Planes, Trains & Auto-rickshaws

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
• Top trend predictions for Christmas 2021
• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

I have just come back from India – and what can only be described as the most exhausting holiday of my life!

Fascinating and interesting, but also very tiring. I would love to tell you that I was sourcing new products over there, but I wasn’t. It was a holiday, so I was putting into practice the lessons from my last blog about going away and leaving our businesses to others, who will hopefully benefit from the additional responsibility. It was great – I hardly thought about the business whilst I was away.

It was a culinary adventure as well. Before I went away the thought of curry every day for two weeks filled me with glee, but it eventually got to the point where even after a shower the curry smell seemed to be coming out of every pore of my body, so I made some adjustments to my diet. The inevitable Delhi-belly did, of course, help in this direction!

As I am sure many of you know, most curries over there are vegetarian, so I was pining for some decent meat after a while as well. The cheapest meal I found (with a soft drink and seconds and thirds included) came to a total of 60p, which was a little extreme! Overall, the food was very cheap and, on the whole, absolutely delicious.

Apart from the very obvious poverty in what is now the world’s fastest growing economy, the main thing that strikes you about India is the extreme busyness and frenetic pace of everything, combined with the noise and smells. Many people work for themselves and are therefore highly motivated and determined to do well. This makes life for a westerner tiring because as you are continuously the target of their sales efforts, whether they be the chai wallahs on the train, the rickshaw drivers or the innumerable saree shop owners. I didn’t even think I would suit a saree!

On the plane on the way home, my thoughts turned to the Speciality & Fine Food Fair this weekend – the main annual jamboree for our industry. I began to picture Olympia as an Indian bazaar. Slightly bizarre, I know, but I began to compare the determination in India to that of exhibitors at Olympia. How much more would we sell if we knew our next meal depended on it?

I wonder sometimes whether half the people exhibiting at these shows actually want to be there. Some of them look so disinterested and bored they may as well go home. Come on, we have some great businesses in this sector and some fantastic products – let’s sell them with enthusiasm. I would rather my sales team be accused of being slightly pushy than disinterested any day!
Have a good show!