Sometimes I watch Alan Sugar and wonder who’s lost the plot. The apprentice or him. It makes good television but I’m not sure whether his approach makes good business sense. Of course, it makes ‘Sugar’ sense. And now he showing kids how to be another Alan Sugar on ‘Junior Apprentice’ and they all look like minature versions of their adult counterparts with all their affectations and excesses.
His tough, no nonsense ‘horse & plough’ approach may have had some merits in its time, but we now need a more sophisticated ‘tractor’ to attack the business opportunities. What strikes me is the naivete of the participants and the raw emotion of their performances. No-one should be surprised when they behave like toddlers, throw their toys out of the pram and have a tantrum. Sugar responds like a disapproving parent and TV gets yet another celebrity.
People like Alan Sugar suggest that you can’t make a salesman or a businessman – they are just born like that. What they fail to see is that it just wouldn’t work if we were all entrepreneurs and I’m sure there’s only room in their organisation for one. I doubt that people who watch The Apprentice would ever be encouraged to go into business with images of all those raw emotions swilling around and ready to be stabbed in the back by a smiling colleague. And of course, we rarely see the ordinmary everyday people that really make his business a success.
You see, most succesful businesses don’t thrive on bucketfulls of testosterone but on heaps of brainpower. And whilst you may well be born with high levels of hormones, brainpower can only be developed over time. Succesful organisations have learned this and assiduously harness and culture their people to get the most productive behaviour out of them.
Often, ordinary people do the most extraordinary things. Sometimes all that they need, is a little help on the way.
So Sir Alan, all I can say, after several series is, you’re tired! Let’s find another more effective way of discovering business talent and especially when it comes to our kids.