Gary George: When Communication Breaks Down the Bigger a Business Gets

Cutting Through with Natasha Plowman · Oct 2, 2026 · 35m

Gary George is a technology and operations director with over 36 years leading teams through two major scale-ups into the billions. He joins Natasha Plowman on Cutting Through to unpack why leadership that works at 60 people falls apart at 6,000.

They trace how top-down messages get lost in translation as companies grow. How the "Chinese whispers" effect and siloed departments who chase their own bonuses make employees feel like "a cell on a spreadsheet."

Gary shares the story of a managing director who put a number on a whiteboard to make an entire leadership team understand the true cost of…