In all the interviews, recordings and TV shows that I’ve seen him in there’s just something about Karan Bilimoria that makes you think he’s a really nice chap and a smart one too, so I was excited when I heard about this book, I was looking forward to hearing his experiences of starting Cobra and reading about the lessons he learned along the way. The fact that I rather like Cobra’s product, especially their alcohol free beer, might have had something to do with it too.

Sadly when it arrived I saw that it’s by Karan Bilimoria with Steve Coomber suggesting Bilimoria himself didn’t actually write the book, the acknowledgements also thank a Dominic Midgley for writing the foundation of the book. There’s nothing wrong with that, many autobiographies are written by ghost writers and there’s no reason a business biography shouldn’t be, it’s just that in this case I feel the book has suffered for it, it no longer feels authentic. It doesn’t help that Bilimoria is continually referred to in the third person further distancing him from the book. As a result it took me weeks to read this book and I’d normally read a book like this in a day or two.

Bottled for Business is an unusual book, it is part business biography and part business guide, a format that works well, with the anecdotes providing an insight into Cobra Beer and Bilimoria. Included throughout the book are a number of “Cobra Comments” which are mini interviews with people involved in the Cobra story, they are a nice touch and help to give some perspective to the story. Unfortunately the use of Cobra branding images as backgrounds on each page rapidly gets annoying as it makes it harder to actually read what’s on the page.

Bilimoria was a 27 year old law graduate with student debts of £20,000 when he had the idea for Cobra Beer, today the business is valued at over £100 million and is sold in 45 countries. Along the way Bilimoria has made mistakes and learned from them, as all good entrepreneurs do, these mistakes are described in the book along with the lessons he has learned from them. Many of these lessons are summarised as Karan’s Business Tips.

Overall it’s a good book with some good lessons for the aspiring entrepreneur, although I personally didn’t enjoy reading it anywhere near as much as say Richard Branson’s Losing My Virginity or Duncan Bannatyne’s Anyone Can Do It.

You can buy it from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

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