Lord Bilimoria is the founder and chief executive of Cobra Beer, UK chairman of the Indo British Partnership and vice-chairman of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Asian Business Association.

Lord Bilimoria on being a customer: “Most business ideas come from being dissatisfied with a product or service and then thinking, ‘I can do this better and I can do this differently’ and, ideally, ‘I can change the marketplace forever’. Good business ideas are often customer-driven, arising from the experience of being a customer yourself.”

On sales: “While studying at Cambridge I became vice-president of the debating union and before elections I would go door-to-door canvassing. This meant selling myself and getting complete strangers to vote for me. The experience taught me pretty quickly that in sales there is no substitute for hard work. Up and down the staircases, whether it was raining or snowing outside, on your bike — you simply had to go and do it. I learnt through this that I had the ability to sell, which in my book is the key asset you must have in business.”

On vision: “My great-grandfather started his own business from scratch in India and has always been a great inspiration to me. I remember that people always said that the secret of his success was foresight. While that term didn’t really mean much to me at the time, I’ve come to realise from my own experience that business is really all about foresight and vision.”

On feedback: “We went through six months of feedback, developing the taste of our beer based on consumer response. At first the brew was a bit too heavy and a bit too sweet, so with that feedback we began to slowly adapt the product. The basic formula was there so we just kept tweaking it. After about six tries we got it right.”

On naming: “This was one of my first major lessons in business. Our first choice for a name was Panther, but people didn’t like it. They just didn’t warm to the name. So we had two choices: either we could stick to the name and carry on, or we could change the name.”

On marketing: “There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about new techniques such as guerrilla marketing and ambient marketing, but in truth you can’t beat actually going out and saying, ‘Look, I’ve got this product, it’s fantastic and you should buy it’.”

On self-belief: “They told me I didn’t stand a chance. They said I didn’t know anything about their industry – I knew nothing about brewing, I’d never sold any beer, I had no money, I had no experience. In response to their negativity I was able to say: ‘I am going to succeed. I have confidence, I have passion, I have belief in myself and my idea. This is why it’s going to work’.”

On determination: “I remember taking my wallet out and all I had was a few pennies. All our credit cards were maxed out and every bank card was over the limit. Do you feel down in the dumps at a moment like that? You bet you do. Do you feel like giving up? Never. You wake up the next morning and find a way out of it.”

On parents: “They said, ‘All this education and here you are becoming an import-export wallah! Get a proper job’.”

Next week: Sir Digby Jones, former Director-General of the CBI, on managing information and knowledge.

Six of the Best is a new leadership and management book by the Chartered Management Institute (Hodder, £9.99). The six are: Sir John Tusa, Sir Michael Bichard, Lord Bilimoria, Sir Digby Jones, Dianne Thompson (chief executive of Camelot) and Andy Green (chief executive of BT Global).

Sir Michael, Sir Digby and Sir John will speak on May 2 at the launch of the book in Central London. Tickets cost £25, which includes a copy of the book. Further information: managers.org.uk/sixofthebest

Six of the Best is available exclusively to readers of The Times at the special price of £6.99 with free postage and packing. Order from www.pressoffers.co.uk/bsh330 or call 0870 7552122 (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm). Please quote offer code BSH330.

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