Tim Mason, CEO at Eagle Eye: Top 5 Secrets on How to Get to the Top Floor in Retail
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 5 Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest:
Tim Mason is the CEO of Eagle Eye and a veteran of British retail, best known for his 30-year career at Tesco where he helped launch the Clubcard. He brings decades of experience in marketing, loyalty, and digital transformation.
Episode Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:41 Meet Tim – The Duvet Flip Moment
1:56 Tim’s First Job: From Fruit Farm to Boardroom
3:06 What Makes a Great First Employee
4:48 The Power of Enthusiasm in Retail
6:07 Why Tim Chose Advertising (At Age 8)
7:20 Breaking Into Unilever with Bad Grades
8:02 The Unexpected Path to Tesco
9:45 Staying 30 Years in One Company
11:06 What Actually Keeps You Moving Forward
12:29 How EQ Beat Academia for Tim
13:35 One Smart Move That Got the Whole Tesco Board’s Attention
15:03 Struggles with Dyslexia and School
16:19 The Importance of Showing Up and Doing the Work
17:19 Culture: How to Read It and When to Leave
18:24 The “Rumble” – Reviving Stores with Real Action
20:14 What’s Happening in Retail Right Now
21:53 Why Retail’s Middle Market Is in Trouble
23:00 Personalisation: The Future of Winning in Retail
24:55 What Eagle Eye Actually Does
26:00 A Route to Double the Size of Eagle Eye
27:15 A Direct Message to Retailers Watching
28:13 The Danger of Grouping Consumers Into ‘Audiences’
29:46 What Retailers Must Do Differently Today
31:04 Launching Clubcard: The Loyalty Gamechanger
32:50 From 0.5B to 10B Offers: Personalisation at Scale
34:00 How Stores Are Using AI to Target Customers
35:27 Why Some Stores Feel “Revved Up” — and Others Don’t
36:39 What the Next Generation of Retail Leaders Need
40:23 Tim’s Duvet Flip: Helping Others Do Better
Episode Partners:
📊 Compare the Market
Discover how you can make a difference at Compare the Market, the company behind one of the UK’s most popular comparison sites. From tech and data to marketing and operations, they’re on a mission to simplify decisions for millions.
https://bit.ly/4i53Svj
Disclaimer:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From that one thing, the entire board of Tesco knew who Tim Mason was. |
| 0:05.1 | Hi, my name is Tim Mason. I'm CEO of Eagle Eye. We have 250 employees, and this is my duvet flip. |
| 0:14.4 | Work was just fantastic. And the reason it was fantastic was I wasn't very good at school. |
| 0:20.1 | Emotional intelligence, go from having all the answers to all the questions and everything you do, |
| 0:23.6 | having a bit of backbone. That gets you on in life, doesn't it? |
| 0:27.6 | You will never be measured as closely again in your life as you were when you were at school. |
| 0:32.6 | I heard that you're like the king of retail around here. The only way that you're going to win is to do a better job time and time again. |
| 0:44.3 | Put your money where your mouth is. |
| 0:45.3 | You can't be on the top floor, you don't understand the shop floor. |
| 0:48.3 | Lovely. Very nice. Full done. |
| 0:51.3 | What's your duvet flip? What gets you out of bed in the morning to flip the duvet? |
| 0:55.2 | That's a very good question. |
| 1:02.7 | Hi, my name's Tim Mason. |
| 1:05.0 | I'm CEO of Eagle Eye. |
| 1:08.7 | Before sitting down with Jack, I'm feeling great. |
| 1:10.9 | Thanks. |
| 1:12.4 | I'm most excited to talk about Duve Flip and what it's all about. |
| 1:16.9 | I've never met Jack before, |
| 1:19.0 | and so I'm interested to learn and see what he's like. |
| 1:22.1 | The one thing I hope people take away from today's episode |
| 1:24.8 | is work hard and be enthusiastic, and there's no one answer. |
| 1:32.3 | Hi Jack, thanks for inviting me on, Duve Flip. I'm ready if you are. |
... |
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