An update from our editor-in-chief
Plus, Poppy Gustafsson appointed investment minister, UK economy grows again, 140-plus AIM-listed companies pen open letter to Reeves and Elon Musk unveils Tesla robotaxi
This article is an online version of our Off to Lunch newsletter. Sign up to receive it straight to your inbox here.
Dear all,
I want to take a break from our usual format today to let you know about some exciting improvements to our newsletters.
Over the past few weeks, we have been gathering feedback from you – our readers – on what you’d like to receive from us. Thank you to the many of you who filled out our surveys – we have had an incredible response.
Off to Lunch launched as a newsletter two and a half years ago but since then lots has changed. For a start, there have been four different prime ministers. And Off to Lunch is now part of Business Leader. We are building a world-class business publication and membership organisation across not only newsletters but print, digital and audio. The aim of our content is to help more promising businesses in the UK become large companies.
We have been listening carefully to you and thinking about what you want from our content, how we can improve it and the role of our newsletters within that.
So, here is a summary of what we plan to do. In short, these changes are about offering more of what you want in fewer newsletters:
- From next week there will be three newsletters per week, not five. These will be published on Monday, Tuesday and Friday around the same time as they are at present.
- Each of the newsletters will have their own identity and name that reflects what the content is about.
- Monday’s newsletter will be called Business Leader Masterclass and offer inspiring and world-class how-to guides aimed at helping you build your business.
- Tuesday’s newsletter will be called Under the Bonnet and will offer a deep dive into the story behind our latest podcast episode and the lessons that can be learned from it. This is for Business Leader members only. You can find out more about our membership and apply here
- Friday’s newsletter will be called Business Leader Weekend. It will feature writing by me on key business issues, a round-up of the best of Business Leader’s content, what you need to know from the week and some recommended reading for the weekend. This will be similar to the current format, only better.
As current subscribers to Off to Lunch you don’t need to do anything to receive the improved newsletters, just look out for the new names in your inbox. And of course, please send me any questions, comments or feedback to editorial@businessleader.co.uk.
We are looking forward to sharing the newsletters with you next week.
Best,
Graham
Business Agenda
A summary of the most important business news
1. Poppy Gustafsson, co-founder of cybersecurity firm and Great British Billion-Pound Business Darktrace, has been appointed as the UK government’s new investment minister. Gustafsson stepped down as the company’s CEO following the company’s sale to US private equity firm Thoma Bravo and will now lead the Office for Investment with the remit to oversee efforts to attract global investment into the UK. You can read more here.
2. The UK economy grew by 0.2 per cent in August after two months of stagnation, providing a timely boost for chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of the autumn Budget. While all major sectors saw some growth, concerns remain over the broader slowdown compared to earlier in the year. You can read more here.
3. Reeves is again in the spotlight as Sky News reports that more than 140 AIM-listed companies, including Fevertree Drinks, Jet2, and YouGov, have urged the chancellor to reaffirm support for Business Relief (BR) ahead of the upcoming Budget. The businesses stress that BR plays a critical role in attracting investment to the AIM market, which has been a key platform for high-growth companies for 30 years. You can read more here.
4. Reaction Engines, a British hypersonic aviation pioneer and Concorde successor, is in talks with the UK government about a potential rescue deal, involving the UAE’s Strategic Development Fund (SDF) as its largest shareholder. Facing mounting losses and the need for a £20m capital injection, the company is negotiating to secure new funding to avoid collapse. You can read more here.
5. Elon Musk has unveiled Tesla’s long-anticipated robotaxi at an event in California. The Cybercab is being positioned as a key player in the future of autonomous transport. The pedal and steering wheel-free vehicle is expected to start production “before 2027” and will be priced under $30,000. You can read more here.
Business Question
What percentage of SME owners surveyed said stress and mental health issues are affecting the success of their business?
A. 26 per cent
B. 37 per cent
C. 41 per cent
D. 50 per cent
The answer can be found at the bottom of the page.
Business Thinker
Deep dives on business and leadership
By Dougal Shaw
Duolingo is a language-learning app, which was founded in 2011. The scale of its reach is incredible. It has 34 million daily users. How it achieved that is interesting. The vast majority of its customers use it for free. This helps it to spread by word of mouth, according to founder Luis Von Ahn. It also brings in ad revenue. But only around 8% of users opt to pay a subscription to get the ‘premium’ offer, which makes up 80% of the company’s revenue, which in 2023 totalled $531m. If you want to be fluent in language businesses, check out our recent article here.
Last week in this section, we highlighted an article about CEOs turning to podcasts to get their message and ‘personal brand’ across. This article from The Times considers a similar phenomenon but in regard to the social media platform LinkedIn. It’s often considered as the social network for professionals, where behaviour is better than on X (formerly Twitter), for example.
There’s a trend for people to post ‘behind the scenes’ videos about their own working lives. For CEOs, this might mean a candid video explaining how they prepare for an earnings report, for example. As the article puts it: “A shaky video shot on a smartphone and shorn of corporate gloss lends an authentic edge and creates a connection with investors and customers that more polished presentations struggle to accomplish.”
Business Quote
Inspiration from leaders
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
– Jack Welch
Business Leader
The best of our content
Ask Richard: Bricks, clicks and paper
Richard Harpin has had a hugely successful career in business. Having founded Homeserve in 1993, he helped build it into one of the UK’s largest home emergency businesses. He served as CEO until its acquisition in 2022 by Brookfield Asset Management, in a deal that valued the business at £4.1bn.
He has since founded the investment fund Growth Partner and acquired Business Leader. In his latest Ask Richard feature, he covers the importance of bricks, clicks and paper and much more.
You can read it here.
Other popular articles
💔 The tragedy behind one angel’s public success
🎯 The art of turning absurd ideas into achievable goals
🥾 From Virgin Group to Specsavers: The best bootstrapped businesses
And finally…
By Dougal Shaw
A recent burst of solar activity meant that the Northern Lights were visible much further south than normal. As far south as the southern UK in fact.
So last night ‘aurora chasers’ went out to capture the moment – and I was one of them.
The picture above was taken at Ruislip, north London. It’s an area with low light pollution, which you need to really see this natural phenomenon. There was a faint glow visible to the naked eye in the sky, but it was really only through the camera you could see the true effects of the Northern Lights.
Incidentally, I took this picture on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, the very same camera I use to record the videos in Business Leader’s My CEO Secret series. The iPhone can take stills on a long exposure at night time to capture moments like this.
It just shows what a powerful man-made tool the iPhone is, though maybe not as wonderful as nature.
The answer to today’s Business Question is D. 50 per cent
