The UK Maharajahs Inside the South Asian Success Story

Citation

Vinten, G. (2000), "The UK Maharajahs Inside the South Asian Success Story", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 15 No. 8, pp. 439-439. https://doi.org/10.1108/maj.2000.15.8.439.1

What do a famous jeans manufacturer, the largest supplier of Asian food to Sainsbury’s and British Airways and an amateur investor who twice won the Sunday Times Fantasy Fund Manager competition and has just launched his own unit trust have in common? They are all part of the UK Maharajahs. There is a tiger economy within Britain, a wealth‐creating economy of fast and accelerating growth, worth £5bn a year. Who is behind this? Where are they from? What are the secrets of their success?

The business tycoons – The UK Maharajahs – who are at the cutting edge of that economy are not often houshold names, though the goods and services they produce are. In The UK Maharajahs, Ram Gidoomal CBE offers a fascinating insight into these South Asian entrepreneurs – often shadowy and private people – who control vast wealth and who will have a major influence on the UK into the next millennium. He analyses why this community has produced so many millionaires and billionaires, explores how they are spending their money, and reveals their plans for the future.

Advisor to government ministers, statutory bodies and think tanks, Gidoomal goes behind the scenes to show the real personalities and their backgrounds. After many hours of in‐depth interviews with successful entrepreneurs, he sheds fascinating light on how and why they have succeeded, (often against the odds), on their family background, business philosophy, humanitarian and social welfare work and much more, with such figures as:

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  Shami Ahmed – manufacturer of the legendary Joe Bloggs jeans;

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  Gulam Noon – supplier of Asian food to clients like Sainsbury’s and British Airways;

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  Jayesh Manek – the amateur investor who stunned the city by twice winning the Sunday Times Fantasy Fund Manager competition and is now a successful fund manager;

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  Bharat Desai of Syntel, planning massive inward investment in the UK;

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  Azad Shivdasani – chairman of the Inlaks Group with global interests ranging from seafoods and tea estates to laser technology, who here gives his first published interview;

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  Manubhai Madhvani – whose UK‐centred family business accounts for around 12 per cent of Uganda’s tax revenue.

The UK Maharajahs deals not only with wealth, but also with influence, covering for example:

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  Berjis Jal Daver – who took Ladbroke’s to market dominance and is an influential participant in government think tanks and statutory bodies;

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  His Honour Judge Mota Singh – whose path to the Bench echoes many classic South Asian entrepreneurial characteristics.

These, and more, are the UK Maharajahs. Ram Gidoomal believes passionately that the South Asian community in the UK is not represented in national affairs proportionately to its presence and significance. In this book he celebrates – but sounds warnings. He argues that there are fault‐lines in the seemingly invincible wall of UK South Asian prosperity. He suggests that success might turn to catastrophe – unless government, business and individuals commit to building success on success. It was my privilege to share a time on the Council of the Royal Society of Arts with Ram, and this is a significant book dealing with a subject often unknown and which now for the first time has had the lid taken off.

Royalties from the sale of this book are being donated to charity