Matt Weaver of OpenAI explains how businesses can move beyond experiments and embed AI into daily operations. He reveals why literacy, executive sponsorship and experimentation are the three critical levers leaders must pull.You’ll also hear how Virgin Atlantic is using AI to extend its trademark personal service and why the real win isn’t about replacing jobs but removing repetitive tasks so people can focus on higher-value work.

WD-40 is one of the world's best-known brands. You probably keep a can somewhere in your house for unjamming locks and stopping squeaks. The company was founded in San Diego, California in the 1950s and the secret formula used in WD-40 was devised by a team working on missile maintenance in the aerospace industry. Today the company is worth around $3 billion and listed on the stock market in the US. But it is run by a Brit, Steve Brass, who speaks to Dougal Shaw about the story behind the company, why it is important not to get distracted from your core product and why Sir Alex Ferguson is his ultimate role model...

In today’s competitive business landscape, technical skills and strategy are no longer enough to lead effectively. Emotional intelligence, the ability to understand yourself, manage your emotions, and connect with others, is increasingly becoming the defining trait of successful leaders. In this episode, we speak to Amy Jacobson, who has written a book titled The Emotional Intelligence Advantage: Mastering Change and Difficult Conversations. We explore her five-pillar framework for building emotional intelligence. From owning your wiring to handling difficult conversations with empathy, she explains how leaders can turn emotional intelligence into a practical, measurable business advantage.

Tim Richards tells the story of how he founded Vue International and built it into one of the biggest cinema chains in the world...Hosted by Graham RuddickProduced by Anouszka Tate 

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for travelling as people enjoy their summer holidays. Many of you will have travelled on Wizz Air, one of the biggest airlines in Europe and a business that has emerged as a new low-cost rival to Ryanair and EasyJet in recent years. In this classic episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Graham Ruddick speaks to Jozsef Varadi, the founder and chief executive of Wizz Air, about what it takes to build an airline. This episode was originally released in April 2024. Business Leader is sharing classic episodes throughout August in response to demand from our fantastic audience. We will be sharing the best founder and scale-up stories from our archive...

In the finale of series 1, we look at Chiefs' attempt to achieve their goal by winning the double, when to take tough personnel decisions and break down the full anatomy of the turnaround.