The Apprentice poorly reflects world of business

If you were about to start a business, the chances are you would not go from a standing start to full branding, an advertising campaign and pitch to big-name retailers within the space of 48 hours.

Yet for reasons long since lost on the millions who regularly tune in, that is exactly what The Apprentice – the BBC’S long-running show presents as a reasonable task of assessing business acumen. There’s no time to ponder, no time to weigh up strengths and weaknesses, examine the market, consider finances - just a mad dash to produce what is asked in an oh-so predictable cackhanded fashion. While Alan Sugar mocks the contestants for producing something that looks as polished as anything can be when delivered at such breakneck speed, you cannot help but wonder just what Karren Brady expects as she delivers one of her trademark withering looks at the latest hapless results. Because while the BBC still holds the show up as ‘Britain’s toughest job interview’ it has long since served only to exist as a chance to pop the over-inflated egos of the smartly attired contestants keen for their 15 minutes of fame.

An aspirational advert for people to exercise their entrepreneurial spirit it is not.

It’s easy to laugh as they dash their way from one colossal balls-up to the next, but the show has surely now run its course.

Where once the prize was a ‘six-figure’ salary working as Sugar’s lackey, today they get cash to go into business with him; all assuming that £250,000 will bankroll imminent global domination. Spoiler, it won’t.

Yet, for reasons unexplained, we only get to hear of their business plans as the series reaches its final stages. Surely Sugar himself would want to back a horse with a chance? The Apprentice remains fun to watch, but any claim it has to providing insight into success in business has long since evaporated as quickly as those awful Amstrad E-mailer machines Sugar once touted as the next big thing.

‘It has long since served only to pop the overinflated egos of the contestants...’