Making a Fortune: Learning from the Asian Phenomenon (Capstone)

For two decades, entrepreneurs have been eulogised in the popular press. At a time when real heroes are hard to find, it is the entrepreneur, the dynamic go-getting risk taker, who has become the hero of free enterprise. At the cutting edge of the British entrepreneurial community are the Asian businesses featured in this new book by Dr Spinder Dhaliwal – Making a Fortune: Learning from the Asian Phenomenon.

It takes in businesses from manufacturing to finance, from food to hotels, from pharmaceuticals to fashion. It includes first-, second- and third-generation achievers. It provides the definitive guide to ‘who’s who’ in the Asian business world.

At the end of The Producers, Mel Brooks asks ‘where did we go right?’ Spinder Dhaliwal asked herself the same question at the start of this book. If the results of these entrepreneurs were achieved in decades full of challenge and controversy, the past few years have been no different: sluggish economic growth, stock market uncertainty and question marks about the housing market provide the starkest of economic backdrops to this compendium of Asian success.

Through case studies and analysis of both personal and business issues, Spinder illustrates the triumphs and challenges facing these individuals, how disasters were overcome and how they fought against the odds to be outstanding role models for anyone interested in business or making money. She tells a story of grit and determination to succeed, and draws out the lessons so anyone, whether budding or existing entrepreneurs, Asian or not, can learn from these amazing individuals.

If nothing else, this book is testament to the diversity of Asian talent in the UK. As well as diversity there is also change. Perhaps the era of the privately owned Asian business is coming to an end. These businesses have raised millions in new capital despite the harshest of climates and some, like Cobra Beer, continue to work towards the aim of floating on the stock market.

Featured entrepreneurs include:

• Shami Ahmed and family (Juice Corporation)
• Surinder Arora (Arora Group)
• Lord Karan Bilimoria (Cobra)
• Dinesh Dhamija (Ebookers.com)
• Firoz Kassam (Firoka Group)
• Dr Kartar Lalvani (Vitabiotics)
• Sir Gulam Kaderboy Noon (Noon Products)
• Vijay and Bhikhu Patel (Waymade Healthcare)
• Lord Swraj Paul (Caparo group)
• Professor Nathu Ram Puri (Purico Group)
• Perween Warsi (S&A Foods)

Dr Spinder Dhaliwal is a recognised and leading expert in her field. She has written extensively about the Asian business community and compiles Britain’s Richest Asians in Success magazine for Eastern Eye reflecting her long held interest in the field.
She wrote the influential study 'Silent Contributors – Asian Female Entrepreneurs and Women in Business” which highlighted this important, yet often neglected, issue. Her report for Barclays Bank entitled, ‘Asian entrepreneurs in the UK’ received global attention.

Spinder knows all about the challenges of the Asian entrepreneur from first hand experience. Her parents, who came to the UK from the Punjab in the 1960s, ran a corner shop in which Spinder balanced the demands of a busy family business with high academic achievement.

She has been a regular contributor to the Asian media and, in the past few years, has become an increasingly influential figure in more mainstream circles. She was the founder and director of the Centre for Asian Entrepreneurial Research and is a Board Member of the Institute of Small Business and Enterprise. Spinder is also invited to address audiences as a speaker, is a freelance writer and helps major organisations target and understand the Asian community.