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Staff post about: Alan Sugar Become an Author

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Never stop innovating new products was the theme of Sugar's first company, Amstrad. From his early production of hi-fi stereo covers, Sugar would expand Amstrad into the production of tuners and amplifiers. In 1980, Sugar would recognize the future of personal computers. He would begin designing, negotiating parts prices and create Amstrad's first computer, the Amstrad CPC 464.

The success of this first computer would allow Sugar to create other personal computers, including one of Amstrad's most successful products, the Amstrad PCW 8256 word processor. Despite the success of these computers, other computer manufacturers still had most of the market and were using a lot of Sugar's ideas to improve their own products.

Sugar would finally buy out one of his biggest competitors, Sinclair. This allowed Amstrad and Sugar to continue to produce Sinclair's popular line of computers. Amstrad would grow into a major personal computer manufacturer and at its peak, be valued at more than $2 billion on the London Stock Exchange.

However, Sugar did not always innovate or produce the right products to market. During the 1990s, Amstad was plagued by bad computer components for their new products, as well as launch into other industries that would fail miserably, like the time Sugar decided to go into the gaming industry. He decided to produce the Amstrad GX4000 game machine, but it would fail because the company did not produce enough games and children wanted variety at that time.

The 1990s allowed Sugar to look back at what innovations succeeded and failed. He would break up the company into smaller organizations so each company could concentrate on its primary industry. Sugar would then transition Amstrad into a telecommunications company. This decision would allow Sugar to eventually sell Amstrad to BskyB for more than $250 million in 2007.

However, by that time, Sugar had made innovations in many other industries, such as air travel, advertising, IT services and, of course, the media market. The one innovation that made Sugar a household name was the development of the British version of America's popular reality television show, The Apprentice. The show began in 2005 and continues to be a popular reality show in Great Britain with Sugar as the host.

During one of those broadcasts, Sugar made one of his most famous statements that sums up what others may think about him. He said, “Never ever try to under-estimate me because be making a fatal, fatal error. I don't like liars, I don't like cheats, I don't like bullshitters, I don't like schmoozers and I don't like arse-lickers. ”

Throughout Sugar's business career, he has concentrated on taking other market leaders ideas and producing those products at a reduced cost. Other businesses have seen his success and attempted to do the same thing to him. Not all of his innovations have worked out, but the ones that did, made him a billionaire.

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