Major US businesses have begun ditching or scaling back their diversity initiatives. Will UK firms be next? Evan Davis is joined by three guests who specialise on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes, as well as environmental and sustainability issues. Do they see signs of UK companies shifting their stance? And to what extent is the DEI industry - and their jobs - under threat? Guests: Daniel Fellows, General Manager of Diversio UK and EU Erinch Sahan, busines and enterprise lead at Do...
Feb 06, 2025•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Evan Davis talks to the Estonian Ahti Heinla, co-founder of robot delivery firm Starship Technologies, which is hoping to expand across the UK. Evan hears about Ahti's early life in Estonia, how he competed in a Nasa competition, the start of the delivery system in Milton Keynes and how he thinks robot deliveries will grow in the future in Britain and worldwide.
Jan 30, 2025•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can businesses operate without managers? It's an idea Amazon, Meta and Citigroup are exploring. Evan hears from the leaders of three companies who've already tried working that way, but with varying degrees of success. Guests: Chris May: Founder of Mayden Hazel Brown: CEO of Cornerstone Luke Kyte: Operations Director of Reddico Presenter: Evan Davis Producers: Nick Holland and Bob Howard Sound: James Beard Production Coordinator: Katie Morrison Editor: Matt Willis
Jan 23, 2025•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Evan Davis explores if working the traditional five day week could be replaced by working four, eight hour days. Could working more efficiently benefit employees and bosses? With Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, Claire Daniels, CEO of Trio Media and Jen Thompson, managing director of the Crate Brewery.
Jan 16, 2025•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast The advertising exec behind some of the most successful adverts of recent decades shares some of the decisions that have influenced his career, including an early decision to accept a lower salary and instead pursue and opportunity that would bring him more opportunities. Sir John would go out to co-found successful agencies Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and Saatchi and Saatchi. Today, Sir John says he shuns five year plans, instead focusing on 'five minute plans' and says he tries to make each day as i...
Jan 12, 2025•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Evan Davis gets up-to-date tips on finding a new job and hears how the process of making yourself stand out to an employer has changed over the years. Episode guests: Sophie O'Brien: CEO and Founder of Pollen Careers Depesh Nathwani: CEO of The Consumer Helpline Group Shan Saba: Director of Brightwork Staffline Presenter: Evan Davis Producers: Bob Howard and Nick Holland Production Co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Sound: Rod Farquhar Editor: Matt Willis The Bottom Line is produced in partnership wit...
Jan 09, 2025•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Career clarity can be hard to find in the middle of a demanding 9 to 5, but sometimes getting away from it all for a while can make you realise what you really want from work. For Dana Denis-Smith, the world's highest mountain range did the trick. She tells Evan Davis how it inspired her to turn her back on an unfulfilling legal career, and later to start up her own company, Obelisk Support, which champions the talents of mothers who don't want to - or can't - return to work full time. Productio...
Jan 06, 2025•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast When your background differs from the people working with and around you, it’s easy to feel judged by the assumptions people make about you from class to gender. Whatever your upbringing, it’s something we all deal with - our backgrounds are always with us, either to be embraced, accepted, or fled from. Jordan Brompton, entrepreneur and co-founder of the smart energy tech company Myenergi, shares her experience as a working class woman and her love of solar panels. Production team: Producers: Si...
Dec 18, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast When do you start that side hustle you've always talked about doing? What if it gets you fired from work? And even if you do leave, make your success and build your hustle into a successful business, can you ever decide to step away and go back to your career? Julian Douglas, global CEO of advertising agency VCCP, talks to Evan Davis about his decision to go in to advertising, being fired for his night life start up, and then walking away from the company he founded to go back to his former care...
Dec 17, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast When your business is about making products, and the factory you use gets into trouble, that’s potentially a big problem. Do you try to find another one, or do you try to fix it? Rob Law, entrepreneur and inventor of the Trunki children’s suitcase, had exactly this dilemma, and tells Evan Davis about the risky decision it prompted. He also discusses the illness and personal loss that have shaped his career, and recalls his infamous appearance on Dragon’s Den almost 20 years ago. Production team:...
Dec 17, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast When inventor Tom Pellereau was on the verge of launching his latest invention for his fashion company, Stylideas, he couldn't have known what a key decision was about to face him. The Apprentice winner talks to Evan Davis about his business relationship with Alan Sugar, his passion for design and his experience of dyslexia that all led to a stand off over pricing that would make or break his company. Production team: Producers: Simon Tulett and Michaela Graichen Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor:...
Dec 12, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast What do you do when you’re unhappy at work? Maybe you’re burnt out from long hours? Or you see the way your employer does things and think to yourself “surely there’s a better way?” For many founders and CEO's, it's a familiar experience, and one that can spur them into the decision of starting their own business. Evan Davis talks to Elmarie Marais about her experience of crisis management, and how a crisis of her own led to the founding of her own company, GoCrisis. Production team: Producers: ...
Dec 05, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast You've had a brilliant business idea. At least, you think you have. What do you do next? Evan Davis speaks to three successful entrepreneurs- including former contestants on The Apprentice and Dragons' Den. Where do the best ideas come from and how do you know when they are worth pursuing? What are the top tips for pitching and when is it time to let an idea go? Evan is joined by Rob Law, the inventor of the Trunki ride-on suitcase for kids, Pippa Murray, founder of the nut butter brand Pip &...
Nov 07, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why do advertising agencies use fear to get us to part with our money? Advertising agencies and marketing people use different techniques to push our buttons. Humour is one. But what about fear? Do they sometimes try to scare us into buying? Or is it a gentler art- playing on our insecurities about things like old age, poor health or thinning hair? Evan Davis speaks to Sir John Hegarty and Ian Gathard from the advertising industry and psychologist Juliane Beard, who studies how the brains of con...
Oct 31, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Shivaun and Adam Raff's shopping and price comparison website all but vanished from Google's search results just days after launching, the pair began a gruelling legal battle that would end with a landmark judgement and the tech giant receiving a then record fine. European regulators found the search engine guilty of abusing its market dominance by making its own shopping recommendations appear more prominently than rivals' in its search results. Google spent seven years appealing its €2.4b...
Oct 24, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast When a company finds itself facing war or natural disaster how can it get staff out of harm's way, and is there any chance of ensuring business as usual? Evan Davis speaks to one business leader who helped move hundreds of staff out of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia when war broke out in 2022. Two crisis response companies explain how they have been helping clients with people and operations in Lebanon, Israel and parts of the USA recently hit by hurricanes. Plus, what is an employer's obligation i...
Oct 17, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast It must be one of the most-maligned professions out there - on a par, perhaps, with traffic wardens - but debt collectors perform a vital service to businesses and the wider economy. So why do we love to despise them? Evan Davis and guests discuss the industry's inner workings, from the public image of aggressive, burly bailiffs, to the reality of repayment plans prompted by artificial intelligence. We ask how most try to ensure they collect debts fairly, and also hear the other side of the debt...
Oct 10, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Side hustlers are seemingly everywhere - some surveys suggest they account for around half of UK workers - and stories of getting rich quick and abandoning the 9-5 are plenty. But the reality for many is much less glamorous: long hours; a precarious balancing act with the day job; and a good chance of failure. Evan Davis speaks to side hustlers, and their employers, to find out what it’s really like balancing two jobs at once. Plus, why is side hustling so popular anyway? Does it reveal a flouri...
Oct 03, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The UK's power grid is undergoing a huge shift towards renewable energy, but running homes and businesses solely on this new form of electricity will be a delicate balancing act and will pose new choices for consumers. Evan Davis and guests discuss the challenge of matching supply - from wind and solar - with an increased demand from electric vehicles and homes using heat pumps rather than gas boilers. Part of the solution could be consumers themselves - homes with EVs, solar panels or battery s...
Sep 26, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every year has its business highs and lows which we don't often get an opportunity to chew over on The Bottom Line. This year is different. To mark our end of term, we thought we’d reflect on the business year and look at some of the highs and lows across the business landscape, creating our very own (and very unofficial) Bottom Line Business Awards. Three panellists, three categories, three nominations. Joining Evan are: JESSICA SPUNGIN, Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Lon...
Jul 25, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Private schools in the UK are mostly registered as charities – but they are also businesses – businesses in the sense that they sell a service to paying customers. They’ve recently been in the news because the new government has said it will remove their exemption from VAT. In this episode we take a look at the business of private education: how it works, how much money is made and what will happen when exemption from VAT is removed from school fees. Evan Davis is joined by: Geoffrey Stanford, H...
Jul 18, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast All eyes have been on the new prime minister as he, and his team of ministers, settle into their jobs running the country. In this episode we consider the management challenge of taking over and starting a new role, maybe changing the direction of an organisation. Three leaders from the world of business and the charity sector share their experience of coming in as a new broom, reflecting on the mistakes they made and advice they'd offer to the new Prime Minister. Evan Davis is joined by: Stuart...
Jul 11, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Managing the rituals of a loved one's death can be both bewildering and expensive. And although no-one wants to think about it being like buying a holiday or car, it is a business with a supply chain involving funerals, burials and cremation. A couple of years ago the Competition and Markets Authority - which protects people from unfair trading practices - carried out an in-depth investigation into the funeral market because of the “surprise” people experienced at the final cost of that farewell...
Jul 04, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Copyright law has been around since 1710. Back then it only applied to books. Now, it covers music, sport, film, television, video games, anything really. It was also much easier to enforce in the days when people couldn't reproduce things all the time. That all started to change with the introduction of the humble music cassette tape. Now, we can all copy things and publish them to social media whenever we like. Devices which can circumvent geographical barriers have meant that streaming servic...
Jun 27, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Millions of employees in the UK are now able to work flexibly – fitting their job around their home life. Many in office jobs, can finish early on a Friday, and are allowed, even encouraged, to routinely work from home. But, at the same time, we’re told that the levels of overwork, stress, and burnout in this country are on the rise. More than 17 million working days were lost to work-related stress, depression and anxiety in the last year for which we have data. So what’s going on? Evan Davis a...
Jun 20, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every brand wants attention, to be seen as a must-have, but how do some manage stratospheric levels of popularity? It might happen organically, perhaps even by accident, but it’s also true that many brands engineer it. Evan Davis and guest discuss the tricks of the trade, from social media influencers to artificial scarcity, and the potential pitfalls when a product is so popular that it's almost impossible to get hold of. Plus, what is it that compels people to queue several hours for a sandwic...
Jun 13, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast China produces more than half the world's electric vehicles and is scaling up exports, but there are concerns its manufacturers would have an unfair advantage in the UK, which could spell disaster for domestic firms. Evan Davis and guests discuss the UK's dilemma around Chinese EVs - do we open our doors to the competition, which might mean cheaper electric cars for consumers and a quicker transition to net zero, or should the government follow the USA and EU in considering import restrictions t...
Jun 06, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast With the entrepreneur, philanthropist and author. The Decisions That Made Me A Leader is a mini-series from The Bottom Line. It features one-on-one interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Duncan Bannatyne, Martha Lane Fox, and the boss of Depop, Simon Beckerman. All of these episodes are available on BBC Sounds and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader. Host: Evan Davis Producers: Paige Neal-Holder and F...
May 20, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Krisi Smith started Bird and Blend Tea company with business partner Mike knowing very little about tea or running a business. She drew up their mission statement in the pub whilst working as a ski instructor in Canada. They started up working in her mums back bedroom to now running 20 retail stores across the UK. Before starting the company she had more than 30 jobs and that’s just by the age of 24. For her, putting people are the forefront is what business is about. Krisi talks about the chall...
May 20, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Simon Beckerman is the founder of Depop, a platform where people can buy and sell pre-loved fashion, it currently has around 35 million registered users. He sold the company to Etsy for £1.25 billion in 2021. Simon grew up in Italy to British and Italian parents who he describes as rebels in their own way and even as a teenager he knew he had to build his own business because ‘I was unemployable’ His latest business, is DELLI a food app connecting independent retailers with consumers. Evan asks ...
May 20, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
