Preneur World March 2024

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Despite all that you still haven’t personally won
a Bafta for what you’ve done for business!
We have won Baftas, of course, the programme’s
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won. And then I came up with the idea of the
Junior Apprentice, right? And guess what? That also
won. I think Bafta should give me a special award
for 20 years of business. Simon Cowell got a special
award for 10 years in music. Why can’t I have a
special award for 20 years of business? I’ve got all
the other gongs for everything else, the only one that
I haven’t got is a Bafta.
When you go into a new series, what is it that
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you are looking for in a business partner, and has
that changed over the years?
No. When you’re confronted initially with
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18 new people, you don’t know them, all I’ve
received is 18 CVs. Detailed CVs, not just a single
page, but a thick document of about 15 pages. I
read that carefully and, it’s not until we kick off
and as the weeks go by that I start to get a feeling
for individuals. There have been many times in
the early stages of process, Karren, Tim, Claude
or Nick Hewer have said, “that bloke’s good or this
girl’s great, this one’s good”, and all that. And then
suddenly, throughout the course of the process, the
others start to climb, and you change your mind
as it’s going through. The most frequently asked
question to me is, do you know who’s going to win
as soon as you see the whole lot? The answer is
absolutely not. I don’t know who’s going to win until
we really get through to the end of the series.
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You really do study the candidates before you
meet them?
I do. I’ve looked at them carefully and I make
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notes on their CVs, they are all marked up. It’s
15 pages. For example, I would highlight page 15
and things that they’ve written in their CVs. I will
highlight it and then I can go straight to that page
in the boardroom, what they’re claiming, I’ve got
their tactics, I’ve got their regrets, I’ve got their best
efforts, their worst efforts, what angers them, what
their hobbies are, who their role models are. I know
them before they walk through the door. There’s no
pulling the wool over my eyes, I know them before
we even meet.
How important are first impressions because the
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candidates tend to make quite bold statements at
the beginning?
Yes, important. But I don’t blame them for
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saying these things. It’s when we get down to
the nitty gritty, when I’m really talking to them,
when I’m asking them questions and looking at their
answers, that’s when I’m forming an opinion of the
individuals.
When it comes to the boardroom, how do you
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find the balance between entertaining but also
being authentic?
Well, I think it is important that it is entertaining
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as well. And that’s one of the reasons why we’ve
got these young people following us. I explain to
people business mistakes and good bits of business
and the youngsters pick up on it. They love it, but
they also love it when I give some people a bit of
stick or when I make some jokes about their mistakes
and all that stuff. There’s a fine balance of keeping it
entertaining but also taking the business seriously.
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What are you looking for from the candidates in
those tense boardroom moments?
I’m looking for character, I’m looking for brain
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power. And this is the most important thing, do
they get it? A lot of the candidates in the early stages
simply don’t get it. And that’s why I let them go. Do
you get it? It’s as simple as that. All the shouting and
Lord Sugar & The Apprentice candidates
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