42m
29 Feb 2024

Timpson’s boss on upside-down management and business secrets

How do you measure a business’s success? For James Timpson, CEO of the Timpson’s Group, it comes down to two things: the satisfaction of its staff, and what it gives back to society.

His employees only have to “put money in the till and look the part”; for the rest, they have complete authority to do whatever they think is right to offer a quality service to customers. This “upside-down” style of management doesn’t mean the business is not profitable – quite the opposite, in fact.

In this episode of Ways to Change the World, the boss of the shoe-repair, key-cutting and dry-cleaning group tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy the secrets behind his unconventional leadership style and why fostering a culture of kindness, giving ex-prisoners a second chance and cultivating a happy workforce are key to Timpson’s ethos.

Produced by Silvia Maresca.

Listen and subscribe

You can listen to and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts here.

Or on Spotify, Acast, CastBox and other good podcast apps.

So join us as we explore the big ideas changing the way we think, act and live – and how much impact we can really have as individuals.

A filmed version of each interview is available on our Channel 4 News YouTube channel – hit subscribe to keep updated on when a new episodes