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 advantage lasts, so the replacement has to be in development long before you need it.This is a conversation about the gap between what companies say they want from innovation and what they actually reward, and about where the fixes are to be found.Follow RoryInstagram: @rorysutherland_clipsTikTok: @RorysutherlandclipsX: @rorysutherlandLinkedIn: in/rorysutherland/Follow ElfriedInstagram: @elfriedsambaLinkedIn: in/elfriedsamba/https://www.butterflyeffect.xyz/A @Sassy+ original podcast series

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 something built to scale.Follow RoryInstagram: @rorysutherland_clipsTikTok: @RorysutherlandclipsX: @rorysutherlandLinkedIn: in/rorysutherland/Follow ElfriedInstagram: @elfriedsambaLinkedIn: in/elfriedsamba/https://www.butterflyeffect.xyz/Follow Sir Richard HarpinInstagram: @richard_harpinTikTok: @richard.harpinLinkedIn: in/rharpin/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BusinessleaderUkhttps://www.richardharpin.com/https://www.businessleader.co.uk/A @Sassy+ original podcast series

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 outstanding result and refused to repeat it, to Soviet factories that paid workers by the weight of the chandeliers they built, until the ceilings gave way."Good numbers" and "a good business" have quietly become two different things. This episode is about telling them apart.Timestamps00:22 – Bottleneck's second-ever live show01:40 – What Tickle actually does02:21 – Why most ads arrive at exactly the wrong moment05:12 – A brand gets a great result and says no thanks08:03 – The AR treasure hunt that led to Tickle15:17 – Why clients are bonused on the wrong metrics17:28 – "We're in the trust business, not the ads business"20:29 – Why finance can't measure a relationship21:12 – The AO teddy bear nobody can put on a spreadsheet26:34 – Heathrow's pods and the tyranny of the wrong metric29:40 – The Soviet chandelier problem32:00 – Closing out MAD//FestFollow RoryInstagram: @rorysutherland_clipsTikTok: @RorysutherlandclipsX: @rorysutherlandLinkedIn: in/rorysutherland/Follow ElfriedInstagram: @elfriedsambaLinkedIn: in/elfriedsamba/https://www.butterflyeffect.xyz/Follow Joe MartinLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/itsjoemartinhttps://jointickle.com/A Sassy+ original podcast series

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 the wider question of why organisations are so good at counting the wrong things. It's a look at what actually drives success, and why it so often goes unmeasured.Timestamps00:00 – Why smart teams still fail02:23 – The IQ, EQ, FQ framework explained04:28 – Steve Jobs and the 17 projects17:31 – War-gaming a pandemic: "can I cheat?"28:00 – The billionaire who almost bought Arsenal31:14 – What luxury really means32:13 – The watch collaboration that caused a riot37:14 – Influencers, trust and the "one-night-stand" collab41:33 – The columns missing from every spreadsheet1:01:20 – Who will be the Steve Jobs of AI?1:21:11 – The dishonesty built into procurementFollow RoryInstagram: @rorysutherland_clipsTikTok: @RorysutherlandclipsX: @rorysutherlandLinkedIn: in/rorysutherland/Follow ElfriedInstagram: @elfriedsambaLinkedIn: in/elfriedsamba/https://www.butterflyeffect.xyz/Follow Faris ArankiInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/farisaranki/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farisaranki/Website: https://www.shiageto.com/A Sassy+ original podcast series

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 about, how senior employees are quietly becoming the biggest beneficiaries, and what the AI moment could mean for the long-term sick. This is an honest, funny and wide-ranging conversation about the gap between the AI narrative and the AI reality.