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Case Studies

A detailed close-up of a grey sofa, showcasing its Scandinavian design in a minimalist and modern home interior

Growth Engines: The manufacturer that is boringly brilliant

The West Yorkshire company breaking the mould of comfort to boost revenue and profit

Pavlo Phitidis

Big Zuu winking at the camera with a green background (Credit - Sharmarke Abdi)

Big Zuu’s big vision: Innovating music, TV and the water industry

The rapper and TV presenter is a larger than life character who has turned a tough start into a mould-breaking success story

Josh Dornbrack

Founders at work

Growth Engines: The sum of the parts creates the whole magic

We take a look into the growth journey of Leeds-based digital product consultancy Parallax

Pavlo Phitidis

Peter Cowley

The tragedy behind one angel’s public success

Angel investor and entrepreneur Peter Cowley talks about how his business success has come despite enormous personal tragedy

Josh Dornbrack

Female racing driver in a Ginetta top

Growth Engines: Accelerating Ginetta into the future

The racing and sports car manufacturer has ambitious targets to triple production but will need to combine great products with excellent customer experience to do so

Pavlo Phitidis

Doug Perkins and Mary Perkins, co-founders of Specsavers

From Virgin Group to Specsavers: The best bootstrapped businesses

The founders who grew their business without bringing in external investors and how they did it

Alice Cumming, Andrew Lynch, James Cook

Members of the IC Blue team

Growth Engines: Read the earliest signals of change to lead your industry

IC Blue has succeeded by understanding how and when to change its value proposition to better align with customer needs

Pavlo Phitidis

Rocketship taking off on a mobile device

‘Don’t call us the Chesney Hawkes of gaming’: How two friends helped Manchester become a gaming hotspot

Manchester is known for its music scene and football teams, but two childhood friends are leading the way in making the region a hotspot for the gaming industry

Chris Maguire

Flags of Nordic countries

5 Nordic ideas to boost entrepreneurship in the UK 

The UK government wants to boost entrepreneurship. To do so, it could take inspiration from initiatives in the Nordic countries

Dougal Shaw

Clare Harris, Talking Tables

Growth Engines: Combining purpose and intent to build a legacy

Clare Harris turned her childhood experience laying tables for her family into a company, Talking Tables, that generates more than £25m a year in revenue

Pavlo Phitidis

Ideal Response Group founder Javid Ibrahim with members of his team on site

Growth engines: Scaling sales overcomes the tyranny of project revenue cycles

Ideal Response Group has seen significant growth, but founder Javid Ibrahim recognises that to move to the next stage he must have time to think and plan strategically

Pavlo Phitidis

Growth Engines: A kick-off starts the game, but the win is in the final score

James Thomas's Azzuu sports platform has grown rapidly after initially focusing on honing its platform by working with just one team: Everton

Pavlo Phitidis

Growth Engines: Leverage historic liabilities to build a future asset

An early interest in diving led to Yvonne Whiteley moving into data and eventually buying RED Scientific, which combines scientific research, technical support and engineering

Pavlo Phitidis

Josh Bayliss CEO Virgin Group sitting on a chair

Virgin Group’s CEO on why it’s important to be prepared to fail

For many business leaders, failure is something to avoid. But for Josh Bayliss, being prepared to fail has meant he's learnt more – and taken more risks

Graham Ruddick

Chill out Lunch photo innocent drinks

Innocent Drinks on why culture is key to its success

Emilie Stephenson, UK head of force for good at Innocent Drinks, explains how a great business culture comes from the right blend of ingredients

Patricia Cullen

Nando's illustration

The spicy tale of supersizing Nando’s 

How a small venture in the suburbs of Johannesburg grew into a global success story without compromising its original down-to-earth vision

Bruce Whitfield

Ryan Metcalf from BNP

Growth Engines: It’s the storms that make skilful sailors

RNB Group has weathered a series of storms, from GDPR to Covid, but has learned to invest for growth

Pavlo Phitidis

Large selection of pet food zoo store

Fur-ever love: Inside the booming pet care industry

As pet ownership soars, the pet care industry is growing fast. From innovative meat-free solutions to digital rewards apps, entrepreneurs are tapping into this lucrative market

Patricia Cullen

The businesses bucking the return-to-office trend

Almost three years on from the pandemic, the world seems to be back to normal, but not everyone is happy with the return to the office.

Alice Cumming

Positivity in the workplace demonstrated by a yellow smiling ball in the office interior

Do wellness programmes really work? 

Many businesses claim to have put a focus on wellbeing, but do such programmes really help tackle burnout and nurture a supportive workplace culture? 

Patricia Cullen

Friends standing together with arms linked

The friends and family funding phenomenon

Many entrepreneurs borrow from friends and family but there are things to consider before taking investment from loved ones

Patricia Cullen

Rassie Erasmus book cover mock up

Bookshelf: Rassie Erasmus – stories of life and rugby

We’ve scoured the autobiography of Rassie Erasmus for some of the lessons within it that you can apply to your organisation.

Josh Dornbrack

The outside of a The Body Shop store

What went wrong at The Body Shop – and what can we learn from it?

The Body Shop lost relevance with its core customers, while successive ownership and leadership changes confused the strategy

Patricia Cullen

Ella Mills: Turning adversity into a plant-based powerhouse

Mills founded Deliciously Ella when she was at rock bottom and, while she has had a lot of success, there have been difficulties along the way

Josh Dornbrack