The Bottleneck Podcast

Rita McGrath has spent her career on a question most companies would rather not answer: can a large organisation genuinely innovate from the inside, or does it only ever buy in what threatens it?In this episode she joins Rory to explain why big companies are so bad at handling uncertainty. Rita's argument is that firms run new ventures by the same rules they use for the business they already understand, and it kills them. No advant...

Sir Richard Harpin started with £50,000 and turned it into HomeServe, a business he sold for £4.1 billion. In this episode, he joins Rory and Elfried to break down the nine steps behind that journey, from copying the right ideas to knowing when to say no.

From staking your claim in a market nobody else believes in to the "not-to-do list" that kept HomeServe focused, this is a masterclass in bootstrapping, mentorship and building som...

Joe Martin founded Tickle, a platform that lets people save an ad into their phone wallet instead of buying right now. Live at MAD//Fest, he joins Rory and Elfried to ask a blunt question: why do so many companies chase the same metrics as their competitors, and end up looking exactly like them?

They trace how optimising for what's easy to measure can work against what actually makes a business succeed, from a CPG brand that got an ...

Faris Aranki has spent 20 years studying why some strategies succeed and others quietly fail, working with some of the smartest, best-funded teams in the world.In this episode, he joins Rory and Elfried to explain trust, relationships, judgement and restraint. None of these show up on a spreadsheet, but are critical in the best performing teams.The conversation moves through Faris's own framework for measuring progress, and into th...

Josh Hart co-founded YuLife nine years ago with a simple but radical idea: digital experiences should feel as good as the best computer games, not as painful as a tax return.

In this special live episode, recorded in front of an audience at YuLife HQ, he joins Rory and Elfried to ask the question every HR leader is quietly dreading: what does AI actually mean for your people?```

They cover the productivity gains nobody is talking ab...

James Watt quit law after two weeks, spent seven years as a captain on a North Atlantic fishing boat, then built BrewDog from two humans and a dog into a business making a million cans of beer a day.

In this episode he joins Rory and Elfried to talk about the power of naivety, why differentiation always beats optimisation, and what it actually takes to build a challenger brand from nothing.He also opens up on what really happened a...

Tesla veterans Mark Tapscott and Daniel Davey are the co-founders of Longbow Motors — a British electric sports car company with a radical idea: that cars should be getting lighter, simpler and more exciting, not heavier, duller and more expensive.

They join Rory and Elfried to explain what it actually takes to build a car company from scratch in 2026. From first principles and physics to the new motor manufacturing business ...

Jamie Bartlett has spent 15 years investigating the strange corners of the internet before they crash into the mainstream. In this episode, he joins Rory and Elfried to explore how AI, video, podcasts, crypto, conspiracy culture and online subcultures are changing how we think, trust and behave.

From chatbot delusions and “techno admin” to why outsiders often spot the future first, this is a funny, unsettling and deeply ...

Robbie Lyle started AFTV with a borrowed camera, a borrowed mic, and a belief that football fans deserved to be heard. Thirteen years later, he’s built one of the most influential fan media businesses in sport, with billions of views, millions of followers, and a whole new generation of creators following the path he helped create.In this episode, Robbie and Elfried explore the real story behind AFTV, from filming outside sta...

Conny Kalcher, Chief Marketing Officer at Zurich, joins Rory Sutherland to explore why most companies get customer experience wrong.

After decades at LEGO and now at one of the world’s largest insurers, she explains how businesses drift into short-term thinking — and what it takes to shift back to building real, lasting relationships.

During her time at LEGO, she helped expand the brand beyond children into a global creat...

What happens when you literally die — and come back with a completely different view on business, risk, and what actually matters?

Matt Pohlson — founder and CEO of Omaze — joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to share the story behind building one of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses, and how a near-death experience changed everything.

Matt recounts flatlining for four and a half minutes, the moment his ...

What does it take to build a career that lasts three decades — and stay curious enough to keep reinventing it?

June Sarpong — broadcaster, author, entrepreneur and host of Culture Conversations — joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to talk about culture, leadership, and why visibility changes what people believe is possible.

June reflects on her journey from teenage work experience at Kiss FM to becoming one of ...

Ellie Norman — Chief Marketing Officer at Formula E and former Chief Communications Officer at Manchester United — joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to talk about her time at Honda and Virgin Media through to Formula One and now Formula E.

Ellie explains how she walks into every room convinced she doesn't have all the answers, is always asking questions, and always learning.

The conversation explores how constraint ...

Dr. Eliza Filby — historian and author — joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to examine why inheritance now matters more than income.

The conversation explores how the Bank of Mum and Dad has become a private financial system, why wages no longer deliver independence, and how access to family money shapes the risks people can take.

It looks at why Gen Z now inhabits a world where work alone no longer leads to security...

Oscar Ryndziewicz — founder of DFYNE — joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to unpack the decisions behind one of the UK’s fastest-growing private companies.

Ryndziewicz explains how DFYNE grew from a £6,000 credit card bet into a global activewear brand, why the company chose to scale from Glasgow rather than London, and how autonomy, simple metrics and trust replaced traditional management controls as the busi...

Clarke Ching — author of The Bottleneck Detective — joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to unpack why progress stalls, how leaders quietly become constraints, and why fixing the obvious problem often makes things worse.

Most organisations don’t fail because of a lack of effort.
They fail because effort is applied in the wrong place.

From traffic systems and hospitals to founders, governments and scaling teams, t...

Ama Amo-Agye scaled Plantmade from £100 to £13m — and discovered that success changes the rules faster than founders expect.

Ama joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to explore how the skills that drive early momentum can quietly become constraints as a business scales.

From building in public to recognising when the company had outgrown her original operating model, this episode examines why success can become the hardest t...

Growth stalls when founders lose focus.Lottie Whyte, founder of MyoMaster, joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to unpack how simplifying the business, listening to real demand, and saying no to opportunity unlocked scale.From early trade-show insights and customer objections to near-failure and relentless focus, this conversation explores how clarity, not complexity, drives sustainable growth.

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This episode of The Bottleneck Podcast discusses the toxic nature of modern politics. Economist Nicholas Gruen joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to explain why debating now feels like a never-ending battle, where the centre ground gets drowned out by the most extreme voices and most people are trying to win arguments rather than solve problems.

They also explore why everyday communities often handle difference better than the ...