It might just be a case of arise, Sir Gordon

Jun 9 2009 by Andrew Hebden, The Journal

THE line between business and showbusiness seems to have become increasingly blurred over the past decade or so, with many successful entrepreneurs acquiring so-called 'celebrity status'.

There is much to be said for this. After all, television programmes such as Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice have become prime-time hits and have helped project real business issues to a much wider audience than ever before.

Equally, we have seen business presenters and journalists in greater demand, with the likes of Adrian Chiles, Evan Davies, Jeff Randall and, of course, Robert Peston becoming well-known faces and voices on television and radio.

Many entrepreneurs have been quick to lap up the limelight and enjoy the fame that success running their companies has brought them. There’s nothing new in this, of course, as successful business people have often become well known, whether for their rags to riches successes or for rather less desirable notoriety.

Whether it be to sit on the panel in the Dragon’s Den or to comment on the big story of the day, there’s more opportunity for exposure than ever.

Equally, the buoyant economy spawned an ever-growing after-dinner circuit, leaving organisers of conferences and other events desperately trying to fill their schedules with the most interesting business speaker of the day.

While many of these entrepreneurs do, indeed, have a great story to tell, the fact that an individual holds a senior executive position at a big business is no guarantee that they will turn out to be a brilliant performer.

As a result, the ones that have achieved the real fame are, in many cases, not necessarily the most successful business people, but those that can draw a crowd.

Even a modest amount of success in the boardroom can be enough to justify your status as an ‘expert’, provided you convey your message in a compelling manner – just look at the career Sir Alan Sugar has carved out for himself.

It’s hardly surprising that his pending appointment to the House of Lords and new role as an ‘enterprise tsar’ has ruffled a few feathers in the business world. Here was a man who made his name and fortune from building a successful business in Amstrad, but few of the millions of Apprentice viewers probably realise that today the bulk of his interests lie in the field of property. It’s hardly surprising that competition winner Yasmina Siadatan looked a little underwhelmed when she learned that her prize for enduring 12 weeks of rigorous assessment was to be a role working in the division of his business that makes computer screens for NHS waiting rooms. I think I’d rather be running her restaurant.

The fact is that Sir Alan typifies this cult of the business celebrity and it shows just how desperate Prime Minister Gordon Brown has become if he honestly believes that this man can add genuine intellectual vigour or business insight to his Cabinet. Senior business figures - many of whom detest Sugar’s macho personality and the pseudo-bullying he presides over on The Apprentice – feel that his appointment is little more than a publicity stunt.

Acquiring celebrity status is no guarantee of success, however, as history has proved time and again, and it’s a story that is already repeating itself with the advent of the current recession.

Two recent examples include Cobra Beer and Gordon Ramsay Holdings, the restaurant business owned by the foul-mouthed celebrity chef.

The founder of the former, Lord Bilimoria, is a life peer who has become something of a media commentator and regular on the after-dinner circuit with his war stories from the early days providing an interesting insight into the challenges faces by an entrepreneur.

Ramsay, meanwhile, may have made his name for his success in the kitchen, but his most compelling show was Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, which is as much about the economics of running a successful restaurant as it is about getting the cooking right. Almost every show in that excellent series is focused on a business that, unless it gets its sums right, is facing the prospect of closure.

Both Bilimoria and Ramsay’s companies have attracted unwanted publicity in recent weeks.

Cobra went through a so-called ‘pre-pack’ administration before being bought out by Bilimoria and Molson Coors, leaving creditors of the original company some £75m out of pocket. It’s a particularly unfortunate legacy for a man who has made his name preaching about the importance of corporate social responsibility.

Ramsay, meanwhile, revealed how close his own business had come to administration after the spectacular failure of his expansion strategy.

For a man who always tells restaurant owners the importance of having a small and manageable menu, his decision to overstretch himself in this manner seems particularly unfortunate - enough, you might think, to put his future career as a celebrity business angel in jeopardy.

If I was him, I wouldn’t worry. As Sir Alan has proved, personality will always overshadow business acumen when it comes to earning a spot on primetime television. And, who knows, Ramsay might just end up with a peerage.

Andrew Hebden is head of business at ncjMedia