Kavita Oberoi Interview by Bradley Chapman

Kavita Oberoi Interview

The Secret Millionaire – Interview by Heidi Weir

Kavita Oberoi is one of the UK’s most successful female entrepreneurs.She is probably best known for her appearance on The Secret Millionaire.

Since her appearance she has become a Director of one of the charities she supported on the show: Sisters with Voices, an eight week programme for disadvantaged young women which provides mentoring, coaching and activities to increase self confidence and life skills, and Kavita has now sold the programme into three schools and to the Sure Start scheme in Derby.

At the age of 38, Kavita runs her own multi-million pound Healthcare and IT consultancy which she started from scratch in 2001 and has a personal fortune of over £10 million. She spotted a gap in the market for IT training and business consulting and she quickly won a large contract and by August of 2001, demand for her services had become so great that she established Oberoi Consulting. The business now provides IT training to more than one in five GP practices across the country.

Kavita, I’ve heard you believe that you got your entrepreneurial spirit from your dad, can you tell me a little bit more about why you think that?

My father came over to England in the 1960s and he was a very smart man. He pretended that he knew how to fit bathrooms, he just watched a plumber do it and off the back of this he set up a very successful plumbing and heating business. He called the rest of the family over to do the manual work so that he could concentrate on the thinking. That business has now gone 3rd generation. At one point we lived above the shop where the plumbing and heating retail business was based and I used to go down from the age of 2 and sit in the office for hours playing on the phone and the typewriter. My father would to take me with him when he went to see his clients so I think I had some very early training.

So what was it like growing up?

I came from a traditional Asian background. The premise really was that girls shouldn’t work and shouldn’t be educated. My sister got married very early, she had an arranged marriage when she was 19 as was the case with most of the girls in family. My mother was brilliant, she really empowered me. I wanted to do more, for example, I wanted to attend after school activities; Ballet and Tap, she’d sneak me out, not let my father know so that I could do those things. Had it not been for her I would never have been able to have gone on and completed my degree. My father died when I was 15, shortly after I wanted to go out to work and I got a Saturday job in a shop, my mum and myself received some backlash because it wasn’t the ‘done’ thing. I fought this with the backing of my mother and then went on to go to university. I used to have to commute everyday because I wasn’t allowed to formally go away so I stayed at home and travelled an hour and a half each way every single day. I think after I achieved that, I almost became a trailblazer and now it’s opened the way for mother family members who have all had an education and mare working.

Do you think that because you were pushing the boundaries from an early age it helped you when it came to business?

I think it certainly has helped, I’ve always been quite driven, I’ve always wanted to achieve and do better and like you say; push the boundaries so I probably had a lot of confidence and drive at the point of starting my business. I am a really focussed person so I knew what I was going to do and I knew that I was able to do it.

You started off working for a large pharmaceutical business where you were comfortable and successful so what on earth possessed you to take the first steps in launching your business by going freelance?

I got to the point in my career where I wanted promotion so I went through the interview process and missed out. I was absolutely devastated because I felt I had earned it, I had been so successful in my current role and this was a job in management. The feedback I was given was that I wouldn’t be a good leader and I wouldn’t be motivational. It was a real set back and I actually started to go for interviews with other companies, that’s when the realisation dawned on me; I could do the same thing for another company for another 8-9 years for them to tell me that I wasn’t good enough when I knew that I was. I had built up a lot of skills whilst working for the pharmaceutical company and I worked out that I would probably have to work 3 or 4 days to be able to have the same take-home pay per week and I knew that I would be able to do that.

Was there ever a time that you faced such adversity that you just wanted to give up?

I think it was difficult when I first started. I got a large contract with the pharmaceutical company and had to put it on hold at one point. It was going to get so much bigger and it seemed that it went on for months and months before we got the approval to really take it to a massive level. So, I’ve never wanted to give up but most entrepreneurs are really impatient and want everything today to happen now.

Can you talk me through the journey you’ve taken from Employment to Freelancer, to launching your business and where it’s taken you?

I had built a lot of skills and I had a real passion for computers and I knew the primary care market. Whilst I was working for the pharmaceutical company there were some guidelines that were launched on the treatment of heart disease which affected the GPs that I was visiting at the time. I’d found that they were very good clinically but they really used to struggle when it came to IT. Some GPs were having trouble identifying their patients on their computer systems, so I self taught myself the systems and I would run lists off which the doctors could use to start calling in patients for treatment. As the same time as I’d gone on my own a colleague of mine had gone to another very big pharmaceutical company and they asked me to do a trial in their area. The trial was so successful that the marketing department called me in and literally handed me a £250K contract!

Being of Asian background and choosing an IT based business, you’ve obviously faced some real challenges; what do you feel has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a woman in business?

I don’t really see myself as a ‘woman in business’ like it somehow makes us deprived. I think at the end of the day, if you’ve got the skills and the knowledge and you know your subject area, it doesn’t matter if you are a woman or a man. I think women are more tenacious as they almost have more to prove because they don’t want to be seen as a failure, they spend their time managing so many roles but I think that makes us stronger.

The biggest challenge that I’ve faced is; staffing, recruitment, motivation, developing people and letting go because most entrepreneurs are very controlling so actually letting go of things and letting other people deliver can be very hard. Sometimes you have to allow your results to come through others and give people the chance to learn from their mistakes. There is also a balance to be found because sometimes you can employ and develop people who may leave, I get very attached to my employees, I understand the importance of flexibility on working hours and the pressures that having a family brings. We have a really good team atmosphere so you don’t expect people to leave and when they do it can really hurt. For me the biggest challenge I face and have faced is recruitment, staff development and retention. We are in quite a niche market so we first of all struggle to even find the right people, I could easily employ another 10 people tomorrow if I could find the right individuals. To overcome this hurdle we try and work by word of mouth, when we work with GP practices we try to look for people there that may be looking to move on. We use agencies, we advertise, we explore every avenue to recruit the right people but it is a real gamble. It’s costly, it’s time-consuming and it’s definitely my biggest frustration.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to a business that is struggling right now?

I think it’s all about attitude and what you have to look at is not moving away from your core business but diversifying and re-packaging. I believe that recession is a good time for start-ups. Some of the most successful businesses started in a recession; Hewlett Packard, Disney… all started in a recession. I think you have to remain focussed and being in a difficult situation means that you learn some very important lessons. When you are cautious with money it’s not a bad thing because when the recession lifts your business will flourish, I think it’s all about the attitude.

If you were 18 again, would you do anything differently?

I think the only thing I’d do differently is the way I went about recruitment, staffing and employment contracts when I started my business. It has been a really big learning curve for me, I didn’t have any leadership skills and I’ve had to learn the hard way. I’ve used a mentor and a coach to help me, somebody who’s very experienced in that area, I think it’s good through networking with others to be able to find people. It’s important that you know what your weaknesses are so that you can try and work on them.

Knowing what you know now, if you were to go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

There’s so much more that you can achieve so always believe in your own potential. Some people are just happy where they are and some people will aim a lot higher. I would always advise that you aim a lot higher because you’ve got that ability in you. If somebody says you can’t do something, don’t listen because I was told I’d never be a leader or be able to motivate people and I have my own company now. I guess that gave me the fire inside that has made me achieve.

We talk a lot about ‘feeling the fear and doing it anyway’, what’s your biggest fear?

I think for most people in business when you have major contracts the fear is losing them and having to replace them. That is why I believe that it is so important to not become complacent and why we are always looking for new business.

Who’s been your biggest supporter – your rock along the way?

My mum has always been brilliant, she’s always encouraged me and been very supportive but I’m quite lucky in that I’m driven. My business is like my baby, I’ll keep going, I won’t stop.

If you woke up tomorrow and you’d lost everything over night, what would be the first thing you’d do?

Well obviously I’d start again. I would research the marketplace to find the needs. I went to Mumbai in India last year and there’s no begging out there, it was very interesting to see how the families are surviving and how it brings out your entrepreneurial spirit. For example on Valentine’s Day even the children make cards to sell because there’s a need. There’s no welfare system over there, so if you haven’t really got anything you have no choice but to go out and do it. In the slums they’d go and get the recycling from the 5 Star hotels and sell it on. The slums were generating around 750 million from this and now the government are trying to tap into that to get people out of the slums and re-house them but they don’t want to as they are doing absolutely phenomenal business. These are people with nothing really, if they can do it, what excuse has anybody else got.

Tell me a little about your business now and what the plans for the future are?

The Core business is clinical audit, what we do is we go into GP practices, gain projects through primary care trusts or a sponsor and we’ll work on different disease areas and help the doctors to identify the patients on mass and put a strategic plan together to recall the patients, so it’s all around the use of IT and healthcare. From a personal perspective I’m now investing in Commercial Property and also setting up conferencing and meeting rooms. We’re finding in this recession that more people need rooms and office space on short term leases so I’ve done a deal with a local developer to buying some commercial property, which most people right now would not be doing. I’m in a position where the banks will lend, the rates are low and I have a tenant for one of them already, the other I’m turning into a conferencing facility. These are both within walking distance of my current offices in Derbyshire.

How did you feel after doing ‘The Secret Millionaire’, the follow up and what was your reaction to it?

It was a really, really good experience, it was such an eye opener. I’m a director of Martha’s Oasis and we’re trying to nationalise The Sister’s with Voices programme, we’ve sold it into different schools so it’s been really, really good and it’s given me a different type of adrenalin rush than I get from the entrepreneur side.

Why did you decide to participate in the programme?

I actually turned it down when they first contacted me because it was a brand new series and I didn’t know if it would be positive or what it would be like. I think the major factor was when I visited Mumbai and was inspired by what I saw. I met this lady out there who set up the National Spastic Society 35 years ago, she had a daughter who was disabled and she was perturbed as her daughter had no rights to education. She was so angered that she went over there and changed policy. Her own daughter has now graduated from Oxford. It’s true that everyone should have the right to education. I found her really inspiring and when I came back out of the blue the phone call came for the second time and I thought this time I have to do it.

A lot of the women in the network want to see more success stories from women but it seems that there are less high profile women entrepreneurs than men, why do you think that is?

I think some of it is a confidence thing. Some women are hugely successful but they just don’t want to do anything on the PR side of things.

What do you think makes a successful entrepreneur in your eyes?

You just have to be very passionate about what you are doing, very focussed and determined and have a lot of selfbelief. If you have an idea, do not stop until you’ve achieved success.

You’re a successful business woman and obviously now you’re very involved in charity so what’s better; giving or receiving?

Whatever you give, you will get back ten-fold. That’s not just in terms or money but in terms of connections. Both organisations that I gave to on The Secret Millionaire I now work with. I have received back much more than I gave. If you give something (and it doesn’t have to be money, it can be time or passing on a connection) they will pass you on and you will benefit in the long term which is why I see the benefit in the Raw Business network.

Have you got a favourite saying or quote that you would share with our readers?

I think I would say; ‘Hard work leads to profit but mere talk leads to poverty’, I think that’s from The Bible but I remember somebody saying that and I thought that really ‘fits’ me.

Thank you to Kavita for her time, for her honesty and interest in our business. I would like to wish you, your business and the Sisters with Voices Programme all the success in the world.

For further information on Kavita please visit: www.kavitaoberoi.com and for information regarding her Healthcare and IT business please visit:

www.oberoi-consulting.com