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Case Studies

Forest Holidays Scotland

Building a northern unicorn: The tech-driven rise of Forge Holiday Group

Forge Holiday Group is heading for unicorn status and taking on international tech rivals

Chris Maguire

O2's logo on a phone and Virgin Media's logo in the background

The role of market research at Virgin Media O2

Virgin Media O2's head of research and insight discusses how the company uses customer insight and offers some advice for those starting out

Sarah Vizard

Station F building

Station F: What the UK can learn from France’s start-up hub

In an abandoned train depot, some of France's hottest new businesses are coming together under one roof

Dougal Shaw

Josh Silverman

Barbie mania: Meet the architect behind the branding blitz

Josh Silverman explains how he orchestrated the marketing drive behind the Barbie film

Dougal Shaw

View of the Clifton suspension Bridge at sunset in Bristol

Exploring the South West’s hidden potential

Businesses are breaking new ground across the region but do they need to shout louder to get vital funding?

Andrew Lynch

Pets at Home store

Five practical ways businesses are using AI

Many business leaders understand that AI is an important technology for the future but are less clear how they can adopt it now. Here are five companies showing how

Dougal Shaw

Philips airfryer

The company that launched the air fryer

In this podcast episode, we speak to Versuni chief executive Veronique Pauwels about why it is capable of producing innovations like the air fryer and why playing chess makes you a strategic thinker

Graham Ruddick

Laptop computer displaying logo of monday.com

Monday.com: How to build a global software giant

In our latest podcast, we speak to Monday.com co-founder Eran Zinman about how the company has scaled so rapidly

Dougal Shaw

Statues of Richard Branson, Charlotte Tilbury, Denise Coates, James Dyson and Jim Ratcliffe

Great British Billion-Pound Businesses

From Dyson to Revolut, Bet365 to Octopus Energy, meet the leaders who have managed to create a UK business worth £1bn – and kept going

Rob Watts

Elizabeth Hurley-Nayar arrivves at the Love Ball

The diamond empire: How De Beers created a market out of nothing

When De Beers found itself with a glut of gems and no buyers, it used glamour and royalty to create a market where none existed

Bruce Whitfield

Branded Bags of meals, shaker and pot from Huel brand on the kitchen table

How Huel cracked the US

In our latest podcast, we speak to Huel CEO James McMaster about the importance of culture, its marketing strategy and lessons from expanding to the US

Graham Ruddick

Who are Britain’s top business power couples?

From Specsavers to Lush and Sushi Daily, we rank the companies built by couples

Rob Watts

Construction site of building new house

How to lead a not-for-profit organisation

In our latest podcast, we speak to not one but four chief executives about why they swapped big business for running housing associations and how to build effective teams

Graham Ruddick

Mark Slack

How Mark Slack built a multi-billion business

In our latest podcast, we hear the story behind CMR Surgical, a robotics business valued at more than £2.3bn

Graham Ruddick

Fawn Weaver

Uncle Nearest: Business lessons distilled from bourbon

Fawn Weaver has built a global whiskey brand from scratch, and she’s distilled some important business lessons along the way

Dougal Shaw

alex dupledge

How to build a business for the second time

In our new podcast episode, we speak to entrepreneur Alex Depledge about what is different when building a second business

Graham Ruddick

Amy Knight standing in front of Must Have Ideas' warehouse

Must Have Ideas: The online retailer dominating social media and consumer trends

Gut feeling and a keen eye for customers has helped Must Have Ideas go from homebased start-up to an online success story

Josh Dornbrack

Paperplanes letters

The power of paper in a digital age

Online marketers call people who live offline ‘the unreachables’ but Paperplanes co-founder Dan Dunn has shown that direct mail can still hit home

Dougal Shaw

Business Leader South West Awards 2024 winners

Business Leader South West Awards 2024 winners revealed

Business Leader has revealed the winners of this year’s Business Leader South West Awards at an event at Aerospace in Bristol

Josh Dornbrack

TS Anil on a sofa

How Monzo became a £4bn business

When TS Anil took over as boss of Monzo, the digital bank was criticised for not having a business model. Now it is worth £4bn

Graham Ruddick

Dame Stephanie Shirley blue jumper with books

Shattering glass ceilings: The life and legacy of Dame Stephanie Shirley 

From escaping the Holocaust as a child refugee to founding a groundbreaking tech company, Dame Stephanie Shirley's life is a testament to resilience, innovation and philanthropy

Josh Dornbrack

Ben Francis, founder and CEO of Gymshark

From founder to leader: How to let go and empower your team for greater success

As a leader, your most important job evolves from doing everything yourself to empowering your team to excel

Bruce Whitfield

Sir Rocco Forte poses in a suite at Browns Hotel

How do you start again after losing your business?

The Business Leader podcast looks at the story behind Sir Rocco Forte's billion-pound businesses

Graham Ruddick

Workers at Camden Collective

Is it better to build your start-up in-person or remotely? 

It’s the existential business question of the post-Covid age: are you remote, in-office, or hybrid? We speak to start-ups who have taken very different approaches 

Dougal Shaw