We have won plenty of business awards, and caused plenty more controversy in others. At the judging of the HSBC Start up Stars business awards, we were before a panel of tip-top business experts. A feminist quizzed us on the appropriateness of calling a beer ‘Trashy Blonde' and using the word ‘lesbian' in some of our promotional material. To which Martin responded;

‘I have nothing against lesbians at all, in fact I have some DVDs at home of just lesbians'. It went down like a lead balloon and we did not win this award.

The latest incident is perhaps the most bizarre. The Former President of Romania,  Emil Constantinescu accused BrewDog founder Martin Dickie of not sleeping with an international icon. The unfortunate chain of events began in June 2008 when James Watt was filling out a submission form for Entrepreneur of the Year at the Scottish National Business 2008 which we had been shortlisted for.

These forms often get a bit tedious and arduous and the questions are sometimes a bit trying, especially after a long day doing proper work. One of the questions slightly annoyed me; it was a longwinded one which involved the much maligned phrase ‘corporate social responsibility'. Young companies are about surviving, expanding and paying off debt, especially in the current financial climate. We are not yet in the stage where we have the luxury of philanthropy and I did not want to do what most other companies would do in this situation and invent some spiel about walking old ladies dogs, saving the odd panda at lunch time and adopting a young whale with a below average IQ.

So I gave an honest answer. After all, they would not give Entrepreneur of the Year to a couple of 26 year olds anyway.

It was brutally honest, perhaps a little too self assured and edgy, but it was our opinion. I was also sure it would get the judges attention after a long day looking at allot of boring forms trying too hard to conform and impress. It was also a dig at the ever increasing reach of corporate ethics and political correctness. At BrewDog , we are not big on saying what we are supposed to anyway!

With the judges somewhat shockingly impressed we claimed the award - Martin and James won 2008 Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year - rock on BrewDog! Maybe the other answers or the beer tasting in our final presentation sealed the deal!

Press for winning the Scottish Award

Fast-forward 5 months and we find ourselves on the shortlist for European Entrepreneur of the Year and faced with travelling to Rome to do a presentation to a judging panel of international dignitaries and superstar business people.  With James in the storms of the North Atlantic on his fishing boat Martin made the journey to Rome alone. Little did he know the prestigious judging panel had seen our original submission form.

The illustrious judging panel consisted of:

PROD FLAVELL - Chief Executive Officer, FDM Group plc

RESIDENT EMIL CONSTANTINESCU - Former President of Romania (1996 - 2000)

STEVE LEACH - Group CEO, bigmouthmedia

JEAN STEPHENS - Chief Executive Officer, RSM International

MICHAEL WIGGE - Managing Partner, Vinge

PHILIP FORREST - FCIM, FICSI, ACII, Chartered Marketer

Over to Martin:

Arriving perfectly on time I was greeted by a slightly worried looking German Frauline. After excitedly telling me that our entry form had been sabotaged I listened intently as she tried hard to explain the castastrophy that had occurred. She told me in her direct uncompromising fashion that very insulting things had been written on the form and that hopefully the judges hadn't seen them and that they were doing their best to rectify the situation and sort it before I had to present my lecture (and it was a lecture) to the executive panel. After not being able to tell what the hell she was on about for the best part of 5 minutes I finally got a word out of her that made sense to me. ‘Mother Teresa'!

Now I knew what I was dealing with. I remember reading about Mother Teresa on a form that James had filled in about 6 months ago and laughing at the irrelevance of the question to a start up company. This brought a smile to my face, which only made matters worse. Deducing that perhaps the humour of this comment was rapidly lost in translation, I again wryly smirked a little bit at the predicament I found myself in.

 I was summoned into the room and handed over the pen drive with the info and was introduced to the panel. The initial atmosphere was a bit frosty as I commenced the presentation. Undeterred by my German peer I set about enchanting the judges with some Brewdog magic. After 15 minutes of full on PowerPoint rock ‘n roll they sat captivated. Or at least I thought they were captivated.

Jean Stephens was unable to get the words out to complain, he was so shocked and embarrassed. Our original entry form was soon thrust in front of Martin with the phrase ‘I am not fucking Mother Teresa' underlined and high-lighted. The former Romanian President then stepped in and asked Martin; "Why you sleep with Mother Teresa?'

RESIDENT EMIL CONSTANTINESCU - Former President of Romania (1996 - 2000)

The original, slightly less offensive meaning, was now completely lost in translation. He had understood the sentence to mean that we were not having intimate relations with Mother Teresa as opposed to the intended meaning of us not being saintly philanthropists. It took allot of explaining just to clear the first allegation before I even got onto trying to justify the original meaning to the scowling panel.

Although there was an air of unease in the room, everyone eventually came to the conclusion that in fact Brewdog Boys isn't so bad after-all and wished us every success in the future. A tasting of Punk IPA and Paradox really mellowed them out. I left them with a list of the 4 best outlets to purchase Brewdog in the City of Rome and was on my merry way.

The results were announced in May.  We were not holding our breath.  We did not win.

Posted in - news