‘Empty Promises’ by Jane Simms, Director May 2009 and ‘Why I can’t stand the Apprentice’ by Hugh Greenway, Training Journal May 2009

I am reviewing these two articles together because they are both short and easy to read, and they are interesting as a follow-up to my review last month of the recent Alan Sugar biography.

These articles both represent the opposite view to his rather sycophantic biographer; they state that Sugar presents an unfortunate image of business that might give people - particularly those considering a business career - the wrong impression. Jane Simms’s article is something of a rant about the quality of the people who compete and the narrow thinking that goes into task selection. She compares the show to the 1990s programme Troubleshooters with John Harvey Jones which, she suggests, was much more realistic and informative about business. Though I agree with her sentiments, I think the ratings would be very much in favour of The Apprentice, and that is how success in TV is measured.

Simms criticises the contestants even further by saying that a matrix of talent and profile would put all of them in the high profile low talent box; she also hints that Sugar might be in the same box and suggests that it would be good to see more low profile, high talent people on TV, like Terry Leahy of Tesco. One wonders however if really successful businessmen like Leahy would take part and if the entertainment level would be the same; this raises the key issue of the programme’s objective, is it to educate or entertain?

Greenway has similarly strong views about the dysfunctional contestants but blames the selection process before and during the series; he says that ‘anyone who looks like they might have a shot at being a decent human being is usually trampled underfoot in the first few episodes’. He believes that the series has deteriorated as it has gone on, that it started with more educational business content but has collapsed into the worst kind of reality television.

His view of Sugar is also interesting. He believes that he has much experience to share and that he is capable of educating people, of admitting his own mistakes and of being more than a ‘tyrannical bully’. But the production and editing of the programme has made him into an absurd caricature of the macho senior manager. One suspects he is right and that the same could be said of the contestants too. A programme designed to show the worst of everyone may be entertaining but it tells you very little about business.


To access this article go to:

Empty Promises - http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2009/5%20May/simms_62_10.html

Why I can’t Stand the Apprentice
- http://www.trainingjournal.com/tj/2107.html