— Latest insights
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- Leadership
- Mindset
- Psychology
Why do intelligent business leaders sometimes make poor business decisions?
Success is something every business strives for. More customers, increasing sales, growing profits and a team that expands as the business develops. But what happens when the thinking and behaviours that made a business successful in the first place are no longer what it needs to succeed in the future? At our October 2026 Connect…
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10 Minutes
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Edward Ryder
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- CSR
- Founder Stories
- Leadership
- Mindset
- Not For Profit
Passion, Purpose and the Discipline of Building a Sustainable Business
A story about passion and purpose meeting commercial reality. Finding a commercial compromise and empowerment.•
10 minutes
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- Leadership
Leadership lessons I learned before I was old enough to vote.
Working as a teenage tourism employee taught Edward Ryder that great leadership empowers people, fosters culture, and drives long-term commercial success.•
7 mins
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- Leadership
Why curiosity is your secret weapon.
Challenging assumptions through curiosity helps business leaders unpick harmful internal narratives, unlock genuine insights, and drive meaningful organisational growth.•
7 min read
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- Adventuring
- Mindset
What business leaders can learn from an adventure mindset.
Adventurer Simone Talfourd reveals how business leaders build resilience, drive innovation, and unlock growth by embracing uncertainty and taking action.•
5 min read
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- Founder Stories
- Innovation
Spot the opportunity. Build the business. Back yourself.
A story about spotting an opportunity, having the determination to pursue it, building the right people around you and, perhaps most importantly, learning to recognise the value of the skills and experience you already have.•
5 Minutes
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- Founder Stories
- Leadership
Building a business that can thrive without you.
Founder Johanna Leigh-Thompson shares how scaling a business successfully requires delegating decisions, embedding values, and building leadership capacity beyond yourself.•
6 min read
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- AI & Business
- Brand
- Marketing
The future of marketing – and why it isn’t just about AI
Reflections from Connect Over A Cuppa with Andy Sherratt of SPA Professional Academy Ask someone about the future of marketing today and I suspect it won’t be long before two letters appear in the conversation: AI. Understandably so. Artificial intelligence is changing how we create content, analyse information, understand customers and communicate with them. But…•
4 minutes
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- AI & Business
- Brand
- Marketing
Is Your Brand Telling the Right Story?
What business leaders can learn about authenticity, consistency and standing out in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Every business has a brand. But how many business owners stop to consider what their brand is actually saying about them? At our February 2026 Connect Over A Cuppa event, we welcomed Charlotte Gale of Charlotte Gale Photography and Zach Greaves of…•
7 minutes
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- Leadership
- Mindset
Good leadership when you don’t have all the answers
At our final December Connect Over A Cuppa of 2025, we welcomed Claire Bennett from Common Purpose for a conversation about leadership. Common Purpose is an organisation I have a particular connection with. Many years ago, I took part in one of its leadership programmes myself, and it remains one of the most challenging and thought-provoking development experiences I’ve undertaken.•
5 minutes
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- Leadership
- Marketing
- SME
The view from inside: what it’s really like working for an SME
We often hear the story of a growing business from the perspective of its founder or owner. At Connect Over A Cuppa September 2025, I thought it would be interesting to look at that journey from another perspective: what does growth actually feel like for someone working inside an SME? Luke Wiseman gave us exactly that…•
5 minutes
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- CSR
- Not For Profit
From seaweed to scale: building a new kind of business
What Câr-y-Môr can teach us about purpose, perseverance and turning an ambitious idea into a viable business Some businesses start with a product. Others start with an obvious gap in a market. Câr-y-Môr started with something considerably bigger: an ambition to bring coastal and rural communities together to restore the sea, improve the soil and…•
5 minutes
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- Leadership
- Not For Profit
When demand keeps growing but the money doesn’t
Reflections from Connect Over A Cuppa July 2025 with Angela Ellis, CEO of The Advonet Group Running any organisation involves making choices about where to invest time, money and people. But what happens when the people you serve need more from you at precisely the same time as the resources available to help them are…•
6 Minutes
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- Adventuring
- Leadership
- Mindset
Say yes, then work out how…
At our June 2025 Connect Over A Cuppa, we were joined online by Rosalind from Atlantic Escapade for a story that was rather different from our usual business presentations.•
5 minutes
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- CSR
- Leadership
Leading Beyond Sustainability: What Does a Better Future Look Like for Your Business?
Why the most successful organisations of tomorrow may be those that look beyond profit, embrace purpose and create opportunities for people and communities to thrive. When we talk about sustainability in business, what immediately comes to mind? Reducing carbon emissions? Cutting waste? Using less energy? Perhaps meeting new environmental regulations or demonstrating responsible business practices…•
10 minutes
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- Brand
- CSR
- Founder Stories
- Leadership
- Not For Profit
What if success isn’t just about profit?
Reflections from Connect Over A Cuppa 20th March 2025 with Cat Hyde, co-founder of Seagulls Reuse One of the reasons I started Connect Over A Cuppa was to hear from people who have built organisations in very different ways. We often talk about successful businesses in terms of turnover, growth, profitability or an eventual sale….•
6 minutes
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- Innovation
- Leadership
- Quality
- Technology
Building defence differently: robust, repairable and ready when it matters
At our 20 February 2025 Connect Over A Cuppa, we heard from Damian Walsh, Chief Commercial Officer of Wraith Defence, about the realities of trying to build a new UK defence manufacturing business at a time when the geopolitical environment was changing rapidly.•
4 minutes
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- Brand
- CSR
- Leadership
- Quality
Bettys & Taylors: quality, long-term thinking and doing business differently
At our December 2024 Connect Over A Cuppa, we were especially pleased to welcome Paul Cogan, Collaborative CEO at Bettys & Taylors Group. Partly because it gave us the opportunity to look behind the scenes of one of Yorkshire’s most recognisable family businesses, and partly because Paul arrived with a considerable selection of Bettys and…•
7 minutes
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- Founder Stories
- Innovation
- Leadership
- Marketing
- Mindset
- Quality
- Technology
Never Stop Looking for What’s Next: Lessons in Innovation, Leadership and Resilience from Sound Leisure
What can established businesses learn from a Yorkshire manufacturer that has spent nearly 50 years adapting to changing technologies, markets and customer expectations? When a business has spent years building a successful product, reputation and customer base, how does it decide what needs to change — and what is worth protecting? It’s a question that…•
10 minutes
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- AI & Business
- Brand
- Founder Stories
- Innovation
- Leadership
- Marketing
- SME
Spot the gap. Build the business. Stay ahead.
At our November 2024 Connect Over A Cuppa, we heard from Phil Lyons, then Technical Sales Manager at The Soundproofing Store, about the journey of a Yorkshire business that spotted an opportunity early and then spent the next decade making sure it didn’t stand still.•
5 minutes
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