Sir Alan Sugar Research Paper
One of Britain’s most renowned entrepreneurs had never felt so wrong in their life. “Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput.” they told an interviewer from the Daily Mail in 2005. This entrepreneur had no idea that he had got his statement wrong, 350million times over. (Hazelton, 2008) (NewsWeek, 2010)
This entrepreneur was Sir Alan Michael Sugar, born 24th March 1947. Notorious for his smash TV show, the Apprentice UK, Sugar truly epitomises the saying, rags to riches. Sugar was born in the decadent town of Hackney, East London where a family consisting of very little money brought him up. During his schooling years, he was never a popular boy; he was teased day in day out, for always having such ridiculously high ambitions. (Chancellor, 2005) (Wikipedia, 2013)
However …show more content…
Sugar’s ludicrous ambitions were slowly beginning to become reality at the age of 14, when he began to manage a stall at his local markets, boiling and selling beetroot. Two years later, Sugar grew tired of the 5am starts so he went on selling T.V ariels and electrical goods out of the back his van, which he had purchased with his entire savings account of 100 pounds. (Wikipedia, 2013)
Sir Alan, once a little schoolboy selling electrical goods for a few pounds profit a sale, is now worth over $1.1 billion Australian dollars. In 1968 Sugar founded the electronics company Amstrad which specialises in computer hardware. Derived from an acronym of his initials, Alan Michael Sugar trading, in 1970 his manufacturing venture was well underway and had started to appear as one of Britain 's leading electronics businesses. In 1984, recognising the opportunity of the home computer era, Amstrad launched an 8-bit machine, the Amstrad CPC 464. (BBC, 2007)
In 1991 Sir Alan purchased the English Football team Tottenham Hotspur, and became the chairman of the club. Sir Alan helped the club with many money troubles, such as saving the club from entering administration. However Sugar sold most of his shares in Tottenham Hotspur in 2001, after receiving death threats towards him and his family. Sir Alan has now stated that his time at Spurs was a waste of his life. In 2005, Sir Alan became the star of the BBC reality show The Apprentice UK. (Chancellor, 2005) (Frost, 2008)
Sir Alan, now 66, has spent over 40 years in the business industry and had many successes in the trade over the years, which have moulded him into the entrepreneur he is today. According to the Business Organisation and Management Queensland textbook, entrepreneurs can be defined as a creative, self-motivated, innovative and passionate people who look to improve their business goals and expand them into many different environments. Alan Sugar was able to exhibit these qualities everyday business the industry, which is why he has been such a prosperous entrepreneur over the last four decades. (Mylonas, 2000)
Sugar has also displayed sustaining innovation over his years by introducing new and improved computers at their peak time. Sir Alan saw a gap in the market for electronics and PC 's and snatched at it, which led him to being one of the most widespread sellers of electronics and PC 's in Europe.
However there have been some hard and challenging times for Sir Alan. During the 1990s PC 's took a fall in price, and the amount of sales dropped dramatically. This time proved the most difficult for the company, which severely damaged Amstrad 's reputation in the personal computer market, from which it never recovered. (Wikipedia, 2013)
Sir Alan 's success is not based upon luck, or even being in the right market at the right time.
It is based upon his skills and knowledge of what he is doing and what he wants to achieve. Sir Alan has adopted this never give up on anything attitude, until all angles are tested, the product can’t begin to succeed. Sir Alan is a shrewd businessman, and always gets the bottom line price; this personal quality is the key to his vast fortune. During school, Sir Alan was never a brilliant academic achiever, but people could always say that he was excellent at selling things. Sir Alan was known as the ‘King’ of the quick sale, and could always find a bargain. A personal quote of his, which reflects his values, is; “Never underestimate me because you will be making a fatal error. I don 't like liars. I don 't like cheats and I don 't like schmoozers”. This quote clearly sums up Sir Alan’s motivation in business. Sir Alan never received any qualifications from school or university, as he wasn’t capable of doing well in academics. This means that no qualifications or skills have helped him to high successes, except that of a good instinct and great selling skills. (Fletcher,
2013)
On the other hand Ingvar Kamprad takes a different approach completely, to his home grown business that is IKEA. Kamprad’s beliefs are not to improve people 's lives, but to improve the people themselves. The self-service store design and ease of assembly of their furniture are not merely cost controls, but an opportunity for self sufficiency. Kamprad’s vision is to make every single customer happy while they shop inside of IKEA. Kamprad’s mission statement is that there should be something for everyone inside of his stores, and if something can’t improve day to day living, it shouldn’t make it to the showroom. Conversely Sir Alan’s vision is much different to this, he focuses on selling the most he can do at the highest price possible. Kamprad takes more care for his customers and offers them much more satisfaction from his product line. (Petterson, 2004)
Sir Alan seems to disagree with this approach, as he sees that customers should browse, buy and use, instead of Kamprad 's take care of the customer proposal. As a father of a family himself, Ingvar Kamprad has based his leadership style on the idea of family. , He leads “by example”. As Kamprad has publicly said, “If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example” and “I have to do so for all the IKEA employees”. Kamprad realised that the way to get the best out of his employees was to set an example by encouraging hard work mixed with strict business ethics. (Testrvn, 2011) (Petterson, 2004) (Press, 2010)
Sir Alan takes the opposite approach to this with his leadership skills where he employs people based upon their business skills rather than their personality. When Kamprad’s gets faced with a challenge, he looks upon it as a goal he needs to achieve. He sets himself up to beat the challenge and move on. On many occasions he has had knockbacks from suppliers and designers, but continues on without worrying about the problems. Sir Alan however, when faced with a challenge seems to worsen and never overcome the problem. When his main new product the PDA, found commercial failure, he couldn’t move forward for a very long time. He found it hard to invent new devices and ideas, as he was worried of failure again.
Social responsibly is key to a worthy business organisation, having business ethics will help you with more customers, as they wish to buy from a sociable responsible company. IKEA is one of the most socially responsible businesses on the planet, as it has involvement with many poverty organisations such as the soft toy project where annually IKEA sends thousands of soft toys to poverty stricken countries. Giving their customers the lowest prices possible shows that IKEA have high values, and consider their customers more important than their profits. IKEA also supports UNICEF and WWF.
Sir Alan on the other hand has much less social responsibility and ethics. Many experts have said that Sugar still has a lot to learn in business ethics. After comparing Ingvar Kamprad to Sir Alan Sugar, it is clear that Kamprad has been more successful and has a better understanding of business. Sugar was productive for a short period while the computer period was at its peak, but then during the late 90’s the business became a commercial failure. However with Kamprad and IKEA, they have picked a product that will sell no matter what the circumstances are and have the reputation of providing the utmost customer service. (IKEA, 2013)
Bibliography
BBC. (2007, July 31). Profile: Sir Alan Sugar. Retrieved May 2, 2013, from BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6923678.stm
Chancellor. (2005). SIr Alan Sugar. Retrieved May 2, 2013, from Brunel: http://web.archive.org/web/20070410184421/http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/hongrads/2005/sugar
Fletcher, A. (2013, April). 'The Apprentice ': Six reasons we 're excited to have Lord Sugar back Read more: http://www.digitalspy.com.au/british-tv/s108/the-apprentice/realitybites/a476383/the-apprentice-six-reasons-were-excited-to-have-lord-sugar-back.html#ixzz2S7l521hR Follow us: @digitalspy on Twitter | digitalspyuk on Facebook. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from Digital Spy: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s108/the-apprentice/realitybites/a476383/the-apprentice-six-reasons-were-excited-to-have-lord-sugar-back.html
Frost, M. (2008). FrostMeditations. Retrieved Apri; 2013, from Martin Frost: http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/mar2008/alan_sugar.html
Hazelton, L. (2008, December 10). Daily Mail. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from Daily Mail UK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1093470/Next-Christmas-iPod-kaput-How-Sir-Alan-Sugar-got-wrong-174million-times--webs-worst-predictions.html#ixzz2RewPypTH
IKEA. (2013). People and The Environment. Retrieved May 2, 2013, from IKEA: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/the_ikea_story/people_and_the_environment/
Mylonas, A. (2000). Business Management and Organisation Queensland (Vol. 1). (L. Steele, Ed.) Sydney, NSW, Australia: Lyn Thane.
NewsWeek. (2010, February 15). Top 10 Worst Predictions. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from NewsWeek: http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/worst-predictions/alan-sugar.html
Petterson, T. (2004). Ikea : Global Expansion (Vol. 1). Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Press, W. (2010). Life is Sublime. Retrieved May 1, 2013, from World Press: http://lifeissublime.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/1585/
Testrvn. (2011, May 1). Ingvar Kamprads leadership Style . Retrieved April 30, 2013, from Testrvn: http://testervn.hubpages.com/hub/Ingvar-Kamprads-leadership-style
Wikipedia. (2013). Alan Sugar. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sugar
This entrepreneur was Sir Alan Michael Sugar, born 24th March 1947. Notorious for his smash TV show, the Apprentice UK, Sugar truly epitomises the saying, rags to riches. Sugar was born in the decadent town of Hackney, East London where a family consisting of very little money brought him up. During his schooling years, he was never a popular boy; he was teased day in day out, for always having such ridiculously high ambitions. (Chancellor, 2005) (Wikipedia, 2013)
However …show more content…
Sugar’s ludicrous ambitions were slowly beginning to become reality at the age of 14, when he began to manage a stall at his local markets, boiling and selling beetroot. Two years later, Sugar grew tired of the 5am starts so he went on selling T.V ariels and electrical goods out of the back his van, which he had purchased with his entire savings account of 100 pounds. (Wikipedia, 2013)
Sir Alan, once a little schoolboy selling electrical goods for a few pounds profit a sale, is now worth over $1.1 billion Australian dollars. In 1968 Sugar founded the electronics company Amstrad which specialises in computer hardware. Derived from an acronym of his initials, Alan Michael Sugar trading, in 1970 his manufacturing venture was well underway and had started to appear as one of Britain 's leading electronics businesses. In 1984, recognising the opportunity of the home computer era, Amstrad launched an 8-bit machine, the Amstrad CPC 464. (BBC, 2007)
In 1991 Sir Alan purchased the English Football team Tottenham Hotspur, and became the chairman of the club. Sir Alan helped the club with many money troubles, such as saving the club from entering administration. However Sugar sold most of his shares in Tottenham Hotspur in 2001, after receiving death threats towards him and his family. Sir Alan has now stated that his time at Spurs was a waste of his life. In 2005, Sir Alan became the star of the BBC reality show The Apprentice UK. (Chancellor, 2005) (Frost, 2008)
Sir Alan, now 66, has spent over 40 years in the business industry and had many successes in the trade over the years, which have moulded him into the entrepreneur he is today. According to the Business Organisation and Management Queensland textbook, entrepreneurs can be defined as a creative, self-motivated, innovative and passionate people who look to improve their business goals and expand them into many different environments. Alan Sugar was able to exhibit these qualities everyday business the industry, which is why he has been such a prosperous entrepreneur over the last four decades. (Mylonas, 2000)
Sugar has also displayed sustaining innovation over his years by introducing new and improved computers at their peak time. Sir Alan saw a gap in the market for electronics and PC 's and snatched at it, which led him to being one of the most widespread sellers of electronics and PC 's in Europe.
However there have been some hard and challenging times for Sir Alan. During the 1990s PC 's took a fall in price, and the amount of sales dropped dramatically. This time proved the most difficult for the company, which severely damaged Amstrad 's reputation in the personal computer market, from which it never recovered. (Wikipedia, 2013)
Sir Alan 's success is not based upon luck, or even being in the right market at the right time.
It is based upon his skills and knowledge of what he is doing and what he wants to achieve. Sir Alan has adopted this never give up on anything attitude, until all angles are tested, the product can’t begin to succeed. Sir Alan is a shrewd businessman, and always gets the bottom line price; this personal quality is the key to his vast fortune. During school, Sir Alan was never a brilliant academic achiever, but people could always say that he was excellent at selling things. Sir Alan was known as the ‘King’ of the quick sale, and could always find a bargain. A personal quote of his, which reflects his values, is; “Never underestimate me because you will be making a fatal error. I don 't like liars. I don 't like cheats and I don 't like schmoozers”. This quote clearly sums up Sir Alan’s motivation in business. Sir Alan never received any qualifications from school or university, as he wasn’t capable of doing well in academics. This means that no qualifications or skills have helped him to high successes, except that of a good instinct and great selling skills. (Fletcher,
2013)
On the other hand Ingvar Kamprad takes a different approach completely, to his home grown business that is IKEA. Kamprad’s beliefs are not to improve people 's lives, but to improve the people themselves. The self-service store design and ease of assembly of their furniture are not merely cost controls, but an opportunity for self sufficiency. Kamprad’s vision is to make every single customer happy while they shop inside of IKEA. Kamprad’s mission statement is that there should be something for everyone inside of his stores, and if something can’t improve day to day living, it shouldn’t make it to the showroom. Conversely Sir Alan’s vision is much different to this, he focuses on selling the most he can do at the highest price possible. Kamprad takes more care for his customers and offers them much more satisfaction from his product line. (Petterson, 2004)
Sir Alan seems to disagree with this approach, as he sees that customers should browse, buy and use, instead of Kamprad 's take care of the customer proposal. As a father of a family himself, Ingvar Kamprad has based his leadership style on the idea of family. , He leads “by example”. As Kamprad has publicly said, “If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example” and “I have to do so for all the IKEA employees”. Kamprad realised that the way to get the best out of his employees was to set an example by encouraging hard work mixed with strict business ethics. (Testrvn, 2011) (Petterson, 2004) (Press, 2010)
Sir Alan takes the opposite approach to this with his leadership skills where he employs people based upon their business skills rather than their personality. When Kamprad’s gets faced with a challenge, he looks upon it as a goal he needs to achieve. He sets himself up to beat the challenge and move on. On many occasions he has had knockbacks from suppliers and designers, but continues on without worrying about the problems. Sir Alan however, when faced with a challenge seems to worsen and never overcome the problem. When his main new product the PDA, found commercial failure, he couldn’t move forward for a very long time. He found it hard to invent new devices and ideas, as he was worried of failure again.
Social responsibly is key to a worthy business organisation, having business ethics will help you with more customers, as they wish to buy from a sociable responsible company. IKEA is one of the most socially responsible businesses on the planet, as it has involvement with many poverty organisations such as the soft toy project where annually IKEA sends thousands of soft toys to poverty stricken countries. Giving their customers the lowest prices possible shows that IKEA have high values, and consider their customers more important than their profits. IKEA also supports UNICEF and WWF.
Sir Alan on the other hand has much less social responsibility and ethics. Many experts have said that Sugar still has a lot to learn in business ethics. After comparing Ingvar Kamprad to Sir Alan Sugar, it is clear that Kamprad has been more successful and has a better understanding of business. Sugar was productive for a short period while the computer period was at its peak, but then during the late 90’s the business became a commercial failure. However with Kamprad and IKEA, they have picked a product that will sell no matter what the circumstances are and have the reputation of providing the utmost customer service. (IKEA, 2013)
Bibliography
BBC. (2007, July 31). Profile: Sir Alan Sugar. Retrieved May 2, 2013, from BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6923678.stm
Chancellor. (2005). SIr Alan Sugar. Retrieved May 2, 2013, from Brunel: http://web.archive.org/web/20070410184421/http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/hongrads/2005/sugar
Fletcher, A. (2013, April). 'The Apprentice ': Six reasons we 're excited to have Lord Sugar back Read more: http://www.digitalspy.com.au/british-tv/s108/the-apprentice/realitybites/a476383/the-apprentice-six-reasons-were-excited-to-have-lord-sugar-back.html#ixzz2S7l521hR Follow us: @digitalspy on Twitter | digitalspyuk on Facebook. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from Digital Spy: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s108/the-apprentice/realitybites/a476383/the-apprentice-six-reasons-were-excited-to-have-lord-sugar-back.html
Frost, M. (2008). FrostMeditations. Retrieved Apri; 2013, from Martin Frost: http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/mar2008/alan_sugar.html
Hazelton, L. (2008, December 10). Daily Mail. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from Daily Mail UK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1093470/Next-Christmas-iPod-kaput-How-Sir-Alan-Sugar-got-wrong-174million-times--webs-worst-predictions.html#ixzz2RewPypTH
IKEA. (2013). People and The Environment. Retrieved May 2, 2013, from IKEA: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/the_ikea_story/people_and_the_environment/
Mylonas, A. (2000). Business Management and Organisation Queensland (Vol. 1). (L. Steele, Ed.) Sydney, NSW, Australia: Lyn Thane.
NewsWeek. (2010, February 15). Top 10 Worst Predictions. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from NewsWeek: http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/worst-predictions/alan-sugar.html
Petterson, T. (2004). Ikea : Global Expansion (Vol. 1). Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Press, W. (2010). Life is Sublime. Retrieved May 1, 2013, from World Press: http://lifeissublime.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/1585/
Testrvn. (2011, May 1). Ingvar Kamprads leadership Style . Retrieved April 30, 2013, from Testrvn: http://testervn.hubpages.com/hub/Ingvar-Kamprads-leadership-style
Wikipedia. (2013). Alan Sugar. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sugar