Heads Up - Apprentice at 9pm BBC2
Discussion
Just a heads up.
This series is turning out to be pretty good tv. Basically, 14 wannabe businessmen and women are put to various tests every week by Sir Alan Sugar. Every week the losing team has one person sacked.
This week's is the Harrods episode and sounds like a good un.
9pm BBC2 for an hour.
This series is turning out to be pretty good tv. Basically, 14 wannabe businessmen and women are put to various tests every week by Sir Alan Sugar. Every week the losing team has one person sacked.
This week's is the Harrods episode and sounds like a good un.
9pm BBC2 for an hour.
Wacky Racer said:
Ah yes...Alan Sugar.....
I put two grand into his company.....
And he turned it into fifty quid..........
He put £1000 into his...
And turned it into £100 million............
What were you doing wrong??..........
I think you misread my post.....
He restructured his share capital so it was worth nowt then bought most of it back for nowt then started again and got it right second time round......
If my memory is correct.......
I do believe he owes me a drink.....
Bit out of date but.........
Most people can’t stand him. Even amongst supporters of London’s legendary Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, which he owns, he is not exactly Mr. Popular. Hardly surprising, then, that Alan Sugar, chairman of Amstrad plc since its foundation back in 1968, should have retained the services of a PR firm whose brief is to concentrate on projecting an altogether sweeter image. But in keeping with the best traditions of Mary Poppins, little more than a spoonful or two of Sugar ought to be required to help that medicine go down - in the most delightful way. Because unbeknown to those who point a disapproving finger at him, Alan Sugar is one of Britain’s biggest benefactors, an entrepreneur whose experience and expertise is being actively sought out by the new Blairite government and whose unremitting message that business can be fun is inspiring the alienated youth of a lost generation.
"People who meet me for the first time often find me rude and abrupt", the 50 year old businessman confesses, but I have always found that straight-forwardness and plain-talking tends to pay off."
In fact it has paid off to such an extent that the Sugar has now been co-opted onto a government inspired scheme designed to promote the values of enterprise amongst the nation’s youth, part of major initiative aimed at encouraging young people to start up business of their own. Organized by the Treasury and entitled the "You Can Do It Too" tour, Sugar is currently traveling around Britain’s major cities and spreading the gospel of enterprise, with all the flair and panache of a person who practices what he preaches. In doing so he has received the blessing of no less a figure than the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself. "Alan Sugar has provided a considerable boost to the Treasury business team", Gordon Brown says, "bringing his wealth of knowledge to offer to our next generation. We want to avoid pursuing the ‘Whitehall knows best’ approach to policy-making, and to become a friend and supporter of all that is best in British entrepreneurial culture. Mr. Sugar has already demonstrated himself to be a valuable asset to us in carrying out that task."
Amstrad, which started as a small enterprise, became an international consumer electronics, telecommunications and computer group with wholly owned subsidiaries in France, Germany, Benelux and Denmark, and a world wide presence through a network of distributors. Although recently restructured, stop anyone in the high street today and they will have no difficulty in identifying the Amstrad brand name, a level of awareness against giants such as Philips, Sony and IBM being achieved in a relatively short space of time. Responsible for the phenomenal growth in the European personal computer market in the latter half of the 1980s, Amstrad was more recently the pioneer of the Europe-wide satellite receiving market, all the time winning a reputation for bringing technology down in price for the mass market.
It was a strategy which served Sugar well, his personal fortune now estimated at $400 million, the Amstrad group continuing to turn over more than $100 million p.a., and remaining the largest PC manufacturer in the UK despite fierce competition from overseas. That’s not bad going for a former barrow boy from London’s East End.
"I am from humble origins, yes", Sugar admits, "I was born into a working class family in Hackney and lived in a council flat. I was the youngest of a family of 4 children, my father a tailor in the garment industry. That’s why I am spending my time touring around the country at the moment - my idea is to encourage them to consider working for themselves, to take risks, to take a gamble whilst they are young and not committed. I believe that business can be fun - whether it be doing deals, developing products or selling. It’s important to me to give back to the community, that’s my kind of social contract. Young people are interested to see how I came from nowhere and ended up a millionaire - and, as the tour title says, there is no reason why they can’t do the same too."
Unlike others who go out of their to way to ensure that their charitable activities are widely known, Sugar has been quietly working away behind the scenes for years. He was the driving force behind the Excalibur Scholarship Scheme in 1993, which established opportunities for graduates from the old Eastern Bloc to study in Europe. He managed to recruit twenty one other leading UK companies as sponsors, raising over $2 million in the process, thus enabling more than twenty graduates from Central and Eastern European countries to enrol at British universities each year over the last four years.
In fact the Alan Sugar Foundation, established in 1986, has donated over $5 million to charity, including $1.8 million for the construction of an old people’s home, a contribution of $2.1 million for the construction and upgrading of facilities at the "Sinclair House" day centre for young and old in Essex - a stone’s throw from where he was born - and a donation of over half a million dollars to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children ‘Wishing Well’ appeal. "Its a shame that Sugar should get such a bad press", the Hospital's Chief Executive Robert Creighton reflects, "because what the public do not know is that he has been one of our most generous benefactors consistently since the mid-80s. Funds coming from the Alan Sugar Foundation have gone towards the refurbishing of cardiac theatres, ultra-sound equipment and heart-lung bypass machinery - all of which has undoubtedly helped to save lives." In fact on average the Foundation donates a further $500,000 per year to an array of smaller, domestic charities oriented towards welfare.
What more must he do, then, before winning the seal of approval from the British public? Well, although his venture into the world of sport saved Tottenham Hotspur from the brink of bankruptcy, his well-publicised clashes with the club’s former manager Terry Venables (who later went on to become the England manager) certainly did nothing to enhance his reputation. All the more ironic, in a sense, because once ensconced as Chairman at Tottenham, Sugar proceeded to do what he had already done elsewhere - to give back to the community, doing his utmost to ensure that the club became the focal point of local life once again.
"I can’t help the way I am", Sugar concludes. "My East End training might have left me a little rough around the edges, but that’s not something I can do anything about. At the same time it was a good training for reality, to bring you down to earth, to quickly appraise situations and assess propositions. I do this work not because I want people to say what a good fellow I am, but because I believe its the right thing to do. There is nothing more satisfying than meeting an unemployed youngster from Glasgow, say, and hearing him tell me that my speech has inspired him, that he was going to go out there, get stuck in, and have a go too. I fought my way out of poverty and I remain convinced that others can do likewise too. Society has been good to me. Now the boot is on the other foot. And its my turn to give something back."
He might not be a candidate for the BBC’s Personality of the Year award. In his heart he knows he never will be. And yet he must be doing something right. For quite apart from his outstanding charitable work, last week a figure was published by the Department of Trade and Industry. It revealed that no less than 20% of new businesses were being started by people under thirty years of age. Precisely the message which Sugar is determined to continue to get across - and a sweet message indeed.
Most people can’t stand him. Even amongst supporters of London’s legendary Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, which he owns, he is not exactly Mr. Popular. Hardly surprising, then, that Alan Sugar, chairman of Amstrad plc since its foundation back in 1968, should have retained the services of a PR firm whose brief is to concentrate on projecting an altogether sweeter image. But in keeping with the best traditions of Mary Poppins, little more than a spoonful or two of Sugar ought to be required to help that medicine go down - in the most delightful way. Because unbeknown to those who point a disapproving finger at him, Alan Sugar is one of Britain’s biggest benefactors, an entrepreneur whose experience and expertise is being actively sought out by the new Blairite government and whose unremitting message that business can be fun is inspiring the alienated youth of a lost generation.
"People who meet me for the first time often find me rude and abrupt", the 50 year old businessman confesses, but I have always found that straight-forwardness and plain-talking tends to pay off."
In fact it has paid off to such an extent that the Sugar has now been co-opted onto a government inspired scheme designed to promote the values of enterprise amongst the nation’s youth, part of major initiative aimed at encouraging young people to start up business of their own. Organized by the Treasury and entitled the "You Can Do It Too" tour, Sugar is currently traveling around Britain’s major cities and spreading the gospel of enterprise, with all the flair and panache of a person who practices what he preaches. In doing so he has received the blessing of no less a figure than the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself. "Alan Sugar has provided a considerable boost to the Treasury business team", Gordon Brown says, "bringing his wealth of knowledge to offer to our next generation. We want to avoid pursuing the ‘Whitehall knows best’ approach to policy-making, and to become a friend and supporter of all that is best in British entrepreneurial culture. Mr. Sugar has already demonstrated himself to be a valuable asset to us in carrying out that task."
Amstrad, which started as a small enterprise, became an international consumer electronics, telecommunications and computer group with wholly owned subsidiaries in France, Germany, Benelux and Denmark, and a world wide presence through a network of distributors. Although recently restructured, stop anyone in the high street today and they will have no difficulty in identifying the Amstrad brand name, a level of awareness against giants such as Philips, Sony and IBM being achieved in a relatively short space of time. Responsible for the phenomenal growth in the European personal computer market in the latter half of the 1980s, Amstrad was more recently the pioneer of the Europe-wide satellite receiving market, all the time winning a reputation for bringing technology down in price for the mass market.
It was a strategy which served Sugar well, his personal fortune now estimated at $400 million, the Amstrad group continuing to turn over more than $100 million p.a., and remaining the largest PC manufacturer in the UK despite fierce competition from overseas. That’s not bad going for a former barrow boy from London’s East End.
"I am from humble origins, yes", Sugar admits, "I was born into a working class family in Hackney and lived in a council flat. I was the youngest of a family of 4 children, my father a tailor in the garment industry. That’s why I am spending my time touring around the country at the moment - my idea is to encourage them to consider working for themselves, to take risks, to take a gamble whilst they are young and not committed. I believe that business can be fun - whether it be doing deals, developing products or selling. It’s important to me to give back to the community, that’s my kind of social contract. Young people are interested to see how I came from nowhere and ended up a millionaire - and, as the tour title says, there is no reason why they can’t do the same too."
Unlike others who go out of their to way to ensure that their charitable activities are widely known, Sugar has been quietly working away behind the scenes for years. He was the driving force behind the Excalibur Scholarship Scheme in 1993, which established opportunities for graduates from the old Eastern Bloc to study in Europe. He managed to recruit twenty one other leading UK companies as sponsors, raising over $2 million in the process, thus enabling more than twenty graduates from Central and Eastern European countries to enrol at British universities each year over the last four years.
In fact the Alan Sugar Foundation, established in 1986, has donated over $5 million to charity, including $1.8 million for the construction of an old people’s home, a contribution of $2.1 million for the construction and upgrading of facilities at the "Sinclair House" day centre for young and old in Essex - a stone’s throw from where he was born - and a donation of over half a million dollars to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children ‘Wishing Well’ appeal. "Its a shame that Sugar should get such a bad press", the Hospital's Chief Executive Robert Creighton reflects, "because what the public do not know is that he has been one of our most generous benefactors consistently since the mid-80s. Funds coming from the Alan Sugar Foundation have gone towards the refurbishing of cardiac theatres, ultra-sound equipment and heart-lung bypass machinery - all of which has undoubtedly helped to save lives." In fact on average the Foundation donates a further $500,000 per year to an array of smaller, domestic charities oriented towards welfare.
What more must he do, then, before winning the seal of approval from the British public? Well, although his venture into the world of sport saved Tottenham Hotspur from the brink of bankruptcy, his well-publicised clashes with the club’s former manager Terry Venables (who later went on to become the England manager) certainly did nothing to enhance his reputation. All the more ironic, in a sense, because once ensconced as Chairman at Tottenham, Sugar proceeded to do what he had already done elsewhere - to give back to the community, doing his utmost to ensure that the club became the focal point of local life once again.
"I can’t help the way I am", Sugar concludes. "My East End training might have left me a little rough around the edges, but that’s not something I can do anything about. At the same time it was a good training for reality, to bring you down to earth, to quickly appraise situations and assess propositions. I do this work not because I want people to say what a good fellow I am, but because I believe its the right thing to do. There is nothing more satisfying than meeting an unemployed youngster from Glasgow, say, and hearing him tell me that my speech has inspired him, that he was going to go out there, get stuck in, and have a go too. I fought my way out of poverty and I remain convinced that others can do likewise too. Society has been good to me. Now the boot is on the other foot. And its my turn to give something back."
He might not be a candidate for the BBC’s Personality of the Year award. In his heart he knows he never will be. And yet he must be doing something right. For quite apart from his outstanding charitable work, last week a figure was published by the Department of Trade and Industry. It revealed that no less than 20% of new businesses were being started by people under thirty years of age. Precisely the message which Sugar is determined to continue to get across - and a sweet message indeed.
I remember buying what I thought was my first 'hifi' amplifier in 1980, a second-hand EX330. It was a chunky beast, all steel and alloy. Within a couple of years everything they sold was plastic and hardboard.
I moved on to a 5050 tuner-amp which was mediocre at best (though I didn't know it then), but my mother finished my Amstrad involvement when she bought me a 'tower system' with a pop-out turntable as an 18th birthday present. Truly abyssmal. I'd kick Sugar in the pods for having the affrontery to launch such an abortion on the public.
As a young electronics techie, I used to take great delight in consigning Amstrad CB radios to the bin.
Can't take anything away from the guy: between him and Gerald Ratner it has become obvious that the buying public are a clueless bunch of ar5epipes who deserve all the ripping-off they get.
Edit: typos
>> Edited by wedg1e on Wednesday 9th March 22:51
I moved on to a 5050 tuner-amp which was mediocre at best (though I didn't know it then), but my mother finished my Amstrad involvement when she bought me a 'tower system' with a pop-out turntable as an 18th birthday present. Truly abyssmal. I'd kick Sugar in the pods for having the affrontery to launch such an abortion on the public.
As a young electronics techie, I used to take great delight in consigning Amstrad CB radios to the bin.
Can't take anything away from the guy: between him and Gerald Ratner it has become obvious that the buying public are a clueless bunch of ar5epipes who deserve all the ripping-off they get.
Edit: typos
>> Edited by wedg1e on Wednesday 9th March 22:51
Wacky Racer said:
Alan Sugar Foundation
Call me a cynic, but I'm sooo suspicious when a wealthy person sets up a charity in their own name. If they really wanted to help people, whats wrong with paying direct from their bank accounts to those who need it?
Setting up a foundation normally means that they get tax relief or similar, which may or may not mean more of their money goes to the charitable people. It's a form of self publication and free advertising as well. Heck, I'm sure i'd do the same if i was in that position but it does make me think whether they're trying to make something out of giving to charity.
Anyone know more about this?
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