Lord Alan Sugar versus Sir James Dyson. But did Sugar have a point?

Alan Sugar has provoked the fury of engineers with comments made last week on The Apprentice about engineers’ lack of business acumen. Now, another knight, Britain’s most famous living engineer/entrepreneur Sir James Dyson has stepped into the dispute.

In this week’s Observer, Dyson wrote: “Reality TV is anything but. If The Apprentice is to be believed, our economy will only recover if we all don pinstripe, spout jargon, shout over one another and deliver a "killer pitch".
“Safe to say I disagree with him – engineers can lead successful businesses. In fact, 15% of FTSE 100 companies have engineers on their board. They are analytical problem solvers – it's why the City loves engineers. I wish it didn't. I'm trying to lure another 400 bright minds to our Wiltshire laboratories.”

Here is the report from last week’s Financial Times giving the details of Lord Sugar’s remarks.  Firing or is that ‘firing’ Glenn Ward, a design engineer, on the BBC’s The Apprentice on Wednesday, he pronounced: “I have never yet come across an engineer who can turn his hands to business.”  But Dyson is only the latest engineer to join the furore.  The FT quotes one well known engineer and entrepreneur Geoff Turnbull, chairman of GT Group in Peterlee, Durham, who said: “In one sweeping – and misguided – statement, Lord Sugar has sent out the message to millions that engineers do not have the capability to be successful entrepreneurs,” he said.

The paper notes that Durham, an apprentice engineer at 15, has built GT, an environmental engineering company, into a business with £30m turnover.
At the Telegraph Louisa Peacock, the jobs editor, says her advice to those looking for a new job is to - “Stop stereotyping. Open your mind, listen to others, see things from other people's point of view. Only then will you spark true innovation into the workplace and become a desirable candidate.”

Specialist Engineer trade magazine special projects editor Ellie Zolfagharifard is less subtle with her criticism here . “Sugar really should know better considering he made his fortune from electronics. He claims to understand the technology industry inside out. But then again, this is the same man who in 2005 said, ‘next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput.’

On the Guardian afcone sets Sugar’s remarks in the context of what he fears is a wider malaise.  “Engineers are not valued in this country. The fact that our former 'Enterprise Champion' is so ill-informed about the skills provided by engineers might explain why our economy is up sh*t creek.”  “Having spent four years doing what is a very tough degree, I had the option of becoming an engineer and earning a fraction of what I could as an accountant. I chose the latter. Well over half my degree course did. Joining my accountancy firm, over 30% of my intake had engineering degrees. Several had worked as engineers, before realising that people in UK see you as nothing more than an oil-stained mechanic.

Yet Management Today if not quite supporting Lord Sugar may be suggesting he had a point . It writes: “As MT discovered when it interviewed Reaction Engines’ Alan Bond for a feature on the British space industry for this month’s issue, the UK is rife with engineers whose business acumen leaves a lot to be desired. ‘I don’t think those skills are compatible.’ Bond explained that his company, in its early years made up solely of engineers, was in dire financial straits until it brought in a business-minded investor to go through the books. ‘I dread to think how much truly innovative material must have been lost in Britain because people don’t have the right skills to bring their idea to market,’ he said.

The magazine suggests some way must be found to bring together entrepreneurs and engineers, if the Government’s hopes of growing manufacturing are to be successful.  But let’s give Dyson the last word.
“Let's not forget that Lord Sugar has a lot to thank British engineers for, not least because John Logie Baird pioneered television.”

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