Why sleep is still the ultimate luxury. And: what simplification teaches us about better business

0:11Hello and welcome to The Entrepreneurs on Monocle Radio, the show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business. On today's programme, we're taking stock of a whirlwind start to 2026. We'll meet two leaders who share a deep belief in rest and the business advantages that come with slowing down to move forward. First, we'll get under the proverbial sheets with the man behind a century-old British bedmaker whose craftsmanship has supported, literally supported, figures from Winston Churchill to Marilyn Monroe. Passion is incredibly important to any luxury product.

0:48And it's one of the defining features. I think there has to be passion both from the producer and the client. People certainly get passionate about our product because it can change their lives so significantly. And later, we'll meet a global strategist, helping founders and executives tap into their full potential by addressing the recurring issue of organisational complexity. You can be a leader of a massive company, but your maturity level cannot match that. So who are you under pressure? Who are you when things don't go your way? And that's where immaturity and maturity start to come up. This is The Entrepreneurs with me, Tom Edwards.

1:32You're listening to The Entrepreneurs. Alastair Hughes is the managing director of Savoir Beds, the British bedmaker born out of the Savoy Hotel and known for crafting bespoke beds fewer than a thousand. each year in London and in Wales. Alistair caught up with our Fernando Augusto Pacheco here at Midori House to talk about craftsmanship, changing premium markets and why a great night's sleep remains perhaps the ultimate luxury. Fernando began by asking Alistair about the company's storied history. It really started with a guy called Richard Doily-Cart, who was the, I guess, the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day.

2:08In the 1880s, he was the empresario behind Gilbert and Sullivan and their operettas. He owned a couple of theatres in London, the Cambridge and the Savoy Theatre. And he travelled the world with them, made a lot of money, and stayed in a lot of hotels, but thought he could do so much better. So he owned this bit of land by the Savoy Theatre and decided he would open a hotel there, which he, of course, called the Savoy. That opened in 1989 to great acclaim. It was a first in so many ways. It was the first hotel to have all electric lights. He had to build a power station to do that. It was the first hotel to have hot and cold running water in all the bathrooms.

2:43It was the first to have what was called at the time ascending rooms running 24 hours. So elevators. And that changed the hotel upside down because until then everyone wanted to stay on the bottom floor. Whereas after that, everyone wanted to stay on the top floor. The penthouse became the thing. So it was a truly innovative hotel. It had the world's best chef, Escoffier, and a young general manager called Cesar Ritz came in to run it. So this hotel opened in 1989 to massive fun fair. And it was a massive success. He was big with celebrities in show business, which at the time was largely theatre, of course, and very, very successful.

3:15In 1904, by which time his son was running the place, Rupert Doyle-Cartt, they decided to add two more floors and also decided to create. They thought that everything else is the best, but we need the best bed. So in 1904, they went about creating that. Lady Doyle-Cartt designed the ticking of fabric that went on the bed and the Savoy bed was created. and went into the hotel in 1905, into every room, and guests loved her, just absolutely adored her. And eventually, it was made originally by a small upholstery company called James Edwards. That was then bought in-house because as the hotel grew, it bought Claridge's, it bought the Connacht, it bought the Barclay.

3:53They wanted to keep control. And it was kind of there as an under-the-radar thing. So, you know, in 86, Liza Minnelli insisted on buying the bed, taking it home, the one that she slept on in the hotel. Frank Snatch would only sleep on them. It had this great following, but it was a very niche thing. They didn't sell the beds anywhere else. They didn't do anything else with them. And it wasn't until in the late 90s, myself and my business partner in 97 were doing some work for Home House, the private members club in Portman Square. And Brian Clevas, who was the guy who founded that, was very keen to have the same beds that were in the hotel.

4:31He'd worked for Simpsons on the Strand, owned by the hotel, and wanted the same beds. And so we went to see the Savoy about that, and they'd just been taken over by Granada. And we found out at that time that they actually wanted to sell the bed business. So rather than buying 18 beds, Stephen and I bought the business. That's fantastic. And that's when it came out of the Savoy hands into our hands. And we named it at that stage. We thought we won't go with Savoy. Who knows, the Ritz might want our beds. But we'll go with Savoy, Savoy Fair. It's not that far from it. It's not that far from it.

5:02Exactly, exactly. So it was in 97 with, I always say, two and a half craftsmen, two full-time, one part-time craftsmen, we started creating the beds. We still make our bestseller is still what we call the original Savoy bed. We call it the number two bed, which is just an amazingly wonderful, perfect night's sleep. And that's what we're about, a perfect night's sleep. And all that brings, because we all know what a great night of sleep brings to us. It is the true luxury of it all. I mean, I think these days people care more about where they sleep more and more. Absolutely. I think Tom Ford actually, when asked what his greatest luxury was, he said it was sleep.

5:35And I think there's a lot in that. Are you still at the Savoy? We're still in the Savoy. So we're in all the top rooms. So we're in the Royal Suite, of course, now the Gucci Suite. Interestingly, Gucci, of course, worked in the Savoy in 1905. The first year we went in there. So he was a bottle washer. That's, I think, why the Gucci Suite is there now. But yes, we're still in there. We're in all the Riverside Suites. So all the top rooms. And a company like yours is all about craftsmanship as well. And it's not necessarily about numbers as well. I think you sell, I don't know, perhaps less than a thousand.

6:03Yeah, literally just under a thousand. So if you think about it, I mean, I understand that I think that Hermes make about 4 ,000 Birkin bags a year. So it's a small number, a thousand, but we're always about making the best. That's what's most important to us. We're not about creating mass. We're about creating a fabulous product that should be the very best. Craftsmanship is a very important part of that. The materials we use are incredibly important because that's what goes in. And we have a certain DNA in our product range that delivers what we believe to be the ingredients of a great night's sleep.

6:31And we focus entirely on those. So we're not put off by some expensive materials we use or other things. That said, craft is never for craft's sake. I mean, craft needs to be for a reason. I don't believe it needs to be good. Yeah, exactly. I mean, if a machine can do it better, I say let the machine do it. But there are certain things that can't be done easily by machine. and laying horsetail, for example, one of our most important raw ingredients. It's great skill and there's no machine that does it. And so we'll do that. But doing a CAD drawing and getting a CNC machine to cut some wood, now that makes sense.

7:04So we will work with technology, but stick to creating the very best. And are you very much based here in the UK? In terms of production, absolutely. Every bed we make is produced in the UK. So we make around about half in West London, still literally five miles from where we're sitting, in Park Royal. And then we also have a bedworks. We always call it a bedworks. We don't like to call it a factory, but we have a bedworks in South Wales near Pontypree, just north of Cardiff. So we have two sites, but the principles are the same, which is that our beds are bench made. One craftsperson makes one product for one client.

7:37So you're making a mattress, then that is made for Mr. Smith and it is signed by the craftsman who makes it, knowing who they're making it for. That's very important to us. and it also means that the craftsperson, it's on a production line, things aren't flowing along at great speed. One person has all the skills required to make that bed and takes total responsibility for it. They have an interesting job and they're responsible and we get a great product. I have a question perhaps about your client. Are they a little bit like Liza in the sense that it is about passion? They say, you know what, I love sulfur beds.

8:10So they are clients that you have for years now. So tell us, how is your client? Yeah, I mean, we have, I think passion is incredibly, I think actually passion is incredibly important to any luxury product. And it's one of the defining features. I think there has to be passion both from the producer and the client. People certainly get passionate about our product because it can change their lives so significantly. And we have clients who bought from us for years and partly because they have multiple homes, they have yachts, they have goods and sales. But also, we also have clients who actually are not in the multiple home, multiple yacht world.

8:45They are just incredibly passionate about their sleep. And they will spend more on their bed than they spend on their car because it matters to them. And frankly, they spend longer in their bed than they do their car. So while I would never pretend we create a cheap product, of course we don't. But actually, the people who buy it aren't all billionaires. you know what I mean some of them are much more normal in verse commas people but who really need a good night's sleep and really want that and that matters to them more than other things maybe so there's a little bit of priorities as well hey avoid you don't need you don't need a sleeping pill you just need a good exactly exactly and I was going to ask you especially about mattresses because I think it's such an important decision even I bought a mattress like two years ago but I really kind of tested things out because I know this will potentially change my life right you're very unusual because i think most people don't take the time to buy online no no exactly it's crazy and and yeah yes you get the 60 day money back or whatever but actually it's a faff to send it back and deal with it you're much better to really think about what you need and to go and try a bed properly and try in multiple locations not just one and keep in mind that 10 minutes on the bed is not quite the same as sleeping on one so you really want someone there who can give you some advice and suggest, well, how is your body?

10:00We call it body posture. How is your body looking on the bed? How do you normally sleep? You know, it's incredible how many people go and they're like they're on a coffin. Do you know what I mean? But that's not how they sleep. They sleep on their side or their front and yet they go and test it on their back or whatever. Or worse still, they just go and prod it and say, oh, that's too soft. So it's really important to understand that and understand that your preconceptions may not be right. A lot of people still think, oh, a firm bed's good for me. That's what I should have. When nothing could be further from the truth, you need the right bed for you.

10:27Your partner might be twice your weight. You will not need the same thing. Are you going to have something different each of you on your side? Is that what you need? What was required? What are the materials in there? How do they breathe? How is that going to make my temperature? There's lots of things to consider. And testing is incredibly important. So yeah, and it's not something that should be a five minute thing. It's not something that should be online, in my view. It's something where you should invest a little bit of time and go to a few places, try out a few different things, speak to the people selling them.

10:58It will hopefully help you. And, you know, whatever level of the market, and this doesn't matter if you've got, frankly, £500 to spend,£100 to spend, or£50 ,000 to spend. It's worth going through that process. And that's what I was going to ask. Of course, you have, I believe, three showrooms here in the UK? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In London, we have three, yeah. Where else in the world? Because I know you have a strong base here in the UK, but where else in the world do you sell? Our biggest market is actually in the US. And we base that out of two showrooms in New York. So we've got a showroom downtown in Green Street in Soho, which is beautiful.

11:30And then we've got a showroom uptown. We're actually just moving that. We're moving into 200 Lexington, which is a beautiful location. So we're looking at the moment to open. I'm just looking at stores in Los Angeles. So yeah, the States is very big for us. It's important. I think for a smaller brand, you always have to remember that the US remains the biggest luxury market in the world. And it's easy to forget that everyone gets very excited about Asia, which is important. But actually, come down to it, the US is important. We also have a showroom in Paris, which is very beautiful on Fauxburg's NRA, which is lovely.

12:02It gets us very well into the European and yacht market. We've got a couple of smaller showrooms in Germany, in Dusseldorf and Berlin. And then we have showrooms in Asia. So we have in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and so forth. And so we've got a good range. But the most important market for us, UK is very important, but the US is the biggest one. And then Europe follows. I agree. Sometimes people forget, but the US is still number one in luxury. I mean, it is what it is. It is what it is. Yeah. And it's kind of, it's just that. And I think particularly, I mean, less so now because people are maybe less excited about Asia at the moment because times are a bit tougher there.

12:37But, you know, five, six years ago, people were going mad on Asia. And actually, still, the US was, it's the strongest place for luxury. so for a brand that isn't so big that's an easier place to go and do it and yeah we have a lot of commonality it's different no one can pretend the u.s is the same as the uk it's not language is not everything but we do have quite a lot of cultural connections and it works for 2026 for your business are you excited are you looking for places for growth or continue what you do best yeah well we will always we always continue what we do best but we're excited for growth i mean our thousand beds a year is not that's not because we think a thousand beds are the most we could do we could make two thousand we could yeah we constantly training craftsmen and women we're constantly bringing people on so we can grow that's fine but i'm excited for new places i'm excited to be introducing savoy to new markets i say for us los angeles next year i think will be a very big one we've been looking at california for a while i'm super excited to be there and then also looking at other markets where we currently serve from london you know areas of the middle least were we serve from London but we could probably do more so certainly that's that's a thing and then you look at some of the European countries we're not in Italy at all you know and you kind of think well you know Milan for example is having a big time at the moment could there be something there so look I'm always full of excitement and opportunity and seeing opportunity to do things and also excited about other things the collaborations we're doing we've got a very exciting collaboration at the moment which will be coming out very soon with Oswald Botang which I'm yeah I'm really looking forward to so there's always things happening you know you want to you've got to keep life exciting right well what can you tell us actually about this collaboration absolutely nothing oh okay no no no no no i mean oswald's a amazing guy and comes at life with great passion what i love i won't tell you too much about the bed but what i love about collaborating with someone like oswald is yeah the best collaborations come from people who are into the craftsmanship he must have visited the bedworks in london five or six times now He loves to see the craftsmen.

14:38He loves to talk to them, see what's possible to make things happen. And when you get that kind of, do you know what I mean, your brain works in that way as his does. I mean, he comes from that background. So for him, picking up a pair of scissors is great. Do you know what I mean? And that is amazing. And I love that passion. And that's also fabulous. It's not just for, well, get a great bed out of it. That's wonderful. But also our craftsmen, men and women get a huge kick out of someone like him coming around. He's larger than life. He just brings great life and energy and people feel special.

15:08And the bed will be very special. It's absolutely amazing. I can tell you it's got some really amazing leather and it's a fascinating shape. But yeah, looking forward to getting that out there. And it's just amazing energy. I love it. That was Alastair Hughes, the Managing Director of Savoir Beds, talking to Fernando Augusto Pacheco. You can find out more about the business by heading to SavoirBeds.com.

15:38You're listening to The Entrepreneurs. Farah Raget is the founder and director of The Simplified Model, a leadership consultancy that helps businesses and executives build legacies that are as personally rewarding as they are professionally successful. A trusted strategist and advisor with more than two decades of experience, Farah has guided leaders across more than 20 global markets. She stopped by Midori House to discuss the method behind her approach. I began by asking Farah why simplification has become such an urgent priority in modern leadership. For the last two decades almost, I have been working with leaders all over the world and within organizations from startups to middle size to international, you name it.

16:23and one pattern that kept coming up is just how complicated things were when they didn't really need to be and so what happens when you go into these ecosystems of leaders and employees and managers and all these people ultimately trying to create something and make an impact and create value and then you take away the complexity and what we found through that is when you go simple and you make things simpler things are just more smooth you have more free time you have space to really think about what you're doing and why you're doing it and therefore the simplified model. Now, I guess this is your skill, right?

17:00That sounds exactly what you say. It sounds like it does on the tin. It sounds simple. It sounds intuitive. Why is that not the way it works then? I think it's not the way it works because we have gotten really good at being busy, being busy. We want too much. We want to do it all. We want to be part of several industries. We want to offer several services. We want bigger bites of a market. And because of that, it leads to things not being simple and quite complex. And if we look at the success of the simplified model, other markets, if we look at, say, in Denmark, for example, or out of Copenhagen, is that a market that was more tuned into some of these narratives already?

17:39And so it was kind of easier, in quote marks, for these ideas to take root there? Or is that just a market where people, business leaders included are more receptive to genuine innovation, including stuff that might knock people quite uncomfortably out of their lane. Why does it take root more readily in a market like, say, Denmark or the kind of the Nordics or the Scandys, say, than Western Europe or across the pond or whatever it might be? Are places more ready for these kind of ideas than others? When I look at where this is more readily, you know, kind of where the land is primed for it, I feel it's less about region and more about the culture and mindset of that space.

18:18So for example, in regions where people have more faith, this becomes something that is easier to lay down because when you have a spiritual center and when you're connected to yourself in that way, you let go of a lot of the things that clutter your mind and the things that weigh heavy on you. because in what you do, there's trust in something greater than you. So when you look at somewhere like Denmark, where spirituality is not really something that is very much present, there is stress, there is burnout, there is overwhelm. And you would think, what? But that's the happiest place in the world, right?

18:51But because of the total reliance on oneself without any belief of something greater also holding you and guiding you, there is a lot of stress in that. So bringing this to them actually has been very refreshing and has been very enlightening for many of the leaders, particularly the ones who are ready to accept that, you know, if you take care of your mind, if you take care of your inner game, you can drive more success. And so I really believe it's more about the mindset of a region and their culture and traditions and faith level versus anything else, really. So then we parachute into a market like the United Kingdom, where you and I are sat today.

19:28And listen, our audience is global. I'll remind you of that. But come to the United Kingdom, a market with all kinds of complexities, I'd say a much lower level of, say, social capital than our friends in Denmark. Probably much lower levels of trust broadly, whether that's in corporate entities or in state entities or in one another. And yet you have a great confidence that this model will also work here. Why is that? Tell me about that. I have absolutely no doubt. And it's because, to be completely frank, what we're teaching is incredibly human. It's something that speaks to not ethnicity, not country, not region, but rather speaks directly to humans and at the soul level.

20:07And I say that from the sense of practical sense of every single leader wants to feel confident. Every leader wants to feel calm. Every leader wants to feel that they can have presence and influence in what they do. Nobody wants to feel stressed. Nobody wants to feel burnt out. Nobody wants to feel scared in the role that they're in. And most definitely the word imposter syndrome comes out so often in conversations with clients, which I believe is an illusion, actually. So I believe that this teaching and this perspective will definitely hit home in the UK because in the UK, people are moving fast.

20:44You know, it's just it's go, go, go. And when you can offer someone in vibrant, fast London, would you like to slow down? What do you think they'll say? I suspect they might say. Very much so, yes. And can you help me? Let's look then at the mechanics. Let's look at the nuts and bolts, Farrah, because we've talked a little bit in this more slightly abstract way about, I guess, the backdrop, the problem, the challenge, and why the model works. But what is it? Let's interrogate it in more detail. I guess I can't get you to reveal every inside secret. Some of it must stay behind the great paywall in the sky.

21:13But tell us a little bit about, you know, a leader comes to speak to you or their team approaches you. What does the process look like? Yes, absolutely. So when a leader comes to us, usually the first steps is that I do a behavioral assessment. And that is through a conversation. And what that really empowers me to do is to just build rapport with that client and understand what's going on with them. How are they thinking? How are they taking decisions? And it's incredible that no matter what seniority of leader or, you know, this can be a senior leader at like a globally recognized organization that doesn't know what drives their decisions, doesn't know what inspires them, doesn't know their leadership style.

21:49doesn't know what their inner game even looks like. And so through just a conversational process, I'm able to get some insight about what's really driving them. And then after that, there's an assessment that I run that allows me to understand what are the dominant traits in them. So each of us has nine traits in us and what is more natural and dominant for them. And then we start to look at what are their hidden strengths? What are some gaps in them? How mature are they as leaders? I think that's quite a big one. You can be a leader of a massive company, but your immaturity level cannot match that.

22:23And when we say immature or mature, it's how likely are you going to stand in your way or drive your success when things don't go your way? So who are you under pressure? Who are you under challenge? Who are you when things don't go your way? And that's where immaturity and maturity start to come up. So just looking at those two things gives me an insight into their mindset patterns and what drives their thoughts and drives the way they are. What is their automatic modality? Each and every single one of us wakes up in the morning and just does. We have no, we're not really thinking, am I doing the same as yesterday?

22:56What are the thoughts I'm nurturing today? Am I going to be angry again today? I'm going to, you know, what are you each day? And the most exciting part for me is the inner game. And I love that because when you have insight into a leader's inner game, their values, their beliefs, their thought patterns, their references, their emotions, you start to see that reflected in their outer game. So that's usually what we get started with. And it's insightful enough to just create, see the changes in them quite rapidly. It's funny because you allude there to this idea, I guess, that one sort of learns more when things aren't going well.

23:29It's a cliche, but it's a cliche for a reason. It's often true. Is that the same, you know, in your work then as a strategist, as an advisor, do you get more out of a more challenging interaction with someone where maybe there are greater barriers to get into that kind of inner story? Maybe they're more reluctant or recalcitrant for some reason. And is that more interesting as a case study for you? Or is it, like a lot of work, is the best ones where it just flows very naturally and it's, you know what you need to do, they buy in straight away? Or I guess, I don't know, what's the best project for you?

24:02I mean, it's a beautiful question. And I think from my experience of working with just so many kinds of leaders, every single human being you just start to realize is such like a wonderful complexity, right? And so whether it's somebody that has had some really bad habits in how they think and how they move and how they lead and how they decide, of course, it's challenging. But what we are doing is ultimately just showing them their own habits in a way that they have that awareness over them. The fact that they're even here and that they've showed up means that they're ready to have self-development.

24:35They're ready to change. They're ready to level up. And therefore, that kind of not takes away, but makes that challenge a bit softer because they're ready and willing. But trying to change someone who doesn't want to change, forget that. It's not happening. You cannot. People have to show up and be ready. And then other clients who, you know, are just this incredible driven growth mindset, excited and just want to have you by their side to go bigger and greater. That's also exciting because their energy fuels you as much as your teachings fuel them. So it's very like reciprocal in that way. So I think in both instances, it's a beautiful insight into the world of human beings.