Back to the Floor

French businessman Eric Bonnot, head of the Burger King fast-food chain in the UK, swaps the boardroom for a week's work behind the counter at a Liverpool branch. Soon the new recruit is finding it hard to fulfill his company's promise that customers shouldn't wait more than two-and-a-half minutes for a burger, and his smile starts to slip, too.

Peter Baker , MD of British Bakeries, swaps the boardroom for a week of putting crosses on hot-cross buns, scooping up litres of garlic butter with his hands, and chanting business mantras in his Newcastle bakery.

Just ten days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Dr Regina Peruggi, president of the New York Central Park Conservancy, leaves her Fifth Avenue office to work as a gardener in Central Park, where duties include clearing dog mess and cleaning up after drug users.

Adrian Lucas, chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service, leaves behind the safety of his office and returns, after 20 years, to work on the streets of Glasgow.

John Ferguson, head of the world's largest private prison firm, heads for New Mexico as he works for a week as a guard at one of his organisation's own women's prisons.

As head of the UK's largest dating agency, Louise Hansen's job is to make profits from lonely hearts. To find out how she can improve the company, she fields customer calls, interviews potential clients, and tries to find a date for a confirmed bachelor.

Despite making the world's most famous vacuum cleaners, the Hoover factory near Glasgow is fighting for its future. This one-off special finds out if boss Peter Murtagh can turn company fortunes around with a week on the factory floor.