Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Stanstrad

Watching the final of The Apprentice reinforced my view that I wouldn't work for Alan Sugar, for any money.

I don't respect him, I don't respect his products, I don't respect his behaviour. I even think he chose the wrong winner of the contest(again).

Simon Ambrose won, despite absolutely alienating every member of his team. Morale dropped so low that he ended up bribing them all with the prospect of a trip to Barcelona. Is that really the only way he knows how to motivate people ?

I've worked with some great managers and they never once attempted to buy my commitment - they expected it, they told me what needed doing and they expected it to be done.

Alan Sugar's wealth derives mostly from property speculation rather than anything people-based. He had some success in the computer industry a generation ago, but everything else in last quarter century has gone the way of the Amstrad E-3 e-m@iler i.e out of production and available on Ebay for pennies.

It was rather pathetic to see these contestants beg for the privilege of making a rich man yet more money. Personally, if I had skills, I would rather make my own money. Or work for someone I respected, someone from whom I could learn, someone who would add value to what I had to offer.

In this respect, Alan Sugar is a lightweight, and he wouldn't even make it to interview at Stan Industries Inc. And Simon Ambrose wouldn't get much further.

4 comments:

Kenny said...

I can't believe you even watch that garbage! :) You're way too smart to even entertain it.

Stan said...

Don't feel like reading improving literature every night !

Stan said...

OK, so the last two posts have been related to reality shows, the one before that was Doctor Who and the one before that was about the Olympic logo. It's not a deliberate attempt to dumb-down the blog - I guess I'm just genuinely dumb at the moment!

Kenny said...

You'll never be dumb mate. With the rest of the world going mad, there's no shame in ignoring it all and looking at the more trivial.