Zoroastrians tagged posts

November 18, 2014,  Brand marketing, News  No comments

Back in 1989 I joined the BBC in London and was very fortunate to have met my beautiful wife Fenella who then worked as the executive assistant to the Head of BBC World Service Training.

I often tell friends that joining the BBC was the best thing I ever did in my life and I was incredibly lucky to have found someone as wonderful as Fenella who also turned out to be a Parsi! With a small community of around 5,000 in the UK and just 80,000 globally, the odds-on meeting the girl of my dreams who was also Parsi was not high, to say the least!

Years later, when I entered the PR agency world, it appeared that my impending marriage became a national news story here in the UK!

So it...

October 13, 2014,  Thought Leadership  No comments

Actively valuing diversity and managing inclusion is the hallmark of a successful global organisation – irrespective of its size or whether it’s commercial, voluntary or part of Government.

Diversity matters because in order for such organisations to reach levels of world-class performance, they must embrace a wide range of attitudes, values, beliefs, perceptions and behaviours and not just of those that are employed by them but also those that are shared by the communities that they seek to serve.

Research on both sides of the Atlantic tends to show that social inclusion in the way described isn’t a libertarian ideal but actually makes good business sense.

I was remind...

August 15, 2014,  Guru in a Bottle, Thought Leadership  No comments

There’s a view that companies are built to do only three things: make profits, pay taxes and obey the law.

The rest is window dressing.

Well, those managers who subscribed to that point of view are probably now retired as the business world is increasingly being expected to take a lead role by its customers, clients and employees in making a net contribution to society rather than simply taking as much as it can for the benefit of its shareholders.

Zoroastrian philosophy

This enlightened self-interest isn’t anything new.

I belong to a tiny ethnic group – the Parsees – whose most famous export is in fact one of the most successful organisations in the world...

June 7, 2014,  Brand marketing, Guru in a Bottle, Sales practice  No comments

Cobra Beer is one of the fastest selling beverages in its category and is to be found in over 98% of all Indian restaurants in the UK.

But without the tenacity of its founder Karan Bilimoria, it could so easily have been a very different story.

Prime Minister David Cameron recently paid a visit to to the brewery in Burton-on-Trent in the West Midlands and Lord Bilimoria advises the PM on Anglo-India relationships.

As a small businessman, Lord Bilimoria understands first-hand what it feels like to take risks as well as borrow money to finance a venture that requires substantial capital but that has phenomenal prospects of being hugely successful.

Lord Bilimoria survived a “pre...

December 27, 2013,  Events  One comment

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the East and have come to worship him.’ ” Matthew 2:1-2.

The Three Wise Men have been written into history for following a star are as much a mystery as is exactly what it was they saw over 2,000 years ago: A mystery upon which modern day scholars and astronomers are working to shed light.

In all likelihood, these Magi were Zoroastrian priests following the star from the eastern Babylonian settlement.

Many cultures looked to the stars for direction—not just horoscope type of stuff—...