Sir Alan Sugar launches new speaker series

Straight talking was the name of the game from Sir Alan Sugar, who launched Tanaka Business School's Distinguished Speaker series on 19 October.

Are entrepreneurs born with that magic spark, or can they be taught? Do all successful businessmen make enemies? How do you judge pitches for investment funding?

These were just a few of the questions posed to self-made millionaire, Sir Alan Sugar, who launched Tanaka Business School's Distinguished Speaker series on 19 October. The series will showcase some of the country's most interesting and prominent businesspeople, politicians and community figures and provide our students with a unique opportunity to get real insights into how these dynamic people have made their mark.

Sir Alan went into business selling products such as cigarette lighters, intercoms and TV aerials, and in 1968 founded the home electronics group Amstrad. He is 25th of The Times Rich List in 2004, and this year he entered the world of reality TV with the BBC's version of Donald Trump's The Apprentice.

An enthralled audience of 140 students, alumni, faculty and senior Imperial staff listened to the man who left school at 16 talk about what motivates him, in an hour long question and answer session. Sir Alan is notorious for being a straight talker, and he didn't disappoint.

He soon made it clear that he was a great fan of engineers and people working in R&D: "Institutions like Imperial that produce great engineers and great R&D mean that we have some of the greatest inventors and innovators. - yet engineers are under-recognised, underpaid and not seen as a true profession."

Unsurprisingly, Sir Alan wasn't as supportive of business education: "You may learn the XYZ of good managerial practice, but it can't give you that bit of radar that recognises things that makes you different from everyone else."

Sir Alan was asked what keeps him interested: "Making money has always been interesting to me, and innovating and developing new products that no one else has thought about also drives me.

"The electronics industry was the start of something new, and it's still so leading edge that we don't know what we'll be selling in two years' time - so there's always something new."

"But if I don't understand something, I don't go near it," he said. "Stick to what you know."

Sir Alan was also asked about his relationship with the City: "I have no problem with the City. They think they have a problem with me. I don't do the private little chats any more. And that honest approach has made it costly, because those in the know in the City don't like this."

The issue of brand was put to Sir Alan, and the answer was suitably dry.

"I don't do brand well - we have a different mentality. Amstrad as a brand was ruined by its very nature - ask people what they thought of us and the reply was "Cheap computers". Yet look at iPod. Technically it's nothing special but Apple has created a "Got to have one" feeling about it.

Our vision? 'Pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap'."

But it hasn't all been roses in Sir Alan's garden, and he admitted to being under pressure much of the time and was equally frank when asked about his biggest mistake: "We didn't invest enough in R&D and rushed a product out to market when it wasn't ready. That cost us.

"We make a lot of mistakes. I would challenge any of you to try and earn in a lifetime the amount of money we've lost through mistakes. But at some point you have to take your punishment, and just cut and run."

And stressful moments?

"In my line of work there are valley and mountains of stress. You can get on a high and think you're untouchable. But if you're not keeping your eye on the ball, suddenly you turn around and realise that you're in to the banks for £300 million. In the September of a particular year the banks asked for their money back. Forget working on products and innovation. I had to put my management hat on, stop buying and manufacturing, and get it sorted.

By the following February we had £140 million in the bank."

other Sir Alan gems

On conversion technologies
"The goody goodies in Brussels have gone beyond business services and imposed so many rules, it makes business a nightmare."

On pleas for money
"I have two dustbins, a green one for recycling, and a brown one - you can use your imagination for that one.

On charities
I don't support the ones that ask. Just the ones I believe in.

On paternity leave
It's a plot to bolster the fact that there are no jobs out there - did you actually need that person if you can lose them for six months?

On football
It's a terrible industry and it was ten years of my life wasted.

Edited video highlights of the session will be online shortly.