Sir Alan branded a 'power-exploiting bully'

Last updated at 14:28 10 May 2006


Business guru Sir John Harvey Jones hit out at The Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar today, branding him a power-exploiting bully.

Hours before the final of the highly popular BBC2 TV show, the former chief of industry giant ICI attacked Sir Alan's no-nonsense style.

In an attack on business reality TV shows in general, he also dismissed the trend towards aggressive management styles on TV.

As a pioneer of business reality TV himself, Sir John became a household name in the late 1990s with his Troubleshooter series.

Constructive guidance

Sir John, 82, who lives in Hay-on-Wye, mid Wales, insists the ethos behind his shows was always one of constructive guidance.

That goes against the rising trend of aggressive managers such as Sir Alan Sugar, Gordon Ramsay and Simon Cowell, whose tough talking has made them TV stars.

"It is not your job to exploit your position of power," Sir John said in the Cardiff-based Western Mail today.

"It's easy (to do that). My experience of life is that you get the best out of people by encouraging their self belief."

He added that he felt business celebrities such as Sir Alan ultimately did very little to help the hopefuls who come before him.

"They seem fonder of themselves than the people they are interviewing," Sir John said.

"My own view has always been that it's quite wrong and that if you were appearing on TV, you had a duty to preserve people."

He says Sir Alan Sugar comes across as a bully.

He said his methods of leading people or choosing them were not those that get good results.

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