Kavita Oberoi

Until last year Kavita Oberoi was a relatively anonymous – if successful – businesswoman and property investor, employing 25 people at the smallish healthcare IT business she founded in Derby in 2001.

Then she said “yes” the second time a researcher from the Channel 4 series Secret Millionaire (in which entrepreneurs spend a week incognito in a deprived area before making donations to local causes they consider worthy) invited her to appear on the show. Now, a year on, she is represented by Max Clifford’s PR team and has taken her fi rst steps into the world of entrepreneur-as-celebrity.

A former medical representative with pharmaceutical giant Bayer, she started her business, Oberoi Consulting, after missing out on a promotion and fi nding her face didn’t fi t at various job interviews.

“I’d been told that I didn’t fit the mould for a leader, I wouldn’t be motivational, I’d be too autocratic etc etc,” she recalls.

Was she too autocratic? Is she still? “I am certainly getting better,” she says. “I think being an entrepreneur you have certain traits and you want to have control and you don’t want to let go. But I have certainly calmed down since the programme – I think it has made me come down a few notches in terms of being completely driven all the time.”

Following her appearance on the show, which was filmed in the Ladywood area of Birmingham, Oberoi made two donations. One of these was £25,000 to a project aimed at working with underprivileged teenage girls – Sisters With Voices – of which Oberoi has since become a director.

Her second donation acquired permanent premises for Karis Neighbour, a project set up by a local group of doctors, nurses and health visitors concerned about helping vulnerable patients.

Having turned down an approach to appear in the programme’s first series – “I didn’t know whether it was good to do or not” – Oberoi says Channel 4’s second try was perfectly timed.

She explains, “I’d just been out to Mumbai the month before and I was really inspired by a woman out there who had set up a national spastics society because 35 years ago she had gone over to India with a daughter who is disabled, and she was really horrifi ed that her daughter had no right to education. So she stayed out there, changed policy, and her own daughter has just qualifi ed with a double MA from Oxford.

“So when I came back I thought ‘Oh my God, how amazing that she’s done this and all I’ve done is make money – there must be something else I can get involved in.’”

So she appeared on the show, an experience which – as well as leading to various philanthropic pursuits – she says has improved her management style: “I think you just go through some selfrealisation.

“I remember the director saying something like, ‘When you go back are you going to continue to bark at your staff?’ And I’m thinking, ‘I don’t do that.’

“What else have I brought back to the business? Obviously we’re now looking at getting everybody involved in corporate social responsibility.”

In fact, over the last couple of months the company has been letting local start-up businesses use its conference and meeting rooms free-of-charge and, Oberoi says, she is “really passionate” about helping start-ups and women in business.

She also runs workshops and provides coaching for start-ups, though these services come with a charge.

When she was on the Secret Millionaire Oberoi says she decided to make donations to projects rather than individuals because, “There’s so much money that is needed everywhere, and I wanted the minimum amount of money to have the maximum impact. So I wanted to be able to give it to an organisation where then they could affect so many other people.”

And would she also have felt queasy about playing the role of mysterious fairy godmother to individuals?

“Yeah,” she says. “With the programme I was always wondering, ‘Do people know, do people know?’ I think it just makes it more diffi cult. I just wanted my donations to impact a lot of people.

“And perhaps it lives on. It’s brilliant that Karis have actually got a building – now that’s there forever. Do you know what I mean? I wanted it to be long-lasting.”

And what about entrepreneurship? Is Oberoi one of those entrepreneurs who believes that anybody can do it – and does that extend to the people she met on the show?

She says, “For me it’s definitely in the genes but I think, yes, with the right coaching and attitude I do believe it’s possible.

“Obviously I’ve met people on Secret Millionaire who had the same passions and desires as me. I saw some people who were driven, they had the same visions as I have, but they just didn’t have the opportunities.”

So it’s more “anybody could” than “anybody can” become an entrepreneur?

“Yes,” she replies. “Absolutely.”