Authors: Charlie Burden
Sir Alan Sugar (13 page)
‘You could forgive Alan Sugar for renaming Tottenham’s ground White Hart Strain after his troubled tenure as Spurs chairman,’ commented Peter Sanderson on the BBC website.
And perhaps he thought ENIC should take that strain, as he moved, onwards and upwards, to his next challenge – and his next moment of glory.
T
he New Year’s honours list announced on 31 December 1999 had a special edge to it, as it was the Millennium year. Among those announced on the list were Sir Sean Connery, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Dame Shirley Bassey, Dame Julie Andrews, Henry Cooper, Stirling Moss, Richard Branson and Norman Wisdom. These were hallowed shoulders to be rubbing on such a prestigious list, and an honour for Alan Sugar, the working-class boy from Hackney made good, to be included in this list. Indeed, it was a special list in another way too. The Prime Minister’s spokesman Alastair Campbell explained that many of those nominated fell into the category of being an ‘icon’, among which he included Alan Sugar.
Sugar was overjoyed and somewhat amused to learn of this news. ‘I’m tickled pink,’ he told reporters. He then
explained that he felt the significance of this news went far beyond the personal. ‘It is a great honour and a wonderful sign of the times that a man that started his life in a working-class background should, through hard work and application, be honoured by his country. Young people should take this as a signal that in Britain today anything is possible if the will to succeed is strong enough.’ However, the moment of joy was tinged with a little sadness. ‘My only regret is that my mum and dad are no longer here to enjoy this moment,’ said the man shortly to become Sir Alan Sugar.
The response from the media was supportive. In modern times, an element of cynicism about knighthoods and other honours has crept into public discourse. However, it was generally agreed that the man who began in business by selling car aerials out of his boot and rose to become a multimillionaire was about as suitable a recipient for such an honour as it was possible to imagine. And even the mischievous lot over at the
Daily Mirror
’s ‘City Slickers’ finance column offered their congratulations to both Sugar and Branson. ‘Congratulations to our good pals Alan Sugar and Richard Branson on their long overdue knighthoods,’ they wrote. ‘What do we call you guys now? Sir, Sir Al, Sir Dickie? Let us know mateys.’ A few days later they followed up, cheekily claiming that a rise in Amstrad’s share value was in part down to them. ‘The City is going crazy over Sir Alan Sugar’s Amstrad, after we made it our
top tip for 2000. The shares have already jumped 48 per cent so far this year to 311p. More to the point, our tip has helped make Sugar
£
22.3 million since the turn of the century. You know where to find us, Sir Al, and if you want our bank account details, just ask.’
Six months later, the Amstrad boss officially became Sir Alan Sugar at Buckingham Palace. He was only permitted three guests on the day, after a bit of family deliberation, he chose to take his wife Ann, daughter Louise and son Daniel.
‘I was only allowed three guests so the kids had to fight over it. But they managed to arrive at a peaceful arrangement.’ He describes the moment when he was knighted by the Queen on 13 June 2000, as ‘one of the proudest moments of my life’.
This phrase gives us a telling insight into his mind and priorities. Some men, on receiving a knighthood, will have regarded it as
the
proudest moment of their life. The man who built a business empire from scratch will have a host of proud moments during his working life, and, in his personal life, where marrying Ann and becoming a father and grandfather will also have been milestone moments. Although Sugar did not elaborate about the other proud moments that stand alongside his knighthood, it’s a safe bet to assume such precious family moments will have been at the top of the pile.
But he was naturally full of pride and joy at his knighthood. Beaming, he said, ‘It was a great day, a
wonderful occasion. I seem to have come a long way and that is a great, great feeling. It shows how someone can start from a humble background and go on to be very successful. It shows the country that anything is possible. These honours certainly help break down the class barriers.’
It is typical of him to see the wider picture and to use his proud moment to offer hope and encouragement to others from his background.
As to how his relatives felt about his knighthood, he managed to express their pride but also maintain a refreshing slice of that Sugar gruffness, which none of his admirers would ever want him to lose. ‘I don’t think there were any tears shed but I know they were certainly very proud of me,’ he said. ‘It is just wonderful to get some recognition.’
As for the monarchy itself, Sir Alan showed a deep-felt appreciation of the institution. He said of the royal family, ‘They are something the whole world takes the mickey out of but actually they are fantastic – and really should be kept. We must start to appreciate that and leave them alone.’
Others to be honoured on the day included
Auf
Wiedersehen
Pet
actor Timothy Spall, who had fought leukaemia for four years, who received an OBE. He had flown in specially from America for the event. ‘They would only let me come back to the UK to come to this, otherwise I would still be working,’ he said, smiling. Actress Alison
Steadman of
Singing Detective
and
Abigail’s Party
fame was also made an OBE and said, ‘I am absolutely thrilled, it is a great honour to be here.’
When Sugar was called forward for his knighthood, the announcer mentioned that the honour was being bestowed upon him for his work with computers and electronics. However, when he presented himself to the Queen, she told him that everyone would actually know him as a result of his involvement in football. Speaking of his work in the beautiful game, she said to Sir Alan that it must be a ‘a rather precarious business’.
Sugar smiled knowingly and replied, ‘Yes, it certainly is.’
So, would Sir Alan let his knighthood go to his head? Of course not, as he immediately showed after the event. As he spoke to reporters, he quickly turned the subject from his knighthood to the previous evening’s football match.
It had been a dramatic game, which saw Portugal come back from two goals down to defeat England in the
first-round
tie of the European Championships. ‘It was very disappointing,’ he said. ‘I really thought in the first fifteen minutes that we were going to win. But we are still in with a chance.’ A lot of men would have been too distracted the evening before a knighthood to watch football, and many would have been too excited after a knighthood to even think about the previous evening’s match. Not Sir Alan, who remained as down to earth as ever in the face of his newfound status. (It should also
have shown those who, during his Tottenham Hotspur era, claimed that Sugar did not care about the game that they were clearly wrong.)
Cynics sometimes point to the fact that everyone has to use the ‘Sir’ prefix while addressing Sugar on
The Apprentice
and suggested that it is somehow bigheaded of him to insist on this. However, read any interview with Sugar since his knighthood and you will struggle to find any significant mentions of the knighthood, or his memories of his day at Buckingham Palace. While he has accepted the honour with joy and grace, he has also moved on, to write the next chapter of his life, a chapter that has included further honours. The man that left school at 17 with a mixed attitude, having been interested in part in furthering his education, was made an honorary doctor of science by City University, in recognition of his close involvement with the business school, including establishing the Amstrad Research Scholarship. He received his degree from Professor Andrew Chambers, the dean, at a ceremony at London’s Guildhall.
Five years later, he added another honorary degree to his collection, when Brunel University also made him an honorary doctor of science. He received the award on 12 July at Wembley Conference Centre. ‘I am delighted to accept this degree from a famous university that specialises in technology, a field that has been close to my heart all of my professional life. It is a great honour they
felt my contribution to technology over the years has warranted this.’
‘You don’t need a degree to be great,’ said an opinion piece in the
Daily Express
on 19 August 2005. It went on to praise Sugar for making it big in business without a university education. ‘Sir Alan Sugar, the multimillionaire who started electronics company Amstrad and stars on TV, never dreamed of Oxford. His higher education took place at a market stall.’
It was nice that the article praised Sugar this way, but, by the time this article was published, it was not technically correct, as Sir Alan actually had two degrees.
Later that year, Sugar returned to give Brunel students a lecture. The evening, sponsored by HSBC Bank, took the form of ‘An Evening with Sir Alan’. ‘I enjoy being accessible, recognisable and perhaps a role model for the public,’ he said, looking forward to the event. ‘It’s equally important to be able to have a rapport with a live audience. I’m looking forward to being in the hot seat myself for a change.’
It turned into an enjoyable and memorable evening. Sugar had been key in orchestrating the evening’s schedule. He dismissed the idea of simply giving a lecture, because he finds speeches – both giving them and listening to them – boring. Brunel vice-chancellor Professor Steven Schwartz, introducing Sugar, said, ‘It’s a Q&A session and nothing is really off-limits. If it is, I’m sure Sir Alan will let you know!’
As it turned out, nobody asked anything that he was not absolutely delighted to answer.
Joseph Baines, the president of the Union of Brunel Students, asked the first question: ‘Why do you think that nationally we are struggling to excite youngsters into a career in engineering? And how would you go about promoting engineering as a profession to the youth of today?’
Sugar replied, ‘Engineers are underpaid and
undervalued
in this country. Engineering needs to be made more attractive – at the moment people want to become consultants, as it is an easy route to put money in their pockets. In countries such as France, engineers are regarded much more highly, in the same bracket as doctors and lawyers.’
Later in the evening, Lady Kitty Chisholm, Brunel’s director of development, asked Sugar about his
well-known
dislike of schmoozing. He must have done some of it himself, though, she suggested.
‘I was told in my younger days that “this is what you do”, so I did wine and dine – it was dull and insincere,’ replied Sugar. ‘Younger people have to do it for me now as I don’t have the patience! Entertaining is now a big industry. It drives things like corporate hospitality at race days and football. It is now a deliberately prepared corporate expense. That’s how it is in business, people are used to the jollies. Take them away and people might leave.’
He also ventured that it was vital for the future of business in the UK that a business culture be instilled in children from an early age. When one student queried whether there might turn out to be negative consequences if too much business culture was allowed into the classroom, Sir Alan snapped, ‘I’m sick and tired of the “goody-goody” atmosphere in this country. I can see a court case coming from this question: you’ve stressed my child and I’m going to sue.’
This brought the discussion neatly round to Sugar’s own educational experience, and he was asked, ‘Are you now sorry that you did not stay on at school and possibly go to university?’
‘The honest answer is no – in my case I’m brighter than most of the students here,’ he quipped. ‘It’s a different era now, though. I’m often asked the question when I talk to students in schools, “Do qualifications matter?” And the answer to that is yes. The HR manager doing the recruiting can’t see your personality, so if the qualifications aren’t on your CV it goes in the bin. That might be unfair, but it’s the harsh reality. You need to get qualifications, otherwise you’ll be in the bin. You’ve got to have qualifications in order to achieve – it’s the way into your first job. In fact, staying on might have hindered me. I started my own company at 17; if I’d been in school I might have gone on to do a gap year or something and wasted even more time!’
Instead, he has kept moving onwards and upwards. In
fact, quite literally upwards, for Alan Sugar has long enjoyed the delights of air travel. Whether as a pilot, or as a passenger in a private jet, he cherishes his time in the sky. There are no nagging phone calls, no emails, no disturbances. Perhaps it was during one of these journeys that he saw a gap in the private-jet travel market? He then launched a new company – Amsair, once more using an acronym of his initials to name the company. It seems he was ready to see his business instincts quite literally reach for the skies.
Amsair for a long while was managed by Sugar’s son Daniel, who proved his business acumen by making it a major success story. He had been ushered into the family business very early in his life, and he took no time in showing that his father’s faith in him was utterly justified. Daniel left school at 16 and went straight to work in the marketing department of Amstrad. It was a memorable first day for the teenage boy. His father took him to see Thomas Power, the head of marketing, and barked, ‘This is Daniel. This is my son. I want you to teach him all that marketing crap you lot go on about down here. I want you to teach him everything you know. If he gives you any talkback, send him up to me. And, if he doesn’t do what you tell him, throw him out the door.’