Dr Spinder Dhaliwal, founder and director, Centre for Asian Entrepreneurial Research

• She's one of the UK's most active champions of Asian enterprise, not only as a lecturer in entrepreneurship at the University of Surrey, but as founder of the Centre for Asian Entrepreneurial Research (where advisors include Sir G K Noon and Lord Karan Bilimoria). She has also made a name for herself outside of academic circles, largely through compiling an Asian Rich List for Eastern Eye newspaper.

• She's seen significant change in five years: "Asian businesses are confidently moving from traditional sectors, such as textiles and manufacturing, to more high growth, high value, 'sexier' sectors such as IT and media." Two Asian families made the top 10 of The Sunday Times Rich List 2007.

• She could teach British business a thing or two: "Entrepreneurship is respected in the Asian community," says Dhaliwal. "It has a higher status than in the British community. There's dignity and self-respect in it, even if you're a shopkeeper." When the first wave of immigrants came to the UK, she continues, "doors were closed, so entrepreneurship was a way to make money and build assets."

• Her access to the Asian business community has helped her to identify other key success factors. "The family bond is strong—successful entrepreneurs with family values want the second and third generations to also do well," she says. "Asians are hard-working, very competitive, they constantly raise their standards and delay gratification. They spot an opportunity and go for the kill."

• She rails against the "tight-fisted" stereotype of Asian businesspeople: several entrepreneurs on her list may be thrifty but they are also "extremely generous with their time and money". Charitable and communal activity is, she says, good business practice.

• She takes pride in giving the Anglo-Asian community the exposure it deserves. "The list for me comes from the heart. It gives a higher status and more glamour to people than they'd otherwise have had. It's inspiring for others. They ask: 'Can it be repeated, this journey?'"

• She's been there: having worked "17-hour days behind the till" for her family's small business, she empathises with entrepreneurs. "I've seen the worst sides of entrepreneurship—the long hours, the struggle." But she thinks the environment for this generation of entrepreneurs is more conducive to success: "I wonder where my dad could have been with this support."