meets
You can’t do things on your own. I would sell magazine subscriptions during the day, he’d sell commodities and we’d meet up in the house in the evening. To compare notes? Yes, when I came to stay with my friend I had just finished organising and leading the first Cambridge University Polo Tour of India. I came back with some sample polo sticks from Indian makers, so we had something to sell. That was another lesson I learned earlier on. Not only do you have to be able to sell, but your product has to be different and better in many ways. They can’t just be cheaper. The ones from India were lighter, whippier and made with bamboo heads, as opposed to willow heads. The English sticks were heavier, more rigid and expensive. As luck would have it the Argentinian sticks, which were the best in the world, were banned because of the Falklands War.
I discovered very quickly that you have to adapt. Adapt or die. .... Decision making is very important, but you have to be able to adapt to make a decision.
What did the first big order feel like? The Assistant Buyer at Harrods refused to meet, so I went around him and met the Head Buyer. Through perseverance I sold to Harrods and Lillywhites. My father called me an Import/ Export Merchant. They were not very happy. All this time though, there was this beer idea in the background, which I thought was just too early to work on. We had a mentor. My business partner Arjun Reddy had an uncle who served in the Royal Indian Airforce and spent a number of years with Air India. He was also a businessman. Amazing Man! We went to see him...just off Edgware Road for advice. He lost both his legs to diabetes. He was just inspirational, always cheerful, never complained. He sent me some brochures from his friend’s seafood business in Bangalore. I saw at the end of the brochure was Mysore Breweries and Pals Beer. I knew Pals Beer very well. I thought: forget the seafood, this is my beer idea! By the way, I’ve skipped over all the dead ends, the pearls and the towels businesses.
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GENERATION AUTUMN / WINTER 2018
With your parents getting more and more frustrated? I believe passionately that entrepreneurs never give up, but here’s where there is a contradiction because if you can’t get it off the ground and you’re banging your head against a brick wall, there is no point. Luck plays a big part, you’ve got to have some luck. The definition of luck I’ve always liked best is when determination meets opportunity. I was lucky. It was a family controlled brewery, second generation and very successful. They had never exported to the UK but they had the best Brewmaster. So then Cobra Beer happened? Lot’s of family business don’t understand the power of their brand, what’s your take on this? My most valuable asset is the Cobra Beer brand. You can protect your brand, trademark it, and it’s the brand the consumer trusts. They built it and it’s the brand they’re loyal to. Branding is important. Tell me about the times you found most challenging? Firstly, I will say that the thing about entrepreneurs is they have guts, so that when a crisis hits you have the guts to do it and stick with it when others give up. Three times I nearly lost the business. The first was after an article in my Tandoori Magazine upset the restaurants and they boycotted Cobra Beer. It was terrible, my staff were in tears and the editor received death threats. Why would I harm my own customers? So how did you deal with that situation? I made a point of visiting and speaking with all our supporters, restaurant owners, advertisers and people of influence; personally, to turn the situation around. Cobra is now manufactured here in the UK and not in India. Why is that? I discovered very quickly that you have to adapt. Adapt or die. If I had continued manufacturing in India I wouldn’t be here. The move to the UK was the right decision. Decision making is very important, but you have to be able to adapt to make a decision. Do you think there’s a connection between entrepreneurs and risk? Yes, I express that as guts, if you’ve got the guts to do it in the first place. When it comes to risk,