Lord Sugar doesn’t wish to do that interview. He makes that clear earlier than he’s even arrived within the room, growling loudly within the hall, ‘What does this man need? How lengthy are we giving him?’
The voice of an aide says meekly, ‘Er, 40 minutes, Lord Sugar.’ That’s not true, we agreed an hour together with his folks, however His Lordship continues to be not happy. ‘Oh no. Are available after half an hour and say I’m wanted within the boardroom. He gained’t know any totally different.’ The difficulty is I can hear him.
I resolve to do what he would do and convey it up as quickly as he comes into his dressing room at a tv studio in west London. That is the place the boardroom scenes for The Apprentice are filmed – not at his or anyone else’s actual boardroom, however as removed from high-end enterprise glamour as you will get, on an industrial property beside the A40, the thunderous foremost street into west London.
When Lord Sugar does enter the room, wanting modern in an electrical blue go well with and polished footwear, head up like a meerkat sniffing the air, I inform him I overheard him saying he desires to chop this quick. ‘Yeah.’ I thank him for the time he’s ready to present me and get a gruff ‘OK’. There observe 29 of probably the most awkward, tense minutes I’ve had in anybody’s firm for a very long time, though Lord Sugar will get wound up and say revealing issues.
First, although, we get the get together line. ‘Filming goes properly,’ says the 76-year-old tycoon of the 18th sequence of The Apprentice. ‘It’s an excellent season as a result of we’ve obtained an entire array of {qualifications}: medical doctors, pharmacists, accountants, folks with meals companies, we’ve obtained loads of good folks.’ What’s he searching for? ‘I’m at all times searching for any individual who’s targeted. I’m observing whether or not they get it. That’s all.’
Enterprise tycoon Lord Alan Sugar, 76, opens up about his time within the highlight as he prepares for sequence 18 of The Apprentice
Issues have modified rather a lot because the present began in 2005. We’ve obtained iPhones now and the web has laid waste to the excessive avenue, however the essence stays the identical: supply stuff and promote it for the very best value, schmooze folks on the road or within the boardroom, be ready to undercut your rivals, and present that you just’re worthy of changing into Lord Sugar’s enterprise accomplice.
The errors are the identical too: nervy wannabes get too cocky, inform porkies about their pasts, and are fired one after the other. There are those that say it’s too exaggerated, portraying enterprise as cut-throat and dog-eat-dog. ‘It’s not an exaggeration. I don’t just like the terminology dog-eat-dog, cut-throat,’ says Lord Sugar irritably, earlier than contradicting himself. ‘It’s important to clearly be agency, and mercenary in some instances, to get your targets in enterprise.’
Don’t it’s a must to be nicer to folks now, in case they complain? ‘Yeah, I suppose, worker rights and all that. All this politically appropriate stuff has kicked in. You’ve obtained a brand new part [of people] hanging on each phrase you say so that you’re not upsetting any individual. Which doesn’t hassle me as a result of I don’t give a s*** if I do upset any individual or not.’
He provides me a tough stare, eyes glittering. I maintain his gaze and smile. With out smiling again, or wanting away, he insists, ‘Not many individuals have gotten a foul phrase to say about me. I’ve obtained folks that have labored for me for over 50 years. I’m a firm-but-fair individual you see, so there’s nothing to complain about in my case.’
Winners used to get a £100,000-a-year job with Lord Sugar’s firm – however that didn’t at all times work out. The final of them, 2010 winner Stella English, described the position as ‘overpaid lackey’. She sued for constructive dismissal, however misplaced.
Nowadays they get £250,000 put into their enterprise, with Lord Sugar as a 50/50 accomplice. ‘Tom Pellereau was the primary to win the cash in 2011 and he has been very profitable in his beauty accent enterprise,’ Lord Sugar says.
‘He’s purchased a home, obtained married, had two youngsters, taken a giant dividend. The man on paper now could be a millionaire. You then’ve obtained Ricky Martin [2012], who runs a science recruitment firm, Mark Wright [2014], who lately offered his digital advertising enterprise for £10 million, Dr Leah [Totton, 2013], who runs excellent beauty surgical procedure clinics. They’ve all made masses and a great deal of cash.’
Not all of them, absolutely? ‘Some fell by the best way. I inform them, “You’re getting a one-time funding. You don’t make it, there’s no more cash.” We had a plumber bloke that didn’t do very properly, he didn’t final too lengthy.’ It’s noticeable he doesn’t use Joseph Valente’s identify. The 2015 winner needed to promote his plumbing enterprise with money owed of £2 million in 2020.

Lord Alan Sugar as photographed in his London workplace – on an industrial property beside the M40
It was Lord Sugar himself who mentioned the interviews on the finish of final yr’s sequence had been ‘too harsh’ and ‘onerous to look at’. His buddy Baroness Brady lowered two contestants to tears. ‘I feel that’s the naughty boys on the edit suite actually,’ he says now, blaming another person for what occurred in a programme that portrays him as lord of every thing he sees.
There follows a kind of confession. ‘I type of took my eye off the ball. These interviews final for hours. They condense it down to 5 minutes per individual. I feel the editor thought, “Let’s make it robust. Let’s bang your arms down on the desk fairly than use a little bit of widespread sense.”’
So he’s had a phrase, presumably? ‘We’ve got. Yeah. Karren was fuming. When she noticed the programme she mentioned, “They’ve lower out all of the well mannered and good issues that I did say.”’
I see a scarcity of starvation in all walks of life now, wanting a fast repair, not wanting to place the graft in. It’s a special tradition.
Later I’ve the possibility to ask Baroness Brady about this immediately over Zoom and he or she says, ‘Should you watch the interviews, the candidates obtained upset after I instructed them the one easy factor I used to be very disenchanted about of their marketing strategy, as a result of they’d carried out so properly within the course of. They obtained upset as a result of they’d let themselves down. There was by no means any try and make anyone cry. There by no means can be.’
Baroness Brady, vice-chair of West Ham United FC, is considered one of two sidekicks (the opposite is sequence one winner Tim Campbell) who act as Lord Sugar’s eyes and ears through the challenges, standing again and watching the would-be apprentices silently even after they make spectacular errors.
‘You attempt to not react,’ she says. ‘There are occasions when that’s onerous, like after they had been instructed to purchase an octopus, which is a chunk of diving tools with a 40in hose, however they had been in a fishmonger’s stretching the tentacles of a reside octopus to make it match the spec.’ That was in Malta in 2018. ‘I needed to go away, as a result of in the event that they noticed my response they’d know immediately they’d obtained the mistaken factor.’

Lord Sugar is poised for sequence 18 (above, flanked by Baroness Karren Brady and Tim Campbell)

Dr Leah Totton gained the 2013 The Apprentice sequence, whom Lord Sugar says ‘runs excellent beauty surgical procedure clinics’
Have the interviewers been instructed to put off the robust stuff this time? ‘I don’t assume so. I’m not doing the interviews this yr. I solely sat in final yr as a result of Claude Littner was at a marriage. It was a one-off.’
These of us who’ve watched all 17 sequence have detected a softening in Lord Sugar, however after I ask the person himself if that’s true he simply says firmly, ‘No.’ There’s the stare once more.
Point out the youthful technology’s sense of entitlement, although, and the phrases circulate. ‘I see that in all walks of life now. Lack of starvation, wanting a fast repair, not wanting to place the graft in and get there by means of onerous work. It’s a special tradition.’
How does he cope with it? ‘You choose folks that have the great old style hard-graft tradition. The others can go their very own approach.’
Alan Sugar was born in Hackney, east London, in 1947, the son of a tailor. He left college at 16 to hitch the civil service, then started promoting automobile radio aerials out of the again of a van. He married Ann in 1968 – they’re nonetheless collectively and reside in Chigwell, Essex, and Florida – and in the identical yr arrange Alan Michael Sugar Buying and selling, or Amstrad. He hustled, innovated, took dangers and imagined the longer term with a pc that dominated the market within the 80s.
Is it simpler to seek out the starvation should you come from nothing? ‘Not essentially. If individuals are a part of a really prosperous household they’re prosperous as a result of their fathers or moms are intelligent. Kids ought to have seen what they’ve carried out to be able to obtain. It’s all the way down to the fathers and moms to verify they don’t spoil them.’
Has he managed to do this together with his personal youngsters, Daniel, Simon and Louise? ‘Completely. I’m very pleased with mine. They’re a task mannequin of working onerous and never being the proverbial wealthy man’s son, snorting cocaine and driving Ferraris. My spouse and I’ve proven them the best way, you understand? Stored their toes on the bottom. Certainly one of my sons has made me a load of cash in property and electronics. It’s as a result of they’ve watched me over time, I suppose. They’ve obtained that killer intuition.’
His firms are price over a billion kilos and he’s a family identify, however he gives the look he’s by no means fairly relaxed with being a public determine. ‘I don’t thoughts it. I didn’t prefer it after I was proprietor of Tottenham Hotspur. I used to get loads of abuse there. The followers of this programme are a lot nicer folks.’
What does he make of the super-wealthy from the Center East taking up golf equipment like Newcastle and Manchester Metropolis? ‘They’re spoiling the sport. Do you purchase the league? However how will you management it? You may’t.’

Lord Sugar with spouse Ann (centre left), son Daniel (far left), daughter Louise (second from proper) and their spouses in 2004
We’re nearly getting on, till I make the error of asking what he’s discovered from The Apprentice’s contestants. ‘Discovered from them? Nothing.’ He can’t imagine what I’m suggesting. ‘What would I study from them? You study an array of excuses, however nothing new so far as I’m involved.’
Will he go on making the present? ‘Oh, I wish to. It is sensible for the BBC to do not less than 20 years of The Apprentice – after which for BAFTA to recognise my good skills, which they’ve by no means carried out. It’s actually annoying. Annoys the spouse most of all.’ Absolutely The Apprentice has gained awards? ‘All of the manufacturing folks get them and I didn’t get one. Bloody cheek.’
He chuckles to himself and I seize that as a spot to complete, whereas he’s comparatively cheerful. Lord Sugar leaves the room rapidly, taking all the stress with him. This has been a short style of what the contestants are in for and I’ll be watching. It will not be snug, however it should positive as hell make nice telly.
- The Apprentice returns on Thursday February 1 on BBC One.