Business Leader

Imran Hakim is a serial entrepreneur and has built Hakim Group into a collection of independent opticians across the UK. But he also found extraordinary success through Dragons Den and invented a toy that became one of the UK's most popular Christmas presents. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Victoria Price speaks to Imran Hakim about building his business, Dragons Den and the challenge of being a parent and chief executive...

Nick Grey is the founder and owner of Gtech, which he has built into a multi-million-pound technology business. Gtech started out with vacuum cleaners, but has since expanded into power tools, hair dryers and much more. Grey is the inventor behind many of its original designs, initially working from his home in Worcestershire. He founded Gtech in 2001 having previously worked as a window-fitter on building sites and a lab technician at Vax.Dougal Shaw went to meet Nick Grey at Gtech Community Stadium, where football club Brentford play, to hear the story behind this innovative UK success story...

Graham Ruddick and Sarah Vizard are joined by Rob Watts and James Whittaker, the head of UK wealth management and chief executive of Deutsche Bank UK, to discuss what it takes to build a billion-pound business in the UK. Who are the people who have done this? What are their stories? And what are the 56 businesses on Business Leader's list of Great British Billion-Pound Businesses? All this and more is covered in the latest episode of the Business Leader Podcast.This episode is sponsored by Deutsche Bank Wealth ManagementTo see the full-list of Great British Billion-Pound Businesses please click this link: https://businessleader.co.uk/feature/gbbpb

Dougal Shaw checks-in to a Yotel for a guided tour of the business with CEO Hubert Viriot. The brand is known for its compact, functional but stylish designs. It was started by British entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe, who also founded the Yo! Sushi food chain. Inspired by high-end, long-haul travel and the minimalism of Japanese hotels, he opened the first Yotel at Gatwick Airport in 2007. The idea was successful and expanded to other international airports. Hubert Viriot joined the business as CEO in 2014 with a mission to supercharge the concept with global expansion, taking it into urban areas. It now has 23 hotels in cities around the world, in places like New York, Miami, Singapore, Geneva and Edinburgh. So what’s the secret formula for Yotel and how do you scale a new hotel brand?

Bruce Bratley has gone from studying for a PhD to building one of the UK’s most successful recycling businesses. He founded the waste management and recycling company First Mile in London in 2004. It now has 200 employees, an annual turnover of £50m and helps more than 30,000 businesses around the UK with recycling solutions. Its clients include large companies like Pret, Caffè Nero, Netflix and Amazon, as well as small businesses ranging from clothes stores to restaurants. First Mile collects more than 65,000 tonnes of waste every year using zero and low-emission vehicles and electric cargo bikes, which it takes to recycling centres. Bratley explains to Dougal Shaw how he built the business from scratch as well as offering some tips on how to recycle more intelligently...

Graham Ruddick meets Joe Lister, the chief executive of Unite Group, to hear the story behind how this business went from a student start-up in Bristol to a FTSE 100 company. Unite's unique culture is at the heart of it all...

Here are three business leaders who all have one thing in common - they lead US-based, SaaS companies valued at more than $1 billion. SaaS (software as a service) businesses are the lifeblood of the modern economy. Their products help with everything from sales calls and marketing to employee onboarding and supply chain management. These days all companies are awash with data, but artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to put that data to use. Dougal Shaw speaks to the three CEOs about how they scaled-up their business. He speaks one-on-one with Katherine Kostereva of Creatio, Chet Kapoor of Datastax and Doug Winter of Seismic.

Highland Europe was founded on the basis that promising European businesses, including those in the UK, can take on the US tech giants if they get the right funding. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Fergal Mullen, the co-founder of Highland Europe, explains what he looks for in founders and promising businesses (and what he avoids). And why Europe could take on the US by merging the major stock markets across the continent, including London

Julia Pyke is joint managing director of the Sizewell C nuclear plant and she thinks nuclear power has an image problem. She blames a lot of this on The Simpsons cartoon and in particular, the evil character Mr Burns. However, as Pyke explains to Dougal Shaw, she is trying to challenge that stereotype while building Sizewell C in Suffolk, which is due to switch on in the mid-2030s.The UK hasn’t turned on a new nuclear plant for three decades. The climate crisis has made nuclear energy more appealing. However, nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima still loom large in the public imagination. Pyke explains how she is building a nuclear workforce that is diverse and reflects modern society, while also making the case for the safety of the nuclear industry.