S3: The soulful businessman, with Lord Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer

Conversations of Inspiration

Holly Tucker MBE

Education, Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Business, Personal Journals

5.0 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2019

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In a truly soulful and enlightening interview this week, Holly meets Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer.

Lord Bilimoria founded Cobra Beer after spotting a gap in a market that had hardly changed in over 200 years, with a student debt of £20,000 in hand - and not much else. His story of building this iconic brand, as well as the ethics and values he places at the heart of everything he does, is truly remarkable.

With a rich heritage of successful relatives, Lord Bilimoria has harnessed the lessons of his family history and put those values at the very core of his business. He discusses with Holly what makes a good leader, how to take your product to market and disrupt the norm, as well as sharing his view on Brexit and what the future holds in this uncertain time.

Enjoying listening to these unfiltered chats? It's worth following Holly Tucker MBE and Holly & Co on Instagram, and subscribing to our weekly newsletter on our website, where Holly downloads her thoughts, and exclusively shares small business finds and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on Conversations of Inspiration, I'm speaking to Lord Curran Bilimoria,
0:05.2	CBE founder of Cobra Beers.
0:08.3	Curran founded Cobra Beer in 1989 with the purpose to create a less gasey lager more suitable for drinking with food, especially
0:17.2	curries. With a student debt of £20,000 and not much else, he took on the giants.
0:24.0	Cobra Beer found its popularity in the country that was fast becoming a nation of
0:29.2	kurriaholics and due to Curran's drive, passion, ambition and clever marketing angles,
0:35.4	Cobra grew to become a global brand which now turns over 126 million a year. I had the honor of meeting Curran in his London offices where we had a conversation
0:48.7	about business, but more I came away with so many soulful life lessons.
0:54.4	We spoke deeply about the ways to spot a gap in the market,
0:58.1	how being a good leader is based on having and practicing your strong values. And how do we navigate business in this uncertain
1:07.8	time we're living in?
1:09.2	Bough your head and let your eyelids.
1:13.0	I'm Holly Tucker and welcome to
1:15.0	bring your frown.
1:17.0	I'm Holly Tucker and welcome to conversations of inspiration.
1:21.0	Back in 2006, I founded Not on the high street from my kitchen table and since then I've
1:27.1	gone on to launch Holly and Co. I'm the UK Ambassador of Creative Small Businesses and I believe that having a business
1:34.4	doing what you love is the key to a happy fulfilled life. My dream is to help
1:39.3	everybody start theirs. I'm here to offer advice, inspiration, wisdom and encouragement and
1:46.4	and in my view the best way to do this is by sharing stories. So I've reached out to my favorite small businesses,
1:54.8	entrepreneurs and those who simply inspire me and ask them to share theirs.
2:00.0	Here are my conversations of inspiration.
	...

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