By Virginia Eastman BBC TV's Trouble at the Top

Mr Caudwell is no shrinking violet

Warning: A quote in this report contains some strong language

It's not every day you watch a man take a phone call that turns him into a billionaire.

Sitting on board his �4m Sunseeker yacht just off Barcelona, John Caudwell's phone rang.

The telephone tycoon received word that the ink was drying on a deal which sealed the sale of one of his companies, Singlepoint, to Vodafone for enough money to buy a hundred more yachts.

It catapulted him to number two on the Sunday Times' British earnings list.

John Caudwell is that rare thing - a self-made billionaire from the North Midlands.

Unlike many other shrewd operators in the mobile market, he had the good sense to get into just about every aspect of the mobile phone business: retail and wholesale distribution of handsets, as well as airtime - even accessories.

Over 17 years he's built a company which employs 7,500 people with a turnover of more than �2bn and profits of �30m-plus. That's a thin margin, but then that's the mobile phone business for you. It's mature and very, very competitive.

It's also no time to take your eye off the ball in this fast-moving business.

Heads will roll

On returning from Barcelona, Mr Caudwell found that all was not well at Phones4u, the jewel in his group's crown.

For the first time since April 2001 the retail division was about to lose money.

Mr Caudwell prides himself on taking no prisoners: he cleared his diary and set up a series of one-on-one interviews with his top management to get to the bottom of what had gone wrong.

Within hours, his managing director had left the company.

But down on the shop floor, Mr Caudwell found a reluctance to take problems to the top, which he found very frustrating. "If you see something wrong bloody criticise it!" he tells the troops.

"Why do people find it so difficult to say somebody's fucked up in a massive way, and now we're going to move on?"

Barking and biting

Eventually the picture becomes clearer.

Bureaucracy's gone mad: the organisation is drowning in a sea of e-mails. Ban them, barks Mr Caudwell.

Next problem: the sales force lacks motivation - morale is low. Mr Caudwell splashes out on the incentive scheme to end all incentive schemes: make the best performer in the business a millionaire!

Next problem: the sales force need more sophisticated training. Simple, roars Mr Caudwell - launch a sales academy!

"You shouldn't be called salespeople," he tells his cherished team. "You should be called deal prevention consultants!"

Festive frolics

Next, a new advertising campaign is launched for the run up to Christmas.

So far, so good. But the High Street is facing one of its most competitive Christmases for years. Other companies are giving phones away in two-for-one deals that are very hard to beat.

So Mr Caudwell leaps into action again.

His idea this time is a "customer excellence" campaign, where staff bonuses are based on five measures of client service.

Mr Caudwell has started a revolution at Phones4u. But the road is long. Has he turned things around in time for the most lucrative shopping season of the year?