Episode 19 - Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE DL

The Centre for Army Leadership Podcast

In the latest episode of the Centre for Army Leadership Podcast, we are honoured to speak to Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE DL, founder of Cobra Beer and current chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Ltd. Lord Kahran reflects on his entrepreneurial journey, from his early days selling polo sticks to Harrods through to starting Cobra Beer in a small flat in London whilst at university. He tells us how good entrepreneurs are creative and innovative, emphasising that they have to have guts and take calculated risks. He highlight that it is about putting ideas into action and sticking with it when others may have given up. Lord Bilimoria discusses moments of luck in his career, describing luck as "where determination meets opportunity". He discusses his experience of leading through a crisis and tells us how he has nearly lost Cobra Beer three times, sharing the invaluable lessons he has learnt from the experience. Finally, he discusses the need for collaboration between government and industry and highlights the need to "build forward together".