Business Leader

When Paula MacKenzie took over as CEO in 2022, PizzaExpress had been through seven CEOs in eleven years, a billion-pound debt restructuring, 73 restaurant closures, and a pandemic that decimated the casual dining sector. Four years on, she has refurbished three quarters of the estate, grown a loyalty app to four million members, and is targeting 1,000 restaurants worldwide by 2030. In this episode, Sir Richard Harpin, the host of the Business Leader podcast, delves into the numbers, the decisions, and the leadership thinking behind the business turnaround — including why profits fell even as revenue rose, what a refurbishment actually does to a restaurant's economics, and how MacKenzie is expanding PizzaExpress into new formats and new markets.They also cover her career journey — from Ernst & Young auditor to Diageo, GSK, Innocent Drinks and eleven years at KFC — what it takes to go cross-functional and make yourself the obvious CEO candidate, and the leadership lessons she has taken from four years running one of Britain's most scrutinised businesses. And, her advice to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In this episode:
What PizzaExpress actually looked like when MacKenzie walked in — and the one thing the business needed most
Why she changed much of the leadership team in her first months, and what a CEO transition coach told her before she even started
How the loyalty app grew to four million members
The refurbishment programme — and why underinvested restaurants are delivering 5–10% revenue uplifts
The 1,000 restaurant target — and the new formats, franchise markets and US ambitions behind it
Her four-stage playbook for any new CEO: arrive, assimilate, articulate, accelerate
Why she believes you cannot overcommunicate — and how she mystery shops her own restaurants

Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast for weekly entrepreneur stories from founders and CEOs who’ve built and scaled great businesses. Join the Business Leader community for coaching, peer to peer forums and exclusive learning events. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters.
Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized UK companies, designed to help them grow with purpose through strategic support, peer-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here.
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Sir Richard Harpin talks to Stephen Johnson, Managing Director of Quooker UK & Ireland, about how to scale a business to a £100m turnover without sacrificing culture. Stephen Johnson spent 26 years in his father's fitted furniture and kitchen business, Neville Johnson, then couldn't get hired anywhere else. Rejected by employer after employer who saw no value in "just working for your father," he eventually talked Quooker's Dutch owners into a six-month trial. With a hire car and 40 taps, he sold 999 hot water taps in his first year and that was the start of Quooker in the UK. Now he’s running a business with 750,000 customers, Johnson tells Sir Richard how he grew the business from his home office to £100m turnover, and why he's employed a full-time psychologist and a Premier League performance coach along the way. Also, the rationale behind his mantra of doing better than yesterday.

Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast for weekly entrepreneur stories from founders and CEOs who’ve built and scaled great businesses. Join the Business Leader community for coaching, peer to peer forums and exclusive learning events. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters.

Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized UK companies, designed to help them grow with purpose through strategic support, peer-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emmie Faust founded 11 businesses - some of them failed and some of them succeeded - one sold for £7 million. She now runs Female Founders Rise, a 12,000-strong community helping women build, grow and scale their businesses. Faust talks to Sir Richard Harpin, host of the Business Leader Podcast, about the advantages of bootstrapping and scaling a business without outside investment, the real story behind her Dragons' Den investment from Theo Paphitis and why it ultimately failed, and how a personal health crisis during the pandemic led her to build a community for female founders - backed by Google, Shoosmiths, and the British Business Bank. Faust explains how she is supporting women in business at the early stages, through 127 angel investments in women-led businesses, and gives advice for founders preparing to pitch for investment.

Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast for weekly entrepreneur stories from founders and CEOs who’ve built and scaled great businesses. Join the Business Leader community for coaching, peer to peer forums and exclusive learning events. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters.
Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized UK companies, designed to help them grow with purpose through strategic support, peer-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mehma Bridgen co-founded The Fuel Store with her husband Jamie after leaving the police force — where she was working on a covert operation at just 22. Starting with nothing but cold calling and a small Birmingham office, she helped build a fuel card and fleet management business turning over more than £100 million. Bridgen talks to the host of the Business Leader Podcast, Sir Richard Harpin, about scaling a business from zero — the discipline, the mistakes, the moment they knew they needed an external CEO, her sales philosophy, and what working with your spouse is really like when the pressure mounts.

Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast for weekly entrepreneur stories from founders and CEOs who’ve built and scaled great businesses. Join the Business Leader community for coaching, peer to peer forums and exclusive learning events. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters.

Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized UK companies, designed to help them grow with purpose through strategic support, peer-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nick Jenkins, founder of Moonpig, former Dragons' Den investor, and now a prolific angel investor with over 38 investments to his name, talks to Sir Richard Harpin on the Business Leader Podcast about the lessons he has learned along the way. Jenkins reveals how the business nearly collapsed several times and how a single comment from an investor director (raising the price of a card from £1.99 to £2.99) turned Moonpig from a business on the brink into a survivable, scalable company — and how a bold £50k TV advertising bet snowballed into £1.2 million a month in spend, taking turnover from £3 million to £45 million in three years. Also, how the money on the table in Dragons’ Den is not all real.

Subscribe to the Business Leader Podcast and sign up to our free weekly newsletter at businessleader.co.uk/newsletters.

Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized UK companies, designed to help them grow with purpose through strategic support, peer-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Sign up for our Business Leader newsletter here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.