Great Business Stories

Enzo Ferrari: The Obsession Behind the Prancing Horse

Now I’m not a big petrol head, but as some of you might know, I love Formula 1, and I think it's fair to say that Formula 1 wouldn’t be where it is today without Ferrari—

Bernie Ebbers & WorldCom - When The Tide Goes Out…

The whole WorldCom scandal never really registered with me- because it happened straight after the dotcom bubble burst, so myself and my cofounders were just dusting ours

The Rise and Ruin of the Barclay Twins

This is the remarkable story of how David and Frederick Barclay went from painters and decorators to owning the most prestigious hotels in London: the Ritz, Claridge's, t

Microsoft 1994-2000: How Bill Gates Turned a Browser War Into an Antitrust Disaster

This is, without doubt, one of my favourite stories ever. And look, I'll be doing a good few episodes on Gates and Microsoft, but why I decided to start off with this one

John Foley and Peloton: What Went Wrong?

I wanted to dig into this story purely because what I knew of Peloton really was just from the headlines. During the pandemic, stock pickers and the business media crowne

Yuri Milner: From Russia With Billions

I've wanted to cover Milner ever since I first came across him in Sebastian Mallaby's excellent book, The Power Law, where Mallaby introduces Milner with the following:

Steve Ballmer: 1956–2000

And let me start with a quote: "I didn't pull you out of Stanford Business School to bankrupt the company" — that's Bill Gates, early on, arguing with the man he'd just h

BlockBuster: The Men & Moments Behind Its Rise and Fall

There are so many great characters in this story — I dig into the founder, David Cook, a guy who sold the business for $12 million but could have made $300 million if he'

Carlos Slim: The Numbers Genius Who Built an Empire

This is a guy whose father fled Lebanon with almost nothing and today is worth $120 billion. I examine how he built his fortune buying up distressed businesses during Mex

CZ and Binance: The Man Who Built Crypto's Biggest Empire

This is a guy who grew up in a village in rural China with no running water and today is now worth $110 billion. I examine his relationship with Sam Bankman Fried- and hi

Hyundai Part 1: Chung Ju-yung, The Founder

Initially I had intended to do just 1 episode on Hyundai, focusing mainly on the car business and it’s current leadership, but the story of Ju-yung is just too remarkable

Calvin Klein:An American Icon

Now, I’m not into fashion and I really didn’t know anything about Klein before I did my research for this episode and I found him to be such a fascinating character-how h

David Sacks: Silicon Valley's Rainmaker

Sacks is a very interesting and powerful figure. He started his tech career with PayPal, and it was Sacks, together with other PayPal founders, who organised the coup tha

Roberto Calvi: Italy’s Corruption Laid Bare

This is a story that I’ve wanted to get to the bottom of for years- for those of you who aren’t aware of who Calvi is- he was known as God’s Banker- the guy who managed t

Steven A. Cohen: The Master of Edge

The edge in the title refers to an advantage that Cohen had over the rest of the market-because he is considered without doubt one of the best intuitive traders ever- goo

Michael O Leary: The Jumped-Up Paddy Who Doesn’t Give a Shit

I chose this episode not only because it’s brilliant, but also because my youngest listener and favourite nephew has been bugging me to do the story of a leary for a long

Sam Altman: 1985-2023

I’ll open up with an excerpt from a fantastic New Yorker article on Altman: "Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on

Philip Green: The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism

I’m going to kick it off with this excerpt from Oliver Shah’s excellent book on Green called Damaged Goods: “Mr Toad-like in appearance, with a bulging belly and a mischi

Bill Ackman: 1966–2008

I’m breaking up Ackman’s story into three, maybe even four parts because, like him or loathe him, Ackman is a very interesting character. I’ll kick it off with a quote fr

Ross Perot: Shorty Got Game

I’m having a bit of a dig at Ross Perot’s height, but for a little guy, this guy had a lot of game—not just as a businessman. This guy could have been the US President.