Live 24-Seven - Spotlight On Business
Birmingham has so many assets but do you see anything in particular that is a jewel in the crown? It’s such a big beast… …Its diversity perhaps? Yes, it’s a combination of where it is geographically, we’ve never really exploited that, and also we have such a diverse community here. If you look back at immigration in the UK, when people immigrate to a new country they’re full of hope and fear in equal proportions, as they don’t know what will happen, and I keep asking myself why they land or a lot of them stay within the Midlands. Of course jobs was the first reason, but the Midlands already had a strong work ethic, a family approach, today we’re not very good about talking ourselves up, we talk ourselves down, so I think a lot of humble people from around the world land here – Irish, Indian, Jewish, Greek and I think that hard work ethic is at the core of it. Then of course you have all the stats around size, scale, population, so we’ve got a lot of assets. I think if we have a flaw it’s that we don’t promote the assets, we need someone like you in the same way you’ve built your Live 24-Seven brand. You’ve been more successful in promoting that than we have in promoting our region. Thank you! The reason being that we have a Chamber, the Tech, we used to have AWM and we have Birmingham Future, Marketing Birmingham… if that was my business would I have 20 marketing departments with 20 budgets, 20 brands and 20 messages? I’d scrap the lot, put everything under one umbrella and get an expert to head it. I’d have an ambassadorial board with people like Lord Digby Jones, Crabtree and others who could advise it and I’d have one message going out of here,
I wouldn’t want to be the second city in the UK, I don’t like coming second, I would use the word ‘greatest’, we’re the greatest city in the UK, and tell people why, the heritage, the history etc. I think there is a big marketing job to bring together Greater Birmingham with one identity and message. I think Sir Albert Bore, Neil Rami, Paul Kehoe, Andy Street, Jerry Blackett are doing a great job, but their efforts are compromised by the lack of a single, synchronised identity and message.
You’re a significant employer, where do you stand on the education versus experience debate? There’s room for both – it’s as simple as that. Although, having brought my own children up, I would encourage them to put the education in the bank and then you can go off and do whatever you want to, so two or three years educating yourself and have a bit of fun, because afterwards, there’s not too much time to have fun.
Which three words would best describe you? Very fair, very direct and very misunderstood. Fair and direct are fairly self-explanatory, and when I’m direct I’m very nice with it, I never raise my voice or have a tantrum. The misunderstood bit is that people assume people like me are aggressive, self-centred, a tyrant, obsessive, difficult, materialistic… I’m none of those. I’m just a normal bloke who’s got a wife and kids. I worry about my weight, my fitness, about the kids growing up, just very normal.
Do the ‘Rich List’ entries amuse you? Annoy you…? They’re just a nonsense, an absolute nonsense. Firstly, I don’t think it’s right that anyone should discuss people’s private wealth publicly, secondly they don’t realise some of the aggravation that some people listed end up getting. I suspect that half the information in those lists is fabricated. I’m not a fan of them and never in my life have I given anybody any financial information, so where they get it from I don’t know.
What would people be most surprised to find out about you? I’m very religious. I’m a devout Sikh. I don’t wear a turban etc., but I’m very religious, although Sikhism is more a philosophy than a religion. It teaches tolerance, understanding, community, it’s about fearing nobody else, respecting
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