Free Daily Podcast Summary
James Reed: all about business: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Reed Global
'James Reed: all about business' puts you at the heart of fun, dynamic, candid conversation with business leaders, philanthropists and charitable celebrities as they use their journeys to give clear, actionable advice. Hosted by James Reed CBE, the Chairman and CEO of Reed Group, you’ll hear the highs and lows of what it means to be a true business leader to empower you to implement smarter, more meaningful strategy in your business or career.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 2 days ago59 min
89. The business decision you'll thank yourself for in 5 years | James Perry
When your business hits an existential wall, are you willing to rethink your entire financial structure to protect your vision, or will you compromise the mission just to survive?Most founders believe scaling requires bowing to traditional venture capital and prioritizing short-term margins. COOK proved there is another way by surviving near-bankruptcy, funding its own expansion through an unexpected subsidiary, and scaling past £100 million while keeping absolute control over its mission.In this episode of All About Business, James Perry, co-founder of COOK and co-founder of B Corp UK joins as guest, and he pulls back the curtain on the messy, high-stakes reality of building a national consumer brand from scratch without burning out or selling out.They unpack the reality of operational risk, the hard lessons of founder resilience, and how building an inclusive hiring model through the RAW initiative turned a perceived workplace risk into one of their strongest operational assets.James shares the gritty mechanics behind COOK’s early years: how a loss-making enterprise was kept afloat by a cash-generating bakery, why he turned away standard venture capital, and how leveraging national media attention led to finding the patient, long-term private capital that saved the business. He breaks down how the 2008 financial crash tested their model and why a relentless focus on product integrity built a moat that traditional competitors couldn't cross.Timestamps 02:08 Cadbury Lessons10:00 Family Bakery Origins12:56 Founding Cook28:48 B Corp Beginnings37:10 Certifying and Building UK41:05 RAW Talent Hiring Program49:19 Systemic Capitalism GlitchLinksFollow James Reed on LinkedInFollow James Perry on LinkedInFind out more COOK and their products hereFind out more about B Lab UK and their work hereSubmit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HEREAll About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk
- 1 weeks ago1h 7m
88. How to build a disruptive product without outspending industry giants | Mark Rushmore
Most consumer goods brands ask you to buy more - SURI does the opposite. They designed a sustainable, electric toothbrush made from plant-based materials that is fully recyclable. As a result they scaled to over £50 million worth of sales in just four years.In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Mark Rushmore, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Sustainable Rituals, SURI. The fast-growing personal care brand that’s disrupting a defended, multi-billion-pound market by proving that daily wellness routines don't have to come at the cost of the planet.Mark shares his journey from the corporate training ground of Procter & Gamble to navigating extreme burnout after his first agency exit. He explains the business mechanics behind SURI’s rapid scale, and why focusing on a "minimum lovable product" unlocked a viral wave of word-of-mouth growth.James and Mark explore the strategies behind scaling a highly productive 50-person team, using AI as an operational accelerant rather than a replacement, and the practical frameworks for making tough business decisions. They examine how to establish a values-led culture, why investing in founder relationships with business psychologists is critical to preventing scale-up failure, and what the next generation of consumer brands must do to win.This leaves us with a compelling question: when building a product for the long term, are you treating your business decisions like a temporary hat, a reversible haircut, or a permanent tattoo?Timestamps 04:19 Burnout and Life Reset16:36 Origin Story of SURI25:08 Pricing Strategy and Lovable Product31:42 Competing with Giants and Expert Team37:51 Hiring Values Framework46:13 Brand Expansion Vision51:55 Decision Making LessonsLinks Follow James Reed on LinkedInFollow Mark Rushmore on LinkedInFind out more SURI and their products hereSubmit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HEREAll About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk
- 2 weeks ago52 min
87. How to start and scale a charity: Supporting 7000 kids a week through football | Charlie Hyman
Most charities are told to secure funding before they spend. Bloomsbury Football did the opposite — investing in fundraising before the money existed, and growing from four children to 7,000 a week as a result. In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Charlie Hyman, founder and CEO of Bloomsbury Football. His fast-growing social enterprise harnesses the universal power of grassroots football to tackle major societal challenges for young people, providing thousands of disadvantaged youth with vital role models, mental health support, and a true sense of belonging.Charlie shares the 7 steps in starting, building and scaling a charity. He explains the business mechanics behind this scale: how diversifying income with brands like Mastercard and Adobe, and treating a charity like a high-growth private company unlocks true scale.James and Charlie explore the strategy behind taking Bloomsbury national and how Charlie built a proprietary AI tool to scrape Charity Commission data for fundraising intelligence. They examine how to close high-value deals, attract top-tier corporate talent with pure purpose, and what commercial businesses can learn from high-ambition social enterprise models.This leaves us with a compelling question: when building a company designed for impact, do your growth strategies reflect the actual size of the problem you are trying to solve?Timestamps 03:05 Origin story volunteering11:47 Income streams and bids15:53 Charities vs businesses21:23 Scaling leadership and coaches32:12 Opportunistic Expansion Plans38:12 AI Boosting Charity Impact44:59 Fundraising Skills for YouthLinksFollow James Reed on LinkedInFollow Charlie Hyman on LinkedInFind out more Bloomsbury Football hereSubmit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HEREAll About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk
- 3 weeks ago43 min
86. Lab-grown diamonds were underestimated. Here's why Sarah Jessica Parker invested | Nathalie Morrison
Most people underestimated lab-grown diamonds. Conventional wisdom says that luxury is about heritage, exclusivity and the power of a brand. So why are consumers embracing them so quickly?And what does that tell us about the future of luxury businesses and the shift in consumer values?In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Nathalie Morrison, founder and CEO of Astrea London. Her high-end jewellery brand focuses on ethical luxury, using the top 1% tier of lab-grown diamonds and 100% recycled gold to offer flawless purity that gives consumers more carats and less weight on their conscience.Within just one year of launching, Astrea hit $1 million in sales, prompting Nathalie to leverage her banking network to raise £4 million at a £14 million valuation. The company has since attracted celebrity backing from Sarah Jessica Parker, who became both an investor and creative director after meeting Nathalie in New York.Together, James and Nathalie explore the rapid shifts in consumer behaviour and the strategy required to position a disruptive brand at the highest end of a competitive market. They discuss the unique marketing channel she created by opening luxury boutiques inside world-renowned hotels such as the Mandarin Oriental, and the realities of challenging a century-old industry monopoly.They also examine the changing values of the next generation of consumers, why diamonds are built for emotional enjoyment rather than financial investment, and the power of cold outreach—even when it leads to one of the world's most influential style icons becoming a business partner.Timestamps 02:07 Nathalie Finance Background06:45 How Lab Diamonds Are Made14:43 Diamond Pricing Myths22:27 Celebrity Investor Partner29:10 Supply Chain And Quality36:25 Scaling Challenges And HiringLinks:Follow James Reed on LinkedInFollow Nathalie Morrison on LinkedInFind out more Astrea London and their products hereSubmit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HEREAll About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk
- Jun 29, 202651 min
85. "We were £1.5M in debt": The turnaround strategy that changed everything | Zoe Paskin
Financial crises can hit any business- especially in today's economy. Selling might feel like the only option. But is it?What should founders do when things look bleak? How do you rebuild momentum, and give your business the best possible chance of surviving and thriving? When one pair of siblings were running The End nightclub, they found themselves £1.5 million in debt and facing enormous pressure to sell.Instead, they chose a different path, and turned the business around.In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Zoë Paskin, co-founder and managing director of Studio Paskin. They are the independent powerhouse behind legendary London destinations like The Palomar, The Barbary, and the Michelin-starred Evelyn's Table, celebrated for maintaining flawless standards in a brutal industry.Zoë shares the remarkable story of turning around a legendary 90s nightclub facing massive debt, stepping into leadership when no one expected her to, and the reality of selling a business at its peak.James and Zoë explore how to scale when the broader market is struggling, how to strip down operational expenses to rescue a business, and why the best career advice may be to simply : go wherever the biggest problems are.Links:Follow James Reed on LinkedInFollow Zoë Paskin on LinkedInFind out more Studio Paskin and their work here Submit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HEREAll About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk
- Jun 22, 202659 min
84. How to grow your business without losing control | David Palmer
Scaling a business seems like the obvious goal. But what if growth without the right strategy leads to losing control?In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with David Palmer, founder of Life of Fish, the modern London fishmonger that started as a lockdown pop-up outside a Peckham cafe, and has now grown into a multi-site retail and wholesale business built on sustainability, craft, and genuine customer service.Together James and David explore the harder lessons of growth: why expanding too fast almost broke the business, how to know when to consolidate rather than chase new opportunities, and what it means to build something that runs on profit rather than debt.David shares what he learned starting work at Billingsgate Market at the age of 14 with no qualifications and no plan. Climbing into bins at 2am and learning to fillet fish under pressure, allowed David to slowly piecing together a skillset he didn't realise he was building. The lesson he took from those years is simple: nothing you learn is wasted, and starting from the bottom teaches you things no shortcut ever could.They also discuss what it really takes to build a product business in a traditional industry that nobody had modernised.Timestamps 2:11 Leaving school at 1112:56 The entrepreneurial pivot question15:14 The breakthrough moment17:26 The gap in the market19:33 COVID lockdown launch21:15 70 people queue38:55 Lesson on over expansion39:57 Turning down free rent43:39 Hiring philosophyLinksFollow James Reed on LinkedInFollow David Palmer on LinkedInFind out more Life of Fish and their products hereSubmit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HEREAll About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk
- Jun 15, 202658 min
83. Are you selling too early? The succession model most founders have never heard of | Victoria Stapleton
Thirty years of building a business without a board, without investors, and without ever wanting to sell, and it just keeps growing, there’s something to learn from that.In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Victoria Stapleton, founder of Brora, the British luxury cashmere and clothing brand. Victoria has built Brora over 30 years from a single supplier and a home phone number into a business with shops across the UK, a store on Madison Avenue, and a fiercely loyal customer base.Victoria shares what she learned from building slowly and deliberately, and why organic growth gave her control, quality, and a life outside work. She also gives insight about why every founder considering outside investment should think carefully about what they are actually giving if they take it.Together they explore what it really takes to run a product business built on craft and quality: how to manage suppliers, why the shop experience matters more than ever, and what you actually learn about your business by walking the warehouse floor every morning.Victoria's tells is about who she transitioned Brora into an Employee Ownership Trust, one of the most underused business succession models in the UK, and how it works. Timestamps11:25 First Shop and Doing It All18:49 Hiring and Building a Loyal Team20:52 Organic Growth and Staying Independent30:21 In Store Styling Magic38:21 Bonuses Profit And Legacy47:05 Store Locations And New York54:19 Glasgow Store Failure Lessons56:14 Final Questions And FarewellLinksFollow James Reed on LinkedInFollow Brora on LinkedInFind out more Brora and their products hereSubmit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HEREAll About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk
- Jun 8, 202656 min
82. The signs that tell you your business idea is ready to build | Sahar Hashemi OBE
Most people think successful entrepreneurs spot brilliant ideas.Sahar Hashemi believes the opposite.In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Sahar Hashemi, entrepreneur, author, and founder of Buy Women Built. They talk about Sahar’s journey over three decades building businesses, backing herself, and why entrepreneurship is far simpler than most people make it.Sahar shares the hard lessons from scaling Coffee Republic to 110 stores and what happened when they handed the business to the professionals. What she learned about founders staying close to their customers, why bureaucracy is the silent killer of entrepreneurial culture, and why the moment you lose sight of who you are serving, is the moment a business starts to decline.Together they explore what a startup mindset actually looks like in practice, how to know when a growing business is quietly losing its edge, and why the single most important thing any leader can do is keep their people connected to the customer. Sahar also makes the case that something done badly is better than if it’s not done at all, and that the best thing any aspiring entrepreneur can do is start somewhere, however small.Timestamps3:13 Discovering New York-style coffee9:30 The decision to leave law12:19 First Coffee Republic16:54 Going public26:39 The tweet that sparked Buy Women Built35:05 The Rose Review of Entrepreneurship40:43 The startup mindset51:17 No plan, just purposeLinksFollow James Reed on LinkedInFollow Sahar Hashemi on LinkedInFind out more Buy Women BuiltSubmit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HEREAll About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk
About James Reed: all about business
'James Reed: all about business' puts you at the heart of fun, dynamic, candid conversation with business leaders, philanthropists and charitable celebrities as they use their journeys to give clear, actionable advice. Hosted by James Reed CBE, the Chairman and CEO of Reed Group, you’ll hear the highs and lows of what it means to be a true business leader to empower you to implement smarter, more meaningful strategy in your business or career.
Customized Recaps
AI-powered recaps with compact key takeaways, quotes, and insights.
Straight to Your Inbox
Get key takeaways from James Reed: all about business in a 5-minute read.
Save Hours Every Week
Stay current on your favorite podcasts without falling behind.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Podzilla's James Reed: all about business daily summary?
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of James Reed: all about business as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
How does the James Reed: all about business podcast summary work?
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
Is this an official James Reed: all about business product?
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by Reed Global.
Can I get summaries of other podcasts too?
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts. Upgrade to Pro for 15, or Premium for 50. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
How often does James Reed: all about business release new episodes?
James Reed: all about business publishes weekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
What topics does James Reed: all about business cover?
James Reed: all about business covers topics including Business, Management, Entrepreneurship. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
Start getting James Reed: all about business summaries tomorrow morning.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.