On BBC 1's The Apprentice tonight, millions heard one of Lord Sugar's senior lieutenants embarrass himself.
Doing what ? exposing his clear lack of knowledge of I.T. terminology... not such an issue you might think, except the embearrassed head-honcho in question was none other than Bordon Tkachuk, CEO of Viglen Computers.
While grilling the apprentice candidate-you-loved-to-hate Stuart Baggs, Tkachuk was clearly heard to refer to the term "ISP" (Internet Service Provider) by saying "....I know what ISP is - Internet Service Protocol " and talked of it allowing "....internet connection .. over Bandwidth (sic)".
This makes about as much sense as a plumber telling you he's going to install a gruntle-nirgle under your sink. The man plainly knows nothing at all about I.T. in detail - tens of thousands of IT professionals jumped on Twitter as soon as he said it, and started shooting from the hip: " #WhatisanISP ? Internet Sugar-Panderer ? Internet Service Plonker ? ".
None of this would matter of course if he hadn't been arguing hammer and tongs with Stuart Baggs about whether he (Baggs) really owned a telecoms company: Tkachuk insisted he didn't - Baggs (correctly) said he did, and that he offered telecoms services to customers on his home island the Isle of Man. Bagg's company, Bluewave, offers wireless hotspots and has a IP microwave link to the mainland to provide IP datacomms to businesses in the island. That's definitely "telecoms" to anyone in the business: but plainly Bordon Tkachuk is not in the IT business - though he might screw a few computers together now and then.
This column cordially invites Bordon Tkachuk or Lord Alan Sugar to issue an open letter of apology to Stuart Baggs for treating him so badly. Perhaps Bordon might like to hire Stuart as an I.T. adviser ?
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well said
ReplyDeleteall 4 interviewers seriously embarrassed themselves by the way they treated the candidates, but this Bordon character seriously messed up.
i'm wondering if he even realizes what 'telecommunications' means
i also wonder if Claude and Margaret are familiar with the concept of metaphor. no seriously, they probably got terrible grades in English
That's so spot on!
ReplyDeleteThat Bordan guy being both so wrong and so patronising was a major fail.
It's Bordan not Bordon
ReplyDeleteWell said - I thought he was totally clueless and really showed himself up as not knowing anything about technology.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts on it:
* http://www.alex-brown.co.uk/2010/12/stuart-baggs-robbed.html
Clearly there's one solution for the problem for next year he should be replaced by 'The Brand' ... Stuart, you're hired!
Alex
everyone is allowed to make a mistake...i think they had it in for Stuart as his number really WAS up but fair play to him, he aint a big fish but he has done so much more thatn probably any 21 year old in UK (dont quote me).
ReplyDeleteIts like i dont like Man Utd but they are the best team in premiership. I therefore respect them.
Same to Stuart, I didnt like his attitude but he is clearly an intelligent business man who will probably be the next Alan Sugar
Completely agree!
ReplyDelete