Tom Leathes is CEO of Motorway, the car buying and selling company that launched in 2017 and secured Unicorn status just four years later, after it was valued at over $1billion.

The brand itself has grown rapidly in the UK since it launched, with effective TV and radio marketing campaigns promoting a different way of selling your car.

In this episode Tom explains his journey to success with Motorway, reveals his customer-first approach for the business, and discusses the evolving market for used EVs.

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to the business page here or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zahra Bahrololoumi is CEO of Salesforce UK & Ireland, dubbed the world's number one customer relationship management software company. 

The company has committed $4 billion towards AI innovation and growth in the United Kingdom over five years, and it’s building the company’s first AI Centre based in London.

Zahra herself has been named one of the best-known female leaders in the UK, and in this episode Zahra discusses how AI is ‘top of the agenda’ for businesses, why more investment is needed in digital skills in the UK, and how hugely talented women in tech can reach the top.

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to the business page here or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

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On this episode of How to be a CEO we’re continuing our series looking at start-up success stories.

Pockit is a London-based fintech, serving customers left behind by mainstream banks. It was launched in 2014, has more than 900 thousand customers, and last summer it raised ten million dollars in funding – but it hasn’t been all plain sailing.

Its CEO Virraj Jatania spoke to the Evening Standard’s business editor, Jonathan Prynn about:

• How Virraj’s childhood growing up in a family business shaped his entrepreneurship
• Why seeing the struggles of people restricted from mainstream banking made him want to launch Pockit
• The chance meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson that led to him becoming an early investor
• How his role as CEO changed as the company scaled up
• What happened when a big funding round collapsed just as the pandemic arrived
• How the Wirecard scandal led to a crisis at Pockit
• The “two primary objectives” he has for the company’s future

How to be a CEO drops every second Monday. Hit your follow button to make sure you don’t miss an episode. You can read more from Jonathan Prynn at standard.co.uk/business

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Kickstarting a season of shows looking at the SME market, we speak to Theo Paphitis, the former Dragon's Den star whose retail group includes companies like Ryman Stationery, Robert Dyas, Boux Avenue and London Graphic Centre. He's also the man behind the phenomenally popular Small Business Sunday network, which he started from his kitchen table in 2010. In this episode we talk about:

• Why starting a business makes you “bounce out of bed in the morning” 
• How to deal with the curveballs when they come an SME’s way.
• Why you should wear your business scars as a “badge of honour”
• Could he do today what he did when he first started out as a young man?
• The simple tweet that started the Small Business Sunday phenomenon
• How he overcame “incredible shyness” to develop a network when he first started in business
• The “chance network meeting” that led to Ryman Stationery helping him out in his early days
• Why he runs the Theo Paphitis Retail Group as a small, family business
• Who’s really making money from online retailing… and why it’s not the retailers?
• Why retailers need to “have a reason to exist” to get people through the door
• Ryman's "unique" approach to disrupting the greetings card market
• Why business rates are "the most unfit tax known to man"

Theo will be appearing at the Evening Standard's SME Expo, where there’ll be 4,000 SME founders and decision makers hearing from keynote speakers and joining in the workshops and networking events taking place over the two days. It’s free, go to smexpo.co.uk for more details. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Formerly group CEO of Barclays, Antony Jenkins is the founder and CEO of 10x Banking. It's a tech company created in 2016 with an ambition to “build better banks”. In this conversation we talk about:

• The future of banking

•The influence of big tech in finance with innovations like Apple Pay

•Why he founded 10x Banking with his own money and the difficulty developing new technologies

•The ageing banking technology and why it’s difficult to replace

•How neobanks are able to take business away from traditional banks

For more interviews, news and features, check out standard.co.uk/business or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Polly McMorrow is CEO of McCann London, part of one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world. Clients include Xbox, Aldi, Just Eat and Wimbledon. In this episode we talk about:

• What her New Year Resolutions for business are
• How to make a great marketing campaign 
• Why she nearly turned the job down as soon as she was offered it
• The future of marketing 

For more interviews, news and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper

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It's been an extraordinary year, with extremely challenging conditions for businesses large and small across all sectors. In this edition of How to be a CEO we're joined by the Standard's business editor Jonathan Prynn and Business and Tech correspondent Simon Hunt. 

• What's going to get better in 2024?
• What sectors will thrive in the next twelve months?
• The opportunities in sectors like tech, hospitality and finance
• How will AI evolve, and will it still dominate the conversation?
• Is social media going to change even more?
• Why is Jonathan "optimistically pessimistic" about 2024?

For more interviews, news and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business

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This is a special edition of How to be a CEO, in support of the Evening Standard and Comic Relief’s Winter Survival Campaign. To donate go to comicrelief.com/winterdonate. The campaign continues until December 22nd.

Running a business in a cost of living crisis is hard. Imagine running a charity? Samir Patel’s the CEO of Comic Relief, which last year raised fifty million pounds to help causes addressing poverty and injustice. But the crises just keep coming, and economies around the world remain volatile. So, in all that, how do you persuade people with less money in their own pockets to give you something?  

In this episode we talk about: 

•How Comic Relief believes charity can be fun and the need to inspire hope

•The constant change required to stay relevant

•How global crises are affecting donations to the charity sector

•The shocking deprivation this year's Evening Standard & Comic Relief Winter Survival campaign is trying to tackle

For more on the campaign go to standard.co.uk. To donate, go to comicrelief.com/winterdonate 

Get more interviews, news and analysis at standard.co.uk/business

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It was 2002 when entrepreneur Nick Woodman first set up his GoPro business, something he calls today "the realisation of a dream".

What was only intended to be a small, niche business offering a new way of filming for surfers, grew into a household name synonymous with action cameras for extreme sports, adventuring and capturing footage in all conditions.

In this episode Nick tells us about his 21-year journey with GoPro, how he deals with competition in the secctor, the company's ethos of helping creators do more, and his future plans for the brand.

In this episode:

• Nick's belief in 'a great deal of lucky timing'
• Why he was 'terrified' of hiring people at the start
• Nick's fear of competition and what he does to stay on top
• Plans for desktop video editing software, and AI to make editing easier
• 'Stay tuned' for new types of camera from GoPro
• Why being passionate about a business is key to success

For more news, interviews and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business.

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Graham Bell took the reigns at B&Q in 2018, and has seen the company through a rapid evolution.

In this episode we talk about: 

• His first day on the job and what his priorities were
• How the Covid pandemic turbocharged their development
• What the company's priorities are now
• How customer demands led to them opening smaller stores
• Why he's grateful to the person who bought the diy.com URL all those years ago

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to standard.co.uk/business

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Twenty years ago Richard and his twin brother Anthony Joseph set up their company, Joseph Joseph, with an idea to revolutionise tasks in the home. Simple things like making better chopping boards for the kitchen, ironing boards that fold, and all sorts of ways to tidy up those kitchen drawers. Of course, not everything worked out. Yet, even with a few missteps here and there, Richard’s now CEO of a company that made a pre-tax profit of 20 million pounds last year, with 75% of their sales coming from outside of the UK. Not bad for a couple of brothers whose first steps into the international market involved loading a small car with chopping boards and driving around Europe for three weeks. In this episode we talk about:

·      How Joseph Joseph was formed

·      The kitchenware buyer that saved the company with one order

·      Why Richard’s been buying up their old designs on ebay, and what they’re worth today

·      Why product prices are “quite far down the track” during development

·      How their homes are all full of prototypes of failed experiments

·      The “gremlinesque” story of the spring-activated potato masher that didn’t go to plan

·      How online reviews have transformed how they listen to customers

·      How they got to a point where 75% of their sales are international

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to standard.co.uk/business.

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Charlie Bigham is the founder of the food company that bears his own name. Created in 1996 in his own kitchen, it now employs 700 people and sells dishes from chicken and mushroom pies you put in the oven to pan-fried Pad Thais. In this episode we talk about: 

• Why he gave up his career as a management consultant to pursue his own business
• The importance of keeping things simple, from business ideas to recipes
• Why it would have been harder to set up a company like his in France or Italy
• How the business is adapting to new technology and AI

For more business interviews, news and analysis, go to standard.co.uk or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper. 

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Nicola Hodson is UK & Ireland CEO of multinational corporation IBM. It is the largest industrial research organisation in the world, and has been making headlines for its computer technology for decades. Today though, the company is firmly in the midst of the AI revolution and Nicola has been put in charge of continuing to push forward their artificial intelligence offering. 

In this episode Nicola reveals a variety of use-cases for AI today, how they are focused on ethics, and why businesses want to use the technology to help employees and boost productivity.

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to the business page here or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

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When BT Business was officially launched in April this year, Bas Burger was the man entrusted to take the reigns. He’s in charge of 24,000 people, and a multi-billion pound strategy to make the UK’s broadband infrastructure fit for the future. In this episode we talk about:

·      Why BT Business had to be created and why he wanted the top job

·      Why a CEO should “ask questions and not give answers for as long as you can”

·      The challenges it faces to make the UK prepared for the AI revolution

·      Why every company’s a digital company and what that means for technology demand

·      How Canadian ice hockey legend Wayne Gretsky’s influenced his strategy

·      The importance of knowing “what’s not going to happen” in the future

·      Why the UK’s “arguably” fallen behind Europe in digital communication

·      How he was first made a CEO at the age of 31, and how fast he had to learn

·      Why as a student he spent all his money on a plane trip from the Netherlands to the UK to get his first ever job

For more business interviews, news and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business, or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

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Tjodolf Sommestad is the President of King Games, creators of Candy Crush. One of the earliest 'freemium' games, over the last decade it's become the most downloaded match game in the world, with three billion downloads across platforms. In this episode we talk about: 

• How Candy Crush was developed
• Why its rapid success forced Tjodolf to put his own job at risk
• What you do when there's no map to follow in a new market
• Could AI play Candy Crush for you?
• What level of the game is he on?

For more interviews, news and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business.

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After taking WordPress from a small blogging site in the 2000s to an all-in-one website creation platform, which is now the backbone of around a third of all websites, Matt Mullenweg has now set his sights on social media. Now as CEO of Tumblr, Matt reveals his plans to revamp the site, welcome disillusioned ex-Twitter and Reddit users, and create a social site that is, at its core, open-source. In this episode:

• Matt’s battleplan for making Tumblr better
• How social media sites copy features from competitors
• Where Matt got his nickname as ‘the blog prince’
• How Wordpress took on tech giants like Microsoft, Google & AOL
• Making Tumblr’s algorithm open-source
• How AI will play a role in improving Tumblr
• Is generative AI a concern?
• Can social media actually help people connect?

For more news, interviews and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business.

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If you've ever had a text reminding you about a hospital appointment, there's a good chance it'll have come via DrDoctor. The platform was built in 2012 and allows patients to book or cancel visits. When co-founder Tom Whicher was developing the idea, the concept of sharing data, and using AI in healthcare was controversial. Now, it's commonplace and the company started this year by winning £10 million of funding. So, how did they do that? We also talk about: 

• The use of AI in healthcare and why doctors will never be replaced by machines. 
• Why winning large funding rounds means the work has only just begun
• How they kept the company going through its rough earliest years
• His reaction when he got his first real appointment reminder text via his own company
• The car he sold to get DrDoctor started, and the one he's just bought (which might surprise you)

For more news, interviews and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business. 

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Rafael Oliveira is International Markets President at Kraft Heinz, which has operations in more than 50 countries. Now based in London, he started life in Rio de Janeiro where he says the democracy of the beach taught him how to negotiate with people from different backgrounds. In this interview we talk about:

·      How Kraft Heinz handles global communication with staff and customers

·      The value of regional teams within an international framework

·      How he learned how to negotiate by playing football and surfing in Brazil

·      The importance of food to the world’s economy

·      How the cost-of-living crisis is affecting Kraft Heinz and its customers

·      What “taste elevation” means and how acquisitions are helping achieve it

·      The Ed Sheeran ‘Tingly Ted’s’ deal and how that happened

·      Why people have an “irrational love” for Heinz and how superfans help the brand

·      What is the perfect sauce?

·      And… this one simple trick to get Heinz ketchup out of a glass bottle.

You can get all the latest interviews, news and analysis from the Evening Standard every day. Pick up the newspaper or go to standard.co.uk/business. 

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MLB's trying to expand the game of baseball internationally, with a major focus on breaking the UK. But in a country that hasn't paid much attention to 'America's National Pastime', how do they attract attention. MLB Europe's MD Ben Ladkin sits down with us to talk about their strategy. In this conversation we chat about: 

• The Baseball Takeover of Trafalgar Square
• How they're using iconic merchandise to get people's attention
• The role of stadium food in enticing audiences
• Their broadcast deals with the BBC and BT Sport
• The development of grassroots baseball fans
• How Ben's time at Arsenal Football Club prepared him for a role at MLB

For more interviews, news and analysis, pick up the Evening Standard newspaper or go to standard.co.uk/business.

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Cris Miller, doesn’t give many interviews but the online secondary ticket market he helped pioneer, and the company he’s global MD for, Viagogo, have been taking a reputational battering. Over the last twenty years, he’s faced a range of crises from an initially sceptical market, to a major rival announcing a competitive service… to a global pandemic shutting down the world.

In this interview we talk about:  

• Why his first employer, StubHub, was set up because its founder couldn’t get tickets for a date 
• How the company saw the opportunity in a fragmented, untrustworthy secondary ticket market 
• Why it’s the buyer that sets the market value of a ticket, not the seller 
• The “constant hustle” to find and secure partners to help get the start-up off the ground 
• Why the company wasn’t “really ready” for government scrutiny 
• The £300 million hit they took during the covid pandemic, and how they survived 
• Advice on when the best time to buy a ticket on the secondary market might be 

For more news, interviews and analysis, read the Evening Standard newspaper or go to standard.co.uk/business. 

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After over a decade as CEO of password management firm 1Password, Jeff Shiner's now envisaging a 'password-less' future, and one he's very much involved in. Since 2012 he has overseen 1Password's growth from a company with less than 100 employees, to around 900, over a period of time where the importance of online security has never been more important. Jeff discusses how to sell the idea of being responsible for your security, the challenges of business growth, and the future of passwords and passkeys.

In this episode:

• Why people 'suck at security'
• How 1Password was founded on the premise of convenience, rather than security
• How Jeff became CEO of the company
• The challenges faced when businesses double in size
• When managers become a 'blessing'
• How do you sell a responsibility?
• Jeff comments on 'most used passwords' research
• How passkeys could replace passwords in the future
• Why you should always thing 'What do I want to do next?'

For more interviews, news and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

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There are dream jobs, right? Everyone has their own: Astronaut, athlete, having your own ice cream parlour on a beach. All exciting. But running a beer company. That’s gotta be pretty high up on the list for a lot of people? Brian Perkins is the president of the Budweiser Brewing Group in the UK and Ireland, a job he took over in December 2021, just as the world was recovering from the pandemic and about to enter the cost-of-living crisis.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How people’s tastes have changed dramatically in the last three years.
• The growth of non and low-alcoholic drinks
• Why more women are drinking beer
• How a beer company created one of the largest e-commerce systems in the world
• The role of big brewers in supporting pubs and bars
• The opportunities, and responsibilities, big brewers have over smaller companies

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to standard.co.uk/business.

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Raphael Sofoluke is the CEO and founder of the Black Business Show, part of Black Business Week. The event is now the biggest in the UK and Europe, with around 15,000 attendees expected in 2023. But it started as a side-hustle! Raphael is also one of the angels in the AXA Startup Angel competition. There are six chances to win, including two top prizes of £25,000, mentorship from the AXA Startup Angels including Raphael himself, and business insurance for a year, thanks to AXA.

In this episode we talk about:  

• Why he was surprised there hadn’t been a Black Business Show before he started in 2017 
• How Raphael worked on the first Black Business Show in the evening while holding down a full-time job 
• Why he used his own money to bootstrap the business, but now wishes he had more capital to grow faster 
• How he had 25 stands for the first event, and more than 300 businesses wanting one 
• The importance of black role models in business 
• How to respond to the pressure to do better every year 
• Why some of the best businesses are created out of “frustration or inspiration” 
• His advice for aspiring entrepreneurs entering the AXA Startup Angel competition 

For more interviews, news and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business. To get more information on the AXA Startup Angel competition go to standard/co.uk/axastartupangel 

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Jonathan Raggett is CEO of Red Carnation Hotels, an international hotel group designed to offer guests a luxurious, bespoke experience. It has accommodation in places including the UK, Switzerland and South Africa. In this episode, Jonathan explains his ‘back to the floor’ scheme for managers, and reveals how the business is adapting to new challenges around sustainability, maintaining a good reputation online, and providing the right career pathways for his staff.

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to the business page here or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

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Every start-up has an origin story. Vishal Marria’s is pretty dramatic. It began when he was just nine years old, and was attacked by four men who held a knife to his neck in a raid on his father’s cash and carry store. That traumatic moment sparked an interest in crime that took him into data analytics, and eventually the founding of Quantexa – a tech firm that’s been used by major banks and international police to “find the bad guys”, rooting out fraud, money laundering and more. He’s built a company recently valued at 1 point 8 billion dollars, in just seven years.

In this episode we talk about: 

• How that violent incident led to his interest in crime 
• The problem he noticed working with financial companies’ data while working at EY  
• How data is used to tackle financial and organised crime 
• How he got an untested start-up into a room with a huge bank and won a major client against “some of the biggest tech companies on the planet” 
• The nerve-wracking moment the wifi on a plane went down just as he was emailed the result of his presentation to HSBC 
• How as an AI company they have to remember that “people buy from people” 
• How Quantexa has evolved from “catching the bad guy” to “finding the good one” 

For more interviews, news and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper. How to be a CEO is back next Monday, we’d love to see you then.  

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Recorded live at the Evening Standard’s SME EXPO at ExCel London, Casyo ‘Krept’ Johnson - one half of the hip-hop duo Krept & Konan - and influencer, Sasha Ellese Gilbert, share the story of how they co-founded the sell-out brand Nala's Baby.

Originally devised in lockdown as a solution to their daughter's eczema, the company is skincare and haircare free from toxins, chemicals and parabens. It is also cruelty and tear free, vegan, eczema-friendly and fully recyclable.

Also in this episode, we discuss:

• Making their product accessible with a reasonable price point
• The process behind creating the products themselves
• How Krept juggles his career as a musician with his businesses
• Teething problems in the first year after launching
• Their approach to marketing, investment and networking
• How Krept’s rapping career was a hindrance to the brand at the start
• Why you shouldn’t be afraid to pitch your business to anyone
• Why getting as much advice as possible is invaluable

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Trevor Jones is one of the world's most successful cryptoartists, with works like Bitcoin Angel selling for around $3 million. To mark the coronation of Charles III, he's teamed up with the Evening Standard to give away an original work for free. In this episode we talk about:

Why NFTs are still a thing and he's 'busier than ever'

How the crypto crash of 2022, "cleared out the crap" and stabilised the market

How the people collecting NFTs has changed from 'bored ape mask-wearing' types 

Why he explored tech as a way of selling art and how he created a market for something no-one had heard of

His battle against depression when he was a struggling artists and what it's like to be one work is worth millions

Why he's giving away an original work, The Oath, for free to commemorate the coronation of Charles III

'The Oath' will be available on Nifty Gateway between May 4th and 7th. Unlike many other NFTs, which are typically purchased using crypto-currency, readers can own this one with only an email address.

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When you’re rushing to become a CEO, or have the job and are just trying to stay on top of it all, the idea of a day off may be laughable at times. But securing a fair work/life balance can be an achievement in itself. How’s this for an idea: A four-day week? Anne-Marie Lister is the chief people officer who led Atom Bank through a giant transformation in working practice. A trial at the end of 2021 was such a success they decided to make it permanent; following an increase in productivity, and a lot of talent wanting to join a bank with barely a decade’s history behind it. In this episode we talk about:

• Why they did it and the research they did before taking action
• How they did it in six months, but what challenges they had to overcome
• The surprising reaction of some staff 
• How they kept staff informed through a huge range of channels as the transformation happened 
• How the move is working to retain talent during 'The Great Resignation', and increased the number of applications by 500% 
• Why they didn’t announce the move to their customers 

Anne-Marie will be appearing at the Watercooler event which is taking place alongside our SME XPO at ExCel London on April 25th and 26th.

Tickets are free, go to www.watercoolerevent.com.

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When you’re going into business, it’s always good to bring someone along with you. How did What Not to Wear’s Trinny Woodall build a multi-million-pound business? She didn’t start with that number in 2017. In fact, the number some potential investors were more interested in was 51 - her age when her company, Trinny London, launched.

‘Trinny’s Tribe’ has also been a huge part of Woodall’s success building her makeup empire.

In this episode we talk about: 

• Her first business, selling bows as a 16-year-old 
• Age bias from potential investors 
• Why she stood by her plan to sell to 35+, not 20-year-olds 
• The value of slow retention and community engagement over rapid growth 
• Why being “Trinny off the Telly” didn’t help as much as you might think 
• The challenges faced by female entrepreneurs 
• Her admiration for Gen Z founders, and tips for getting global reach 
• The best way to get her attention. 

Trinny is one of the speakers at our SME XPO event. It’s being held on the 25th and 26th of April at ExCel London – tickets are free, and there’s loads of other speakers there too, like Deborah Meaden and Charlie Mullins. AND we’ll be recording a live edition of How to be a CEO with Krept and Sasha the founders of Nala’s Baby ,the kids cosmetics brand. Go to smexpo.co.uk for more details. 

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The boss of IBM’s trailblazing apprenticeship programme, Jenny Taylor MBE, joins us to talk about education and employment opportunities for the next generation.

As part of our new Step Up campaign, this episode was recorded ahead of the Evening Standard and WorldSkills forum with employers and education leaders.

In this episode, we talk about: 

• How Jenny got her own job with the company 37 years ago  
• Why you don’t need a university degree to work in tech  
• Is it possible to go from apprentice to CEO  
• How IBM has changed over the last four decades  
• How the company started its apprenticeship programme 
• The value of doing a variety of work experience when you’re young  
• Advice on improving CVs and the common mistake often made by young women – including Jenny
• Her own memories of her first ever job interview  

For more news, interviews and analysis go to standard.co.uk/business.

To learn more about our Step Up campaign go to standard.co.uk/stepup.

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Rob Kniaz co-founded Venture Capital firm Hoxton Ventures, specialising in early stage investment. With successes like Deliveroo and cyber defence firm Darktrace, the company’s become one of the most successful, and approached, VC firms in Europe.

In this episode we talk about:  

• Is generative AI, like ChatGPT, the next big thing… or are there others? 
• What a VC does, and doesn’t, do 
• The story behind their support for Deliveroo 
• Is it harder to get VC funding in the current economy? 
• How layoffs in the tech sector could create a new era of entrepreneurship 
• The reason he became a venture capitalist, and how difficult it was to start. 

Rob will be appearing at the Evening Standard’s SME XPO, which is being held at the ExCel London on April 25th and 26th. To find out more about the speakers, and get free tickets, go to smeexpo.co.uk .

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In this frank interview, Heathrow’s Chief Financial Officer Javier Echave talks about the addiction to exercise and his mobile phone that contributed to a breakdown in 2016. Since then, he’s been pioneering efforts not just at the airport but across companies in the UK to improve workplace wellbeing policies. He’s on the Business in the Community group which represents around 600 companies and employs around 5.5 million people, and is working on raising issues like dealing with stress in offices. In this episode we talk about: 

• The factors that led to “the darkest moments” of his mental health 
• Why 51 percent of BiC members don’t feel comfortable talking about mental health 
• 12 percent say they can be demoted or disciplined if they talk about mental health problems 
• Why everyone in the C-suite of a company should prioritise mental health wellbeing 
• The four things companies need to do when changing workplace culture 
• Why there shouldn’t be a “conflict between money and health” 
• What the “mood lift” scale is, and how Heathrow uses it to check-in with manager’s health 

Javier’s going to be appearing at the Watercooler event, which is taking place at the same time and the same location as our SME XPO – on the 25th and 26th of April at ExCel London. It’s going to feature more than 100 speakers on how to deliver a healthy workplace culture. For more info and free tickets go to watercoolevent.com 

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Levi Roots' success on Dragon’s Den is legendary, and he speaks about it like it’s a tale from mythical times. When he got home that night, he says he held the guitar he’d used in his pitch aloft and told his mum “I slayed the dragon". He's been on a real 'hero’s journey'; his breakthrough coming at 48 years old, when he had to borrow money just to get to the BBC’s studios. Now he's the head of a multi-million food empire, but for how much longer does he want to stay at the top?

In this episode we talk about:

• How fear is the biggest driver for him 
• His responsibility as a powerful brand in the Caribbean community 
• The origin of Reggae Reggae sauce 
• Why the music was so important to the brand’s success 
• Why he’s thinking of selling his company 
• The difficulties of balancing business and family 
• Why he ignored advice not to take his guitar in the Dragon's Den
• What does a Dragon really do with a business once the cameras stop running?
• The challenge of sustaining public interest in your brand after TV success 
• Levis Roots: The Movie – the Hollywood A-listers being lined up to play him in the biopic 

Levi will be appearing at the Evening Standard's SME XPO in April where he’ll be talking about the power of a great brand – you can get free tickets by popping over to smeexpo.co.uk 

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Clarke Carlisle is a former professional footballer who now uses his own battles with mental health to advise companies on office wellbeing. He’s joined by his wife Carrie to talk frankly about how his problems affected his career and family, and how getting help turned his life around. 

Please note, this episode contains discussion about the feelings around suicide.

We also talk about: 

• Clarke’s upbringing as a mixed-race child in a council estate 
• How his need to please managers and fans in football contributed to his loss of identity 
• How his mood swings and downward spiral affected Carrie during her pregnancy 
• The essential role of therapy in both his and Carrie’s lives 
• Their work helping businesses improve mental health provision 
• The one common factor all companies with good wellbeing culture have 

Clarke and Carrie Carlisle will be appearing at the Watercooler conference and exhibition being held at ExCel London on April 25th- 26th. There’ll be more than 100 speakers across the days talking about mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing, social and inclusive wellbeing, financial wellbeing and environmental wellbeing. For free tickets and the full line-up go to watercoolerevent.com 

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Kate Nicholls is the CEO of UKHospitality: the lead trade body for the hospitality industry in the UK. It represents more than 750 companies operating around 100,000 venues, in a sector that employs 3.5 million people. In this episode Kate discusses how the sector's still recovering from Covid-19, why a VAT cut is the single best way to boost hospitality right now, and why she hates the term 'staycation'.

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to the business page at standard.co.uk/business, or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

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Charlie Mullins is one of Britain’s best known, and most successful businessmen. He founded Pimlico Plumbing in 1979, turned it into a £50 million a year trade empire, then sold it last year for £140 million. So, what do you do after that? In this episode we talk about:

• His plan to open a new service company with an HQ in Lambeth  
• The reason he sold Pimlico, and why he now feels he "let down customers and staff"
• How Pimlico Plumbing became so successful  
• The big mistake that nearly led to Pimlico going bankrupt, and how he got out of it 
• The moment his lawyer told him "the money's in your account"
• Why he’s running for Mayor of London 
• The one question everyone always asks him, and what the answer is...

 Charlie will be appearing at our SME Expo, which is being held at the ExCeL London on April 25th and 26th. For more details, click here. 

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Russell Glass is the CEO of Headspace, the app designed to teach users how to meditate, do yoga, and practise mindfulness more regularly. Russell took to meditation himself after watching a talk by founder of Headspace Andy Puddicombe, and became CEO in October 2021. Russell discusses how the concept of meditation has become more mainstream in western society, his route to becoming CEO, and how Headspace are supporting staff. In this episode:

• The pandemic's role in bringing mental health into the mainstream
• How western society lost the concept of meditation
• How meditation had a 'staggering' impact on Russell's life
• Russell's journey of becoming CEO of headspace
• Benefits of the four-day work week
• The little things you can do to free up your brain capacity
• How Headspace is supporting employers and employees in the UK
• Headspace's work with footballer Raheem Sterling

For more business interviews, news and the very best analysis, check out the Evening Standard newspaper, or head to our business pages here.

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We all know who Deborah Meaden is: the entrepreneur, the investor, a long-serving Dragon in the den… and environmental campaigner. Deborah’s involvement with climate causes goes back to her college days, and these days it’s become a more important part of her business, and her life, than ever.

In this episode we talk about: 

• How she studied climate change at college 
• Her admiration for Greta Thunberg 
• The urgency of the environmental crisis and how business needs to react 
• Why she would never work in the oil industry 
• Her selection process for investing in companies 
• Why investors are looking for your environmental story 
• Why we shouldn’t criticise companies as “greenwashers” 
• The support she believes government should give to SMEs with environmental goals 
• How Britain’s lost its place as a world leader on green issues 

Deborah’s appearing at our SME EXPO, which is being held at the EXCEL London on April 25th and 26th. Also there will be former Dragon’s Den entrant Levi Roots, and entrepreneurs including Charlie Mullins, Trinny Woodall, and Biscuiteer Harriet Hastings. Click here for more info and to register for free ticket. 

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Arne Schepker has been CEO of language learning business Babbel since 2015. In this episode he discusses, why AI is ‘overrated’, how app-based learning could overtake conventional classes, and how to build the best modern-day work culture. In this episode:

• What has kept you at Babbel for more than 7 years?
• Will app learning eventually take over face-to-face classes?
• Why Artificial Intelligence is ‘vastly overrated and overused’
• Why beanbags and ping pong tables aren’t all you need to build a strong work culture
• Babbel’s plans for a language learning ‘ecosystem’
• Arne’s message to entrepreneurs: “solve real user problems please”

For more business interviews, news and the very best analysis, check out the Evening Standard newspaper, or head to our business pages here.

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Nearly twenty years ago, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones ploughed money from a successful career in marketing into a food business. From day one he took risks, choosing to call his brand ‘The Black Farmer,’ despite research telling him to avoid the “edgy name”. In this episode we talk about: 

• How he built The Black Farmer brand 
• Why he sells “a vision not a product” 
• His belief that good people will find you “if you put it out there” 
• Why some institutions should give up acres of land to people who want to farm 
• Why farming must embrace diversity and new ideas 
• How shows like The Apprentice are pushing impossible Instagram success 

Wilfred will be appearing at the Evening Standard’s SME XPO at London’s EXCEL on April 25th and 26th along with people like Deborah Meaden, Levi Roots and Charlie Mullins. Go to SMEXPO.co.uk for free tickets. 

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Harriet Hastings is the co-founder and MD of Biscuiteers, the London-based food gifting company. In this episode we talk about:

•Why scaling up "wasn't as scary as it should have been"

•How she learned to "go faster, quicker" on ambitious plans

•The Biscuiteers' move into the US market

•Why the online retailer decided to open physical stores

•The value of partnerships with companies like Emma Bridgewater and Warner Bros

•Why marketing is the most important skill set for entrepreneurs 

•Managing rising costs in the global economy

Harriet will be appearing at the Evening Standard's SME Expo which is being held at Excel London on April 25th and 26th. To find out more and get free tickets, go to smexpo.co.uk

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Selina Webb is the EVP of Universal Music in the UK. A former journalist, she joined the company’s Polydor label as Press Director in 1998, rising up to take her current position in 2016. In that time she has established the careers of countless acts, guided the company through ever-changing musical trends across multiple genres, and devised strategies to meet the challenges of constant innovations such as the advent of streaming.  She recently co-authored a book on improving conditions and opportunities for neurodiverse staff, and is playing a leading role in developing mental health support for artists and workers.

In this episode we talk about: 

• How 100,000 new tracks being uploaded daily to Spotify causes competition problems
• Why it takes longer than ever for new artists to cut through, despite there being more ways to discover them
• The pressure on musicians who are constantly connected to audiences through social media
• Why the music industry isn’t the “ruthless” place it’s sometimes portrayed to be.
• What it was like hearing Sam Smith’s voice for the first time, and how Snow Patrol got discovered
• The influence of Fortnite and other video games on modern audiences 
• How to find and secure neurodiverse employees in the creative industries  

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to standard.co.uk/business or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

New episodes of How to be a CEO are released every Monday morning, hit your follow button to make sure you don’t miss an episode. 

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For a couple of years, Lime seemed to be one of those companies that pops in exactly the right place at the precisely the right time. It started off in San Francisco in 2017, hiring out electric bikes just as the world was taking climate change more seriously – the ink on the Paris agreement had only dried the year before. In 2018, it was valued at one point one billion dollars – a full on unicorn. In 2019, it doubled its value. Then came 2020, and the pandemic which wiped out 99% of its markets. In this episode, CEO Wayne Ting talks to us about: 

•The race to raise emergency funding with 90% of Lime's revenue disappearing.

•Why "management with optimism" is essential during a crisis.

•The challenges of persuading cities to introduce electric micromobility.

•How even places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen faced backlash when they encouraged more bike use.

•The problems with electric cars and continuing contribution to climate change.

•Can Lime serve six million people in London with 100,000 bikes?

•What's next for Lime? 

For more business interviews, news and the very best analysis, check out the Evening Standard newspaper, or head online at standard.co.uk/business where you’ll find our live blog bringing you up to the minute developments on the biggest stories. 

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Marvin Berglas founded Marvin's Magic in the UK 35 years ago. It's now in 60 international markets. In this episode we talk about:

• The story of how they got into FAO Schwarz in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza
• Their role in innovating "retail theatre" and experiential shopping 
• Why they hired actors instead of magicians 
• How QVC and TV shopping revolutionised their business model
• Difficulties converting exhibition audiences into buying ones 
• The value of close partnerships 
• Protecting brand reputations in global markets
• The product that made them 
• The magical legacy of the Berglas family 

Marvin will be appearing at the Evening Standard's SME Expo, which is being held at ExCel London on April 25-26. Go to https://smexpo.co.uk/ for more information and to register for tickets. 

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John Hitchcox is the founder and chairman of Yoo, a global real-estate and development company, and the world’s largest non-hotel residential brand. He's also one of those behind a £1bn regeneration of Olympia in London.

In this episode we talk about:

•How he's inspired by "things that I need and the things that I want"

•His Plans for Olympia 

•Why he created the enormous Lakes estate in the Cotswolds 

•What happened when their bank went bust during the financial crisis 

•How to survive a recession 

•The influence of his mother who wanted to be a musician, and why he feels he's "conducting an orchestra of business"

•His nights at the karaoke with Simon le Bon 

For more news, interviews and analysis, go to standard.co.uk/business or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper. 

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In this edition of How to be a CEO we’re talking to the boss of AXA UK and Ireland, Tara Foley. She took up the position last year, so there’s lots to talk about there, including what her plans for her first year are. We'll also be looking at their recent survey, looking at who is starting up small businesses right now, and what challenges they're facing.

We’ll also be looking at the AXA Start-up Angel competition, which is run in partnership with the Evening Standard and gives budding entrepreneurs the chance to win capital, and get first-class mentoring. There are six opportunities to win, including two top prizes of £25,000 to fund your business idea, and you’ll get mentoring from the AXA Startup Angels along with business insurance for a year. Entries close on June 2nd 2024. For more details, and Ts and Cs, head over to the website.

For more interviews, news and analysis, go to the business page at standard.co.uk/business, or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

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Sports streamer DAZN's North America CEO Joe Markowski joins us to talk about the origins of the company from a few bullet points on a page to a global presence in over 200 markets.

In this episode we talk about: 

• How to establish yourself as a major player on day one 
• Inside the negotiations to secure huge sporting rights 
• The value of being a first mover in an emerging market 
• Advice on global marketing 
• Why successful companies have their own personality 
• The impact YouTube influencers like KSI are having on the growth of fight sports  
• How rights to women’s sports are rocketing in value 
• How to pronounce DAZN 

For more news, analysis and interviews go to standard.co.uk/business or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper. 

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Richard Mabey quit his job as a lawyer to pursue his mission to make contracts quicker and easier to make, alter and sign.

In 2016 he launched Juro, a contract automation platform designed for lawyers and businesses, which could replace emails, programmes such as Microsoft Word and Excel, and cloud-based storage.

Last year the business processed 500,000 contracts, and Richard is aiming to make Juro the default contracts platform world-wide.

In this episode we talk about:

• How everyone can benefit from quicker contracts
• Richard's journey from lawyer to CEO
• Do established companies need more convincing about new tech solutions?
• The challenges of selling new systems
• The use of AI and natural language processing
• Does new tech like Juro lead to job cuts?
• The importance of information security

Head to standard.co.uk/business for more interviews, news, analysis and features, or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper. 

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Gymshark started in Ben Francis’s parents' garage in the Midlands, with lessons from his gran on how to sew.

Ten years on, the fitness apparel company’s a global business valued at one and a quarter billion pounds and has just opened its first IRL store on London's Regent Street.

In this episode we talk about:

• Why Gymshark's "a story of failure"
• The power of leading from your gut 
• The test and learn mentality 
• Why he didn't take a salary for two years
• The value of hustling
• What they're doing to make their Regent Street store a unique retail experience
• The philosophy of "community, conditioning and retail "

Head to standard.co.uk/business for more interviews, news, analysis and features, or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper. 

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TS Anil is the CEO of Monzo, one of the neobanks taking on the established players in the financial sector. It’s grown to have around 6 million customers, but now faces new challenges as the UK wades through a cost-of-living crisis, and recession looms. In this episode we talk about:

• His motivation for taking over as CEO and his drive to reinvent banking
• Why crises separate great companies from the rest
• How a new CEO has to adapt to the company they’re stepping into
• The walks in the park that led to big strategic decisions during the pandemic
• The prejudice he faced as an Indian businessman
• What makes people think about switching banks
• The help Monzo can give to people trying to organise their finances
• The prejudice he faced as an Indian businessman
• The global ambition behind Monzo’s future strategy

For all the latest business news, interviews and features, head over to standard.co.uk/business. Or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.

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