Richard Harpin

She launched a pop career. It took off.

She launched a fashion brand. It nearly didn’t. Then it did.

Today, Victoria Beckham has built one of Britain’s most admired luxury businesses, a combined fashion and beauty brand valued by investors at $130 million a few years ago and now undoubtedly worth a lot more.

What stood out to me in her new Netflix documentary wasn’t the fame or the glamour. It was her grit.

She’s reinvented herself more times than most people change jobs. From pop star to entrepreneur. From fashion designer to beauty innovator.

From a highly managed, public figure to a self-disciplined, more private business leader.

It wasn’t smooth sailing. Her early collections were mocked. The business ran up losses. Many wrote her off.

But she stayed the course, learned, and kept improving.

Because success isn’t about one big breakthrough. It’s about persistence when others give up.

Victoria earned credibility the hard way:
✅ Surrounding herself with experts better than her.
✅ Focusing on quality over hype.
✅ Expanding into beauty, fragrance and skincare at the right time and learning into customer demand.

Now her beauty brand is thriving, two decades after she first took the leap into business.

That’s a lesson for every entrepreneur. Keep evolving. Use criticism as fuel. Build strength through setbacks.

Reinvention isn’t failure. It’s how you build lasting success.

For 30 years, I've dreaded giving presentations.

But I've still given more than I can count...

Presenting is something that many leaders struggle with.

But unfortunately, it's par for the course of running a business.

The good news is, you don't need to be a naturally gifted speaker.

I'm certainly not. 

You just need to be well-prepared and follow some simple rules.

This is what I would share with any leader before their next meeting:

1. The 20-Word Strategy Rule

Your strategy must fit 1 sentence and answer three questions:

1. What are you passionate about? (Your purpose)
2. What can you be the best at? (Your USP)
3. How will you make money? (Your economic engine)

2. The Pre-Read Rule

Always make sure you have done the reading beforehand. 
Leaders should set the agenda and send pre-read material in advance.

3. The Working Together Framework

When a new leader joins, share a short two-page Working Together document.

It should answer 4 things clearly:

1. What do I expect them to achieve?
2. How can I get the best out of them?
3. How can they get the best out of me?
4. What motivates and demotivates each of us?

4. The Storytelling Rule

Start with the broad ambition, then follow with three supporting messages.

Keep in mind:

- Practise until you can tell it without a laptop or notes.
- Keep it simple. Too much information adds clutter and confusion.
- Statistics and data will not persuade people. Make it about them, not you.

5. The Back-To-The-Floor Rule

Before any major presentation, do this first:

1. Block out a morning to shadow your frontline team.
2. Put the headset on and listen to real customer conversations.
3. Walk the floor and look for what the data is not telling you.
4. Write down the one or two things that surprised you.
5. Build those observations into your presentation.

6. The Communication Rules

Think in news headlines.
Do not change the message too often. 
Do not sugar-coat. 
Be honest about bad news. 
Bottom-up communication is essential.

7. Before You Walk In

- Can I state our strategy in 20 words or fewer?
- Have I sent pre-read material in advance?
- Am I leading with a story, not a data dump?
- Have I been to the shop floor recently enough to speak with authority?
- Have I been honest about what is not working?
- Does everyone in the room know what I am asking of them?
- Could I present this without opening my laptop?

Preparation is not glamorous. It's not meant to be.

But if you want to earn the trust of a room, it’s absolutely necessary.

If you want more lessons like these delivered to your inbox each week, subscribe to my newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK

If you're a leader, comment below if you've ever struggled with presentations.

Or share a strategy that has helped you in meetings.

Revenue might impress.

But EBITDA tells the real story.

When I’m looking at businesses to invest in, one of the first numbers I ask for is EBITDA.

It's the metric I use to know if a business is scalable.

Surprisingly, it’s one of the most misunderstood metrics among founders.

So here’s a clear breakdown of what it means, where most go wrong, and why it matters for anyone building a billion-pound business.

What is EBITDA?

E – Earnings
B – Before
I – Interest
T – Taxes
D – Depreciation
A – Amortisation

EBITDA is your operating profit before financial and accounting adjustments.

It shows the strength of your business engine, stripping out the effect of debt, tax, and capital investments.

It provides:

✅ Clarity
↳ It strips away tax and financing noise to reveal true profit performance.

✅ Comparability
↳ It helps investors benchmark you across industries and business models.

✅ Confidence
↳ A strong EBITDA signals scalable profitability, not just sales.

The EBITDA Formula looks like this:

From Net Profit:
EBITDA = Net Profit + Interest + Taxes + Depreciation + Amortisation

From Revenue:
EBITDA = Revenue – Operating Expenses (excluding interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation)

5 Common Misconceptions

🚫 It’s not cash flow
↳ You can’t pay staff or suppliers with EBITDA.

🚫 It ignores capital spending
↳ Big investments still matter and eat into cash.

🚫 Debt is hidden
↳ EBITDA removes interest payments, but lenders won’t.

🚫 Add-backs can mislead
↳ Overusing one-offs distorts the real picture.

🚫 It’s not the full story
↳ It’s just one piece of your financial puzzle.

How it stacks up:

- EBITDA: Core operating profit.
- Net Income: What’s left after everything.
- Enterprise Value (EV): What your whole company is worth to a buyer.

Founders who scale to £10m tend to obsess over revenue.

But founders who reach £1bn understand EBITDA.

And the most successful ones track it without forgetting the fundamentals, like culture and customer experience.

My book, How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps, has even more advice for founders just like this.

It's a blueprint for building businesses based on 40+ years of entrepreneurial experience.

You can order the book on Amazon here 👇
https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

Are you currently tracking this metric? 
Share where you are in your journey down below.

♻️ Repost to teach others about this valuable concept. 
And for more on building and scaling businesses,
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I've directly managed hundreds of people over the last 30+ years.

These traits made a small percentage stand out:

The people with these traits always go on to do brilliant things.

And I still remember them decades later.

These are the 8 traits I look for when hiring at any level:

1. Persistence

This is the backbone of performance. 
Plenty work hard. Few keep going when it's brutal.

2. Curiosity

The best people ask "why?" again and again. 
Curiosity is the spark that drives growth.

3. Ownership

They take responsibility and deliver without excuses. 
These are the people who build businesses, whatever the external issues.

4. Commercial Awareness

High performers know the numbers. 
They care about profit, not just revenue.

5. Resilience

Business is a rollercoaster. 
The best bounce back fast and keep morale high.

6. Bias for Action

They don't overthink. 
They make decisions, test ideas, and learn by doing.

7. Low Ego

The moment ego takes over, the team loses. 
High performers listen, share credit, and admit when they're wrong.

8. Hunger to Grow

They're never satisfied with "good enough." 
They want to push themselves and the business further.

After 3 decades in business, I've learned that you can teach skills...

But you can't teach character.

These traits separate the people who deliver from the people who only talk about delivering.

If you've got these 8, you'll succeed anywhere.

If you're hiring, look for these first. 
Everything else can be trained.

I'd like to hear what traits you would add to this list. 
Leave a comment below with your input.

And if you want to go deeper into what makes a great team, 
I break it down in my book, How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps.

You can order it on Amazon here:  
https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

Or find it here on Audible: 
https://adbl.co/3ImkbaP

♻️ Repost to share these traits with others in your network. 
And for more on building teams that build billion-pound businesses, 
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The UK is brilliant at starting businesses.

We are terrible at scaling them because we ignore these signs.

I see this frequently working with founders running businesses between £3m and £100m.

They have ambition, and the hard work is there.

But a handful of things are holding them back from making that step-change to a large company.

Take it from me. I made most of these mistakes myself at HomeServe.

Here are the 8 warning signs your business is not ready to scale:
(And how to fix them to ensure it is...)

1️⃣ You haven't proved the model
↳ Scaling costs before you have a working model does not create economies of scale.

Stay small and keep testing until the cash comes in consistently.

2️⃣ You are still doing the CEO's job
↳ If every decision runs through you, the business cannot grow beyond you.

Hire your replacement. Find someone better than you to run the day-to-day. Then work on the business, not in it.

3️⃣ You cannot explain your strategy in a sentence
↳ If your team cannot tell you what the business does and why in one sentence, it is not clear enough to execute.

Answer three questions: what are you passionate about, what can you be the best at, and how will you make money. Write it in 20 words or fewer.

4️⃣ You are chasing too many ideas
↳ The history of HomeServe is littered with mistakes brought on by my instinct for grabbing every shiny new idea.

Build a not-to-do list. If it does not fit your 20-word strategy, it goes on the list.

5️⃣ Your culture hasn't kept pace with your headcount 
↳ Scaling too fast without defined values nearly cost us the culture that made HomeServe successful.

Define three to five core values. Every employee should know what the business stands for and why it matters.

6️⃣ You cannot predict cash flow
↳ If your cash flow is unstable or unpredictable, you are not ready to focus on revenue and profit yet.

Look at cash flow every week without fail. Only when it is stable and consistent can you shift your attention to scaling revenue and improving margins.

7️⃣ You are still trying to reinvent the wheel, instead of evolving 
↳ When HomeServe strayed into furniture warranties, we lost money and had to sell it off to refocus on what was working.

Ask yourself honestly: Are you clear on your product market fit and what your core is ? If not, you will run into problems scaling.

8️⃣ You have no one to challenge your thinking
↳ When I was building HomeServe, I had no peer group of fellow founders to learn from.

You will scale faster with fewer wrong turns when you find the right counsel.

That's precisely why I've begun sending out my weekly newsletter, How to Make a Billion. 

Subscribe here to start reading: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK

When I started as a founder, I didn't listen much.

I thought I knew it all.

But soon enough, I learned.

The best founders have one thing in common:
They never stop learning.

And not just from mentors or advisors.

They read books, they process their setbacks, and they have hobbies.

But most importantly, they learn from their own teams. 

In How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps, I talk about how important it is to hone your character.

And for me, curiosity has been one of the most valuable traits in my entire career.

It’s what kept me evolving while building HomeServe, and it's what I look for in every founder I back through Growth Partner.

The best leaders I know don't pretend to know everything.

They just ask better questions and really listen to the answers. 

You can build a curiosity-driven mindset into your leadership by following these steps:

✅ Have one learning conversation each week
↳ Sit down with someone in your team, especially those outside your senior circle.

✅ Reflect regularly
↳ Ask what they learned this week, what worked, and what didn't. 

✅ Read across disciplines
↳ Great ideas don’t just come from business books. It's important to diversify sources of information.

✅ Encourage challenge
↳ If nobody disagrees with you, you might need to rethink who is on your team.

✅ Treat feedback as fuel
↳ Ask for it frequently, from people at all levels, and use it to improve.

If your ambition is to build something great, you can’t ask your team to keep evolving if you’ve stopped.

That’s why curiosity matters so much.

It sets the tone, the culture, and the pace of growth.

If you're committed to learning (and scaling), my new book How to Build a Billion in 9 Steps is a great place to start.

You can order it here 👇
https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

♻️ Repost to inspire your network to keep learning.
And for more on building and scaling billion-pound businesses, 
Follow me Richard Harpin.

When I was 6, I was breeding and selling rabbits.

By 13, I was selling conkers in plastic bags at school.

You don’t have to fit in to succeed.

I've found that the opposite is usually true.

You could say that I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

Age 6: Breeding and selling rabbits.
Age 11: Performing magic at kids’ parties.
Age 13: Selling conkers in plastic bags at school.

Later, I ran a mail-order fly-tying material business to fund my first house deposit.

I wasn't a student who sat still. Far from it.  

As a schoolboy in Newcastle, I was that kid shaking the horse chestnut tree, stuffing his pockets, and running to the bank to pay in the conker money.

My mother at a school parents evening after hearing how bad I was at chemistry,  
Said to my chemistry teacher, “He’ll be a millionaire before you.”

I wasn’t a hedgehog with one uniform focus.

I was a fox, always curious, always trying something different...

And that’s what really allowed me to persist as an entrepreneur.

You see, entrepreneurship can be very challenging in the early days.

You don’t follow a linear path.
You don’t have the support of a company or team. 
You face judgment that other professions don't deal with.

But none of that matters if you're curious and willing to work hard. 

I leaned into that childhood passion for creating and selling on my own and used it to keep going. 

Of course, I learned to be a hedgehog later.

As CEO of HomeServe, I had to slow down, take my time, and learn to say no to too many opportunities that complicated our way forward. 

But I'm glad I had that energy and curiosity when I was younger.

Being different didn’t hold me back; it pushed me forward.

So if you’ve ever felt out of place, stick with it.

That will be your competitive advantage later in life.

Leave a comment below if you agree.

Being a CEO isn't smooth sailing.

In fact, it can be quite brutal.

We often see the success stories, the exits, and the headlines.

But we don't usually see the sleepless nights, the tough decisions, or the weight of carrying livelihoods on your shoulders.

After 30 years of building HomeServe to a £4.1 billion exit, I've learned that CEO success comes from embracing uncomfortable realities.

Here are 20 harsh truths about the job:

(See the carousel to read the lessons in full)

1. You are probably a bottleneck
↳ Step up and out of the day-to-day, or you'll hold back your own company.

2. Cash is king
↳ Revenue can hide problems. Cash never does.

3. You'll make painful pivots as CEO
↳ Being CEO means making brutal decisions fast.

4. Scaling is harder than starting
↳ Starting is relatively easy. Scaling is rare.

5. You won't please everyone
↳ Leadership is about respect, not popularity.

6. Culture isn't what you say
↳ What you tolerate becomes your culture.

7. The CEO seat is lonely
↳ Join a peer group to learn from other founders and CEOs.

8. Investors aren't just about money
↳ Choose investors who can provide the right help and support.

9. Don't get bored with growth. 
↳ Keeping it going is what makes billions.

10. You'll need a coach and mentor. 
↳ Even the best CEOs need these.

11. Focus on your strengths. 
↳ Hire people to do the things you're not good at.

12. You can't do it all yourself
↳ Build teams that think for themselves.

13. Recurring beats one-offs
↳ Subscriptions made my business.

14. International expansion is risky 
↳ Go global with locals.

15. Small failures fuel growth
↳ Failures aren't detours; they're the path forward.

16. Everyone watches you
↳ Your mood is a leadership tool. Use it wisely.

17. You'll hire badly
↳ The wrong hire costs more than you think, particularly if you don't change them quickly.

18. You need to be a hedgehog, not a fox
↳ Focus builds billion-pound businesses.

19. Yesterday's wins don't count
↳ Keep moving, or your business will stall.

20. Britain needs bigger companies
↳ Backing scale-ups is the best way to grow Britain.

The CEO role will test you in ways you never imagined.

It will push you beyond your limits and force you to confront truths about yourself and your business that are uncomfortable but necessary.

If you want more on hard-earned lessons from building and scaling a billion-pound business,

My bestselling book "How To Make A Billion In 9 Steps" is available from Amazon and Audible.

It's a practical guide based on decades of real experience.

You can order your copy here: 
https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

Or find it on Audible here: 
https://adbl.co/3ImkbaP

♻️ Repost for other founders and CEOs in your network. 
And for more on real lessons from building businesses, 
Follow me Richard Harpin

Revenue might impress.

But EBITDA tells the real story.

When I’m looking at businesses to invest in, one of the first numbers I ask for is EBITDA.

It's the metric I use to know if a business is scalable.

Surprisingly, it’s one of the most misunderstood metrics among founders.

So here’s a clear breakdown of what it means, where most go wrong, and why it matters for anyone building a billion-pound business.

What is EBITDA?

E – Earnings
B – Before
I – Interest
T – Taxes
D – Depreciation
A – Amortisation

EBITDA is your operating profit before financial and accounting adjustments.

It shows the strength of your business engine, stripping out the effect of debt, tax, and capital investments.

It provides:

✅ Clarity
↳ It strips away tax and financing noise to reveal true profit performance.

✅ Comparability
↳ It helps investors benchmark you across industries and business models.

✅ Confidence
↳ A strong EBITDA signals scalable profitability, not just sales.

The EBITDA Formula looks like this:

From Net Profit:
EBITDA = Net Profit + Interest + Taxes + Depreciation + Amortisation

From Revenue:
EBITDA = Revenue – Operating Expenses (excluding interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation)

5 Common Misconceptions

🚫 It’s not cash flow
↳ You can’t pay staff or suppliers with EBITDA.

🚫 It ignores capital spending
↳ Big investments still matter and eat into cash.

🚫 Debt is hidden
↳ EBITDA removes interest payments, but lenders won’t.

🚫 Add-backs can mislead
↳ Overusing one-offs distorts the real picture.

🚫 It’s not the full story
↳ It’s just one piece of your financial puzzle.

How it stacks up:

- EBITDA: Core operating profit.
- Net Income: What’s left after everything.
- Enterprise Value (EV): What your whole company is worth to a buyer.

Founders who scale to £10m tend to obsess over revenue.

But founders who reach £1bn understand EBITDA.

And the most successful ones track it without forgetting the fundamentals, like culture and customer experience.

My new book, How to Build a Billion in 9 Steps, has even more advice for founders just like this.

It's a blueprint for building businesses based on 40+ years of entrepreneurial experience.

You can order the book on Amazon here 👇
https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

Are you currently tracking this metric? 
Share where you are in your journey down below.

♻️ Repost to teach others about this valuable concept. 
And for more on building and scaling businesses,
Follow me Richard Harpin.

From teaching herself to sew on YouTube to a creating a $50 million brand worn by Selena Gomez, Sofia Vergara and Kelly Rowland.

That is Nadine Merabi. A fashion designer, who’s revenue has more than doubled in the past three years.

The start was not glamorous. No investment. No safety net.

Some weeks she ate porridge for breakfast and lunch, because every spare pound went into fabric. In 2015 she launched with a £250 sewing machine, purchased from Argos and sold one-off pieces. Within six months, Selfridges placed its first wholesale order.

Then came the part most founders dream of, and the part that nearly broke her.

One year, the business grew 800%. Headcount went from 30 to 100 in twelve months.

It sounds like a triumph. It was chaos. Customers waited three days for a reply. The culture cracked. She was profitable, growing fast, and miserable.

That January, setting growth goals, she said the thing founders rarely admit out loud: "I don't want to grow. This isn't manageable."

It took a year to recover, roughly 30 painful conversations, and one lesson she now lives by.

“Never grow ahead of your leadership and never lose your culture”

A decade on, she has built something that lasts. I sat down with Nadine on the Business Leader podcast to hear how.

Five lessons for any founder:

1. Generalists build the company. Experts scale it.

For six years she had no management team, just a few brilliant all-rounders. They got her to the next stage. Only then did she hire experts who each owned one thing.

2. Every stage needs a different mantra.

Her first ten years ran on "pressure makes diamonds." Pure grit. The next ten run on "planning makes profit." Once the business is secure, you stop reacting and start planning.

3. A problem is not a problem. It is an opportunity.

Mistakes are not the danger, she told me. How you react is. Panic solves nothing. Stay calm, stay positive, and make the mistake useful.

4. Purpose without priorities is pointless.

Find your purpose, then guard your time, or the business turns to chaos. And when you fail, and you will, get back up.

5. Hire someone better than you for the role that isn't your passion.

She has never wanted to be CEO. Her gift is design and understanding how women want to feel. She brought in a CEO to run the business and stayed where she adds the most value.

Her closing line is what we all need to be reminded.

"The only thing that will ever stop you is yourself."

Self-taught. Self-funded. Ten years in. Nadine, you are an inspiration to founders everywhere.

The full conversation is on the Business Leader podcast. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/e3gdwAte

Are you paying full attention to this post?

Maybe you are also listening to music. Maybe you are also glancing at a second screen like a mobile, or tablet.

Distraction is a big problem in modern business meetings.

But meetings deserve your full attention. Unless you are comfortable disrespecting other people’s time.

I’ve been somewhere that has a great antidote to this phenomenon – it might surprise you:

10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s residence in the UK. I’ve been invited there a few times as a business leader.

It has a rack in the entrance hall where you must switch off and leave your mobile phones. This is for security reasons, but I can tell you it makes for more focused meetings.

Unfortunately, that is not the norm.

Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb has called out this distraction as a “huge problem” in the workplace. In fact, he labelled it as a “major societal problem”, while admitting he’s guilty of it too.

He’s not the only leader to spot this modern malaise.

“It’s disrespectful and wastes time,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said of people who glance at screens in meetings. “If you have an iPad in front of me and it looks like you’re reading your email or getting notifications, I tell you to close the damn thing.”I’ve noticed people’s attention wander in meetings too.

As a leader, I use the Four Quadrant Time Management model, also known as the Eisenhower Matrix. It teaches you to prioritise your tasks according to a grid based around importance and urgency.

Looking at your phone is almost always not urgent, nor important.

But it is a big distraction during meetings and disrespectful to others. Especially the person speaking.

Meetings are often open to ridicule and disrespect. But like it or not they are the engines of business.

Meetings are the way we collaborate, which is the essence of teamwork and the secret to business growth.

When I was 30, I believed business was really hard.

I had no clear formula for growing a global business...

And I was basically stumbling my way through the process.

But looking back, I can see there was a formula. 
I just hadn’t discovered it for myself yet.

Now, having taken a business from a £50,000 startup to operating in 10 countries with 10,000 people and selling it for £4.1 billion…

I look back and say, "Actually, there is a magic formula.”

It’s nine steps for building a billion-pound business:

1. Copy and pivot
↳ Don’t start from scratch. Take what works and improve it.

2. Get an investor
↳ The right partner accelerates growth. Timing and fit matter more than money.

3. Get a coach or mentor
↳ You can’t see your own blind spots. Outside perspective speeds everything up.

4. Build “bricks, clicks and paper”
↳ The best businesses combine digital, physical, and direct channels.

5. Hire your replacement
↳ Step back from the day-to-day so you can focus on scaling.

6. Go global with locals
↳ Expand internationally, but trust people who understand each market.

7. Focus on evolution, not revolution
↳ Consistent improvement beats chasing big, risky ideas.

8. Follow a not-to-do list
↳ Growth comes from focus. Say no more than you say yes.

9. Hone your character
↳ Persistence, courage, and integrity matter more than any strategy.

There are thousands of books out there giving you different theories for building a business.

But only one that takes 40 years of entrepreneurship and gives you nine simple, fool-proof steps to follow.

These steps aren't complicated, but they do take work and determination.

And frankly, if I can do it, anyone can.

If you want to buy your copy, click here: https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

And comment below if you're building something ambitious this year. 
I'd love to hear what you're working on.

When I sold HomeServe for £4.1bn, everyone asked the same question:

"So, you're retiring then?"

And I always thought, "Why would I do that?"

I was 59. Fit and healthy. Still running 15Ks at the weekend.

And I'd just spent 30 years learning how to build and scale businesses.

Retirement felt like a waste of all that experience.

That's when I realised that selling your business doesn't have to be the end. 

You get to choose what comes next and how you pursue it.

A lot of founders don't do this and they feel completely lost after the sale. Seller's remorse.

The thing that defined them for decades is gone.

They can't thrive without that structure and they lose their sense of purpose.

I knew clearly that I did not want to go from full-time to an empty calendar.

So I made a decision early: my second act would be about putting my experience to good use and inspiring breakthroughs in other founders at an earlier stage.

That's why I committed £120 million of my own money through Growth Partner to back entrepreneurs who are scaling mid-sized businesses.

It's why I wrote How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps to share the lessons I wish I'd known 30 years ago.

And it's why I'm focused on helping double the number of large companies in the UK through Business Leader.

So, if you're building towards an exit, don't just plan for the financial side.

Plan for what comes after.

Ask yourself the hard questions:

- What will give you purpose? 
- What will keep you engaged? 
- What can you build that's even more impactful than what you've already done?

The worst thing you can do is reach the finish line and realise you've got nothing to run towards next.

Your experience is too valuable to retire. 
Put it to work.

If you're headed towards an exit, share your thoughts in the comments.

I'd be interested to read what you're planning next.

I'm 61.

This is what I'd tell my 20-year-old self:

I've made plenty of mistakes along the way. 

Some costly, some painful, some both.

If I'd known these 8 lessons earlier, I could have avoided all that.

If you're building something now, save this list:

1. Be endlessly curious.

Ask questions. Visit stores. Talk to customers. 
Read everything you can get your hands on. 
Most people stop learning after school. Don't be one of them.

2. Don't rush.

I was impatient in my 20s. I wanted everything yesterday. 
The truth is, big achievements take time. 
You learn more from the journey than the result.

3. Find a coach and mentor early.

Real people who've built something, failed, and tried again. 
Listen carefully, take notes, and then go make your own mistakes too.

4. Get back up fast.

You'll get things wrong. What matters is how quickly you recover. 
Persistence beats perfection every time.

5. Choose your circle wisely.

The people around you will shape your mindset, habits, and ambition. 
Spend time with people who make you want to be better. 
Walk away from those who drain your energy.

6. Look after yourself.

It's easy to think long hours mean progress. 
But when you're tired, you make poor decisions. 
Sleep properly. Eat real food. Move your body every day.

7. Focus is underrated.

In your 20s, it's tempting to chase every idea. 
Being a fox, not a hedgehog. 
Pick something worth doing and stick with it long enough to get good.

8. Enjoy the ride.

You don't need to wait until you've "made it" to feel proud. 
Make time for family, fun, and a pint with friends. 
That's what you'll remember later.

Take it from me: building something meaningful takes decades, not years.

The decisions you make in your 20s compound over time.

- The habits you build. 
- The people you surround yourself with. 
- The curiosity you maintain.

I wish someone had told me these things when I was starting out.

I might have reached that billion-pound exit in 15 years, not 30.

If you have a lesson to add to the list, leave a comment down below. 
I'd love to hear what you would tell your 20-year-old self.

I go deeper into these lessons and many more in How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps.
It's based on real experience from 40 years of entrepreneurship.

You can order your copy here: 
https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

♻️ Repost to inspire others in your network. 
And for more on building and scaling successful businesses, 
Follow me Richard Harpin.

This week I had lunch with Brent Hoberman - co-founder of lastminute.com, which he sold for $1.1 billion after pulling off Europe's fastest ever IPO.

Since then, he's co-founded three separate unicorn companies and helped launch over 400 startups, unlocking more than $1 billion in follow-on investment.

Safe to say, he knows a thing or two about building businesses.

Now he's turned his attention to something bigger - fixing Britain's entrepreneurial ambition through Enterprise Britain, the movement he's co- launched to reignite the UK's growth story.

And honestly? It's a conversation I needed to have.

Three things stuck with me:

1. Britain has a mindset problem - and we need to fix it.

In the US, failure is a badge of honour. In the UK, it still carries a quiet stigma. That cultural gap is costing us. The UK is an exceptional place to build a global company. Access to US and European markets, creative talent and a time zone that works with almost anyone.

We need to stop narrating decline and start projecting ambition. Because that mindset shift shapes who invests here, who moves here, and who decides to build here.

2. The reforms our founders need aren't radical - they're common sense.

Banning non-competes. Better financial advice networks for growing businesses. More entrepreneurship in schools. Reducing the cost of listing on the LSE. These are just some of the achievable wins that would make a real difference.

3. Community is everything.

A founder's journey is lonely. Brent has built Founders Forum around that insight. It's the same reason I built Business Leader. Entrepreneurs need people around them who get it.

What excites me most is what we can do together - two communities, aligned on the same mission, with real access and real influence ahead of the October Budget.

If you're a founder or business leader who wants to be part of this, watch this space.

Join the movement on Enterprise Britain and sign up to Business Leader: https://bit.ly/42DSFMv

I'm 61. From Yorkshire. Father of 3.

And I sold my business for £4.1 billion.

Now I help UK founders build and scale their mid-size businesses.

I was born an entrepreneur.

When I was 6, I was breeding and selling rabbits.
By 8, I was selling conkers in plastic bags at school.
At 28, I founded HomeServe in Newcastle with a £50,000 investment.

We started in 1992 as an emergency plumbing service, then spent 30 years evolving our model.

By 2021, we'd grown to 8.5 million members across 10 countries.

We reached the FTSE 100 and finalised a £4.1 billion exit.

I made plenty of mistakes getting there:

- Hiring the wrong people 
- Chasing too many ideas 
- Trying to stray too far away from our original model

I learned that the businesses that reach £1 billion stay focused, prioritise their people and evolve one step at a time.

Now, I'm helping other UK founders scale.

The UK has 7,500 large companies. We should have 15,000. That gap is what I'm focused on closing.

Here are a few ways I'm doing that:

✅ Growth Partner

I've invested £120 million in profitable, founder-led businesses that have proven models and want to scale.

✅ Business Leader

I founded a membership community for ambitious UK CEOs and founders running mid-sized businesses with at least £3m in revenue.

✅ The Enterprise Trust

We support youth entrepreneurship programmes. 
I want young people to see that building a business is a viable career path.

✅ How To Make a Billion in 9 Steps

My book, published this year, is my 9-step framework for building a billion-pound business.

If I'd had it from the start, maybe we'd have reached £4.1bn in 15 years instead of 30.

Just because I sold my business at 58 doesn’t mean I’m ready to retire.

Why waste over 40 years of knowledge from building and scaling businesses?

I plan on making my time after the sale even more impactful than my time before it.

That's why I'm still here, backing entrepreneurs and sharing lessons. 

Because the UK needs more large companies.
And I know how to help build them.

If you’re a founder or CEO, drop a comment down below and introduce yourself.

I’m always looking for new entrepreneurs to join my network.

OKRs are the destination. KPIs are your compass.

You can't scale without both working together:

If you want to build a billion-pound business, it's not enough to have a vision.

You also need some indication that you're actually getting there.

That's the difference between OKRs and KPIs.

OKRs tell you the destination.

They're your big, ambitious goals and the outcomes that really matter to your business.

When we were scaling HomeServe, one OKR might have been: reach 1 million members by year-end.

That's the target we set and wanted to achieve.

KPIs tell you if you're on course.

They're the metrics you watch daily or weekly to see if your systems are working.

For us, that meant monitoring things like conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, monthly member growth, and retention rates.

If those numbers started dropping, we knew something needed fixing.

Mid-sized businesses tend to make the same mistakes.

They set goals but don't track the indicators that show whether they're making progress.

That can lead to stagnation and prevent your business from growing.

If you want to scale more efficiently, remember:

✅ OKRs give you focus.

They align your team around what actually matters so everyone knows the mission. 

✅ KPIs give you feedback. 

They show you whether your systems are healthy and make it easier to solve problems early. 

The businesses that reach £100m or even £1b aren't reinventing the wheel.

They simply know where they're going and can see when they're off course.

Set your coordinates, then make sure you're headed north.

Share your experience with OKRs and KPIs in the comments.

♻️ Repost to share this lesson with your network. 
And for more on building and scaling successful businesses, 
Follow me Richard Harpin.

The most valuable document in my business is two pages long.

It is not the strategy, and it is not the budget.

I have a new CEO, Linda Hardy, in Business Leader, one of my businesses. The first thing we did together was not strategy. It was a two-page document on how we would work together.

It might be the most underrated thing you can do when starting to work with a new senior leader. Almost nobody does it. Here is why you should.

When two ambitious people start working together, they assume they understand each other. They almost never do.

One values speed. The other values getting it exactly right.

One shares ideas half-formed. The other waits until the work is polished.

Neither is wrong. But if nobody says it out loud, you spend the first year quietly frustrating each other.

The document sorts that out on day one.

What goes in it?

➔ Start with motivators and demotivators. Both of you. Be honest. I told Linda, my new CEO, that mediocrity and slow decisions drain me, and that pace and making things happen are what light me up. She told me hers. Now neither of us has to guess what gets the best from the other.

➔ Then do a Clifton Strengths assessment and swap your top five. It takes about half an hour, and it is the fastest way I know to understand how someone thinks. You see where you overlap, where you complement each other, and most importantly, where you might clash.

➔ Write those clashes down. If you both know in advance that one of you will push for pace while the other protects quality, it stops being a row and becomes a balance.

➔ Then cover the practical elements. How often you meet? What goes on the agenda? What you each need to see before a decision? How you like to be kept informed?

➔ Be specific about what you expect of each other. Not vague hopes. Clear standards.

The whole document is two pages, and we treat it as a living document and update it as the relationship grows.

This is not just for CEOs. The same works for any business relationship, between a boss and their direct report.

Most leadership relationships do not collapse overnight. They unravel slowly, through small misunderstandings nobody ever named.

Two pages and regular, honest conversations can save you from all of it.

If you have done this with someone you hired, I would love to know what went on in yours.

For more topics on how to run a successful business, join my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK

Is there a place for kindness in business?

The winners in business are often the most ruthless and aggressive. That’s the lesson from so many TV show and movies.

It’s dog-eat-dog.
Winner takes all.
Kill or be killed.
Only the strongest survive.
That’s the capitalist model and it’s cut-throat.

Think of the film Wall Street in the 1980s, or indeed The Wolf of Wall Street more recently.

But what I’ve realised in more than four decades in business is actually the opposite.

I believe kindness and generosity are the great unlocks in business.

The breakthroughs don’t come when you quash a rival. They come when you find a natural ally you can collaborate with and grow together.

Your personal career break doesn’t come when you talk down a colleague. It comes when you help someone with no other motive than being kind – and later they become the person who gives you a promotion.

Business isn’t a constant war of aggression, however compelling that might look on our screens.

I found these principles to be true, time and time again while building HomeServe from scratch into a multi-billion-pound company.

For example, if you want to have a good relationship with suppliers, don’t negotiate your first deal in a way that will alienate them in the future, just to get a slightly better per centage. I made plenty of mistakes running HomeServe, but when we got bigger I never forgot what it felt like to be small. I never exploited our size to extract unfair terms from our subcontractors carrying out repairs, or from insurance underwriters. Long partnerships with companies like Axa, AmTrust and Aviva are testament to that approach.

Being kind to your employees is also part of a healthy company culture. That’s why I’m especially proud of the Alumni Club at HomeServe. It's a way for former employees to keep in touch. Members include Greg Jackson, the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, Edward Fitzmaurice, who went on to be a co owner and CEO of Hastings Direct, and Leonard Lvovich, the co-founder of Synergym España. Even after they leave, people still feel like they belong. Hopefully this is because of the way they were treated as leaders in HomeServe - with respect and kindness in a fair manner.

Business in general, over time, rewards people who have good motivations, can look beyond their self-interest and are willing to help others.

So don’t believe what you see in the movies.

If it's working for your competitor...

Turn it into your biggest advantage.

We're taught at school that copying is bad.

In business, it's brilliant.

When I started HomeServe, I didn't invent plumbing insurance cover.

I looked at Sutton & East Surrey Water, copied their model, and pivoted it into something broader and better.

I learned that competitor success is market validation.

- It proves demand exists. 
- It shows customers are willing to pay. 
- It gives you a proven model to improve upon.

I'm a big believer in second-mover advantage.

Let someone else take the risk of proving the concept. 
Then you come in, add value, and scale it properly.

That's exactly what we did at HomeServe.

British Gas had the market sewn up with boiler cover. 
But their service was variable. 

They could afford to be mediocre because they had scale.

We saw the gap: 

- Better customer service. 
- Faster response times. 
- Focusing on fixing the problem first time.

We copied their model and made it work harder for the customer.

The same principle applies to every business I've invested in through Growth Partner.

Synergen copied the Pure Gym model and took it to Spain. 
They added local influencers, fingerprint entry, and live-streamed classes to supplement in gym trainers.

Passenger Clothing looked at Patagonia. 
They added even more focus on sustainability and ethical sourcing.

Don't sit there disheartened because someone else has already done it or is doing it better.

Use their success as free market research.

Look at what's working, study their messaging, understand their gaps...

Then position yourself as the better choice in their blind spot.

Copy and pivot. Test and learn.
Then go big when you've proven the model.

That's how you turn competitor success into your advantage.

If you're currently trying to improve an idea, share it below. 
I'd like to see how you're approaching it.

Today, I launch my book in paperback. A book goes out with your name on the cover, but it’s never only your name. So, I wanted to thank all those involved.

'How To Make A Billion In 9 Steps' is my story, but it is not only mine. But everyone at HomeServe who made it what it is today. Too throughout it are the businesses I have invested in and the founders I have learnt from along the way. Their wins and their mistakes sit alongside my own, because the best lessons in there were not all mine to begin with.

Then there are the people who backed it publicly. Before it was published, some wonderful entrepreneurs who I have huge respect for read it early and were generous enough to put their names to it. That is not a small thing to ask of anyone, so I want to thank them properly.

Chris de Lapuente, former CEO of Sephora, and a friend who has heard me go on about the 9 steps more than anyone should have to.

Gary Vaynerchuk, who I had the pleasure to meet in America last year.

Sara Davies MBE, a fellow entrepreneur and northerner I have known for years.

Jake Humphrey, Theo Paphitis, Michael Chu, Adam Jay and Nick Jenkins. Thank you, every one of you.

People assume building a company is a confident business. Mostly it is a lonely one. You worry about the next step, and about whether the whole thing might quietly come apart while you are not looking.

The best change I have seen is in the founders coming through now. They ask for help far earlier than my generation ever did. They lean on each other instead of pretending they have it all figured out, and it is one of the healthiest shifts in how companies get built in this country.

An endorsement is a small version of that same instinct. Someone choosing to stand next to your work in public. None of us build anything entirely alone, whatever it looks like from the outside.

If you’re building or scaling a business, take a read: https://amzn.eu/d/02v6jCp1

If you are honest, had you heard of Nvidia five years ago?

Today, they've become the first company in history worth $5tn.

In the short term, that’s because of hopes that it will be able to crack the vast market of China, thanks to political manoeuvres taking place.

But of course, in the long term, this valuation rests on the power of artificial intelligence – and CEO Jensen Huang’s vision.

He co-founded the company in 1993 and it’s a remarkable feat that he’s remained at the helm for more than three decades.

His vision and smart decisions have helped him steer the company from a chipmaker that specialised in processing graphics for computer games, to a behemoth powering the AI revolution.

He has championed what he calls a “fail forward” strategy. He has taken bets on new technology, even when manufacturing at scale.

This philosophy underpinned the development of Nvidia’s second-generation chips in the late 1990s. The company got ahead of rivals and woo-ed Microsoft, who chose Huang’s company as its first graphic chip supplier for the original Xbox console.

Huang’s smart decision-making is now paying huge dividends.

He exemplifies many of the values I outline in my book ‘How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps’.

- Evolution, not Revolution. Although he took calculated risks with his product to beat rivals, over the arc of time you can see how Nvidia slowly evolved its product, listening carefully to customers about their needs.

- Hone your character. I love the way that he’s cultivated his own personality in the often bland world of corporate leadership. His trademark leather jacket signals this approach.
 
It’s worth remembering this.

Nvidia only became a trillion-dollar valued company in 2023.

It only became a $4tn company four months ago.

That tells us something about the acceleration of AI – and our economy’s appetite for advanced semiconductors and data centres.

The UK has created 163 unicorn companies to date.

Each one had a strategy that matched their vision.

If you're aiming to build a billion-pound business, your strategy must reflect that level of thinking.

Far too often, founders stop at the surface-level decisions.

They don’t align the mission, vision, and actions that drive long-term growth.

That's why this infographic is really helpful.

It breaks down strategy into three simple but powerful layers:

✅ Purpose
↳ Why do we exist? What matters to us?
This is where your mission, values, and vision come to life and keep your team aligned.

✅ Strategy
↳ How will we get there?
This is the bridge between aspiration and execution, covering plans, focus areas, and enabling tools.

✅ Execution
↳ What will we do next, and how will we track it?
This is where actions, targets, and KPIs create real results.

I’ve seen too many businesses stall because they ignore this process.

But every billion-pound business I've backed or built has done the opposite.

They've had a crystal-clear mission, a strong strategy, and consistent execution.

And more importantly, they believed it was possible to build something big.
That belief needs to show up in every step of the funnel. 

If you’re building a business with serious potential,
My book How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps will help refine your strategy.

You can order the book here 👇
https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

What’s one part of your strategy that you’re currently refining?
I’d like to hear how you’re approaching growth. ⬇️

♻️ Repost if you believe Britain needs more billion-pound businesses.
And for more on scaling with purpose,
Follow me Richard Harpin.

I sacked myself as CEO of HomeServe.

We were valued at a few hundred million pounds, but I was causing a bottleneck.

Let me explain...

For years, I led HomeServe, getting involved in the day-to-day business.

But as we grew, I had to face the uncomfortable fact that I was holding the business back.

Our ambitions as a company demanded someone with a different set of skills, who could run the day to day business better than I could.

That meant stepping up and bringing in a successor to lead HomeServe UK, 
When we were only a UK business!

I decided to look internally and chose our Business Development Director, Jonathan King, for the job.

I called him into my office one day and said, "You're promoted. I'm giving you my job."

That single decision allowed us to reach a £4.1 billion valuation 7 years later.

Here’s what I learned from sacking myself:

1️⃣ Founders often become the bottleneck.
↳ What works at £10m revenue won’t work at £100m.

2️⃣ Your role must evolve, or your business won’t.
↳ Replacing yourself can be the best way to move forward.

3️⃣ Hire ahead of the curve.
↳ Prepare for a time when you'll have to fill the role.

4️⃣ Find someone stronger at running the day to day business. Ideally, that has done it before.
↳ Great hires don't just maintain, they improve.

5️⃣ Redefine where you add unique value.
↳ Once you step aside, double down on what only you can do.

6️⃣ Back your successor in public. Coach in private.
↳ Support early and visibly, then let them lead.

7️⃣ This isn’t stepping down, it’s stepping up.
↳ Free yourself to build beyond the business.

Giving up control of your business might seem tough, 
But it's a lot easier than losing your business altogether.

Sometimes you’re simply not the right person for the job at the next stage, 
If you haven't scaled a business before. 
 
And understanding when to make that call is essential for real scale.

This is what I cover in Step 5 of my book How To Make A Billion In 9 Steps, which is about hiring your replacement.

You can grab a copy on Amazon here: https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

If you're building right now, leave a comment below. 
I'd like to hear how the process is going for you.

£200,000 from a Dragon, and the business still failed. £100,000 lost in a single day. Every Google ranking wiped out overnight.

Emmie Faust has founded 11 businesses, and she leads with the failures. That is exactly why she is worth listening to.

She has since backed 127 more.

Here is what she learned in between.

She walked into Dragons Den with a business that had never turned a profit. She valued it at £2 million, flipped the whiteboard round and showed Theo Paphitis her workings. He wrote the biggest single cheque any Dragon had written at that point. Four years later the company was dissolved.

Ask her why and the answer is not the one you expect. The money was the problem. They had always run lean. Suddenly there was cash to spend, so they spent it.

Only two of her 11 businesses ever took outside investment. One failed. With the other she handed the money back. Every business she bootstrapped made money, and those are the ones that sold.

The next lesson came from a hire. The man had given the keynote at one of the world's biggest search conferences, so she assumed he knew what he was doing. Some of his methods sat in a grey area, especially her website. Google penalised the site and the traffic disappeared.

Two rules came out of that, and they cost her a company.

1. You can delegate the work. You cannot delegate understanding it.

2. And if one platform can take you down, you do not have a business. You have a bet.

The third lesson came without warning. A client she trusted collapsed owing her six figures. She still had to pay her suppliers. She has taken payment up front ever since.

Then it stopped being about business at all. A breakdown. Long Covid. Four children. A move to Wales that did not work, and a move back.

At her lowest, she could not face a dinner party.

So she started something small enough to manage. A Google form and a LinkedIn page.

Then she did the brave thing. She posted publicly what she wanted. To partner with Google. To partner with LinkedIn. To reach the national press. To become a B Corp.

Someone at Google saw the post. Two months later she was hosting more than 100 women at their headquarters.

That was Female Founders Rise. It is now a certified B Corp with more than 11,000 members. The 127 cheques she has written since are deliberately small, often four figures, because at that stage a founder needs someone to believe in her more than she needs the money.

Her Rise Report, produced with Barclays, captured 2,225 UK female founders who between them turn over £1 billion and employ more than 9,000 people.

Its headline finding? What founders value most is not funding. It is other founders.

Which is why any woman in her community turning over £3 million or more has a standing invitation to the growth workshop round my dining table on a Tuesday.

Listen to the Business Leader Podcast here: https://lnkd.in/eDidRpmm

"Money can't buy happiness."

But it can buy the freedom to never watch your mum get turned away.

When I was young, my mother took me to a newly reopened Huddersfield canal for a day out.

The free boat rides had just ended by the time we arrived.

She begged, close to tears. They kept brushing her off. 

I never forgot that moment.

Not because it was traumatic, but because of what it planted in me.

A quiet, persistent drive to build something that meant I would never feel that powerless again.

That the people I loved would never feel it either.

I want to be careful here because I do not think money is the point.

The point is what financial security actually gives you.

It gives you choices.

➡️ The choice to say no to the wrong opportunity. 
➡️ The choice to back yourself when no one else will. 
➡️ The choice to give your children a different experience of the world without spoiling them.

I think entrepreneurship is one of the most honest paths to that kind of security.

Precisely because it is not easy.

It rewards persistence, curiosity, and the willingness to keep going when everything is telling you to stop.

The founders I meet who build something lasting are almost never the ones who started with the most money.

They are the ones who had a clear reason to keep going when they had none.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 40 years and I’m committed to helping the next generation find the satisfaction and confidence that comes with building something for yourself.

If that sounds like you, I recommend my weekly newsletter, How To Make a Billion.

It has more lessons and advice from building HomeServe to a £4.1 billion sale.

Click here to receive the next edition: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK

Every year, I sit down and take proper stock.

I look at what worked and what didn't.

Then I write out my business goals for the year ahead.

It's a discipline I've followed for decades, and proved very effective while scaling HomeServe.

Most founders I meet don't do this properly.

They're excited and have hundreds of ideas.

But without a clear direction, that excitement spreads them thin.

They end up with too many priorities and a team that doesn't know which way to row.

Growth isn't about having more ideas or constantly creating new goals.

It's about having one clear direction and getting everyone rowing the same way.

Here's the process I use to set myself up properly for the year ahead:

1. Start with the honest facts.

Before you talk about goals, confront what happened in the year gone by. 
Be brutally honest about what worked and what you should stop.

2. Scale what works.

Find the thing in your market that already works, then improve it. 
Evolution beats revolution.

3. Set a clear vision.

I write mine down every year. 
It includes the sort of business I want to run by next December and what kind of leader I need to become.

4. Back your people to step up.

Look at your team to see who's ready for more responsibility and who needs more clarity. 
Evaluate your team honestly and have the difficult conversations early.

5. Get coachment.

Every founder needs a coach to ask the right questions and a mentor to give advice. 
I've had both throughout my career. 
It's the fastest way to avoid the most common business mistakes.

6. Plan the first 90 days.

Think in quarters, not decades. 
Map out goals, projects, and habits for your team. 
Ninety days is long enough to make real progress but short enough to stay focused.

Then I share it with my team and use it to guide every decision.

My vision for 2026 is the same as it's been since I sold HomeServe:

To inspire breakthroughs in founders and CEOs across the UK, and double the number of large companies from 7,500 to 15,000.

If you're building something ambitious, I'd be interested to hear what you're focusing on.

Let's make 2026 the strongest year yet for the UK's business sector.

We burned through half a million pounds in our first year of HomeServe.  
This one thing turned it around:

Our emergency plumbing business was losing up to £50,000 a month.

And we burned through nearly all of our cash in under a year.

It was 1994, and the 23 people working for us thought they were about to lose their jobs.

But one thing completely turned us around.

Out of desperation more than cleverness, we found a "product-market fit."

With our final £10,000, we sent out a thousand direct mailshots testing a plumbing insurance scheme I'd copied from a little water company in Surrey.

38 people sent in their cheque for £50.
That's a 3.8% response rate.

I got on my office desk in front of those 23 people and said: 
"Yes, we've made it!"

And we had. That moment changed everything from survival to success.

Here's what I learnt about product-market fit:

When you have it, customers don't just use your product, they believe in it.

✅ They renew year after year. 
✅ They tell others about it. 
✅ They trust you when things go wrong.

At HomeServe, our retention rates held at 82% even during the financial crisis.

People worried about big repair bills or not finding a good tradesman.

Our cover gave them peace of mind.

That's product-market fit in action.

Here's how to know if you've found it:
(See the graphic below for an example from Homeserve)

➡️ Look at retention rates.
↳ If customers keep coming back, renewing, reordering, you've got something that sticks. 
↳ High churn means you're solving the wrong problem.

➡️ Watch for referrals.
↳ Are customers recommending you without being asked? That's powerful evidence.

➡️ Test your pricing.
↳ Discounting isn't proof, but paying full value is. 
↳ We charged £50 when we could have settled for £40.

➡️ Listen to feedback.
↳ Sit in focus groups like I did with that Surrey water company. 
↳ Their customers said: "We love the product, but why doesn't it cover plumbing and drains too?"

➡️ Be ready to pivot.
↳ Our first model, emergency plumbing repairs, was losing money. 
↳ We pivoted to insurance. Same problem, different solution.

If you don't have product-market fit yet, don't rush to scale.

I've seen too many entrepreneurs raise money and burn through it because they haven't found the right model.

Instead, double down on listening. Test small and learn fast.

Product-market fit allows you to scale with confidence. 
Without it, you might be burning through cash faster than you can replenish it.

Share your thoughts on product-market fit below. 
If it's been a struggle, let's work it out.

And for more lessons on building and scaling your business, 
My book How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps has real guidance from over 40 years of experience.

You can order your copy here: 
https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

♻️ Repost for other founders and CEOs in your network. 
And for more lessons for building and scaling businesses,  
Follow me Richard Harpin.

If you're trying to crack America from a London desk, you've already lost.

This week, I hosted a room full of founders at my home, and the conversation kept landing in one market in particular: America. I've watched this play out across thirty years now, from building my own business there to the ones I've backed and the boards I've sat on.

Here's what I've learned about expanding into the US:

1. Local talent decides everything. International expansion lives or dies on local talent. Hire someone who calls it "home," not "the US market." If your American strategy runs on a passport and a Zoom link, it isn't a strategy.

2. The economics are brutal before you've even begun. A senior American hire will often expect two or three times what their UK equivalent earns. Notice periods over there are two weeks, not three to six months, which means the operator you bring in had better be capable of hiring their own replacement at pace because your bench will get tested faster than you think. Equity is your friend in that conversation; it's often the only thing that ties the right person to you for the long haul.

3. Partnerships can be the smartest opening move. You get the footprint, the relationships and the local instinct without betting the farm on a market you don't yet understand - and you buy yourself the time to find the right person to plant your flag properly.

4. Know what the right senior leader looks like. Someone who has built and scaled a business in the US before. Someone who already knows where the bodies are buried, who their competitors will be in twelve months, and who picks up the phone when you call.

5. Pay top dollar, or don't bother. When I brought Tom Rusin in to run the US business for HomeServe, I paid him more than I was paying myself. It felt uncomfortable at the time. It was also the single best decision I made in that market. If you're not willing to pay top dollar for the right operator, you're not truly committed to the country, and the market will smell that on you within a quarter.

6. The 15% rule. If more than 15% of your product or model has to change to suit the new geography, think again about whether you have picked the right country. If the model was 20% different in each country and one day you're running businesses in 20 countries, that is a recipe for complexity and disaster. The businesses I've invested in that travel well - Passenger and Gozney - are the ones that stay recognisably themselves wherever they land. Gozney sells the same pizza oven in America as in the UK. The only meaningful difference is that the American version is two inches bigger. Because of course it is.

You don't crack America from a London desk. You crack it by hiring someone who already has.

If you’re an entrepreneur or CEO and would like to attend a Growth Workshop, click the link here: https://lnkd.in/efTm7Jet

Congratulations to Lando Norris. Our eleventh Brit to become an F1 world champion.

It made me think about two things that matter in business. How you bring your team with you. And how you react when things are not working the way you expected.

After the race he said, “I'm proud because I feel like I made a lot of other people happy.”

That tells you a lot about who he is. The strongest leaders focus on the people around them as much as themselves.

He also spoke about trying to be a good person and a good team member. What stood out was his consistency.

His season also showed the importance of adjusting when your first approach is not enough. The car was not doing what he wanted. Mistakes crept in. He had to understand why, make changes and get on with it. He stayed true to who he was, even under pressure.

In business, the leaders who hold their shape in difficult moments are often the ones who make real progress.

You cannot wait for perfect conditions.

You have to deal with what is in front of you and improve from there.

Lando may be an athlete, but he shows the attributes I look for in entrepreneurs.

The ability to bring others with you. And the ability to adjust when things are not going your way.

Both sit at the heart of step nine in my 9 Steps to Make a Billion, Hone Your Character.

If you are leading a growing business and want to strengthen how you lead and how you make decisions, this is exactly what we work on in my Business Leader growth workshops: https://lnkd.in/e5wQ6JGS

Building a business can be lonely.

I know that feeling — I spent over 30 years doing it.

That’s why I started the Business Leader Growth Workshops.

They’re for founders and CEOs running businesses turning over between £3 million and £100 million, employing 15 or more people.

Because in my experience, the best learning doesn’t come from textbooks — it comes from being around people who’ve been where you are, and gone further.

The workshops are free.

If you’re ready to scale faster and learn alongside other ambitious founders, sign up here:
🔗 https://lnkd.in/e5wQ6JGS

And if you know a founder who’d benefit — pass it on.

The world’s richest man has been set a challenge.

He’ll have to meet it if he wants to become... even richer.

Tesla’s shareholders have approved a remuneration deal for founder Elon Musk that could be worth $1tn (£760bn).

The clock is now set. Musk now has 10 years to reach highly ambitious targets. It will take a remarkable effort, similar to that which elevated the company in its opening decade.

"What we're about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book," Musk said.

Who knows the plot of that book? Musk is like an author writing our real-life science fiction future. It may be a story about self-driving Robotaxis. Or he may switch gears and focus on his Optimus robots.

In the age of AI, there are new possibilities for these mechanical inventions to become a key part of our day-to-day lives.

I suppose the business question is this, though. Is it ever justifiable for shareholders to commit such a vast amount of money to secure the services of one particular leader?

For the first 8 years at HomeServe, I was flying blind.

I didn't know what was driving success.

I had the revenue figures, and it was clear that we were growing.

But I didn't have clarity on what was behind that growth.

Was it the direct mail flyers? Our customer service? 
Or perhaps the water company partnerships?

Not knowing meant I couldn't make informed decisions about where to invest.

It wasn't until we started tracking the right metrics that we were able to get a better picture of where we were headed.

We went from guessing to knowing, and from reacting to planning.

It was the difference between hoping things would work out and actually knowing they would.

These are the three types of metrics every business owner needs to understand:

OKRs: Objectives & Key Results

- Define company goals and how to measure them. 
- Build accountability and momentum. 
- Create focus and ownership.

KPIs: Key Performance Indicators

- Track how your business is performing day to day. 
- Identify metrics that define success.
- Spot problems early and adjust fast.

CSFs: Critical Success Factors

- Define what truly drives success. 
- Brings clarity and focus to your strategy.
- Ensures energy is spent on what truly matters.

In short, all three must work together:

CSFs: Define what must go right.
OKRs: Turn ambition into measurable action.
KPIs: Track if you’re on course.

In my experience, the businesses that scale past £100 million are the ones that know their numbers.

They're measuring, adjusting, and improving constantly.

If you can't explain your CSFs, OKRs, and KPIs in two minutes, you don't know your business well enough.

Ignore these metrics, and you'll be leading without direction.

Get these right, and you'll be able to set and reach the right goals faster. 

I'd like to know how you approach these metrics for your business. 
Drop a comment down below with your thoughts.

♻️ Repost to inform founders and CEOs in your network. 
And for more on building and scaling with systems, 
Follow me Richard Harpin

Taylor Swift has done it again.
 
She has smashed records with her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl.
 
The latest data shows that she’s sold more than 4 million units (this includes everything from streams to vinyl). It’s the best opening week for an artist since data tracking began more than three decades ago.
 
I’m not surprised.
 
Along with tens of thousands of other people, I watched Taylor Swift perform live during her Eras tour when it hit the UK last year.
 
I was struck during the marathon of songs not just by the consistent quality of the material, but the sheer variety.
 
It reminded me that even though her line of work could hardly be more different to mine (pop music and home insurance through Homeserve, OK I admit hers is more compelling!), we had embraced an idea in common.
 
Step 7 in my book ‘How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps’, is ‘Evolution not Revolution’.
 
Swift has slowly evolved her style of music over time, continually challenging herself and putting herself outside her comfort zone.
 
Her musical output covers everything from jangly country music to bombastic pop anthems with synthesisers, to quieter, more reflective, guitar ballads.
 
She’s reinvented herself continually. I’m sure it’s kept her interested. It’s certainly kept her fans, like me, interested.
 
Swift teaches us that success takes years of consistent reinvention and a commitment to challenging yourself.
 
That’s why her fans will love her “forever and ever”.

Some of the strongest businesses are run by people who didn’t start them. 

Simon Wolfson was not the founder of Next — that was George Davies. 

But it’s Simon Wolfson who led the business through constant evolution and turned it into one of the most consistently profitable retailers in the UK.

What stands out at Next is not disruption or reinvention, but the decision to put the right person in charge of running the business. 

By hiring people to run the business day to day, it is no longer dependent on one individual’s energy or intuition, which is why it has continued to perform while much of the sector has struggled. 

That’s why Step 5 in my book is about hiring your replacement.

When we were building HomeServe, I learned this the hard way. 

As the business grew, it became obvious that decisions were slowing because too many of them still came back to me. 

We didn’t need more ideas. We needed better execution. 

Bringing in people with more experience of running a large business changed everything.

They were better at the day-to-day, and the business became more consistent, more predictable and more valuable. 

Hiring your replacement is about recognising that starting a business and running a large one are different jobs. 

That’s the difference you see at Next. 

The business isn’t dependent on one individual’s energy or intuition. It’s run by people with the right experience, year after year.

And that’s what allows it to keep evolving without losing control.

I cover this in Step 5, hiring your replacement, in How to Make a Billion in Nine Steps.

Pop music is often about the star taking the limelight. Taylor Swift’s bonus policy shows that true stars know they don’t shine alone.

Swift has shared a $197m bonus pot with her crew, who took the Eras tour around the world.

That’s everyone from personal assistants she knows well, to truck drivers she’s never met.

It’s a life-changing amount of money to them. Some broke down on receiving the news, as you can see in Swift’s new documentary.

When Taylor Swift did her Eras tour it was the ticket prices that grabbed headlines.

The tour took more than $2bn in revenues.

If a family wanted to see their favourite star perform at Wembley in London, the cost was similar to a summer vacation, potentially thousands of pounds, as the cheapest tickets vanished in seconds.

Such was the demand to see Swift perform in person. Her undeniable talent commanded that price.

But it’s her personal generosity that has led her to make these bonuses, which recognise everyone in her team. She may have felt all the personal pressure, the weight of expectation, the scrutiny of the press during the tour.

But she knows that tour couldn’t have happened if the trucks didn’t drive overnight between international borders. If the hotel rooms weren’t booked. If the riggers didn’t set the stage safely and on time. So many small details had to work out for the global extravaganza to work.

I watched the Eras tour in Wembley. As a fan I was focused on Taylor’s performance. But as a business person I also marvelled at the work that had clearly gone into such a show.

Whatever your line of work, it’s right to recognise everyone’s contribution. Make your people feel valued if you want to deliver something spectacular.

I've been building businesses for over 30 years.

This is the most important lesson I learned:

Time is the most precious asset you have.

If you want to save time in your business, create a "not-to-do list."

Work out all the things you want to do, and might even be quite good at, but which will take you away from your core business.

Make the list much longer than your to-do list.

Then pin it up above your desk, or, better still, frame it.

This is the document that will save you from spreading yourself too thin.

Early on, we established a clear strategy for HomeServe:

Make home repairs easy by matching customers' needs with trades to generate recurring income.

Everything that didn't fit got put on the not-to-do list.

If we have done it earlier, I would have avoided some costly missteps.

Leave a comment with one thing you're putting on your not-to-do list in 2026, and why you've chosen it.

This one of the 9 steps from my book: How To Make A Billion In 9 Steps.

You can order your own copy here: https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT

I lost £97 million chasing the wrong opportunity.

We spent £130 million acquiring businesses that looked right on paper.

The margins were too low. The model was two steps removed from our core. It pulled attention away from the thing that was actually working.

And ultimately, we wrote off £97 million because of it.

I tell this story not because I am proud of it, but because it is the most expensive lesson I ever learned at HomeServe, and I see founders making the same mistake every week.

The pattern is always the same.

The business is going well. A new opportunity appears. It feels like a natural extension. It looks adjacent enough to justify. And so you say yes, because you are a founder and founders are wired to spot opportunities and go after them.

But adjacent is not the same as core.

And the cost of a bad acquisition or a wrong move is not just financial. It is the months of management attention that go with it. The distraction from the team. The opportunity cost of everything you did not do while you were focused on something that was never going to work.

The not-to-do list exists for exactly this reason.

Before you say yes to the next opportunity, ask yourself honestly how many steps removed it is from what you do best.

One step removed can work. Two steps removed is where companies get into trouble.

Less is more. It took me £97 million to really believe it.

I write about this every week in my newsletter, How to Make a Billion.

Subscribe for free: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK

Most businesses prioritise revenue.

The best ones start with their brand.

This is something Chris Donnelly and I both believe in.

I met Chris last year when he hosted me on the Secret Leaders podcast.

Since then, he's built an 8-figure cohort business, 
And launched a successful agency...
 
All to help top entrepreneurs stand out in crowded markets.

We’ve spoken a lot since then, and we still agree on this:  
Every billion-pound business is also a billion-pound brand.

That means so much more than a logo or a clever tagline.

A real brand establishes trust, has a clear identity 
And maintains consistency across the entire customer experience.

That doesn't always mean creating something flashy or digital.

This is something we learned while scaling Checkatrade.

The most authentic strategy for our brand wasn't a large digital campaign.

It was a physical A4 leaflet, tailored for each postcode, 
Sent to 16 million homes, 6 times a year.

It drove calls to trades on tracked telephone numbers and masses.

That’s an approach I call Bricks, Clicks and Paper, and this was paper to clicks. 

This is how you can deliver an omnichannel brand experience across:

✅ Physical stores
✅ Digital channels
✅ Printed deliverables

The goal is to make your brand as present and consistent as possible, 
So your customers return to your products without thinking twice.

It makes the experience feel seamless in-store, on your website, 
Or even while opening a letter.

This is not about pushing your product harder, 
It's about establishing long-term clarity, values, and trust.

Which piece is your brand currently missing? 
I'd like to read your strategies in the comments.

In 2010, HomeServe USA's grow had plateaued.

And I finally admitted that I needed outside help...

But the story doesn't start there.

It starts in 2003, when I sent my UK marketing director to Miami to launch HomeServe in America.

At the time, it seemed the natural next step for the business. But it resulted in one of the most expensive lessons I have ever paid for.

We were trying to sell home emergency cover to people who had never heard of us, in a market we did not understand, run from a city that was completely wrong for the business. I did not walk away, but I also did not seek assistance as early as I should.

In 2010, after seven years of working hard with very little to show for it, I decided I finally needed outside counsel.

It took weeks, but I finally got in touch with Nigel Morris, a British entrepreneur who had built Capital One in Washington DC into one of America's biggest financial businesses.

He said if I were ever in Washington, he would give me an hour.

"Funnily enough," I lied, "I'm there tomorrow. Can I pop by then?"

First thing the next morning, I was on the first flight out of Heathrow.

Three hours with Nigel changed everything.

He pointed out what I had been too close to see, and I came out of that meeting knowing exactly what needed to change.

We moved the office to Connecticut and hired an American CEO.

The US business went on to become larger than our UK business and was the foundation of the £4.1bn exit to Brookfield in 2023.

The whole experience taught me two lessons I have carried into every business decision since.

→ Lesson 1: Do not be afraid to seek counsel.

I spent seven years trying to figure out the US on my own.

The right mentor gave me the clarity in an afternoon that years of working alone could not produce.

I should have found him a decade earlier.

→ Lesson 2: Go global with locals.

You cannot run an international business from head office with people who do not understand the market from the inside.

Americans buy from Americans. The culture, relationships, and trust doesn't translate the way you assume it will.

The rule I now apply to every international expansion: Always hire a local leader who knows the country as well as you know your own.

These were two essential lessons I learned the hard way. Now, I am passing them on so you don't have to.

If you want more honest lessons from 40 years of building businesses, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, How to Make a Billion.

Click here to receive the next edition: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK

And share this with other founders and entrepreneurs who might benefit.

I want to meet with other founders as much as I can.

Because every time I speak to them, I learn something new.

One of the things I enjoy most is running our free Growth Workshops for entrepreneurs and CEOs.

I hold these workshops regularly in an effort to inspire and teach through business stories and real lessons.

But here's the thing, it's not just me teaching them. 
They're learning from each other in these roundtable discussions.

That's the real power of collective wisdom.

When you're surrounded by people who've achieved what you want to achieve, it changes the course of your business.

✅ You stop making the same mistakes. 
✅ You see solutions faster. 
✅ You think bigger.

In my experience, the best learning happens when you're in a room with people who are ahead of you on the journey.

That's why I created these Growth Workshops through Business Leader.

They are for founders and CEOs who are already turning over a minimum of £3m and up to £100m and employing 15 or more people.

People who understand the challenges of scaling beyond the startup phase.

We cover the 9 steps to building a billion-pound business. 
But more importantly, you'll learn from other entrepreneurs who are tackling the same problems you face.

Because after 30 years building HomeServe I've learned that the fastest way to scale isn't working harder.

It's learning from people who've done it before, and implementing the steps that work.

You can attend the workshop for free, if you meet the criteria.

We keep it intimate, focused, and valuable.

No time wasters and no tyre kickers. 

Just serious entrepreneurs helping each other grow faster.

If you meet the criteria and want to join us, sign up here 👇
https://lnkd.in/e5wQ6JGS

Tag an entrepreneur or founder in the comments that might be interested.

The small, jagged-toothed creature from China is hard to ignore.

Labubu has captured imaginations worldwide and become a serious business.
 
Pop Mart, the company behind it, has seen sales rise by 250% in the past quarter alone.

Much of that surge has been fuelled by one smart idea — miniature Labubus.
Smaller figures. Lower prices. Wider reach.

In America, sales are up more than 1000%.
 
This success builds on years of expansion that have already made Pop Mart one of China’s most valuable retailers.

The company shows what happens when a business evolves its product offering, rather than undertake a complete revolution. It refined what worked instead of starting again.

That is the essence of step 7, ‘Evolution not Revolution’, in my book ‘How to make a Billion in 9 Steps’.
 
Step 7 teaches that the best companies grow by improving what customers already love. Pop Mart has done exactly that.
 
The strongest businesses keep a bias for action, testing, learning and adapting.

They stay nimble, listening to customers and refining with discipline.
 
Labubu began as a craze. Handled with care, it could become a long-term brand.

That is the power of evolution.

Most founders aren’t held back by funding.

They’re held back by a lack of ambition.

I was reminded of this lesson at a recent Business Leader Growth Workshop.

Here's what happened: 
 
One of our founders told me his plans to grow his company to £2–3 million in revenue.

By most standards, that’s a very respectable goal.

But in my experience, goals like that can cap your potential before you’ve really started.

To me, it was limiting the potential his business had to scale. 

Surrounded by ambitious peers, 
All working through our 9-step business methodology:  
 
I saw something change in him.

He didn’t just leave with new ideas.
He left with a new mindset.

Within just a few weeks, he had set a new target:

A new ambition to get to £30 million in revenue.

We didn’t give him a secret formula.

We gave him the environment to think bigger:  

✅ In the right room. 
✅ With the right people. 
✅ Asking the right questions.

That’s what these workshops are really designed to do: 

Challenge any assumptions you are holding on to and expand your thinking.

Your business will never grow past what you believe is possible.

The good news is we've got more free Growth Workshops coming up.

If you’re a founder doing £3m and above, 
And want to scale faster with more support, they might be of interest.

Slots are available here 👇
https://lnkd.in/e5wQ6JGS

They typically fill up quite quickly, so I recommend you act fast.

♻️ Repost to help other entrepreneurs in your network. 
And for more on building and scaling businesses, 
Follow me Richard Harpin

I started HomeServe with £50,000 and sold it for £4.1 billion. I know what that journey looks like. Now I want to build the next global van-based services business, investing in an existing UK business and an experienced CEO to build another billion-pound business.

I'm looking to invest in a UK van-based services business that fits the following criteria:

- Vans or depots at the core: B2B or B2C, serving needs customers can't put off.

- Built in the UK, with global potential: A model that could work in 30+ countries. Real scale is built through international expansion, and I'm looking for a business with potential to go global.

- Technical competitive edge: Not just a software layer bolted on for the pitch. The ability to innovate (whether through software or hardware) to add real value or disrupt the sector.

- More than just hourly labour: Products, add-on services, recurring revenue built into the business model.

- Profitable and scaling: Multi-million revenue, already in the green in terms of profitability, and growing faster than peers in the sector.

I've watched Belron, Rentokil, and Verisure scale to extraordinary sizes. The model works.

The question is: who's next? I'm not going to start another company. I want to back a hungry entrepreneur already on the journey, with potential to grow their business to >£1 billion in a sector where this hasn't yet been done.

If that's you, I want to hear from you. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gsRhrVbK

Most leaders stop asking questions once they reach the top.

But that is exactly when it matters most.

Of all the traits I have tried to build over 40 years in business, curiosity is one of the most important.

I have met founders with brilliant ideas who stopped growing the moment their business started succeeding.

They got comfortable. They stopped reading and asking questions.

They assumed that reaching a certain level meant they had figured it out.

But the ones who build businesses that last never make that assumption.

They treat every conversation and person as a source of information.

That mindset is not something you are simply born with.

It is something you have to work at, quite deliberately.

When I think about the nine steps I used to build HomeServe into a £4.1bn business, the last one is the one I come back to most.

It's called "Hone Your Character."

And curiosity sits at the heart of it.

Here is how to build that habit into your leadership:

1. Get a coach and a mentor.

A coach helps you think more clearly.

A mentor has been where you are trying to go.

I wish I had found both sooner.

2. Have one learning conversation a week with someone outside your senior circle.

It might be a customer service manager, an engineer, or someone on the frontline.

Ask them what is not working. Then listen properly.

3. Read constantly.

A bad week for me is one where I have not learned anything new.

Books, articles, conversations, it does not matter.

Curiosity has to be fed, or it wanes.

4. When you do not know something, say so.

The moment I started telling my team I did not have all the answers, they stepped up.

5. Ask for feedback on yourself, regularly and seriously.

I was told, as a chairman, that I should hold back my opinions and let others speak first.

That was uncomfortable to do at first, but it was also completely right.

The best businesses I have seen are led by people who are still learning at the same rate as their business is growing.

That is not a coincidence.

For more on honing your character and the other eight steps I used to build a billion-pound business, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, How to Make a Billion.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK

Comment below with one way that you stay curious as a business owner or leader. 
And repost to share this lesson with your network.

I've invested £120 million into 13 businesses through Growth Partner.

Here are 25 lessons from 30 years of building, scaling, and investing:

I made plenty of mistakes on the road to exiting HomeServe for £4.1 billion.

And each time I did, I learned a new lesson that made me a better entrepreneur.

This is for anyone building something ambitious right now:

1. Copy and pivot. Second mover advantage beats being first with an unproven model.

2. If you think you should fire someone, don't wait. Do it today.

3. Build yourself before you build the business.

4. Build an omnichannel strategy where bricks, clicks, and paper work together.

5. You'll work harder than you've ever worked.

6. Work on the business, not in it.

7. Locals buy from locals. Make sure to hire local when you go global.

8. Use direct mail because others have stopped. So now you get a bigger share of the doormat.

9. Test before you invest. (We lost £50,000 a month at first because I skipped this.)

10. Grow by evolving your business not revolutionising it. 

11. Create a "not-to-do" list and stick to it.

12. Be a hedgehog, not a fox, when scaling to a billion.

13. Character beats strategy every time.

14. Never stop learning. I'm still reading books at 61.

15. Have the difficult conversations you've been avoiding.

16. Prove demand before you scale.

17. Don't give away too much equity too early.

18. Cash is king. You can't eat net worth.

19. Step up and hire your replacement before it's too late.

20. There's no excuse for poor due diligence.

21. Get the economics right from the start.

22. The UK needs to focus more on scale-ups and start-ups.

23. Customer feedback is your goldmine.

24. Hire for persistence, courage, and integrity, not just skills.

25. Find a coach and a mentor early to guide you.

Building a billion-pound business isn't terribly complex.

But it does require learning from mistakes and staying focused despite setbacks.

That's how you persist long after others have quit.

If you want to share your favourite lesson or add one to the list, 
Leave a comment down below.

Leadership matters and the stock market knows this.
 
Almost £2bn was added to the value of Diageo on the London Stock Exchange this week after a key announcement was made.
 
Sir David Lewis will become the drink giant’s next CEO.
 
It’s best known for its brands Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker.
 
There was certainly headroom for Diageo’s stock to recover. It had fallen by 30% since the start of the year to a decade low, over doubts about leadership and succession plans.
 
Like the stock market, I like this appointment too. Lewis's value lies in his experience. The 60-year-old is credited with turning around Tesco’s fortunes.
 
There’s a phrase that I live by in business which I picked up in my early years working at Procter & Gamble.
 
“Has done. Can do. Will do.”
 
It’s a simple mantra, but an effective one. Lewis turned around the Tesco supermarket chain between 2014 and 2020. Prior to that he had been president of global personal care at Unilever. He inherited in Tesco a company that had just revealed a loss of £6.4bn, the biggest-ever suffered by a UK retailer, after a period of overexpansion and an accounting scandal. 
 
He launched a cost cutting exercise that slowly improved the company’s position, as it took on cut-price rivals like Aldi and Lidl. When he announced his departure in 2019 operating profit at Tesco was at £1.4bn.
 
Second or third time bosses are often the very best. People like Octopus Energy’s Greg Jackson is another example, who is on his third chief executive role and has built the UK’s largest household energy supplier. (He previously worked at HomeServe).
 
I admit. It’s not the only way to do things. Sometimes an internal promotion to CEO is the way to go; it maintains the workplace culture you’ve built up and also incentivises other colleagues who see what’s possible for them too. It fosters ambition. 
 
Or occasionally you can spot a promising leader ‘on the rise’ at a smaller company, who remains unproven at CEO level. But that is a riskier bet. 
 
I do think that a publicly listed company has a duty to shareholders to de-risk succession by finding a proven candidate who’s flourished before at CEO level. The role brings unique pressures and responsibilities.
 
Lewis takes the helm in January so let’s see what the market makes of his actual performance over the year ahead.
 
I have a feeling its early optimism is just the start of things to come.

In the words of Johnnie Walker, keep walking…

Most founders I meet are brilliant at running their business.

But that is also what is holding them back...

There is a moment in the trajectory of almost every growing business where the founder becomes the bottleneck.

They are still in every decision, every hire, and every problem.

And the business can only move as fast as they can.

I know this because I lived it at HomeServe for years.

I thought I was being a good leader, but I was actually getting in the way.

It was not until I spent four days on a leadership programme at Harvard Business School that I was forced to stop and ask a question I had never properly asked myself:

What value do I really bring to the table?

Not what I do every day or what the business needs from me right now.

But the thing I do that genuinely makes the people around me better.

I sat with a blank page for most of the programme.

Everyone else was filling notebooks with their thoughts.

By the end, I came out with two words:

"Inspire breakthrough."

Those two words were simple, but they changed how I ran HomeServe.

Instead of trying to own every decision, I began to focus on the thing I was especially skilled at: challenging the people around me to believe they were capable of more than they thought, and then getting out of their way.

I like to think that the 10 chief executives who ran the business alongside me would probably all say the same thing:

He challenged us. He inspired us. And we delivered more than any of us thought possible.

If you are still running your business rather than leading it, here is a question to sit with today:

What are the two words or two sentences that describe your real value?

It should be the thing that, when you do it well, makes everything else move faster.

Find that value, and build your role around it.

If you want more lessons for building and scaling businesses just like this, I publish a weekly newsletter, How to Make a Billion.

It's based on lessons learned over 40 years of entrepreneurship.

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