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Bobcat - The word for business leaders is used as a homophone.

Sorry for the repeat for Bobcat, Drxx beat me to it

For the def, 'levels' is geological and Chambers confirms the 'little growth' (after a fashion).

As this is a crossword it's easy to overthink the endgame.

Thanks both. All done now. Was thinking of the wrong business leaders.

I have chipped and chiselled away at this and have the message so I understand the introduction re transposition cipher. I am still a couple of solutions short though. I don't think anyone has asked about 11a 'Mixed with rich man....' so I assume I'm being a bit dim even though I have the extra letters throughout.

A hint would be most welcome. I've tried most 'mixed' arrangements.

Granama - mixed is the definition

16ac is (I believe) my last unsolved clue--no progress on the theme other than identifying at least where the ciphertext lives and having a fairly baffling message--and despite the hints in this thread it seems completely unsolvable to me. Worried I've somehow misarranged some jumbled letters and created a dead end for myself, but each individual deduction seemed fairly solid...

Actually, I've now solved the theme, ha! So I guess my jumbled bits were fine, and I'm just a terrible solver still unable to grasp 16ac!

I really liked the endgame but I felt that the process of getting there was a little bit of a slog to be honest. Just a touch to much cold solving required in my view.

Of course, it may all be down to a very busy spell at work so perhaps things would have been more straightforward if I'd approached it with a clear head! Some clues took me ages to unravel even when I knew the answers so that's probably the explanation.

In any case, a magnificent construction and a very satisfying and unambiguous endgame so thank you setter!