{"podcast":{"title":"Business Leader","slug":"business-leader-5718807","podcast_index_feed_id":5718807,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/665f2584aa134f0012248c29","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/665f2584aa134f0012248c29","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/665f2584aa134f0012248c29/1786365863553-4e1fd141-229a-4d05-8336-2d2337e91b28.jpeg","author":"Business Leader","episode_count":226,"summary":"Richard Harpin grew his business HomeServe from a single idea to a £4.1bn sale. On the Business Leader Podcast , he speaks to entrepreneurs and business leaders about the moments that shaped their success and failure, unlocking original advice and practical insights for anyone building or leading a business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-09T06:19:13.057637+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/business-leader-5718807"},"episode":{"title":"How Quooker UK Built a £100m business out of hot water taps","slug":"how-quooker-uk-built-a-100m-business-out-of-hot-water-taps","published_at":"2026-08-25T15:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/business-leader-5718807/how-quooker-uk-built-a-100m-business-out-of-hot-water-taps","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/business-leader-5718807","url":"https://shows.acast.com/business-leader-podcast/episodes/how-quooker-uk-built-a-100m-business-out-of-hot-water","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/665f2584aa134f0012248c29/e/6a71bbfbc41b8c1d30708063/media.mp3","summary":"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.","meta_description":"Sir Richard Harpin talks to Stephen Johnson, Managing Director of Quooker UK & Ireland, about how to scale a business to a £100m turnover without sacr…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2634,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/business-leader-5718807/episodes/how-quooker-uk-built-a-100m-business-out-of-hot-water-taps/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/business-leader-5718807/how-quooker-uk-built-a-100m-business-out-of-hot-water-taps.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}