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Suranlan is plain wrong! - The chair business
thecharmingman
Posts: 1,080 Forum Member
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This may have been overshadowed by Tom winning, but before we knew the outcome Suralan tore Tom's business apart; how pointless going round and assessing chairs for bad backs and building a chair to stop them occurring.
Now I work in a large company and we have a person who basically does this full time (desk assessments). My sister also works for a company that has someone doing this.
Now I'm not commenting on if Tom's business is viable or not, but Suralan seemed to think it was a RIDICULOUS idea to even consider such trivialities as the health of your employees!
It just struck me as a bit out of touch....
Now I work in a large company and we have a person who basically does this full time (desk assessments). My sister also works for a company that has someone doing this.
Now I'm not commenting on if Tom's business is viable or not, but Suralan seemed to think it was a RIDICULOUS idea to even consider such trivialities as the health of your employees!
It just struck me as a bit out of touch....
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Nice little earner too if you can jump on that particular gravy train.
Especially when you consider that in the interim Tom has been working for a copmany that's developing a sanitiser to prevent hospital super bugs.
Surely that's a wee bit more crucial than nail files?!
Lord Al wants to get into the beauty business. Tom's had some success there and he's also going to involve Susan. Great they got to the final innit?!!
35,000 would not be a repeatable sale -- unlike food.
How did a man lacking business genius acquire the yachts, the planes and mansions etc. not to mention a seat in the Lords?
Can you pinpoint his flaws? Without any intention of being confrontational and given your business perspicacity, is it fair to ask if you have enjoyed similar success to Lord S?
Maybe LS will have a rethink on that one...although presumably the experts have also being guiding him and he's not just unilaterally shooting it down, I expect.
My mum has written a number of articles on back injury and RSI and knows a great deal about how much money companies spend on H&S and RSI.... Tom's business plan had decent legs to stand on. The idea itself was not ridiculous at all.
I could genuinely see companies (particuarly large corporate ones) signing up for this.
I can see why he couldn't see speciality chairs like Tom's can be seen as fast-selling products. Nail files can be. Beauty products can be. Speciality chairs, not so much. Once it's sold, the customer won't return to buy a replacement for a long time. It's a potentially profitable but slow business. That's what I think, anyway.
Hard to see how property investment can have a place in a "quick turnover" list. Property is not a sector for buying and selling at the drop of a hat. Lord Sugar was said to have lost £100 million on property he could not unload when the sector went sour.
No doubt there is market demand for PC chairs, as even people at home now sit for long hours in front of the PC. However there would be stiff competition, and end users would want to be convinced Tom's chair is the best and value for money before they swap old for new. Has the Consumer Association ever done market comparisons for chairs?
No I have not enjoyed similar success to Lord S but that is not really the point. I am still allowed to have an opinion on him.
By your logic no football fan is allowed to criticse a professional? Because they have had 'more success' at football so are beyond reproach?
If you benchmark Sugar against other business people that were involved in computers in the 80s (Jobs, Gates, etc) he comes up well short of what he could have acheived.
As i say, i find him entertaining.
I think Lord Sugar dismissed it only because he wouldn't want it for his own companies. He doesn't believe in molly-coddling his employees. For example, he's implied he'd rather not employ women in case they get pregnant and he has to pay maternity leave.