18 entrepreneurs
Customer service at the heart of Centerprise’s success
As the son of a former Prime Minister of Iraq, Rafi Razzak grew up with ambitions to be a pilot. Instead however, he followed a more academic path, winning a scholarship to study in the UK and eventually joining IBM, which served as his entrée into the emerging world of personal computers. Spotting an opportunity, he set up his own business in 1983 and, after a highly successful three decades, last year Centerprise International celebrated its 30th anniversary. With its HQ in Basingstoke and a manufacturing facility in Wales, the business has a turnover of around £70 million and, including both permanent and temporary staff, employs more than 250 people. Among his many accolades, Razzak has been voted Personality of the Year at the CRN Channel Awards 2013, and was recently named on the PCR Brit List as one of the 50 most influential people in tech. Alison Dewar went to meet him
Born in Iraq in 1949, Razzak was a high-achiever at school, securing the opportunity to study for his A Levels in the UK – a trip that saw him exchange his home country for Dudley in the West Midlands. Describing himself as “starved” of city life, he headed to the bright lights of London for his university degree, gaining a BSc honours in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from Imperial College, London. His first job was with the Central Electricity Generating Board, before he joined IBM as an engineer, working primarily on control system computers for the oil industry. A visit to Taiwan in the early 1980s opened his eyes to the future of the PC market and on return he set up Centerprise International, originally called Tulips Enterprise. Today, he shows no sign of slowing down and, when he’s not actually working he’s busy supporting the local business community and his beloved Basingstoke Town Football Club, where his ambition is to see them safely installed in a new ground. Married to Becky, he lives in Upper Basildon, near Pangbourne, and has two sons, Adam and Ramsey, both of whom work for Centerprise.
days, IBM only employed people under 20, they would give you a market to look after and every year you would be judged on performance. They wanted you to do well, but not to exceed 100% growth because it could impact on market expectations for the company the following year. I never understood that – I always wanted to do more. I was there eight or nine years and I got to the point where I could clearly see where I would be in another 20 years. I wanted to be more adventurous than that, so I left to set up on my own.
What happened next?
It must have been a culture shock to swop Iraq for the West Midlands. Tell us more.
I think the scholarship organisers tried to send us somewhere where we wouldn’t be distracted by the bright city lights. I really struggled with the accent at first and also the school culture was very different. In Iraq teachers were highly respected, you stood up when you spoke to them – my fellow pupils laughed at me when I did that.
Was London more your style?
Imperial was a fantastic university, I loved life there on campus and it was certainly more of a challenge academically.
What were some of the highlights of your early career?
Joining IBM was probably one of the best experiences and then again, it was probably the best thing to leave them as well. In those early
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I soon found that without the infrastructure and support of the IBM brand, people didn’t want to see me any more. It was quite a big step to move from a corporate environment to my own business but it was a good experience to learn from. Suddenly you’re thrown in the deep end and there are no rules, it was quite a culture shock.
We started what was originally called Tulips Enterprise with share capital of £100,000; we put in our savings and other friends and family contributed. It did scare me at first and for the first two years I didn’t pay myself a salary.
One very influential contact I knew from my IBM days offered me a job. When I said no because I was starting my own business, he wanted to buy some shares. He put in £21k and a few years ago they were worth £1m plus, so he had a pretty good return.
How did you spot the emerging PC market?
When I first started, I was fed up with IT and I wanted to do something simple, so I sold consumables – ribbons, paper, diskettes and became a major distributor. After a year or so I was
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2014
bored with it and around 1985 I began looking at the Taiwanese phenomenon of copying personal computers. I brought over the components and began building computers.
Business was quite slow and it was only two years later that I was able to sit down with the people I employed and say to them that even if we didn’t have another single penny coming into the business, I could pay them for the next six months. I always had a fear of failure so that was very important to me. It meant I could sleep at night.
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