Sir Alan Sugar becomes new Enterprise Czar in reshuffle

Just a few days before business boss Sir Alan Sugar graces our screens for the final of The Apprentice and he’s all over the media again as Britain’s (first?) Enterprise Czar. But is he really the right man for the job?

According to reports from the BBC, Sir Alan has been called on by Gordon Brown to help support the government’s efforts to encourage enterprise during these difficult economic times.

The BBC quotes the Prime Minister as saying:

I can not think of a better person to be in place

And Sir Alan appears to be backing Mr Brown too. What exactly the former Amstrad boss and Spurs chairman will do is another matter, although more will be revealed as events unfold.

But already the appointment has been met by a certain amount of ridicule on Twitter and elsewhere.

There is definitely a sense that people don’t take Sir Alan that seriously. That he’s a caricature of an entrepreneur and businessman and that as a result his appointment is a bit of a joke. A sign of desperation, rather than astute thinking.

Here at SmallBizPod we think Sir Alan gets a bad rap. His style as the BBC is always keen to point out is ‘abrasive’, but at least he’s not playing the fool all the time like Richard Branson does so often to secure that extra ounce of PR.

Whether The Apprentice has done his reputation some harm or not, Sir Alan remains one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs and he did it without the silver spoon of someone like Branson.

His appointment may be an exercise in cynical populism, but we believe Sir Alan himself should be celebrated, not sneered at.

[Update: It’s now transpired that Sir Alan has been made a Lord. As you’d expect he clearly drives a hard bargain. Politically though this seems like a suicidal mistake. Now is not the time for a Labour Party to be granting favours to millionaires.]

[Picture credit: demo1977 licenced from Flickr]