´óÏó´«Ã½

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I really like this programme and the excellent Lord Sugar. To now start testing the candidates with more technological tasks is brilliant and so essential. I hope he now asks the future teams to design websites, improve cars’ performances in terms of fuel efficiencies,design multi-lingual conference facilities, design training courses for staff teams and so on. A wonderful programme with a wonderful leader and a very impressive sidekick team, to add to the huge and classy set up. Well done.

Best Wishes,

Dinesh R Makwana

This program like all other reality TV shows is past its sell by date.

It needs a total overall. Instead of getting middle class pompous idiots, who by all accounts run million pound turnover companies already, get people that have no qualifications but an ability to survive and give them a chance.

A lot of people who have nothing and no qualifications can start and create companies because they need to survive. The program would become much more interesting instead of watching , so called qualified people, making absolutely elementary mistakes.

On the post from Dinesh R Makwana: "impressive sidekick team"?
Sorry, but what planet are you on??
No problem with Nick, but what about Karren Brady?
Let me enlighten you. She co-runs West Ham United. Before the season has even ended, they are guaranteed to finish bottom of the Premier League (out of 20 teams) before the season has even ended, yet they have the 8th highest wage bill of all the clubs in the league!! How is she remotely qualified to comment on clever buying? At West Ham she has (vice-)presided over a miserable, miserable failure of a season.
Karren Brady's appearance on the programme as a "business expert" utterly undermines the credibility of the programme.
Come on ´óÏó´«Ã½, sack this idiot - or the programme is finished.

To: Byebyehammers

I did know Karen Brady was part of West Ham Football Club.Every point Karen Brady has made has been valid on The Apprentice show. UK Football management is a business and is seen as a business but comparing West Ham Club's disappointing results against the business skill and judgements of a show like The Apprentice can be a bit unfair. If Karen Brady had made bad statements or bad judgements or misled the public or Lord Sugar in The Apprentice, then I think you could be critical and very against the employment of Karen Brady as a trusted sidekick of Lord Sugar. I believe many top entrepreneurs have businesses that are both successful and failures. Karen Brady has credentials and has many great winning stories too.

Thanks for your observations.

Dinesh R Makwana

To Dinesh R Makwana

With all due respect, I think you are missing my point.

I wasn't so much getting at Karren Brady's responsibility for West Ham's sporting failure this season, although it IS an abject failure, let's not be mistaken here.

What I mean is that she has contributed to the club's demise from a business point of view.

Let's look at the facts. West Ham are now £80 million in debt. The more conservative estimates of the effects of relegation from the Premier League are that those debts will soon have risen to well over £100 million (source: Square One Consulting) which will mean another injection of capital of at least £20 million just to prevent the club going into administration. In anyone's terms, that is a bad failure.

West Ham are in this position as a direct consequence of a series of bad decisions taken by those running the club, of whom she is one. There are dozens of these, but here are just a couple:
1. The club agreed to sign Robbie Keane at £90,000 per week. He has scored two goals. What kind of return on investment is that?
2. Karren Brady chose to write a newspaper column open discussing issues at the club which which should have remained confidential. This directly contributed to undermining the club's credibility. Nobody made her do this. What was she thinking of?

She is on the show in the capacity of an "expert". However her contribution to the very public business disaster that is West Ham United utterly destroys any credibility she may have had. It's an embarrassment for Alan Sugar and also for the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

Based on how she's ruined West Ham I would not allow her to invest any of my money if she were the last "businesswoman" on Earth.

Having said all of this I do agree with you on one point: which is your description of her as a "sidekick". Now that description IS accurate.

byebyehammers.....most football owners are business failures in football or support football for fun....football is in debt....£90k a week is cheap for a footballer....poor Karren Brady, to have West Ham supporters like you must be pain and more pain.....even Sir Alan made losses at Spurs and he is now worth at nearly £1 billion....results on the pitch do dictate business in football, however hard you keep it separate.(Dinesh R Makwana, you are super right on,the techie side of the modern top employee is a fair point.,,,and Nick Skewer, Karren Brady, Alan Sugar have a show worth watching)

bye bye.....byebyehammers!!

QUESTORING,

To answer these points:
"most football owners are business failures in football or support football for fun...."
That may be partially true: there are many cases of business people making their fortune outside football then spending it on football clubs: Sullivan and Gold fit into this category. However, as far as I am aware Karren Brady's CV extends to running (not owning) Birmingham City from 1993 to 2009, and then running West Ham from 2009 onwards. What exactly are her business achievements OUTSIDE football?

"£90k a week is cheap for a footballer"
WRONG....according to the Guardian the total amount paid to players in the Premier League last season (the last season for which figures are available) was £1.4 billion. Therefore, in crude terms 20 teams x 25 players per squad = an average wage of £2.8million, or just over £50k a week. Even this is skewed upwards by a few players at the very top end of the wage scale. £90k a week might seem cheap at Man City, who've qualified for the Champions League and won the FA Cup, but it's a ridiculous amount for a relegated club to pay someone who has hardly delivered anything.

"even Sir Alan made losses at Spurs..."
WRONG AGAIN - Alan Sugar bought Spurs for £8million and sold it years later for £50million.

"....football is in debt...."
True, but that doesn't mean that clubs HAVE to run at a debt. Other clubs last season - Wolverhampton Wanderers for example - demonstrated that it is possible to make a profit without even (no disrespect to Wolves) being spectacularly successful.
The reason West Ham is in the situation it's in is incompetent management, simple as.

Karren Brady is supposed to be on the show as a competent, credible business expert. Unless someone can demonstrate that this is what she is, she should be removed and replaced with someone who is.

Oh and finally.............I am not a West Ham fan, if I was, my comments would be more critical.

hmmm....byebyehammers....let's see some of the delightful Karren Brady's CV.....


"Karren Brady's first job was working at Saatchi & Saatchi the advertising agency. She left to join the London Broadcasting Company (LBC) where she managed an account for radio advertising with several clients, who initially did not spend much money; however, one of the clients, publisher David Sullivan, encouraged by Brady, spent more than £2,000,000 on advertising in just six months, which earned Brady more commission than the rest of the sales team put together. Sullivan offered her a job with his firm, and she became one of the directors at the age of 20. While in Sullivan's employ, Brady spotted an advert for the sale of Birmingham City F.C. in the Financial Times, when the club was in receivership,[11] and persuaded Sullivan to buy it and let her run it. Sullivan later commented that he agreed to the deal because such a young, female director would attract publicity to the club, and also because Brady was a "sacker".Brady was 23 when she started work as managing director of Birmingham City F.C. in March 1993.She is also chairman of EMAP's Kerrang!, and has a seat on the board of Sport England. She is a non-executive director of Mothercare and Channel 4 television. In September 2010 she joined the board of Arcadia with Sir Philip Green......."

hmmmm.....

bye bye, bye bye byebyehammers

QUESTORING:
OK, so even taking this at face value, in terms of "achievements" we have: she sold £2m of advertising to pornographer David Sullivan. That was at least 18 years ago.

Then she ran Birmingham City which I've recognised (I challenge you to find many Birmingham fans who think she did that competently). Then a few non-exec appointments (including Arcadia: you should check your sources more carefully). Oh and you missed out her column in the Sun which I've already mentioned.

Looking at that, small wonder running West Ham on a remotely sustainable basis is proving beyond her.



So I was basically correct: all she's ever run is

Birmingham and West Ham.

...and these contestants are supposed to be the best business brains in the country? It looks more like a beauty contest. Lol