Our leaders panel  at Peach 20/20 proved the opposite. Five leaders running very different hospitality businesses shared how commercial rigour and human-centred leadership are not trade-offs - they are mutually reinforcing.

Here are seven board-level takeaways from those doing it for real.

1. “Scale doesn’t start with numbers - it starts with belief”

Gavin Smith, CEO, Pizza Pilgrims

Growth conversations often fixate on unit count. Smith reframed it sharply: a site is “number one” in its own city.  Scaling, in his view, is about protecting the founding belief system, product, hospitality and culture - while finding disciplined ways to codify it so it survives replication.

If leadership can’t articulate the non-negotiables, scale will dilute them by default. Codification is not bureaucracy; it’s protection.

2. “Culture doesn’t scale by charisma - it scales by design.”

James Nye, MD, Anglian Country Inns

As the business doubled in size, Nye learned the hard way that founder energy doesn’t travel far enough. Culture had to be defined, shared and *owned by leaders across the group.

His phrase was telling: “culture is human architecture.” It must be deliberately built so that decisions made in your absence still feel like yours.

For multi--site operators culture risk is execution risk. If it lives only in the founder’s head, it will fail at scale.

3. “Empowerment beats control - every time.”

James Nye, MD, Anglian Country Inns

Across ten very different venues, Nye focuses less on uniformity and more on a shared DNA. General Managers are trusted to interpret that DNA locally.

The result? Strong retention, leaders with 10–20 years’ tenure, and emotional continuity customers can feel.

Key takeaway: The job of senior leadership is not to run sites -  it’s to remove friction so others can.

4. “Data isn’t soulless. Bad processes are.”

Jodie Tate, MD, Greene King

Coming from retail, Tate brought a sharp perspective on hospitality’s blind spot: operational complexity. Her argument was simple and powerful — technology should not replace people, it should ‘give time back to them’.

Greene King’s rapidly scaling loyalty platform is now driving insight across brands, occasions and channels - including high-growth pubs with rooms.

Board implication: Simplification is a leadership choice.  Paper-heavy, manual systems quietly tax morale, service and margin.

5. “Great brands feel different because they are different”

Charlie Carroll, Co-founder, The Devonshire and founder, Flat Iron

The Devonshire’s success isn’t accidental or formulaic. Carroll described a creative process rooted in obsession, craft and instinct - from dry-ageing capacity to the psychology of worn edges on woodwork.

What guests feel, they may not consciously see. Soul, he argued, emerges when decisions are made for excitement and pride, not spreadsheet optimisation.

Top insight: “Places designed by committee rarely create emotional loyalty”.

6. “Profit is the scoreboard. Not the game”

Charlie Carroll, Co-founder, The Devonshire and founder, Flat Iron

Perhaps the most striking insight: making money is not the goal - it’s the evidence that you’re playing well.

Whether it’s perfecting a pint of Guinness or iterating a steak tartare 40 times, the panel agreed that commercial success follows deep care, not the other way round.

The takeaway: Delivering value for your customers’ time and money is the ultimate competitive advantage - especially when consumers are more selective than ever.

7. “What hospitality needs now is leadership energy. Not fear."

When asked what the sector needs most right now, the answers converged fast. Positivity, clarity and communication.  Not denial of reality - but confidence, consistency and belief.

In tough markets, leadership mood travels faster than strategy. Teams take their emotional cues from the top.

Final Thought

Scaling with soul is not a soft ambition. It is a hard-edged leadership discipline - requiring clarity, restraint, trust and optimism under pressure.

The leaders on the Peach 20/20 stage showed that the brands winning right now are not those cutting deepest, but those leading best.

If there’s one message boards should take away, it’s this: You don’t scale despite soul. You scale because of it.

The Peach 2025 Leaders Panel was expertly chaired by Laura Harper Hinton, CEO Caravan with a stellar panel from across the sector: Charlie Carroll (The Devonshire), James Nye (Anglian Country Inns), Gavin Smith (Pizza Pilgrims) and Jodie Tate (Greene King).

To watch or listen again – click HERE.