Car boss Paul Philpott can claim to have been on the best business trip ever –
on a flight to Verona he found himself sitting next to Kylie Minogue.
Alas, the pop princess did not exactly fall for his charms. “It was a British
Airways flight and I was slightly surprised to see her there, thinking she
might have her own private jet. I sort of stumbled out an ‘hello’ and ‘how
are the concerts?’, but she made it very clear she didn’t want to speak and
would rather sleep. But she was fine really; very small, but fine.”
Philpott, 42, is the managing director of Kia Motors UK. He has 130 staff
reporting to him and the firm is on course to sell 36,000 cars this year, up
from 30,000 last year. He travels to the company’s headquarters in Korea,
and to Japan and Frankfurt on business. He also visits dealers throughout
the UK.
What other trips stand out?
In Japan and Korea, karaoke is the main evening entertainment. You have a meal
and then you all go to the karaoke club. I’ve murdered a Bon Jovi classic a
few times, but I now tend to stick to The Beatles, Tom Jones and Frank
Sinatra, because they are the easiest. If pushed, my party piece is Delilah,
but My Way and Hey Jude are also worth a crack. When I took 30
dealers to a club, many of them said they would only watch, but the lure of
the microphone and stage was too much for them. The expectation there is
that everyone will have a go and it doesn’t matter how bad you are, they
just want you to take part. In fact, the worse the better, because if you
are too good they think you have been practising.
How bad are you?
Awful. I was once taken straight from an office in Japan to a karaoke club and
had to sing stone cold sober. It was then I realised quite how bad my voice
was.
Do any other trips stand out?
When we launch new cars, we usually take journalists somewhere warm and sunny
to try them out. We’ve recently taken three lots of 30 journalists to
Istanbul to test a new model, which was an exciting time. We stayed at the
Four Seasons, which was a converted prison, and let them loose in the new
cars. I had to come back early for a press conference and got totally lost
on my way back to Istanbul. I ended up going down a 1in 4 hill the wrong way
and getting stopped by a policeman. He took some cash off us, but I’m not
sure whether he actually booked us or just pocketed the money.
Which airline do you use to fly to Korea?
There’s not a lot of choice and we tend to go Korean
Air. I can’t speak highly enough of them, the service is outstanding. I
took 30 dealers with me on a recent flight and they said it was the best
service they had ever experienced on business class. The staff are attentive
without being subservient, and they are generally happy and always smiling.
The only criticism is that they do not have the flat beds, like British
Airways, and that does make a difference.
How do you pass the time on flights?
