Coffee with Grind and a trip to a new IKEA

Probably my most memorable experience this week was visiting a building in central London near Oxford Circus that is being slowly transformed into an IKEA store. Inside was an army of construction workers. There were multiple impromptu offices and a workers’ canteen. It’s a huge amount of highly technical work to refit an old building to function as a modern IKEA store.

I was there to meet CEO Jesper Brodin , who heads up INGKA Group, the official name of IKEA's retail arm. We recorded a My Business Leader Secret (#MBLS) video outside in front of the building, then went back in the building to record a podcast interview. He was interested to learn that I did all my recording as a one-man band on my iPhone! I explained that I like to integrate my verticals in my personal production process. It’s efficient and I keep creative control. Turns out IKEA does the same with its products, keeping control of the production process in its own factories.

This is another of their inner-city stores, as opposed to their out-of-town mega structures. One of the many interesting details I learned as a result of this interview is that IKEA owns all of its own buildings outright - no commercial leases. We discussed many things, including the benefits of not being a public company when you are scaling, allowing you to think in much longer timeframes. Strategies for scaling are one of our big preoccupations at Business Leader .

Grind coffee date

This week’s #MBLS video was with another leader who runs an omni-channel business. David Abrahamovitch is founder and CEO of Grind | Certified B Corp coffee. He now sells compostable coffee pods online and direct-to-consumer, as well as running a successful chain of cafes. His advice for our series is all about how the leader of a scaling start-up has to adapt on a personal level to the changing role. You must find this exciting, he thinks, rather than daunting. Not all founders manage this. Some prefer to keep the business deliberately small. Others bring in new leadership, sometimes under pressure, if external investors have been brought into the business. Watch the video here:

Abrahamovitch's advice reminded me of what Brian Chesky of Airbnb told me when I interviewed him for BBC News back in 2021. I remember he said: "You have to keep learning, it's like a video game, you keep getting to the next level, you're constantly a beginner." The founder has to commit to personal development and learning to remain relevant to their own company! You can read a whole chapter on what Chesky said in the BBC CEO Secrets book I wrote .

This is the second MBLS with the new graphics. Do you like them? You can message me or comment to let me know what you think.

Monday.com podcast

This week my 30-minute podcast interview with Eran Zinman of monday.com also went out. It goes into more much detail than the 90-sec video we did together. He very generously shared insights into his strategy for scaling his company, from a start-up in Tel Aviv, to a global SaaS powerhouse valued at more than $14bn - which he achieved alongside co-founder Roy Mann .

Listen here or read a detailed summary here .

Forthcoming attractions

I'm sitting on a lot of great content at the moment, hence I'm committing to fewer new recordings while I'm busy editing (quite a nice activity on short winter days). However, there is a lot coming in the weeks ahead including:

• MBLS #20 with Nicola Hodson of IBM . See all the videos here
• A video I made about a visit to the opening of the new Emirates experience store in London
• A feature on 5 practical ways businesses are using AI

Things of interest

• Christ Church, Oxford has announced that it is to launch a new Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at 37 St Giles to train 英国牛津大学 students in the art of growing new businesses.? It will open next year. Funded vacation programmes will offer students the opportunity to work together on their own ideas and initiatives. The initiative is backed by entrepreneurs including Monzo founder Tom Blomfield (the first interviewee in the BBC CEO Secrets book, as it turns out!) and Rockstar Games founder Dan Houser.
• 微软 has launched the?GenAI Accelerator ?initiative to develop the UK’s brightest and best AI-focused start-ups and springboard them to future success. In partnership with NVIDIA and Microsoft-owned developer platform GitHub, the accelerator will provide exclusive resources and opportunities to companies looking to build, market, and scale up their innovative generative AI products and services. It will run from 22 January 2025 to 5 March 2025. "Microsoft is seeking companies whose innovative AI-powered products have the potential to change people’s lives for the better, create jobs, and have significant economic impact."
• And finally, talking of opportunities, if you are involved in the world of medium-sized businesses, you should consider coming to the Business Leader Summit in March next year. There's an amazing line up of speakers already confirmed, including Tessa Clarke of Olio ? Share More, Waste Less , Euan Blair of Multiverse and Joanna Knight OBE of Moneypenny . I will be there of course, and likely moderating one of the many panels. Still time to get early bird tickets !

Thanks for reading!

Dougal