Guest Post By Mike Southon - This is my column that will feature in Saturday’s Financial Times, which can be found in the entrepreneurship pages of the Money section. You can also find my columns on the FT web site here: http://www.ft.com/mikesouthon

You can listen to my free and full length podcast interview with Asif here:
http://www.beermat.biz/all-podcasts.php

What have burger buns, student accommodation and powerboat racing in common? The answer is that they are all enterprises started by serial entrepreneur Asif Rangoonwala.

A portfolio career like this is the dream of many of the entrepreneurs that I meet, especially those that are naturally creative. To them it makes perfect sense; they find something new that interests them almost every day. Their plan is to start as many businesses as possible, on the basis that one of them will make them a millionaire.

When mentoring creative people I do my best to provide them some focus; they should concentrate on one business at a time, and employ some very tried and tested business practices, following Rangoonwala’s example. He clearly started in the right place, with the right background. He grew up in Pakistan where his father was a serial entrepreneur with many different businesses. Rangoonwala studied at schools in Europe and so developed an international perspective, even if, like many entrepreneurs, he was not best suited to the academic life.

It was naturally expected that he would join one of the family businesses, so he found himself in Malaysia as CEO of a bulk liquid storage company and discovered some important lessons early on, centred on reliability, trust and honesty.

In his 20s and early 30s he had several roles in different countries, including the UK and Hong Kong, even driving a taxi at one time. There were always opportunities in the family businesses, but it was one that was turned away that caught his eye – burger buns.

Rangoonwala jokes that he was attracted to the business because of his fondness for fast food, but clearly there was much more to it than that. There was a market opportunity to address the rapidly-expanding food service business in Europe, and a way of storing dough for longer that would make good economic sense.

He needed funding, so went to the usual sources of capital, securing not the most advantageous terms. But his father saw that he was serious about this opportunity and bought out his initial investors, who departed happily with a quick return on their investment.

The rest, as they say, is history, and Rangoonwala’s company, Eurobuns, was acquired for a tidy sum earlier this year by Lantmännen Unibake, the frozen bread product supplier.

You would expect Rangoonwala’s next adventure to be in the food industry, where he had experience and contacts. But he had already become involved with the Swanbourne Group, which supplies purpose-built short-term student accommodation in the UK.

This model is based on continuing revenue, rather than appreciating long-term assets, unlike many property companies. I am sure this seemed like a poor model during the boom times. In these hard times when cash is king, it makes perfect sense.

He is also involved in P1, the powerboating version of Formula One. This business is clearly about timing; Formula One itself famously took a long time to become profitable, so it is useful that Rangoonwala knows how to play the long game.

The secret to his success is not about branding, like Virgin or Easy Group, who rigorously apply their brand consistently to whatever presses the buttons for Sir Richard Branson, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and their teams – there is little to link the three companies, other than the personal brand of Rangoonwala himself.

His success as an entrepreneur is not as the creator (he did not think up the ideas), but more in his skills as dealmaker and trader. He must be pitched new ideas every day, but only pursues ideas where a deal is to be made, and where there are likely to be a multitude of trades or transactions down the line. Dealmakers and traders are very grounded, they understand markets very well, and have the gift of timing, the ability to do the right thing at the right time.

This may seem to some like a novel way of doing business, but is how family businesses have worked since time immemorial. Reputation and trust is everything, and in a family business it is common to give a big opportunity to a young member, to see quickly if they have what it takes.

From there it is a natural progression to one day becoming the patriarch, mentor and philanthropist. Rangoonwala has his own charitable foundation, which provides vocational training, medical centres, libraries and other life-enhancing facilities for marginalised communities worldwide.

In this philanthropic activity he again follows the example of his father; as is often said, blood is thicker than water.

You can listen to my free and full length podcast interview with Asif here:
http://www.beermat.biz/all-podcasts.php

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If you would like to circulate this material, please contact Mike Southon: mike@beermat.biz