Jimmy's Jobs of the Future

Pret a Manger CEO Pano Christou on why Pret is so expensive, Service Culture, and Creating Jobs

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Pret CEO Pano Christou recounts his 26-year rise from assistant manager to CEO at 41, including a short Harvard exec MBA that boosted his confidence after rapid promotion.

He explains Pret’s management approach: short meetings, pre-reads, early-morning reflection, empowering smart teams, and a weekly mystery-shopper system that can trigger a 10% weekly bonus for all store staff based on service, speed, availability, and cleanliness.

He discusses COVID’s disruption via hybrid working and Pret’s response through coffee subscriptions, delivery, and value initiatives like “Pick Your Pair” for £4.99 and 99p filter coffee.

Addressing “why Pret is expensive,” he cites 2022–23 inflation (food inflation peaking around 20%), refusing shrinkflation, and then limiting price rises for about three years. He highlights expansion plans to open 100 UK stores, inclusive hiring (NEETs and people facing homelessness), training, pay (around £15/hour for baristas), and policy asks on VAT and national insurance support.

Chapters

00:00 Why Pret Costs More
00:48 Panos Pret Journey
04:05 Fast Track To CEO
05:46 Leadership Mindset Shifts
12:35 Unusual CEO Habits
14:40 Post Covid Business Model
17:05 Value Deals And Pricing
21:05 Service Culture Joy
22:58 Hiring Growth And Homelessness
28:16 Behind The Counter
30:32 Pay Bonuses And Training
34:20 Menu Trends And Hiring
38:00 Government And VAT
40:54 Quickfire And Wrap Up

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Credits:
Host / Exec Producer: Jimmy McLoughlin OBE
Producer: Thuy Dong
Editor: Rhodri Beynon
Social Producer: Alex Kularatnam
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Octopus Energy’s Greg Jackson on Agile Tariffs, Standing Charges, and the Future of Electrification

Jimmy interviews Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson about how Octopus’s Agile tariff mirrors half-hourly wholesale prices, sometimes going negative when supply exceeds demand, and how “powerdowns” and “powerups” pay customers to shift usage when electricity is expensive or cheap.

Greg says over four million customers have used these tools, saving over £1 billion, and argues smarter use of existing grid capacity could reduce the need for £100 – £200 billion in new infrastructure.

They discuss why standing charges are “out of control,” how fixed network costs now make up much of bills, and the growing cost of paying wind generators to turn off.

He highlights falling costs and benefits of EVs, home charging, batteries, and heat pumps, plus energy geopolitics, China’s clean-tech lead, and AI’s emerging impact on jobs. He calls for consistent policy focused on electrification.

Chapters:

00:00 Agile Tariff Explained
01:20 Negative Pricing Moments
02:15 Powerdowns and Powerups
04:07 Savings and System Efficiency
06:10 Standing Charge Breakdown
09:57 Where Your Bill Goes
12:02 Using Wind Power Better
12:45 Why Electricity Use Fell
15:00 EV Charging Cost Reality
17:33 Octopus EV Leasing Scale
18:45 Why UK Power Costs More
19:56 Cutting Energy Levies
20:30 Home Batteries Boom
21:36 Heat Pumps Data Edge
23:45 Energy Geopolitics Shock
26:50 China Tech Risk Reality
29:23 China Innovation Machine
34:35 AI Jobs Uncertainty
38:47 Raising Kids With AI
41:46 Budget Wish List Electrify
43:49 Closing Thoughts

This episode is powered by Octopus Energy.

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If AI can write code, why are companies hiring more software developers? And why are people starting their careers still struggling to get in?Financial Times columnist and chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch joins Jimmy to unpack what the data actually tells us about AI, work and opportunity. Hiring for experienced software workers is recovering, while opportunities for new graduates remain flat. If AI can handle the tasks juniors once learned on, how do they gain the experience employers want?John explains why human judgement could become more valuable, how AI-generated applications could push recruitment back towards personal connections, and why predictions of mass unemployment may miss the bottlenecks that still require people.They also explore the forces making it harder to build an adult life: housing pressures, fewer young people forming relationships, falling birth rates and the appeal of better-paid work abroad.In this episode:00:00 AI layoffs reality check01:54 Where job losses show up03:42 Rate hikes vs AI effects05:47 Software jobs rebound06:36 Decide execute deliver08:55 Why juniors still matter11:48 Trainee pipeline dilemma13:42 Networks and meritocracy16:26 Recruitment goes old school18:17 Hiring at the FT20:14 Journalism identity shift24:13 Job titles and personal brand27:33 Computer science enrollment dip30:46 Deep knowledge beats tasks35:48 Jevons paradox and training37:34 AI and non AI assessments39:36 Bottlenecks and productivity41:07 AI Bottlenecks Need Humans42:58 Birth Rates Falling Everywhere45:09 Housing And Digital Media48:53 Social Media Gender Divide51:24 Dating Apps And Work Ties53:37 Why Low Birth Rates Matter57:40 UK Centralization And Housing59:05 Broken Jobs Data Problem01:03:15 UK Emigration And Pay Gaps01:07:58 Fixing Britains Growth Story01:09:18 UK Role In Global AI01:12:04 Will AI Cause Unemployment01:13:39 Iced Coffee Interview Debate01:15:09 Pink Socks And Dress Codes01:17:48 Favorite Chart And Wrap UpSubscribe to Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future for more conversations about work, technology and the changing economy.**********
Got an idea for our next episode? Drop us a line at hello@jobsofthefuture.co

Follow us on socials!
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Sponsor the show or Partner with us:
hello@jobsofthefuture.co

Check out our clips channel here! ⬇️
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Credits:
Host / Exec Producer: Jimmy McLoughlin OBE
Producer: Thuy Dong
Social Producer: Alex Kularatnam
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Football, Power and Shirts: On China, FIFA and Fields of Power

In a wide-ranging conversation, journalist Joey D'Urso discusses how football and politics have always been intertwined, from FIFA’s unpopularity in the UK and World Cup expansion debates to historical links with regimes and soft power.

Drawing on his book More Than a Shirt, he explains China’s top-down push to become a football power, the use of football by the state, and figures like Li Tie amid opaque corruption allegations.

The discussion covers how national-team success depends on deep football ecosystems, France’s team as an immigrant story, and football’s roots in industrialization and natural resources.

Joey outlines his career from BBC Westminster and BuzzFeed to The Athletic and The Times, his shift to full-time writing, and monetization via Substack, social media, and freelance work. He previews his next book, Fields of Power, telling 20th-century history through 20 stadiums worldwide.

Chapters

00:00 FIFA Backlash

00:24 China Football Ambitions

01:58 Corruption And Control

03:24 Why Money Isnt Enough

05:35 France Culture And Ecosystems

07:32 Industry And Soft Power

08:55 From Politics To Football Writing

12:13 When Football Turned Political

15:37 Colombia Shirt Crime Story

18:46 New Book Fields Of Power

20:29 Breaking Into Football Journalism

22:20 Original Ideas In An AI Era

24:00 Making Money Plans

25:45 Nonlinear Growth Lessons

26:56 Football as Live Media

30:04 Stadiums and Tailgating

31:43 FIFA Revenue and Hosts

33:14 FIFA Criticism and Culture

35:14 New Book Story Teasers

37:03 More World Cups and AI

38:27 Data Driven Clubs

41:00 Attendances Up Atmosphere Down

44:02 Bigger World Cup Debate

45:33 Wrap Up and Thanks

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Credits:
Host / Exec Producer: Jimmy McLoughlin OBE
Producer: Thuy Dong
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Jimmy interviews author Dan Wang about his book "Breakneck" and why the UK and other Western societies struggle to build infrastructure, contrasting Britain’s strengths in “sounding clever” industries (universities, finance, media) with weak construction capacity and rule-bound governance that stalls projects.

We discuss how “verbal cleverness,” PPE and law-heavy elites in the UK and US, and litigation-driven processes since the 1970s have reduced state capacity and deterred ambitious people from public service, versus China’s engineer-led political culture and legitimacy-through-building (dams, bridges, high-speed rail).

We also cover meritocracy and immigration in the US/UK, AI’s uncertain impact on software, legal, and “busy work” jobs, the value of embodied reporting, Singapore’s high-paid civil service model, lost manufacturing process knowledge in the US, and Apple’s intensive China supply-chain feedback loop.

00:00 Britain Talks Not Builds

04:05 Why The West Stopped Building

07:45 PPE Politics And Brexit

09:05 America The Lawyer Elite

14:08 Meritocracy And Immigration

17:27 Poetry Versus Engineering

20:06 China Engineer Leadership

27:21 AI Software Or Hardware

30:10 Work Stamina After AI

32:02 Writer Work And Travel

37:01 Restoring State Capacity

43:26 Process Knowledge Manufacturing

49:18 Generations And Opportunity

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Follow us on socials!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimmysjobs
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jimmysjobsofthefuture
Twitter / X: https://www.twitter.com/JimmyM
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-mcloughlin-obe/

Want to come on the show?
hello@jobsofthefuture.co

Sponsor the show or Partner with us:
hello@jobsofthefuture.co

Check out our clips channel here! ⬇️
https://www.youtube.com/@JimmysJobsClips

Credits:
Host / Exec Producer: Jimmy McLoughlin OBE
Producer: Thuy Dong
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices