Cobra Beers founder Lord Karan Bilimoria became the first Parsi Zoroastrian to be appointed to the House of Lords in 2006. He launched Cobra Beer in 1989 and has brought it back from the brink three times over the years, finally securing its future by going into to a joint venture with the global brewer Molson Coors.
In 2014, Bilimoria was appointed chancellor at the University of Birmingham, making him the first Indian-born person to hold that post at a Russell Group university. He also served as president of the Confederation of British Industry from 2020 to 2022, and has joined every prime minister-led delegation to India in the past 20 years.
What was growing up like, and how has your culture shaped you as a person?
I was born in Hyderabad into a Zoroastrian Parsi family, the son of an army general, and grew up moving frequently because of my father’s postings. We lived partly in my mother’s ancestral home in Hyderabad, but over time I attended seven different schools, including the Hyderabad Public School and finally was sent to boarding school in the Nilgiris, a British international school, Hebron School.
That itinerant childhood taught me adaasptability — to make new friends quickly, to find continuity in change, and to bring yourself along wherever you go.
My Parsi heritage also endowed me with a strong sense of community, duty, integrity, and entrepreneurship. I inherited stories of enterprise from my forebears. My maternal great‑grandfather was a businessman and a member of the Rajya Sabha [Upper House in India’s parliament]. My paternal side had an eminent military tradition; my grandfather was among the first Indians to be commissioned from [Royal Military Academy] Sandhurst, and my father’s career culminated in him becoming commander-in-chief of the Central Indian Army.
All of this framed in me a conviction that one must aspire, that enterprise is a legitimate calling and that integrity and resilience (especially in adversity) are non-negotiable.
Over and again I have found that the values learnt in youth — humility, perseverance, adapting to multiple cultures and settings — continue to anchor me in business and public life.
What did your parents make of your professional achievements?
My parents were supportive in their own way, though not always enthusiastic in the early days. I’ve often said that when I began Cobra Beer, my family were sceptical — entrepreneurship in India at the time was sometimes looked on with suspicion.
Back then, “entrepreneurs were seen as second‑hand car salesmen”; families and societies expected stable careers over risk. But over time — as the business succeeded, survived crises, and made social and philanthropic contributions — I believe their pride grew. Success has its way of shifting perspectives.
My father, having himself lived a life of service and discipline, would have valued honour, reputation and responsibility more than raw financial returns. What matters is that the work is meaningful, sustainable, respectful and helps others in its orbit.
In later years, I sense they would have seen that our achievements were not just about beer, but about building institutions, contributing to society, bridging the UK and India, and offering pathways to others. That would have met their approval more than anything.
What challenges did you face in your career and how did you overcome them?
There have been many, and some near-death experiences for the business. Let me pick out a few.
When we launched Cobra Beer, we were heavily in debt — I once had some £20,000 in student debt. We lacked capital, had to rely on overdrafts, preference shares, small business investment schemes, personal guarantees — the usual entrepreneurial levers. We literally delivered beer from the boot of a battered Citroën 2CV called ‘Albert’ to Indian restaurants in London. Overcoming that meant being frugal, creative, persistent, relentlessly building relationships and iterating the business model until things clicked.
The beer industry is ancient, consolidated, with powerful heritage brands. Breaking in required finding a niche: Cobra’s angle was to create a beer that had the refreshing quality of a lager and the smoothness of an ale — particularly suited to accompanying food, especially Indian cuisine. That differentiation, though, had to be proven, marketed and trusted. Also, scaling into pubs, bars, export markets and retail requires huge capital, distribution networks, sales and marketing.
The business nearly failed three times. The worst moment came in 2009 during the financial crisis when Cobra went through a painful restructuring, which led to a joint venture with Molson Coors, who took a 50.1% stake; a restructuring that allowed the business to survive. Getting through that required tough decisions, rallying stakeholders (creditors, investors, employees) around a credible plan, maintaining faith in the brand and guiding the company through reorganisation.
Partnering with Molson Coors brought enormous strength — scale, distribution, capital — but also large-organisation processes. Balancing entrepreneurial speed with corporate discipline was an ongoing challenge.
As a peer in the House of Lords and as president of the CBI, I have had to juggle business, public roles and scrutiny during the worst global crisis since World War II, the Covid pandemic and also the start of the Ukraine war. How did I overcome them? By holding fast to core values: integrity, resilience, humility, continuous learning. By assembling strong teams, being open to advice, delegating responsibility and staying close to the ground so I understood real challenges, not just boardroom abstractions.
Also by being bold, having an entrepreneurial spirit — sometimes risking more when it seemed impossible — but mitigating risk by hedging, having fallback plans. And finally, by adapting — if you don’t evolve, you die.
What is the one key piece of advice you have for people starting out in their career today?
Don’t let fear of failure stop you — start small, test, learn fast, iterate and scale organically. Too often, people believe they need perfect certainty before starting; but perfection is an illusion. Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement. Build credibility and gradually stretch your reach. Integrity is non-negotiable — your reputation is your most precious asset, and if it is lost, nothing else matters.
Success rarely comes overnight, so work hard, persistently, and with humility, knowing that most triumphs are the result of many small steps. Stay open to opportunity and innovation, as ideas can emerge in the most unexpected places if you keep your mind active and receptive.
Above all, build relationships and trust, because business is ultimately a human endeavour, and the network you nurture often opens doors that capital alone cannot.