“My Executive MBA thesis at Oxford concerned the regeneration of old British luxury brands, how they were adapting to compete. I studied Burberry’s success in repositioning itself, and wondered whether other old British brands could replicate that success.

Doing the Oxford Executive MBA made me realise that I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, and that I could run a business like this.

When I looked at Norton & Sons it was clear that the business wasn’t making enough of its heritage and wasn’t innovating. The firm had a rich history spanning nearly 200 years, they were selling some great clothes, and were very lucky to have great team of tailors but the management had lost their passion. Norton & Sons was a great old firm that had been allowed to go off the boil.

It would have been hard for me to buy and run this business without the Executive MBA and the network at Oxford. Norton’s has a small team of craftsmen who cut and sew the suits. I do everything else: the accounts; management of the operation; marketing and PR; the branding; and the financing. To make the acquisition, I raised a mixture of debt and the equity; I put the plan together and sold it to investors. Even whilst closing the deal, I was getting ideas from the Business School on how to value the business. And two of my investors are people to whom I got connected directly through the Saïd Business School.”