Dundee’s Mike Soutar has admitted he was “very lucky” to bag an interviewer spot on The Apprentice.
The businessman, who is due to return to the hit BBC show on Thursday, has revealed how he was approached for the programme in 2010.
The entrepreneur – who attended school in Fife – started out in journalism at DC Thomson before moving to TV.
The dad-of-two also founded his own business, Shortlist Media, in 2007 where he served as chairman until 2018 before moving to the Evening Standard.
He left a role as chief executive in 2020.
In a post on Linkedin, Mike said he was nervous to meet host Lord Alan Sugar when he began on The Apprentice.
He wrote: “At the time I was CEO of Shortlist Media, the fast-growing publishing and digital start-up I had co-founded with Tim Ewington and three other senior executives.
“Two days prior, the production team had been swarming all over our offices filming a task for season seven of The Apprentice.
“It seemed to have gone very well. The teams pitched two magazine concepts to agencies for ad pages.
“Whichever team got the most advertising was the winner. Keen viewers might remember 28-year-old Glenn Ward, a senior design engineer, being fired.
Mike Soutar ‘lucky’ to have bagged role on The Apprentice
“So I duly went to meet Lord Sugar and, yes, I was pretty nervous. You have to respect someone with that sort of business track record and aura.
“I had a weird feeling he might want to propose launching a business magazine together.
“We were, after all, the hot media company in the UK at the time and he is a business icon so, you know, maybe it would have worked?
“As it happens that was definitely not on his mind. Having asked numerous questions about my past and my company, and established that, yes, this was a genuine start-up, Alan dropped a bombshell piece of news.”
He added: “At the time nobody in the outside world had any idea, but season seven would be the first in which the prize for the winning candidate would be an investment of £250,000 into their new business idea, rather than a year’s employment with him on £100k.
“As a result he explained he was refreshing his interview panel and was looking for entrepreneurs to join the legends that were Claude Littner and Margaret Mountford as interviewers.
“Nick Hewer, Alan’s onscreen advisor at the time, had suggested I might fit the bill having met me in our offices.
“‘If I chose you would you do it?’ Alan asked. With as much composure as possible I blurted out: ‘Absolutely, yes!’ That was about as cool as I could make it sound.”
‘It remains an immense privilege to be involved’
Mike also revealed that Lord Sugar is heavily involved in each task.
“On the day itself, Lord Sugar was on set,” he continued.
“I learned subsequently that he remains very engaged in every single task as it is unfolding, so overseeing the interviews was not unusual.
“Just before I went in to do my first ever Apprentice interview – with ‘Jedi’ Jim Eastwood – Alan pulled me to one side.
“He had two pieces of advice: ‘This is your room. You set the rules. So if you want to stop the interview and have a break, or go over something again because you’re not happy, just do it’.
“Oh, and: ‘Don’t let them get away with anything, Mike’.
“I thought at the time that I would probably end up doing one year and that was 12 seasons and precisely 59 interviews ago.
“It remains an immense privilege to be involved. And those two tips have remained my core guiding principles for the process ever since.”
Conversation