22nd October 2017

In this life you have to be flexible.
   In the Apprentice on Wednesday, the contestants had to design a robot so that it could interract in today's world, and then sell it to interested parties.  As expected, the egotistical youngsters were so focused on themselves and arguing with each other that they missed the main picture.
   On Thursday Theresa May arrived at the EU summit in Brussels, following a press conference with Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker.  She was armed with precise instructions from her Cabinet and focused on one aim: what was best for Britain.  In turn Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker arrived with precise, voted-on, instructions from the council comprising all the other EU countries. In business, politics and in life flexibility is required.  In critical negotiations always give the negotiator carte blanche to make individual decisions.  At such times you cannot be robotic:  you must have the power to duck and dive, bend and move at will, not hampered by pre-instructions. In Brussels neither side had this flexibility. What would Alan Sugar have predicted? Stalemate.

8th October 2017

Did you see The Apprentice on Wednesday? What you see is what you get. This UK series is the last in a 3-year contract, Sugar's fee going to charity. When asked whether he thinks Trump, the original US host, is "up to the job", Sugar replies "Why not? I think he is up to it. Actually, if he didn't open his mouth so much and put his foot in it. He thinks he's still on The Apprentice. He chucks people out who don't agree with him."  Well, yes.  Trouble is, the show worked wonders for Trump by convincing many Americans that he was a master dealmaker.  As Sugar says "If you owe the bank $2,000, they'll shut you down and make you sell your house.  If you owe them $2bn they'll take you out to lunch!" Does Sugar see himself following in Trump's footsteps by putting himself forward as a future PM?  No, it's a thankless task, he says.  You just can't win. These days image has a lot to do with it. No good putting yourself on a stage, as May did this week, and have the letter F fall off behind you (F off?), plus images of standing in an empty market hall, contrasted with your opponent's newly-groomed image amidst cheering supporters. Nothing to do with politics then. Image is everything. Just watch the next episode of The Apprentice. As with politics, schadenfreude is all.