E357 | If You're A Founder, You Can't Ignore This Shift In 2026
Scale To Win with Dominic Monkhouse
Hiring: Attitude Over Experience
Mark stresses hiring for initiative, can-do attitude, and being prepared to lose good people during fast change.
From global finance to eco-cleaning, regenerative farming, and rethinking entire systems — Mark Jankovich doesn’t do incremental change.
He believes we’re living through a full-scale reset — and entrepreneurs have a responsibility to lead it.
In this episode, Mark shares why climate change isn’t a mass participation problem, why consumers shouldn’t be asked to make hard choices at all, and why some products — from bleach to diesel engines — should simply disappear.
You’ll hear how Delphis Eco was born from a moment of clarity on a family holiday, what he’s learned from two decades of being ahead of the curve, and why broken systems like farming, education, and climate must be fixed together — not in isolation.
This is a provocative, systems-level conversation about leadership, responsibility, and designing a future where doing the right thing is the default.
What you’ll learn:
🌍 Why climate change messaging fails — and why it’s not a problem for the masses to solve
⚙️ How removing bad choices entirely is more effective than asking people to “do better”
🧴 Why bleach, virgin plastic, and outdated products should stop being sold
🚗 The myths around EVs, infrastructure, and resistance to change
🏢 How to build a sustainable business by letting systems and machines do the work
🌱 Why soil health, education, and climate are deeply interconnected
📈 What it’s really like to build a business 20 years ahead of the trend
Who should listen:
• Founders and CEOs building businesses with sustainability at their core
• Leaders frustrated by slow progress on climate and systemic change
• Entrepreneurs interested in policy, regulation, and government advisory
• Anyone curious about regenerative agriculture, food systems, and land use
• Builders who believe the next wave of innovation will be structural, not cosmetic
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:00 Mark’s worldview on cataclysmic change and entrepreneurial optimism
05:02 Systems change starts with cutting off harmful choices
10:03 Lessons from Dubai and the supermarket’s slow death
15:20 The origin story of Delphis Eco and quitting finance
17:37 Surviving 20 brutal years to finally see traction
19:07 Shifting from B2B to retail and staying lean
23:42 Letting tech run the business and outsourcing smartly
25:46 Hiring for attitude and losing good people as you grow
30:42 Rewilding unprofitable farmland for soil and social good
34:07 How farming, education and nature can solve each other
39:12 Book and podcast recs that shaped Mark’s thinking
40:52 The power of paradigm shifts and the coming wave
Book & media recommendations:
• Harmony — HRH The Prince of Wales: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0007413639
• Green Swans — John Elkington: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785786431
• The Ministry for the Future — Kim Stanley Robinson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356508841
• Future Noughts (podcast) — John Richardson: https://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/future_noughts/
About the Guest:
Mark Jankovich is the founder and CEO of Delphis Eco, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of eco-friendly cleaning products.
A former City finance executive, Mark now builds systems that challenge the hidden environmental damage of everyday industries.
He also works with the UK Treasury and leads projects in regenerative agriculture — connecting corporates, small farms, education reform and nature recovery.
📩 Sign up to the Scale To Win newsletter:
https://subscribe.monkhouseandcompany.com
🔗 Follow Dominic on LinkedIn:
The AI-powered Podcast Player
