Sir Alan Sugar (20 page)

Asked why he thought
The Apprentice
had become such a phenomenal success, he said, ‘There’s an air of excitement about watching people outside their comfort zone – and there’s the conflict.’

Turning to the current series’ contestants, he said, ‘Katie’s been a tough cookie. There are loads of people like that in business, you don’t have to love people, that’s what the harsh commercial world is like and you have to put up with it,’ he said. There was interest in the fact that
he chose to defend the controversial Katie. So, what of the original Apprentice, Tim Campbell? In a typically loyal response, Sir Alan said, ‘I started three years ago with the general desire to find someone to go on and flourish. Tim was very seriously underrated by the press because he didn’t go out and seek publicity, he’s on his own now, I say watch this space.’

Asked about rival shows, he added that he was a fan of
Dragons’ Den
. ‘I love it, I leap out of my chair, especially when someone brings on something electronic, I’m screaming, “Don’t invest!”’

And so to the winner of Series 3: Simon Ambrose. Again, in some quarters, there was disagreement over whether Sugar had chosen the right winner. Some viewers were insistent that he should have chosen 37-year-old Kristina Grimes, who had worked as a pharmaceutical manager prior to the show and her experience was believed by many to give her the edge over the younger Ambrose. However, Ambrose was delighted to clinch the place of the Apprentice. He described himself as ‘sexy, competitive, proud and ambitious’ who does ‘his best work under pressure’. He certainly showed many of these virtues in the tasks. As was becoming a tradition for the winner, he spoke of the example his father had set him. ‘My old man was a diamond dealer and member of the London Diamond Bourse,’ he said. ‘He was one of the first people in jewellery discount retailing, before Ratner’s; he copied the idea from a man in Newcastle. At
his peak, he had a chain of shops – three of them in Oxford Street – and a factory in Birmingham. He had queues round the block when one of them opened. So a lot of my childhood was spent being dragged from shop to shop. When I was only knee-high, I remember going through darkened rooms full of boxes of 99p earrings.’ He had been his own boss, with a series of
Internet-related
activities prior to the show. ‘Being self-employed was great and I really enjoyed the freedom, but I needed a kick-start to get involved in big business and this is the way to do it. I wanted to have a real crack at something that’s going to stand me in good stead to become
mega-rich
before I decide to settle down and spawn out loads of mini-Simons.’

He was asked if he would come good on a promise he had made to his fellow contestants that, if he won the show, he would take them all away on holiday. ‘If they still want to go I’m prepared to pay for it!’ he said, laughing. ‘I don’t think they necessarily all want to go away together, that’s the problem – Tre said he’d rather be stabbed in the eye with a rusty screwdriver. I might have to take them all away individually, which is going to send me bankrupt!’

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t agree with those that believed that Grimes would have made for a better winner of the show, though his reasoning gives an insight into how he sees himself. ‘No, because I think he knows with someone like Kristina he’d have someone who’s steadily
competent, super-capable and self-sufficient. In me, he’s got someone a bit more quirky, a bit more
entrepreneurial
, and more willing to stick his neck out and try different things. By taking on someone like that he’s got to manage that. He’s got to rein it in or set it free at times. So by definition he’s going to have to spend more time with me, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.’

The surprise stars of the series were fast becoming not the contestants and, arguably, not even Sugar himself. Instead, his two sidekicks, Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer, were at times stealing the show. Mountford, in particular, who had worked with Sugar for some years, was achieving a cult following among
Apprentice
aficionados. In March 1999, she was unveiled in the chairman’s statement: ‘Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Margaret Mountford to the board as a nonexecutive director. Margaret Mountford, a lawyer, has many years’ corporate law experience as a partner in the law firm Herbert Smith, from which she retired in March 1999.’ She had stood alongside Sugar throughout his ups and downs, including his legal battle with Terry Venables. It was an experience she didn’t enjoy. ‘That was exciting, but pretty horrible, too,’ she recalled. ‘The fans were ghastly. You had to go past these awful spitting yobs on the way in and out of court, which is not what one is accustomed to as a City solicitor.’ However, she put up with the disgruntled fans and guided Sir Alan to the right
decision. ‘The court case that followed [Venables’s sacking] should never have happened, it should’ve been thrown out. I advised Alan he was entitled to sack Venables, and I was right. But it was horrible for him, the acrimony and personal hostility he suffered – being spat at as he went to court. Some fans, in my opinion, are little better than savages. It’s very tribal.’

Mountford was in the privileged position of being able to judge how much he had changed – or not – as a result of his
Apprentice
-found fame. ‘He’s an extremely able person. He’s still very much hands-on. He hasn’t been changed by fame and fortune, which says a lot about him. He has very strong family values. He’s a thoroughly decent bloke and he will listen’ – she inserted a telling pause – ‘on occasions.’

It seems he had proved an unconventional but enjoyable client for Mountford. ‘He was very different from the sort of client one had had before,’ she said. ‘He questions everything and never accepts things just because he’s told them. He’s very commercial and always holds you to an estimate. Don’t give an estimate of what your fees will be if you’re working for him and think you can increase them at the end.’

The admiration and respect is evidently mutual, and Sugar has had nice things to say about her too, which is something she appreciates. ‘It’s nice to get praise,’ she said. ‘Over the years I’ve built up a good working relationship: he knows I’ll tell him what I think without
worrying if he agrees or not. He doesn’t like “yes” men. He’s a very shrewd, clever man – so he’s interesting to work with. He doesn’t have small talk – he won’t ask about your holiday. But he’ll talk at length when he gets an idea.’

She enjoyed her work on
The Apprentice
with him and this was once more a forum where he sought and listened to Mountford’s wisdom. That said, the pair did not always see the field the same way. ‘We have quite a long briefing session before the boardroom … on who did well and who did badly. He takes our views into account. Sometimes we know who’s going out – it’s obvious. At other times it may be one of two – it depends on what he’s looking for, whether it’s someone good at sales, for instance, or a more managerial type of person. But someone whose sales technique he admires I’d probably never buy from. It’s horses for courses.’

Mountford was becoming a star of the show and commentators were quick to pick up on her emerging cult status. As Anna Pickard wrote in the
Guardian
, ‘Mountford’s signature look is the rolling of her eyes to heaven. Indeed, most of her loudest comments about the candidates are almost entirely nonverbal. The eye-rolling is frequently accompanied by a heartfelt sigh; in extremis, a sickened pursing of the lips. Her reaction to any act of stupidity is to drop her jaw in shock and amazement. Complete idiocy causes an additional flaring of the nostrils.’

The
Irish News
also noted the many mannerisms of Mountford: ‘Silver-haired with piercing blue eyes, her armoury of expressive eye-rolling and disgusted sighs has effectively ruined the chances of several candidates and her exchanges with fellow aide Nick Hewer have become some of the highlights of the series.’

Alex Clark, writing in the
Observer
, put the lawyer in a tradition of posh femininity and he liked what he was seeing. ‘It’s possible Margaret Mountford is the stern headmistress I never had, not coming from the kind of background that involved carpetings after high-jinks in the dorm or the battle to make the lacrosse team; it’s also possible that she embodies a certain sort of female posh competence that makes the rest of us feel like we’ve permanently got a ladder in our tights and an uncertain grasp of Keynesian economics. Stella Rimington, Judi Dench, Stephanie Flanders (especially Stephanie Flanders) all have the same effect. Not Kirstie Allsopp, though, who attempts to carry off the same effect but looks like she might from time to time have a secret weep in a corner. Certainly, Mountford seems more suited to the task of whipping the rabble before her into shape than Sugar himself.’

In Series 4, her fame was to hit new heights when she had a nation in stitches of laughter over her comment that Edinburgh University ‘isn’t what it used to be’. Delivered in true dry Mountford style, this quip provoked a defensive response from the educational
establishment. ‘The University of Edinburgh is one of the UK’s most successful and popular universities,’ a spokesman said. ‘It is regularly ranked among the top 50 universities in the world and is currently going through a period of unprecedented growth.’ Also memorable from that series was her stunned expression when one of the candidates overcelebrated a boardroom victory.

As well as her cult status, Mountford has also become a fine example for how well women can do in business. She puts some of this down to her Ulster background. ‘I think coming from Northern Ireland gives you a lot of common sense and a basic level-headedness that stands you in very good stead,’ she said. ‘A lot of what’s required is a commonsense approach; much of business depends on that, actually. I think the basic message to give is that women have to believe in their own ability – no one else is going to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself. Though it’s not the only answer to say “just go for it”, if you don’t go for it you’re never going to get it and I think people need to be able to stand on their own feet a lot more and have more confidence in their ability. I accepted the invitation to do this because I thought it’s something different. I’ve never had anything to do with television, it was a world I knew nothing about. I had no idea it would become so popular.

‘As a City lawyer you’re pretty faceless outside the clients, the accountants, those you deal with. Now, people come up to me in the street, they feel they know
me. I was walking along and someone said, “That’s Alan Sugar’s woman.” I was very innocent about it really. The recognition took me by surprise. I don’t mind when people come up and say, “Who’s going to win?” But sometimes they invade your personal space. Say you’re in a check-in queue, there’s 25 minutes of queue ahead and the person next to you says, “You’re from
The
Apprentice
, aren’t you?” They want to stand really close and go on and on about the series. I don’t like that.’

Alongside Mountford on
The Apprentice
is the simply brilliant Nick Hewer. Hewer started off in public relations during the Swinging Sixties. He formed his own PR company and quickly built an impressive client list that included the secretariat of the Aga Khan, based in Chantilly, France. He began representing Amstrad – and Sugar – in 1983. He became a trusted and valued ally for Sugar as he built his enormous business and property empire. On
The Apprentice
, he was just as vital for Sugar, and became an unlikely star in the process. As the
Independent
put it, ‘With his silver, military haircut, frameless specs and deadpan intellect, Nick Hewer is not your average television star.’ But he was a popular one thanks to the sharp appearance and intellect he displayed on the show.

Asked about the candidates, he was dismissive of some of them, but also found a moment of sympathy for the pressure they are under. ‘I’m not sure they brief themselves that well,’ said Hewer of some
Apprentice
candidates.
‘Some hadn’t even bothered to find out what Alan Sugar’s businesses were, which was extraordinary. It’s a real pressure cooker. They’re working day and night. The cameras are there all the time; all their decisions are being accelerated and they don’t have time to consider how to be clever. I found it tiring just watching them. Heaven knows what they must feel.’

During the lengthy filming process for each show, he is forced to spend a lot of time in their presence. Despite his respect for them, he did not become especially close to any of them. ‘I don’t chummy up to them,’ he said. ‘I think I’m considered rather sour. They try to cosy up to you, of course, but you can’t afford to get friendly. You have to stand back and be impartial.’

But Hewer’s fear that he is seen as ‘sour’ by the candidates might be misplaced. For Mrs Motormouth herself, Katie Hopkins, is most complimentary of him. ‘He’s a very attractive man with true charisma,’ she purred. ‘He knows how to talk to a woman. He once told me my lips were made for sin – but sadly I didn’t get to use them on him.’

The boardroom scenes are one area where Hewer is encouraged not to be impartial, for his advice is sought by Sir Alan here. Again, Hewer feels sympathy for the candidates as the boardroom tension is racked up. ‘People have been reduced to nervous wrecks,’ he said. ‘Sugar’s got this 20-second black stare, where his pupils appear to completely dilate and they go right through
you and he’s just silent. It’s very unnerving. And Margaret and I feel the tension, too. He doesn’t tell us who he’s going to fire or keep. And he’s invariably got it right, over the whole series.’

Hewer’s respect for both Sugar and the candidates is unflinching. With his newfound
Apprentice
fame, Hewer is often approached on the street, but anyone who wants to criticise the candidates gets short shrift from the PR guru. ‘People are always saying to me, “God, what useless candidates! Where did you get them from?”’ he said. ‘They don’t realise what enormous pressure they’re under. The tasks are pretty much undertaken back to back – they’re not a week apart, as they are on TV – and they go from one to the next with very little sleep, always having to watch their backs in case someone stabs them. For the
fish-selling
task in [Series 4], we were out at five in the morning, and went to bed around three the following morning, to be back in the boardroom at ten. They’ve got to have tremendous stamina.’ And he should know, for he and Mountford need it too just to keep up with the candidates. ‘We’re on test in the tasks, too,’ he explained. ‘We’ve got to be scrupulously fair, honest and accurate. We’re writing pages and pages of who said what to whom, what was the reaction, etc. Then we go into briefings with Alan and the producers that go on for three or four hours. His ability to absorb information is astounding.’