Mike Tobin OBE – Lifting the Floor

In this weeks episode I am joined by Mike Tobin OBE.  This episode includes swimming with sharks, boardroom bust-ups, getting shot at in South Africa, many important life lessons, and how you take a business from making a significant loss to a highly profitable multi billion pound data centre company!

We discuss Mike’s highly successful career which he has put down on paper in his book ‘Lifting the Floor’, how he achieved his success, and his views on the data centre industry.

Mike had an eventful start to life which included being shot at in South Africa and living in a squat with his family in London. At the age of 16 Mike was accepted onto an apprenticeship scheme which was the start of a highly successful career in engineering and eventually within the data centre sector.

We discuss how Mike became CEO of Redbus at a time when the company was in financial difficulty. Following some good fortune, many boardroom bust-ups and a lot of hard work Redbus became TeleCity and Mike took the business to a £2bn+ turnover company.

We also talk about luck, what makes a great leader, and the importance of building great teams and surrounding yourself with the best people.

Mike is now involved in a non-exec capacity for many businesses across the world and he has an excellent view of the global data centre industry.

And if you make it to the end you will receive some excellent advice!