A Different Perspective with Lionel Barber, Journalist and Author - Inside SoftBank: Masayoshi Son’s High-Stakes Vision

What this episode covers

This week Nick talks to Lionel Barber.Lionel Barber is a distinguished British journalist best known for his tenure as Editor of the Financial Times from 2005 to 2020, during which he spearheaded its transformation into a globally respected, digital-first news organisation. A graduate of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, he began his career at The Scotsman before moving to The Sunday Times and then joining the FT in 1985, where he held senior roles including Washington correspondent, Brussels bureau chief, news editor, and U.S. managing editor. As editor, he conducted landmark interviews with world leaders such as Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and Angela Merkel. Barber is the author of The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times and his latest book Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son, and has been recognised with honours including the Légion d’Honneur, the Stella d’Italia, and the Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award. He currently serves on several boards, lectures globally on media and geopolitics, and co-hosts the Media Confidential podcast with Alan Rusbridger. Nick and Lionel discuss, Lionel's journey from a newspaper-loving household in Leeds to leading one of the world's most influential publications. Inspired by his journalist father, Barber started his career at The Scotsman and quickly rose through the ranks, eventually serving as foreign correspondent in Washington and Brussels before becoming FT editor in 2005. He shares highlights from his tenure, including interviews with Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and his leadership during the paper's digital transformation. Barber also discusses his latest book, Gambling Man, a biography of Masayoshi Son, the Korean-Japanese entrepreneur behind SoftBank. The book charts Son's remarkable rise from growing up in a marginalised slum to building one of the world's largest investment funds. Barber portrays Son as both a visionary and a calculated risk-taker, whose bold investments in Yahoo, Alibaba, and ARM shaped modern tech finance. He also delves into Son's failures, such as the WeWork debacle, and his ability to bounce back with ambitious plans in AI and global innovation, while still regarded with suspicion by Japan’s establishment.Lionel's book choice was:Present at the creation Dean AchesonLionel Music choice was:Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 by Ludwig van BeethovenFollow Lionel on his Substack and his podcast - Media Confidential.This content is issued by Zeus Capital Limited (“Zeus”) (Incorporated in England & Wales No. 4417845), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) for designated investment business, (Reg No. 224621) and is a member firm of the London Stock Exchange. This content is for information purposes only and neither the information contained, nor the opinions expressed within, constitute or are to be construed as an offer or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities or other instruments mentioned in it. Zeus shall not be liable for any direct or indirect damages, including lost profits arising in any way from the information contained in this material. This material is for the use of intended recipients only.

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