Peter Jones: How We Made Our Millions Peter Jones Meets...

It's the question that everyone wants an answer to.

What is the secret to extraordinary success?

Is it grit?

Is it determination?

Luck?

Or is it who you know?

I've been in business now for some 30 years and I can tell you,

all successful entrepreneurs share a few unique qualities.

Certain traits that give them the upper hand.

But what are they and can they be learnt?

'I'm on a mission to find out what drives Britain's best entrepreneurs.'

-This is it?

-Yeah, this is it.

I don't like something not being as good as it can be.

-Would you die for your brand?

-I almost did.

'And uncover the human side that determines their success or failure.'

You're driven by self-doubt.

Maybe it was all that bullying and heartache.

I want them to reveal their individual recipes for success.

You definitely are a hippy with a calculator!

You are quite...manipulative.

'..So I can discover just how they made their millions.'

If these guys ever sold this business to me, you guys wouldn't know what hit you.

Mess with me, I'll turn you to stone.

-Would you take a £100 million cheque for your share now?

-Hm.

Success in business isn't a fine science.

I've turned tiny start-ups into multi-million-pound companies.

Not all of my ventures have succeeded. Business is tough.

But I've always believed there are certain factors

that can give us all a fighting chance.

I'm on a journey to get inside the minds of two of the country's top business people,

and I'm hoping to discover the ways in which

the most unlikely characters become multi-millionaires.

I'll be spending time with Richard Reed - founder of a smoothie company

with a £165 million turnover.

And Michelle Mone,

the self-made inspiration behind a multi-million-pound lingerie business

and who according to the Rich List is worth £50 million.

Have they both followed the same blueprint to success?

Or is it their difference that matters most?

My journey begins at Fruit Towers in West London -

the home of the most successful smoothie company in the UK,

and its co-founder, Richard Reed.

-Look, the tie's off today! No tie!

-How are you?

-How's it going?

Have you seen the difference to the way that you travel?

-We're grass-covered vans and you're this thing!

-I want to be in the grass-covered vans.

It's good fun, actually, it dances. It's got hydraulics, so it bounces around.

You can blare out music from the speakers. We take it to festivals and go out sampling with it.

A lot of my people have met their partners through it, as well.

Richard is leading a new wave of entrepreneur who have embraced

a business style pioneered in the US by companies like Google.

He believes that if his employees feel at home,

they'll be extra productive.

Despite opting for an open collar, I still felt overdressed.

It almost doesn't look like a working environment.

It looks like a London play centre.

It kind of is.

The most important thing is first of all, have a smoothie.

This is the chill out area.

It's basically a big communal area

for people to come in for informal at meetings.

What's that?

We call this the smoothie wheel of fortune.

Sometimes, if we can't make a decision,

we'll put the different options on and spin it,

let the wheel of fortune decide.

You put your ideas on here?

Whichever one it turns to, is the one you choose?

That's what you go for.

You make business decisions on a wheel of fortune?

Not for like big decisions

but when you've got a few different options and a bit of fun.

It's got a home feel, this is your kitchen.

You've got people in a sitting room.

You let people wear whatever they want to wear.

That's the point.

If you want to wear a suit, you're welcome to wear a suit.

You'd look a bit like me now, wouldn't you?

I feel as if I've come into a business environment

for the first time and I feel completely out of place.

I have to say...

I'd come in tomorrow with trunks on.

We'd never judge someone on what they wore, it's not that vibe.

You've got to wear what you're comfortable with so you do your best work.

I've seen one person sat at his desk in his dressing-gown.

That was pushing the limits of what you can wear in the office.

A dressing-gown?

His dressing-gown, he said he was cold.

After reading geography at Cambridge,

Richard set up the fruit juice company

in 1999 with fellow graduates, John Wright and Adam Balham.

We have a house phrase which is if you're 70% sure,

then go for it.

Don't wait around trying to be 100% confident it's the right decision.

I've had the very rare privilege to have spent the last 12 years

doing something that I've found to be incredibly exciting

and interesting and mind expanding and life enhancing

and doing it with my two closest friends.

Who wants to go and make some smoothies?

Yeah!

Today, Richard sells over 2 million bottles of smoothies a week

but they're expanding their range, moving into ready meals

and taking on the orange juice market.

It's about being natural.

Natural ingredients, making natural food,

but also the idea of being natural, talking naturally, acting naturally.

People can come in that work at Innocent,

be their natural selves at work.

Kimberley is joining us as our new purchase specialist.

She can make the sound of a dolphin.

We won't hide behind some weird corporate facade.

We'll just be who we are.

It's always good to be exactly who you are,

as long as you realise that running a business is about making money.

I wanted to find out if Richard had the money making gene.

When did you actually feel or think to yourself, you know what,

I'm an entrepreneur?

I was 16 and I was working in a dog biscuit factory in Huddersfield.

My job paid £2 an hour.

The task I was assigned, I had to get down on my hands and knees

and pick the dog biscuits off the factory floor that had fallen off.

I went to the foreman and said, "do you have a brush I could borrow?

"I could do this job better."

He looked at me dead in the eyes and said, "son, you are the brush."

That was the split second I decided there's got to be a better way.

I left the dog biscuit factory that afternoon,

went home, set up a business called Two Men Went to Mow,

which was mowing lawns in the village.

Before I knew it, I'm billing myself out at £2.50 an hour

and getting so much work that I could give jobs to my mates.

I'd bill them out of £2.50 an hour, pay them £2.25 an hour

so made a bit extra there.

If you don't like a situation, then change it, rather than complaining.

Having the confidence to change what you don't like is an entrepreneurial trait I recognise.

But was this Cambridge graduate helped by having a privileged upbringing?

I'm from Huddersfield in the North of England.

My dad started as a bus conductor and worked his way up to manage the local bus company.

My mum was a nurse.

My mum and dad decided they wanted me to have private education.

That was funded by my mum going out and working nights. She worked two nights a week.

-My parents made massive sacrifices for us.

-What was school like?

The first year, I came 44th out of 45 in my class in the exams.

So one from the bottom.

Something clicked with me and I worked harder and came 17th.

I remember going home really pleased with myself. I came 17th.

My mum just said, "I think you can do better than that."

I remember thinking, "Wow."

So that one defining moment, that was the self-belief injection your mum gave you?

I think it made me recalibrate, yes.

I thought, "Oh. I did pretty good but actually..."

-Do better.

-"You can do better."

-And you did.

-Yes.

-And almost the rest is history.

-Yes.

To truly uncover why Richard has become so successful,

I needed the answers to some uncomfortable business questions.

But that would have to wait.

First I've got an appointment with an entrepreneur who is poles apart from Richard Reed.

The next stop on my journey is East Kilbride, where I'm meeting Michelle Mone,

the tycoon behind one of the country's leading lingerie labels.

I wonder what her corporate headquarters might reveal

about her particular approach to business.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-Fine. How are you?

-Very good.

-Nice to see you.

-Thank you very much.

-This is our Scottish headquarters.

We've got Hong Kong and China as well.

I wanted it shaped like a breast. You're now in the breast of the building.

-When we go upstairs, you'll see it more.

-You're not winding me up?

Honestly, it's real, yes.

It's shaped like a double D, so there you go.

-So this is the breast?

-Yes.

-This looks far too staged for me.

You can't be all tidy workers.

This is how we run things.

Any cupboards that you want to look in, they will all be organised.

-Even the cupboards?

-Yes. They've all got to be organised.

I use cupboards in my office to hide things.

Is it really like this for real?

It all felt too good to be true.

Was this an act just for me?

In here is our meeting room. Graphics as well.

As Michelle showed me around I knew there was one particular member of staff who could help me learn more.

The one employee who knows everything about their boss, the PA.

Shall we go and meet Laura? Laura, come and meet Peter.

-What's it like working for Michelle?

-It's very different from anywhere I've worked before.

It's stressful at times but all in all good.

What's the hardest thing working for a busy, successful entrepreneur?

Michelle is a perfectionist. You can plan one thing

and within 10 minutes she wants it completely different.

-She changes her mind a lot?

-Oh, yeah.

-All the time?

I'm not scared of change. It annoys people around you

because they've been working on it for so long but...

I know everything about her. You have to be one step ahead of her.

What scares you about Michelle as a boss?

I can tell when Michelle is in not the best of moods. I call it the Care Bear stare

because she looks at you in a certain way.

She can look and you're like, "Oh, no."

Do you think you're paid enough?

Yes. I'm looked after.

Can you not see that Audi sports car out there?

-That's not hers?

-That's Laura's.

-Is it really?

-Yes.

-OK.

You've got to look after your team because they look after you.

Michelle's gel-filled bra became an overnight success in the year 2000

after Julia Roberts wore one in the film Erin Brockovitch.

You know, I'm just an East End girl from the East End of Glasgow and I always had a dream.

Ultimo is now one of the biggest lingerie brands in the country.

After leaving school without qualifications,

she has risen to take on the biggest lingerie brands in the world.

What we're doing here is capturing the market for people who want an everyday bra.

Michelle is a mum of three, juggling family life and business commitments from day one.

I do believe that we will become the Victoria's Secret of the UK.

Michelle knows how to manipulate the press.

She does everything she can to keep her brand and her celebrity persona in the public eye.

I am very demanding. I'm a perfectionist.

Let me tuck at your label in.

No, sorry. It's just not Ultimo.

I'm impatient and I always want the best.

I think I'm a nightmare.

You expect quite a lot, I think.

I think that's why we are where we are,

in this very, very competitive market.

-Who was the last person to get sacked?

-Um...

-When was it? This morning?

-It was a couple of weeks ago.

I wouldn't say sacked. We just had an agreement.

OK. I'm going to find out a bit more about this lady.

THEY LAUGH

Michelle comes across as a demanding leader.

At Fruit Towers, the business environment that Richard and his co-founders have encouraged

couldn't be more different.

-Where's your office?

-I don't have an office. We're completely open plan.

No-one has offices. I sit there.

This is your area here?

Yes, I sit at this desk here.

-If I'm sitting here...

-I can sit in the little chair.

-Come and take a seat and talk to me.

We have this as well, so you can pull out everyone's filing cabinet to sit on.

We just want to keep it as easy as possible for people to speak to each other,

rather than relying on e-mail and phone calls.

We're big fans of as much face-to-face as possible.

I don't know if I can take you seriously, swinging in that chair.

It's a bit, sort of, strange, isn't it?

-Well, I don't...

-Do people honestly sit there and swing?

-Do they sit there and swing and talk to you?

-Um, yes.

-Do they?

I guess I would not judge people on the seat that they sit on.

-No, I just find it distracting.

-Right.

I totally want to be accessible

and if people have something they want to ask quickly, we're not putting walls up between each other.

I couldn't stop thinking about dressing down someone for not performing

while they swing in a basket like Little Miss Muffet,

but I was trying to keep an open mind about the way Richard runs the organisation.

-Good afternoon, creative team.

-Hello.

-Hi, I'm Peter.

If you can call it organised.

So what's it like working here?

Do you not find it odd working on Astroturf?

-You get pretty used to it.

-Wouldn't you tidy up a bit?

This corner especially can't be tidied.

-Really?

-Yeah, I don't think so. We're working.

-It's a good working environment, chaos and mess?

-Yes, controlled chaos.

If these guys ever sold this business to me

you guys wouldn't know what hit you.

-I think Peter finds it a bit too untidy.

-Really?

I find it a bit edgy, which doesn't surprise me.

I'm seeing guys that dress very differently, with respect.

'I would never let my staff turn up to work like this but something's working.

'Richard's grown from nothing to a 75% share of the smoothie market.'

People work harder here than they will do in 99% of businesses.

People put in a huge amount of energy, personal commitment,

take it very seriously.

Just because we're wearing T-shirts doesn't mean we're not working really hard.

Is he a really hard taskmaster?

On the plus side he's incredibly inspirational and honest.

He'll tell you when something is rubbish really quickly, which helps.

He gets really excited sometimes and a bit carried away

and might change his mind about stuff.

He's always thinking lots of things in his head and he walks out of meetings.

I didn't know it was true but they told me he had a reputation

of saying, "That's it." And then he goes out.

-I didn't know that.

-Brilliant.

-You're enjoying this, aren't you?

Can I just say, I'm so going to come to your office with a camera

-and ask your guys what they think about you.

-This is great.

Beneath what seems like chaos, I was starting to see

how Richard inspires his staff to work hard for him.

Up in Glasgow, I had an inkling that Michelle Mone takes a much more traditional and orderly approach.

-OK, so this is my room.

-Wow, it's like a hotel room.

I have never seen Post-It notes so evenly spread and perfectly placed.

Yep, massive OCD. I've had it for years, since I was a child.

That's exactly how I run my life. I get four hours sleep a night.

-Like Maggie Thatcher, then.

-That's what people say.

-Are you the Iron Lady of bra and knickers?

-Maybe.

My husband says, "Get that bloody BlackBerry out of this bedroom."

Your husband is your partner in the business. He's been there from the start and has seen it grow.

He doesn't like the limelight at all. People think it's all me

but he's the managing director and very talented at what he does.

-So he's very much involved in the business.

-Very much so.

But while her husband keeps a low profile,

this tactical publicist is out there mixing it with the rich and famous.

But it's not just for fun.

Partnering with good-looking celebrities is all part of her PR strategy.

So these are all of your girls? Or a selection of?

-A selection of, not all of them.

-I recognise Rachel Hunter.

Rachel Hunter, Penny Lancaster, Helena Christensen, Sarah Harding,

Mel B, the list goes on and on.

Wow.

In 2003, Michelle hit the publicity jackpot

when she dropped Rod Stewart's girlfriend Penny Lancaster

and replaced her with Rachel Hunter, his ex-wife.

Was it a tactical move to get Penny on board?

Well, I worked with Penny for two years and yes,

we became close and everything else, but things went...

Just things changed.

It went on for months and months but it really did affect me personally.

How much of that was a turning point for your business in a positive way?

Massive because it was worldwide press for the brand.

It's the Richard Branson school of PR.

Create a multi-million-pound business

and use the popular press as free advertising for it.

What?

-Is that wallpaper?

-Yes, it's wallpaper.

I thought it would be a nice idea to turn one wall into wallpaper.

-Michelle Mone.

-That's it, for my OBE.

Any more? Michelle Mone.

-With Mel.

-Oh, with Mel B.

-That's New York Fashion Week.

-The Mail...

-Michelle.

-Yes.

-What's that one?

-Prentice.

-Hello Magazine.

Slimmed down Michelle.

Yes. Oh, my goodness!

The Michelle wall.

-There's a storyboard here.

-Yes.

-This one wall tells a story about you.

-Mmm-hmm.

I mean, when I was really overweight, you know, I put on...

6.5 stone when I went through all the hard times, building the company.

I put my house up to the bank three times as security,

and I piled on the weight.

And now, there's a picture up there of when I finally lost six stone.

Would you die for your brand?

Oh... I've got kids.

But put it this way, when I tell you the story

about how we almost went bust, I almost did, yes.

Wow.

I would go from here to hell for Ultimo, and the rest of my brand as well.

Michelle seems like an uncompromising boss, but to understand

how she became a force in the lingerie business,

I needed to hear how it all began.

-Oh...

-You thought one day of starting a company.

Yeah, I got made redundant.

I went out one night wearing a very uncomfortable cleavage bra,

and went back to the table drunk and said, "I'm going to invent a bra".

-Is that how it happened?

-Yes.

And for three years I worked from my bedroom.

I got into debt of...£240,000.

I begged, robbed... Meanwhile, my husband kept saying I was nuts.

I went to the launch in London and we had actors dressed as surgeons.

I dressed them up as plastic surgeons saying, "Ban the ultimo bra",

and it got so much press coverage.

The police came up and said, who's responsible for this? I said "Me".

He said, "Move now, or we're going to arrest you.".

And I said, "That'll get me more publicity, arrest me!".

So, you recognised at that point

that a successful business was based around publicity?

I had no money. I had no money for advertising.

So you had to get it.

I was competing in an industry where

some of the big lingerie brands would spend £2 million launching a product.

I had £500 left.

I had to make use of that £500.

So, you launched it, and success?

We sold out six weeks' stock within five hours, yeah.

You very much strike me as all or nothing.

Running this business and building this business

has probably taken a lot away from my life.

But it is my life.

I'm starting to see two sides to Michelle now,

that are starting to come out for me.

The one that would take care of you and nurture and look after,

and the one that says, if you mess with me,

I'm going to turn you to stone.

Well, yeah...

And it's interesting seeing that psyche because you're almost like

the silent assassin.

That's not something to be proud of.

No, but in an interesting way,

because you're driving your business

and taking it really forward,

nothing is going to stop Michelle.

Yes, it is fair, but for me, there's one thing

that if you break with me and you never really get back.

And that's trust.

Self belief is a key trait in all successful entrepreneurs,

and Michelle has certainly seen off some challenging times.

Back in West London,

I wondered if the reason Richard Reid always seems to be smiling

is because his route to success had been a much easier ride.

Helpfully, he's decorated the stairs with a brief company history.

Business is starting to get a little bit bigger and we started doing our dancing grass vans.

This is the recipe book we published.

The success Richard found in the early years of his business

was based on an unlikely model.

It seems they were more focused on giving money away than making it.

This is Fruitstock, which is a festival we did in Regents Park.

It was free - we did it as a thank you to all our drinkers.

We give 10% of our profits to charity each year,

mainly to the Innocent Foundation -

countries in the developing world where the fruit's from.

But, spreading goodwill is only possible

when you're making a profit.

Right, now we're up to 2008, which is your...

It was the annus horribilis for Innocent.

After four years of seamless growth,

Richard had to face

the harsh realities of running a multi-million pound business.

A new competitor launched,

the pound crashed, and fruit prices rocketed,

almost spelling the end.

We hadn't put our prices up in 10 years, and then a big competitor

launched against us and took a large part of our market share,

so we lost a huge amount of money.

-How much did you lose?

-It's in the millions.

We lost more in that year of 2008

than we made in the entire company's history,

so it wiped out any profits that we'd been making.

He had a tough decision to make.

Drastically downsize the operation, or sell a stake in the business.

Relief came in the unlikely form of Coca-Cola.

These guys invested in early 2009

in a way that's been brilliant for the business -

myself, Adam and John have retained full control of the business.

As you can see, we continue to do business in a very Innocent way.

I'm sure we are going to talk more about that.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

I was surprised that a business focused on health and charity

sought a partnership with one of the biggest names in the fizzy drinks market.

Before I challenged him about it, I needed to get

a more precise picture of Richard and his business.

What's happening in there?

This is our commercial team. We test the adverts.

We want to make sure they work.

You test the advert in advance to see how it scores

and if people like it, remember it,

do they relate it to Innocent,

so you can judge before you spend your money, which will be the advert people like most.

That's what those scores are testing.

Serious stuff happening in here then.

Absolutely. We do take things seriously.

Fruit Towers is an interesting contradiction.

At first, you walk through the doors

and think you've entered Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

-Rich, do you want to cut anything up?

-No, I like watching Peter!

As I joined in the fun in the juice lab,

I started to see where the genius of this business lay.

Behind the Astroturf and the lunchtime barbecues

there's a hierarchy that demands the very best from its people.

The front of house is very much, "Hey guys, come on in and have fun! We've got grass,

we've got table tennis, we've got a lovely environment for you to work in.".

It was intriguing walking past that office,

where I saw clearly some quite serious behind-the-scenes,

real planning going on.

It's not a contradiction. It's all part of the same hole.

We want to take the bits seriously that you need to take seriously,

but we don't take ourselves seriously in the process.

One of your staff members that you walk out of meetings,

you've a short attention span

in terms of "Right, I need to move on.".

You're random in your decisions, and quite changeable.

I like change. I like the future.

I like things to evolve.

Am I indecisive?

I don't like something not being as good as it can be,

and I don't like someone...

So, you are a perfectionist then?

I think it's one of my drivers, yeah.

To the extent where I do know it can cause chaos at the last minute

by me going, "How about that?".

I have learnt to moderate it a little bit better.

Richard is a clever and unconventional entrepreneur

who believes he can make money by focusing on a mission.

But surely, without profit,

there is no mission?

If you speak to entrepreneurs up and down the country,

and you say, "What is your main objective?"

their main objective would be to generate income and make profit.

-I don't agree.

-That's not your objective at all.

I don't agree.

In my experience, when you look at the world's greatest businesses,

they're led primarily by a deeply felt sense of mission.

And money is fairly incidental?

In 2008 we got it wrong OK?

We made a mistake. The market moved against us and we weren't prepared.

Of course the money is part of it.

I won't imply that it's not.

I'm hoping that I will become wealthy from Innocent,

and for that, I will be both appreciative and grateful.

I think the world's greatest businesses are led by a sense of mission and purpose.

Google, who set up in the same month of the same year,

and have grown to be an 18 billion company,

so in some ways can you could say they're beating us,

they talk about, in one sentence, how they exist

to organise the world's information and make it accessible.

It's a simple mission and it explains what they are about.

And that's what Innocent is led by.

My journey has really just begun.

But I was already discovering that an entrepreneur's business

is very much a reflection of who they are as people.

Michelle Mone is incredibly tenacious,

but I wondered where her relentless drive had come from,

and if her formula for success could last for ever.

At first glance, Richard Reid's approach appears counterintuitive.

Concentrating on the good his brand can achieve, rather than the profit.

But we've also heard from his childhood just how calculating he can be.

Most successful business men and women I know

can pinpoint where and when their entrepreneurial journey began.

To find out where that was for Richard and Michelle,

I'm visiting places that lie at opposite ends

of the country, and of the social spectrum.

Michelle is taking me on a tour of her hometown of Gallowgate.

We're in the East End of Glasgow.

Really down-to-earth, hard-working people.

And Richard is showing me round Cambridge,

the city where his entrepreneurial journey began.

In Glasgow, I was to find the rags to riches cliche for real.

Lots and lots of memories growing up here.

This is where I started my first business when I was ten.

Ten years old!

-You were ten?!

-Yeah, delivering the papers in the East End.

When I was 11, I had 17 teenagers working for me.

-So you had a bunch of people working for you at 11.

-I did, yeah.

The first stop would be Michelle's secondary school,

a place she left without any qualifications at the age of 15.

-This is it?

-This is it, yes.

This was where she was told that a future working in a supermarket

was the best she could expect.

Wow.

What does it feel like to be back here?

It feels really strange.

Does it?

Yeah. But, um...

What's your best memory here?

My best memory? Um...

I don't really have nice memories, to be honest with you.

I really struggled at school academically.

I was awful.

I think always being told that you're a failure, you'll never do well...

Everyone around me kept saying,

"You can't do this, you can't do that..."

I used to say, "Why? Why do you say you can't?

"Surely you can, surely we can find a way?".

I used to challenge everyone.

-Were you bullied?

-Kind of, yeah. I was a bit.

Because I wore my uniform and...

-You were always smart.

-My mum and dad always told me to wear my uniform.

What about your teachers? Did they have an inkling that Michelle Mone

-was going to become a successful entrepreneur?

-I don't think so.

I remember when I was 15, I had to go and see my careers teacher,

I said I wanted to be an entrepreneur. She said, "What does that mean?".

It could have been a determination to prove her teachers wrong

that drove Michelle in those early days.

But I was about to discover even deeper reasons for her desire

to be an East End girl done good.

I always wanted my own room,

and my dad cut half of a single bed.

He put it in the broom cupboard and lowered the ceiling,

and I put stickers which were stars above it, and I loved it so much.

The next stop on our tour was the house Michelle grew up in.

-This is it.

-Yeah.

-So, which was the actual house? Which one?

Well, first of all I grew up there, one up.

So, first floor?

First floor, yes.

And then my dad, when he was my age, got confined to a wheelchair,

paralysed from the waist down - a disease -

blood vessels in his spinal-cord,

so he couldn't obviously get up the stairs in a wheelchair,

so we moved

to 54 the ground floor,

and that's the first time I had my own bedroom.

-Wow, this is it.

-54?

Yeah, that was my mum and dad's bedroom.

-I dare you to ring the bell.

-No, I can't do that.

Henderson. Maybe it's ground two.

DOOR OPENS

-Oh! What's that? Should we go in?

-I promise I've not teed anything up.

-Hiya!

-Hello.

-Come in.

-Is that OK?

-Yes, in you come.

-Oh, my goodness.

Wow, I can't believe this is my old house,

and that is the bathroom, isn't it?

That's the bathroom.

-That was your room there?

-That was my room.

Oh, this is my room.

-I love this bedroom. This was my first bedroom.

-Your bedroom?

And I kept it so neat and tidy.

From this tenement, Michelle embarked on a career in publicity

that began with occasional work as a model.

By the age of 26, she was head of marketing for a national brewery.

'Her old neighbour, Tricia, still lives next door,

'and has documented her remarkable rise to success.'

You've got pictures!

I've got paper clippings as well, but I didn't want to bring them out.

-Look at that!

-A terrible, terrible model. Terrible.

-Michelle, talk to me! You kept this quiet.

-No!

-You can't see that!

-Thank you very much.

It proves that anybody

that's got a dream and if they follow it through,

-they can do it.

-That's true.

Michelle was just basically working class and she done us all proud.

'I could see in Michelle's eyes

'how much this visit to her old house meant.

'But facing up to her past wasn't going to be easy.'

'Over dinner,

'I wanted to find out more.'

What's your... what's your earliest bad memory of here?

I would say that there was lots of tough times

that I try and blank out. And that was the illness of my dad.

That was my mum going through depression.

Losing my wee brother.

You know, I always used to go to bed crying,

"I'm not going to have my dad in the morning," it was just horrible.

How old were you when your brother died?

Erm, I was about eight years old. Yeah. So I remember all of it.

-You do?

-Every single bit of it, yeah.

You've come from a hard background

that you've spent all your life trying to get out of.

So it's something that makes Michelle special.

-I'm not...

-Do you see yourself as special?

Or do you see yourself as lucky?

I grew up with, you know, bad news after bad news,

and I didn't want that.

I will not accept

when people say that because you're from the East End,

you cannot be successful.

In contrast, the hard work of Richard's parents

to fund his private education

paid off. He became one of the elite few

to make it to St John's College, Cambridge.

So, we haven't been in here for 20 years.

'He shared a room with Adam Balon and Jon Wright.

'Together, they would become the co-founders

'of the famous smoothie brand.'

-So, this is the canteen?

-Yup.

-Oh, yes.

-The Innocent canteen.

-Three meals a day for three years.

-Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This is definitely where it started, cos the three of us

became friends, which from the first night,

we all met in the college bar, and we sort of bonded over a love of...

-A few beers!

-Exactly.

-And what did you do?

-You did geography?

-Mm, mm.

-Was that because you couldn't think of anything else?

The honest answer is, when I was looking at

the different options, the only topic that had less lectures

was land economy, which had seven hours a week,

geography had eight hours, everything else had more. So I went for geography.

-OK! So what did...

-I did economics.

-Oh, wow! OK.

I did manufacturing, so, getting stuff made.

It's almost perfect, isn't it? You've got someone who knows

how to run a business, someone who didn't really care, just wanted to have fun,

and someone who knows the whole process to put it all together.

It's interesting though, isn't it? Cos it does fit.

I think it was a fortunate part of the formula.

What you had was three really close friends that had very different

skills, but had a complete shared set of values and vision and things

they wanted to achieve, and that's, I think, that was

the starting place for the whole business,

where the success has come from.

'It's incredibly rare that three mates thrown together at university

'go on to create a multi-million-pound business.

'To try and work out just how it happened,

'the boys took me to meet Colin, their residential porter.'

-So, they were pranksters?

-They enjoyed their college life,

kept the porters on their toes all the time!

But the porters loved them. If we caught them, they always said, "We're innocent!"

THEY ALL LAUGH

That's where you got the name from! "We're innocent!"

Richard's business story begins here in Cambridge

in a dark and dingy basement.

-This is it?

-Yeah, this is it.

-That's an underground garage!

-Exactly.

'The enterprising trio transformed this boiler room

'into the most popular student nightclub for miles around.'

We'd be turning people away at the door.

People were coming for the free pizza, not the music!

That was our dreadful original strategy, we offered free pizza

at nine o'clock, trying to get people down early.

So the rugby boys turned up, ate the free pizza, then left,

-so we were left with an empty nightclub...

-Full of pizza boxes.

This is where it all started.

-You had a lot of fun while you did it?

-Absolutely.

-That doesn't seem

-to have changed much.

-No, it's been one of the best bits

of doing it with your two closest mates, it's just such good fun.

'Both Richard and Michelle wanted to create better futures for themselves

'because of the circumstances that surrounded them.'

Richard desperately wanted to make his parents proud

and repay the sacrifices they had made to give him a world class education.

And Michelle was driven by a desire to do better than those around her.

Aww, how nice is that?

'So what is it that links all entrepreneurs?

'Is there a formula for making millions?

'If you ask the investors who discovered Michelle and Richard, it wasn't

'their business plans that impressed them.

'Maurice Pinto bought 18% of Innocent

'for a quarter of a million pounds.'

I couldn't care less what the business or the industry is,

or what the business idea is. I'm more about the people.

I thought they were extremely bright, extremely articulate.

It's the best management team I've ever worked with.

'Sir Tom Hunter backed Ultimo with £100,000.'

You can look at the business plan, you can look at the numbers,

you know, you've read as many business plans as me,

none of them really ever do what they say they're going to do.

You're really only investing in the person.

We saw something in Michelle, that determination,

that look in her eye, and you then make an investment in the person.

It's reported that both investors made very healthy returns when they sold their shares.

'In London, Scotland's first billionaire

'was giving me a further insight

'into what has pushed Michelle Mone to succeed.'

Even though Michelle puts forward this, you know...

She can be quite fragile.

And the thing people don't understand about most entrepreneurs

is that we're driven by self doubt.

A lot of successful people who outwardly you think are

so confident, but we're all trying to prove ourselves, all the time. Yeah.

For my final encounter, Michelle had invited me to her Mayfair apartment,

so I could have a glimpse into her private world.

It was here I hoped to uncover the characteristics that have brought her success.

-Hello, Peter.

-Hello.

-Welcome to Mayfair.

How are you? Wow!

But nothing could have prepared me for the obsessive attention to detail that awaited.

OK. In you come.

Look at that. That's amazing.

Everything has its place.

That shouldn't be dirty.

Is it?

No.

Everything has to be organised, so everything's in order.

Five, 20, 50s.

Yeah.

-The same hangers.

-Yeah.

-Every single one, the same colour.

Everything has to be the same.

And the kids have got KPIs so they don't much the hangers up.

-You give your kids KPIs?!

-I won't tell you any more!

KPIs, key performance indicators, which are business drivers

to measure against for success.

You do that with your own kids?

And the people in the house, yeah.

If your drawers are not organised

and your cupboards are not organised

and your family are not organised,

then your life is a mess.

You have to compartmentalise everything in your life

and you don't change between business and your personal life,

which is different.

-Really?

-Yeah.

A lot of people are very different in business to when they're at home.

To be successful, you have to be able to exert control,

but Michelle takes it to another level.

There must be a reason why she has to organize every detail around her

and the words of Tom Hunter were still ringing in my ears.

Is it self-doubt that makes her like this?

Are you proud of yourself?

Erm...

I think I am now.

I think now that I've lost all the weight and I'm getting fit.

You know, I'm getting my life in order.

I was punishing myself for ten years

and I just kept eating and eating and eating and eating

because I did not feel that I should have money and success

but I feel I'm a lot more content

but I still don't think I've made it yet.

So would you say that you're lonely or in search of something?

Erm..

I'm not sure!

Maybe you are doing these things to perhaps fill a void?

I suppose being an entrepreneur is very lonely. You'll know it yourself.

You'll take all the worry

and everything else on your own shoulders.

Do you feel pressure?

I feel pressure 24/7.

Yeah. I can't imagine life without the pressure to be honest.

I'm trying to understand the psyche behind an entrepreneur.

There's a lot of similarities I see in me and you.

Mm hmm.

I see that you have to have control.

I can see that you are quite manipulative.

I can see that you're very forthright

and you know where you want to get to.

But at the same time, I can also see a lot of insecurity.

When I was last in your offices,

you said something to me that hit me quite hard

because I'd never spoken to another entrepreneur before

that's actually said, "I considered committing suicide

"and I was in a very dark place in my life.

Yeah.

Take me back to that time of how you felt to get to that point.

I just think that I tried my hardest and I suppose I was failing and...

Who were you letting down?

I was letting down my family, you know...

It's the fear of going back to how I grew up.

Of, I suppose, struggling.

But I just could not see a way out. I just couldn't.

When you took me back to the East End of Glasgow,

it was quite a touching moment when I got to see the neighbours,

you got to see your house.

But there's a lot about it that almost says,

I can't remember a lot of things.

I'm not blanking it all out but I suppose that, you know,

growing up with my wee brother dying

and my father being confined to a wheelchair at the age of 38,

I just felt, "woah".

You know, it started to all come back to me.

Oh, dear. I said I wouldn't cry.

But maybe it was all that bullying

and heartache that's made me fight to get to here.

I'm so sorry.

Don't apologise because it's something to be proud of

and it gives a lot of people inspiration

and the reality is that an entrepreneur is a make-up of all different things.

You've been through...

A journey, haven't you?

Yes.

And I think that everybody sees that journey as easy, as glamorous.

We see Michelle walking down red carpets,

we see her on magazines looking beautiful,

but the hardness and the hardships of the journey,

and I would say that the next few years in pursuit of happiness

and success, I think you're going to achieve it.

-Thank you.

-I really do.

I hope so!

Uncovering the reason why someone strives for perfection

can be an emotional experience.

I wondered if my final meeting with Richard would be so highly charged.

I'm in the Malvern Hills to examine the relationship between Richard

and one of his suppliers,

to hopefully uncover the savvy businessman behind the self-proclaimed hippy brand.

There's nothing hippy about him. Nothing.

Hello!

Hello!

Although I've never been a fly on the wall at a meeting,

he does not suffer fools lightly.

Where's the suit?!

-What do you think?

-Pretty good.

Red and green. Is that matching?

We've not planned this! How are you?

Can I introduce Ed?

One of my most treasured farmers.

So these are all blackcurrants that we see now?

-Yeah.

-Wow.

And you've been working together for a while?

Mm. We started in 2004, that was our first year,

and we bought less than a ton of Ed's blackcurrants,

whereas this year, we've just bought 210 tonnes.

What I was really interested in

was how Richard and Ed made money from each other.

It can't be cheap buying home-grown fruit

and I was keen to find out about their margins.

Probably for the first time in history, our price to you per bricks

is lower than our price to the concentrate people per bricks.

I doubt if that's ever happened before.

That's a decision on our part.

The prices have gone up but we want these guys to be there tomorrow.

So, interesting concept here.

-Richard and his business is supporting a local farmer.

-Hm-mm.

Local farmer, actually, in reality, is supporting Richard.

-Yes.

-You've got a very interesting partnership between the two of you.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Correct.

And I think we both share this philosophy

that we will do better over the longer term by collaborating.

-It is a mutually beneficial relationship.

-But that's the key. It's not better for Ed.

He's financially willing to lower the price of that quality product to you, to support your model.

Well, I think we should let Ed say what Ed thinks.

Well...the blackcurrant market is sometimes referred to as being the pig of the soft fruit industry.

It is very cyclical,

and to always insist on the jackpot in the peak year is not necessarily good business.

-They can take the product off the shelf tomorrow.

-Yeah.

You know, it can price itself off the shelf. We want that product to still be there.

Richard looked uncomfortable discussing profit margins with a prized supplier.

But I was relieved to discover that he does focus on a money-making model.

After all, without profit, he can't give money to charity.

The clever thing is that the farmer has bought into Richard's mission.

And that's the very reason why he offers such a great deal.

Now, that's a shrewd way of doing business.

You have naturally found a place

where you can really represent your brand

by creating and maintaining an image.

Everybody's thinking, "This guy! Why doesn't everybody be like Richard?

"He starts a business, he's got high ethics, he's helping the local community,

"and he gives away to charity," but the reality is,

you are all of those things, but you are also a very tactical, very shrewd entrepreneur as well.

I take that as a big compliment.

There's no money to give to charity if you don't make any money in the first place,

so we are absolutely proud to be entrepreneurs and businessmen and capitalists,

and we have an altruistic aim in addition to that as well.

The world would be a very different place if more businesses did,

cos it's basically saying, if we just took 10%

and made sure it was allocated to people and to countries that need it more than we do,

it would redistribute wealth whilst absolutely still protecting the capitalist system

we've found to be the best way of working.

You definitely are a hippy with a calculator!

We are not just, um...sixth formers messing around.

I think some people assume that because we sometimes wear T-shirts to work,

but what you wear does not reflect on how hard you work.

It's been a big, tough challenge all of the way.

It's been extremely enjoyable and exciting, too.

The way Richard does business is admirable,

and for that, I have to give him and his partners credit.

But there was still a burning question I had to ask.

With such a strong business ethos,

how did they justify selling a majority share of their business to Coca-Cola?

If you'd known me three years ago, and I'd said, "Richard, you've got this deal with Coca-Cola,

"you can meet them four times a year, they want you to run the business

"and they'll give you £30 million," and I said, "I'll give you the same deal, I'll give you 30 million,"

which one would you choose, Coca-Cola or Peter Jones?

Well, after having seen you on Dragons' Den, I would definitely choose Coca-Cola!

Definitely!

That's outrageous!

Man, you're a tough negotiator, and you definitely wouldn't have extended the terms that Coca-Cola did.

But I kind of liken it to...a little bit like, I've got a nice, seriously famous health club chain,

and Cadbury's invest in my business.

Was there any of the three of you that thought, "I don't want to do this"?

Without that money coming in from Coke, we would've been a business hugely retrenching.

We would've had to make half the team redundant, we'd have had to cancel our international expansion.

-I feel like I'm interviewing a politician. You're not answering my question.

-What was the...

-Did any of you say no?

-No, we were all 100%, all three of us.

It was a very unusual deal that they did, where they would put in money,

but take a back seat, allowing myself, Adam and John to keep control of the company.

Even the hardened cynics would admit we are more Innocent than ever.

We've pushed even further into our sustainable agricultural projects, we've continued to fund charities.

It's mainly just asking their advice.

They've been in business running one of the world's most popular brands for 125 years.

In a very small way, there are things that Coke take from Innocent as well,

so I really do think it's been a relationship that's been good for both parties.

Have you got an ultimate goal?

I want to get rich and die poor.

The idea is I would love to sort of get to be...in a strong position financially,

but by the end of life, have given it away.

Coca-Cola come to you knocking on the door and saying, "Guys, we want to buy you out."

-Is that a conversation that you will have?

-Hm.

Don't know, actually.

20 million each?

50 million?

Keep going, mate.

100 each?

What price do you put on it? I don't know is the short answer.

-Would you take a £100 million cheque for your share now?

-You've just gone from 20 to 100 in 20 seconds,

so I'm going to hold out a little bit further.

100 million. For your share in Innocent.

Cash.

In the back of the car.

I'd have to speak to my wife.

Unsurprisingly, it was an indecisive response from Richard,

but I felt I had come as close as possible to him admitting

he's in it for the money, even if he'll eventually give it all away.

Spending time with Michelle Mone was both enjoyable and intriguing.

Under her tough exterior, I found someone who is quite fragile,

not a trait you'd openly associate with being an entrepreneur.

But like many of us, it's that self-doubt that drives her.

I'm now happy with what I've achieved.

I do my best, you know, and if you can't do your best, there's no point.

Richard Reed was a tough nut to crack, but now I understand why he's such a success.

He has very cleverly created a product that harnesses his values.

My business ethos is, um...

do something that you love with people that you love,

do it in a way that you can be proud of, genuinely try and make something better.

These are just two inspiring ways to make millions.

Every entrepreneur has their own eclectic mix of hard work, luck, skill, and self-belief.

And there's one thing's for sure,

we don't readily take "no" for an answer.

Your job as the entrepreneur is to hear the no and turn it into a yes.

I don't just accept no. I always say, why? Why, why?

If I don't take risks every single day, life becomes boring.

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