#“I’ve never met an Engineer who could turn their hand to business”
With that one line by Alan Sugar on last night's UK Apprentice, I finally realised why Amstrad was never able to grow beyond the odd burst of short term opportunism into a global company. I'd like to run a few numbers past Lord Sugar:
- Number of Amstrad Music Devices sold last year: 0
- Number of Apple Music Devices sold last year: 84m
- Market share of phones with e-m@ailer technology: 0%
- Market share of phones with ARM technology: 98% globally
- Dell market cap: $30.18B
- Viglen valuation: £9.99?
- Amstrad sale price: £127m
- Scientific Atlanta Sale Price: $6.9B
The one difference between those companies and Amstrad? Great business people with a global vision working with great engineers with business sense.
So Lord Sugar, the next time an engineer runs a business or product idea past you, maybe stop thinking about how you can bundle a tape-recorder with it, and listen to her.
Wouldn't it be great if the BBC dropped property developer Alan from the Apprentice and replaced him with Herman Hauser who, with the creation of the BBC Micro, is ultimately responsible for what became ARM, a technology that is in nearly every mobile phone on the planet? That's someone I would like my kids to aspire to emulating.
Herman, by the way, is a Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering.