Beth Worrall is chief executive of VoCoVo, the Oxfordshire-founded company whose wireless headsets keep shop-floor teams connected at retailers including Asda, Tesco, Currys and the Co-op.
In September 2026 The Range confirmed it would roll out VoCoVo’s Series 5 Pro headsets and call points across all 283 of its stores after a year-long trial, three months after the company said it had passed one million daily headset users across 39 countries.
Worrall, who previously spent 13 years at dunnhumby, became sole CEO in 2025 after two years as co-CEO alongside founder Rob Gamlin. She tells Business Matters why she would rather build on stone than sand, and why she sees culture as a lead indicator of performance.
What do you currently do at VoCoVo?
I am CEO of VoCoVo, leading the business through our next stage of growth. We provide the communication technology that keeps frontline retail teams connected across 39 countries, and more than one million colleagues now use our headsets every day.
As we scale globally, my priority is making sure that growth is deliberate and disciplined: entering new markets with the right talent, strong operational foundations and our culture firmly intact.
I talk a lot about sustainable scalability. For me, that is about building on stone, not sand. Growing quickly is exciting, but I am much more interested in creating something that lasts.
That means staying close to our customers and directing our investment towards the outcomes that matter most, such as developing intuitive voice-controlled technology and enabling deep integration with AI-enabled knowledge bases to truly empower retail colleagues, while continuing to build the capability to grow and adapt. This year we launched our AI Gateway, which connects a retailer’s own AI platforms to our headsets so colleagues can get answers hands-free on the shop floor.
Together with our senior leadership team, my role is to point us in the right direction, keep the bar high and give great people the room to do their best work.
What was the inspiration behind your business?
VoCoVo was created to address a clear operational gap: the lack of effective communication tools for frontline retail teams. Our founder, Rob Gamlin, recognised that colleagues on the shop floor were relying on fragmented and inefficient ways of communicating, and that the cost of this was significant and multi-faceted.
What has always inspired me is that the solution we have built was never, and still is not, about technology for technology’s sake. It is about solving a real problem for people working in stores, enhancing both their experience and that of their customers. When you walk into retailers like Asda, B&Q or Currys today, you see our wireless headsets keeping shop-floor teams connected in real time.
We exist to make the working day simpler and safer for frontline teams, improve the shopper experience and help retailers run their stores more effectively. That combination, making work better for people while delivering better operational outcomes, remains at the heart of what we do.
Who do you admire?
Rather than singling out individuals, I tend to admire leaders who combine real commercial ambition with curiosity, humanity and humility.
Earlier in my career, I spent 13 years at dunnhumby, which scaled from around 200 people to more than 3,000 across 30 countries during my time there. Being part of that journey gave me a front-row seat to exceptional leadership during rapid international growth.
The leaders I respected most never lost sight of what our customers cared about, no matter how large the business became. They could translate those insights into clear action while never losing sight of the importance of people and culture, and they stayed humble enough to listen, learn and adapt.
Over the years, I have learnt just as much by observing people in everyday situations. I am fascinated by human behaviour and what makes people and teams tick. Watching how people handle pressure, respond when things go wrong, motivate and inspire others, or quietly earn trust day to day tells you a great deal about the kind of leader you want to be, and the kind you do not.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
I am not a believer in rewriting the past. Our experiences, both good and bad, shape where we are and where we go next. And with hindsight, I can see that it took me time to unlearn the idea that leadership means having every answer or personally driving every outcome.
Early in my career, I fell into the trap of thinking that taking responsibility meant carrying the entire load myself. Over time, I realised that trying to do everything is not leadership; it is a bottleneck. It stifles decision-making, limits responsibility-taking and prevents capability from developing around you.
The longer I lead, the more I believe a CEO’s job is not to have all the answers. It is to build an organisation capable of thinking well and acting well without you: people making informed decisions, bringing strong recommendations and taking good action within clear parameters. That means setting clear direction, building trust, challenging when it matters and giving people the space to take genuine ownership.
What defines your way of doing business?
I believe culture is a lead indicator of performance. People experience culture every day through the actions you take and the decisions you make, particularly when things are difficult. The real test of your values is what you do when there is pressure, when the numbers are not where you want them to be or when making the right decision is harder than making the easy one.
But culture and commercial discipline have to go together. Good leadership means being clear about what we are trying to achieve, maintaining financial responsibility and creating the conditions for people to succeed, while expecting people to bring ownership, ambition, judgement and resilience in return.
For me, that is the reciprocity at the heart of a healthy organisation. Leaders have a responsibility to provide clarity, trust and the conditions for people to do great work, and people have a responsibility to use that freedom well.
Ultimately, I am striving to build an organisation where high standards and humanity are not competing ideas. I think each makes the other stronger.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
First, do not wait until you feel completely ready, because you probably never will. Most of the pivotal moments in my career happened when I felt a healthy amount of fear and decided to take the leap anyway. Back yourself and step into the discomfort.
Second, be curious and observant. Watch the leaders around you closely. Notice what inspires people, builds trust and brings out their best, but pay just as much attention to the behaviours and working environments you never want to replicate. Some of the most valuable leadership lessons I have learnt have come from watching what happens when the environment around people gets something wrong.
And finally, be clear on your values and principles. Your skills will develop and your career will twist and turn, but knowing what you stand for gives you a compass when things get tough. I have walked away from situations where the values did not sit right with me, and I have never once regretted that.
