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Tom will fail
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I like tom and i think he has potential to create something one day that may go global but i think he has a major weakness.
He is just not money hungry!!!!
Yes he can come up with ideas but to be honest if you look at all the great inventors and innovators in history there were all ruthless and money hungry.
Tom just doesn't have that laser beam commercial business hunger. You can see this in how he was in a lot of the tasks. he is spineless. in his own business you can see this by the fact that he got the nail file into the shops but did not follow through and get it on every shop in the country and kept on developing it. You can see this in the fact that he was running a invention consultancy business. which to be honest is a complete waste of time if you are money hungry inventor. Because why waste your time creating crap products for other peoples weak ideas when you should be using your time inventing the next big thing that will sell millions and change the world. It also came to light that the consultancy company was loss making. And you can see this in his business plan for making something which quite frankly is commercially incredibly weak. A office chair for people with back problems. I mean how many people who work in offices suffer from back problems?!?!? what a stupid invention. If he had invented a device that strengthened and protected the backs of say nurses (lifting heavy patients) or people doing heavy lifting in other industries then he would have an invention that would of solved a problem.
Good luck to him *EDIT* but to be honest i think LS should have invested in Susan as the winner, good to see that he has offered her help afterwards realising that actually she has the business that was most commercially viable and ready to roll.
He is just not money hungry!!!!
Yes he can come up with ideas but to be honest if you look at all the great inventors and innovators in history there were all ruthless and money hungry.
Tom just doesn't have that laser beam commercial business hunger. You can see this in how he was in a lot of the tasks. he is spineless. in his own business you can see this by the fact that he got the nail file into the shops but did not follow through and get it on every shop in the country and kept on developing it. You can see this in the fact that he was running a invention consultancy business. which to be honest is a complete waste of time if you are money hungry inventor. Because why waste your time creating crap products for other peoples weak ideas when you should be using your time inventing the next big thing that will sell millions and change the world. It also came to light that the consultancy company was loss making. And you can see this in his business plan for making something which quite frankly is commercially incredibly weak. A office chair for people with back problems. I mean how many people who work in offices suffer from back problems?!?!? what a stupid invention. If he had invented a device that strengthened and protected the backs of say nurses (lifting heavy patients) or people doing heavy lifting in other industries then he would have an invention that would of solved a problem.
Good luck to him *EDIT* but to be honest i think LS should have invested in Susan as the winner, good to see that he has offered her help afterwards realising that actually she has the business that was most commercially viable and ready to roll.
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He is an industrial designer, it's his job to invent stuff
He also invented a lot of other stuff before he hit the big time, most of it just a distant memory.
Err..see the rest of your post.
Hmmm - so 'not money hungry' that he moved production from the UK to Malaysia;)
What has posh got to do with any thing. What posh people are not money hungry???????
And for the record i would consider Dyson as a perfect example of an inventor who is money hungry and has the single minded ruffles commercial back bone to take a disruptive product to market and see it through to completion. Tom has not demonstrated this.
Was the process not meant to expose every nook and cranny of some ones personality and skills???????
Lots. Second only to taxi drivers - according to my physiotherapist. And almost always caused by bad posture when sat in front of a computer.
exactly!!
The OP really hasn't a clue
In what respect will he fail?! He's already doing rather well I'd say and I'm sure will do extremely well with the publicity he's now got as well with LS being onside.
If you mean that he isn't going to become the next Warren Buffett maybe but I really don't think he'll fail - maybe just not earn as much as he could if he was money grasping and willing to walk over everyone on his way.
This statement completely intrigues me but I don't know enough about the likes of James Watt, Alexander Fleming, Johannes Gutenberg, Thomas Edison and the like to agree or disagree but somehow I doubt all were 'ruthless and money hungry'.
Totally agree with this. My Physio says the same. I have had lots of help from her with my positioning to prevent further pain so I would welcome a chair that really did the job. I think it is a great idea if it works.
I used to use those knee support chairs. They took a bit of getting used to but they did strengthen the back muscles. They were expensive when they came out but were worth the money. They seem to be less popular now,but I'm told they still work and do the job.
People spend a fortune on correctly alighed shoes etc. see Mtb shoes
So I'm sure that there is a healthy market for a good chair that works
Tom's nail file has no competitors in the market, and is already fully developed. It has been under-marketed to date and being in engineer's black is currently short on customer-appeal. With a little glamour added it can be sold for more.
Effectively LS has bought Tom's patent on the cheap, and will makes oodles flogging it worldwide, the fairytale success of which will do LS's worldwide image no harm at all. Tom's wife-to-be will be marrying a rich man.
Hence why Karen said Tom had most to gain by Sugar's input.
A buisness owned by two people, one who provides buisness direction and one person who provides creative direction. - is a reasonable model.
Lots of new businesses do flop - so it's hard to know if it'll succeed or not, but I wouldn't write it off just yet.
Also you have no clue if you think that people don't worry about office chairs in relation to back pain (you're not alone there mind you - apparently Lord Sugar seems to think the same)
Certainly at our work place we're on our 3rd sort of chair in about 4 years due to new chairs that are apparently better ergonomically, being rolled out across the company.
Lots. Sitting in a badly designed office chair all day can be absolute murder on your back.
Last year, I had to be signed off work weeks before I was due to go on maternity leave because my back couldn't take the hours of sitting every day.
Has your problem been resolved now? Would it be sufficient to have the back in contact with chair support as often as possible?
Not being pregnant anymore helped a lot.
I think what could have helped then was a desk assessment and a professional taking a look at the chair and adjusting it correctly. I tried doing it myself and tried lots of different ways of sitting and used different cushions etc, and even saw a physio but nothing worked.
By the same token, no use having 'a thirst for money' but no viable business ideas - cue Jim.
250K isn't going to make him have any better ideas.
Shoulda gone with Susan, Lord Sugar
I was having a discussion on similar lines with my PA - she had a spell working amongst the very rich and was opining that what they had in common was a willingness to walk all over people and be very selfish, but not everybody who is successful fits that mould.
to get rich legitimately through work does seem to require some tight focus, that can be provided by somebody else in the business, say the FD or sales director.
lots of office workers have back problems - it is a H&S requirement to consider their needs - some companies take that more seriously than others, but it is a potential market.
LAS has homed in on the fact that Tom's product does have a market and has entered the US market - much easier to 'stick to the knitting' than start afresh.
Maybe not. But it may well ensure that his inventions reach the market in the first place - which may well then go on to make a healthy profit. Lots of inventions never reach the first stage because the inventor hasn't the funds to be able to take that product to market.
Have you read Trevor Baylis's book - Clock This? There were dozens of inventions he came up with before the clockwork radio which he couldn't afford to push - if he had been able to produce them and sell them, he may well have become a millionaire years earlier.
Once those are a success, you have the opportunity to revisit the more ambitious plans.
Precisely, hence the Stylfile I think.