Brad Banducci: Fmr CEO, Woolworths

Published 24th June, 2026.

Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are our favorite episodes from our back catalogue, published as frequently as possible. These are N of 1 conversations with N of 1 people. This is a replay of Episode 202, originally released in April 2025— one of our most loved classics.

Brad Banducci is the recent CEO of Woolworths Group, one of the world's largest retail businesses, generating more than $65 billion in annual revenue, employing over 200,000 people and serving millions of customers every week.

In this rare interview (and his first since he left Woolworths after 8+ years) --- Brad reflects on growing up in South Africa during apartheid, the lessons learned from his entrepreneurial family, and the experiences that shaped his identity, ambition and worldview long before he stepped into the CEO's office.

Vidit and Brad explore his remarkable journey from engineer and management consultant at Boston Consulting Group to leading one of the Southern Hemisphere's most complex organisations. They discuss intrapreneurship versus entrepreneurship, making high-stakes decisions with imperfect information, leading through transformation at scale, and the leadership philosophy behind one of his most memorable ideas: being directionally correct beats being perfectly right.

They also unpack failure, purpose, family, curiosity, succession, building leaders who outperform you, and why the best executives spend less time chasing certainty and more time moving towards what matters.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.

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