Digger spoke to businesswoman and
consultant Ruth Badger.
Ruth Badger
Ruth Badger came into the public consciousness as a leading
participant on The Apprentice, striving to win a year's contract
as Sir Alan Sugar protégé. In fact, people still seem to think
that she won that show, rather than being the joint finalist, such
was her dominance and ability as demonstrated in the various tasks
over the twelve weeks of the show. She is the only contender from the
show whose name and face people seem to remember.
Ruth has
had her own TV programme, Badger or Bust, where she goes into six
failing businesses to sort their problems out and turn them around
and she has her own Manchester-based consultancy, the
appositely-named Ruth Badger
Consultancy, which provides similar
services. Ruth is also opening an Academy in 2010 - the Ruth
Badger Academy, as well as
writing a book. She is often seen around the country speaking
at events with her mix of humour and pragmatic, no-nonsense
business advice.
We caught up with Ruth who kindly answered a few
questions for www.retrosellers.com
Ruth with Sir Alan
Sugar and fellow
Apprentice contestant (and winner) Michelle Dewberry
Some images courtesy of and © copyright www.rexfeatures.com
(Digger
holds on while his call is transferred... click, buzz, whirr, buzz,
whirr, click!)
Ruth:
... Hello David.
Digger: Hello Ruth, how are you?
Ruth: (Laughs) Well, I'd be alright if my phone system worked!
"Hang on a minute, transferring you, no I can't transfer
you..." Believe it or not there's two directors in this room
and nobody knows how to do it.
Digger:
You're all scratching your heads. It looks good, but how the hell does it
work?
Ruth:
Exactly.
Digger:
Are you like me when you get a new piece of kit? You get the
manual and you can't be bothered with it, so you immediately start hitting
buttons?
Ruth:
Well, let's put it this way - I'm that individual who goes to Ikea
and thinks "That piece of furniture would look great..."
I'll give you an example, I've bought this thing that you put all
your shoes in and brought it home and thought I'd attack trying to
put it together. I thought I won't need the 'rules' and then I think
"Why are all those nuts there? That's why they won't
shut." I'm not well-known for reading the rules, unfortunately.
Digger:
There's some people who have actually set-up businesses putting
flat-packs together
for people, aren't there?
Ruth:
Yes. But I don't want to pay. (Both laugh)
Digger:
I think the idea's great because I have wasted several whole weekends putting
flat-pack furniture together.
Ruth:
You see, I always call someone else like my Dad. I wouldn't call my
brother, because he's about as effective as I am. Normally
my claim to fame is this bookshelf thing. It's a massive piece of
furniture that needed me to put it together. I put it together PERFECTLY
and then noticed one shelf wasn't knocked in. So every one is even
except for this one shelf.
Digger:
And it taunts you every time you look at it, doesn't it?
Ruth:
It does. This phone system is worth about £100,000, but we don't
know how to use it!
Digger:
To the questions if that's okay?.. Can you tell us a little bit about the
consultancy and the speaking
work that you are doing?
Ruth:
Yes, Ruth Badger consultancy has been established for three years and
what we do is provide a service that other consultants don't.
Because other consultants will come in and automatically try and
flog you as many days as they can and change things and make a
difference, but try and base it around themselves. Their main
business is that they're in your business helping you. Our business
is the complete opposite of that. What we try and do is come into a business,
solve the issues through implementation and then gain an exit point
so that we get out of the business. And we've had some great success
doing this.
Digger:
Do you make it difficult for yourself and give any guarantees?
Ruth:
No, we're very simple and straightforward in that we'll always tell
you what needs to be said and not what you want to hear. And our
main objective is to make you the most money - it's to get the most
success. Which is easy for a consultant to say but we are very, very
results driven.
Digger:
So it's along the lines of the Badger or Bust TV programme?
Ruth:
It's exactly the same. Because of the TV work that we do, and my personality,
we actually get called in for a lot of family businesses, which normally
means there's an element of counselling in there. I hate that word,
but we have to sort out the politics to address the issues.
Digger:
So you're a bit like a female Gerry Robinson?
Ruth:
Well yeah, but more simple and more to the point! I mean, the thing for me
is - if I can't see the value in somebody paying us, they don't pay
us. We go through a very simple process in that any business that's
struggling or has a declining turnover or does not believe they're
working to their full potential, we can help. We don't specialise in
any particular area - we're not there to sort the products out ,
we're there to sort the processes and the people.
Digger:
Are there more businesses like that at the moment, given the current
'climate'.
Ruth:
Oh God! Do you know what, there's been more businesses like that
since I opened my doors and, I'll be honest, quite a few that make
us sign confidentiality agreements because they're big businesses
and they are household names and if you sit back and look their
problems are no different to what goes on in a small business.
Digger:
Did you see the Little Chef programme recently? (The CEO of Little
Chef, a British institution, had enlisted Heston Blumenthal to
revamp the Little Chef menu and branding.)
Ruth:
Yes, I did. I thought that the chief executive... let's put it this way, he'd
say "Let's talk about 'Blue Sky thinking" and you'd think
"No, we're talking about Little Chef." Good quality
products that we all understand and are not going to be overpriced."
Digger:
It was a straightforward thing to achieve, wasn't it?
Ruth:
'Blue Sky thinking'. Little Chef? I don't think so! I actually felt
quite sorry for Heston Blumenthal because he was being stitched-up.
It was definitely being done for PR and he was being told to go
'Blue Sky'. I'd certainly go to his restaurants and eat but wouldn't
want to pay his prices for Little Chef food. And I wouldn't want a
Lancashire Hotpot that has got an oyster in. I want good quality
food, reasonably-priced food and not a chief exec who, excuse my
French, couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery. He doesn't know
his product.
Digger:
He was a bit wacky, wasn't he?
Ruth:
One thing that made me chuckle, and I was lying on the sofa thinking
"I can't believe he just said that" was when he said
"I could get ANY celebrity chef." I'd want to throttle him
at that point and say "Don't call me a celebrity chef when
I've been voted the best restaurant in the world. And have some
respect for the products you provide." But Heston didn't
say that. I like the show, but I think they put the wrong chef in
there.
Digger:
There's a follow-up programme in about two months' time.
Ruth: Yeah,
it's gonna be interesting.
Digger: So tell us
about your public speaking...
Ruth:
Just capping off the consultancy? ... what we do is for any business
that turns over from a penny to ten million, because I'm not
interested in the big corporates. Whether it's a one-man-band or a
good SME (Small to Medium-sized Enterprise), then we can help. And
the guarantee you get from me is that if we can't then we tell you,
so we don't charge. In regards to the public speaking, I love it
because it gives me an opportunity to go out there and deliver what
I love doing, which is real business advice and real career advice.
So I go from talking to big corporates at big events to smaller
ones. I don't do
after-dinner speaking because, as much as I think I'm funny after
I've had a glass of red wine or a bottle of vodka, I don't think the
general public needs to have that unleashed upon them, (Digger
laughs) so what I do is keynote speaking on motivation for
businesses from SMEs to schools to big corporates. And it's REAL. I
was at a conference - I can't tell you who 'cos they'll kill me, but
it was last week and I thought "Oh my God". There was a
minister speaking and I thought "That's right, you stand behind
your podium reading off a piece of paper that somebody else has put
a spin on." I talk for 35 to 40 minutes and I don't use a piece
of paper as a reference at any point. The messages that I deliver
are real, from real-life experiences. Delivered in a very personal
way, and some of it's funny and some makes you go "Ah, ain't
she cute?" and other stuff makes you think "God, I
wouldn't like to deal with HER in business!" so there's
different elements of it. Because the one thing I portray is I say exactly
what it says on the tin which is what I provide and that comes
through on the TV, comes through the consultancy and through the
speaking. The other thing I'd add is that I'm just in the process of
launching a new business called The Ruth Badger Academy. It will be
nationwide. I've got the consultancy, the Academy and a lettings
business, which is sort of my project.
Digger:
You have the Finance company too?
Ruth:
Yes, but I'm focusing on things I can control and that's not one
that I can in the current climate. In fact, I'm talking about that
on Newsnight tomorrow night.
Digger:
Is it with Paxman?
Ruth:
Yeah!
Digger:
Great, have you done anything with him before?
Ruth:
No.
Digger:
Wonderful, that should be, how can I put this delicately? A clash of
the Titans!
Ruth:
I think they've got me on there for two things. One because they've
got people like Lord Mandelson on there. I'm not going to call him
'Lord' because he's done nothing for this country. And they've got
the chief exec from Jaguar and I'm there to represent SMEs. Whereas normally Jeremy is there to challenge people, I don't think
he's there to challenge me as much as the politicians, because I'm
there on a sort of 'say what I think' basis. But the Ruth Badger
Academy is for us to provide sales training and what I would call
the real skills for life. And, to be honest, I don't know how we've
managed to agree to do it for such a low price. Because what people
take weeks and weeks to do we do in a day. It's all done at business
centres and it all comes with a 'health warning', which is "if
easily offended, don't come". You should come actually. The
sales training is very relevant at the moment because it's all about
improvement through people.
Digger:
It's such a difficult market. I had my best turnover and profit the
year before last and my worst last year. This year people are saying
"In a normal year, we'd love to..."
Ruth:
But this is a normal year, so you should be telling them to get used
to it because it's going to be like this for the next five years.
Let's not listen to the experts on the TV about when it's going to
improve, because this is not a normal recession. The base rate has
never been as low as 1% before - it's extraordinary.
Digger:
They'll be giving us money soon.
Ruth:
Well, they ought to.
Digger:
A lot of the people who are sitting on their hands and nervous to
make a decision at the moment are salaried people who aren't on a
commission or incentive, unlike us...
Ruth:
Aren't they just? We have had a conversation about that today, me
and Julie who owns half of the Academy. We've talked about keeping
costs down and that's what to do at times like this. You keep your
costs down and provide an excellent service and then try to be
flexible on your margins so that you can do the deals that you
normally wouldn't do. The previous years have been a buoyant period
and now we can see the real business people from the people who just
take orders. And I'm sure we'll both have this conversation in three
year's time when we're both still trading.
Digger:
There's that cliche about if you can do business in this climate you
can do it anytime.
Ruth:
Yeah, I know some of the richest people in this country and they
started in the pit of a recession.
Digger:
I suppose it makes you focus on what you should be doing.
Ruth:
I'm releasing a book next year, and I'm just putting the skeleton of
it together, and one of the chapters is called "When do you
want it and how much are you gonna pay me?" Educate your
customer. Because if we were doing business now and you said you
really couldn't do it for that price I'd say "Listen, you tell
me what you can do it for where you can make a profit and I can make
a profit and that way we can have a business relationship in a year,
two years, three years."
Digger:
An adult conversation.
Ruth:
Yeah, and not many people can have them, unfortunately.
Digger: What
do you think contributed to your interest in business and where
do you think your skills came from?
Ruth: I actually say the three ingredients to my
success are Attitude, Attendance and Ability, in that order. So
Attitude, I wouldn't say I was born with it, but my parents
developed it and always pushed me.
Digger:
Can you tell us about them?
Ruth:
They've got a mixed background and they're in their early fifties.
I'm very family-orientated. My dad, unfortunately, is retired
and it drives him mad. But prior to that he spent a big part of
his career as a miner. Then he became heavily involved in the
trade unions and he left as a chairman of a local branch of
UNISON. My mum is actually an equal pay officer for UNISON, so
she advises and helps people.
Digger:
Were they in the trade unions when they 'meant something' in the
70s?
Ruth:
My mum would disagree and say they mean something now, but I
know what you mean. The biggest insult we've ever had is when
The Times did a profile piece on me and my mum and they said to
my mum "How did a trade unionist raise one of the biggest
capitalists?" and my mum's response was "Don't you put
my daughter in a box." They're very passionate people. I
was always encouraged, we had dinner around a table, and we
debated. Whether they thought I was right is a different
subject, but they encouraged me to make my own decisions. I
wasn't born with a silver spoon so they gave me the basics in
life, love and support obviously, but also aspirational products
like Benetton jumpers and so on, because I know what motivates
me and that's money.
Digger:
Were you doing paper rounds or buying stuff and selling it on?
Ruth:
I wasn't allowed a paper round because it wasn't safe, but I
used to use my pocket money to buy rubbers when I was a kid and
then sell them on the school playground. That developed to
selling Christmas presents I didn't want in the local paper and
then that went on to jobs in markets and greengrocers. And then I
got a job at the DSS during the day, night work in a bar and
then weekend work at a football club. So then, when I could
afford to buy my first brand new car at the age of eighteen, it
wasn't because mummy and daddy got it for me but because I'd
actually earned the money to go and do it.
Digger:
It sounds exhausting! (Laughs)
Ruth:
Yeah, and I'm still the same now. Attitude, Attendance and
Ability.
Digger:
So Attendance is being there?
Ruth:
It's not being there, it's what you do when you're there. If I
could actually value things, the most important thing to me is
time, because it's the one thing I can't buy. As a business
owner, and as a woman.
Digger:
Don't you think in sales there are right times and wrong times?
I mean, for example, oddly I find that Tuesdays and Thursdays often seem to be
better selling days.
Ruth:
You get peaks and troughs, but it's all to do with your activity.
And the individual you're calling up. That's why it's attitude
as in "Can I do this?". Everything about The
Apprentice demonstrated the three A's to me. Why was it that I
could sell six cars when everybody else could sell two? Why was
it that I let five properties and everybody else let one?
Digger:
To be honest, it was because these people talked the talk but
they didn't have your ability.
Ruth:
You would never see my ability unless I applied the attitude.
When most of them spoke to five people, I spoke to fifty. That
wasn't always evident in the programme, but that attitude of
"I can do this" not "I won't do this 'cos I've
only get ten minutes left." Then it comes to the
attendance, as in what did I do while I was there. I mean, if we
started work at nine a.m. I'm not one of these people that turn up at
nine. No, I'm there before. It drives me MAD when staff turn up
at bang on nine because they're paid from nine. "I'll make
a cup of tea and have a chat..." They wouldn't like it if I
knocked ten minutes off their pay. It doesn't happen at Ruth
Badger Consultancy but in the businesses I go into, oh my God
yes! I get really annoyed when I'm in there at eight and the
boss turns up at nine and I say "You want to lead by
example? Your business is going bust around your ears and you're
talking about debt, but don't worry, get your Bentley
washed." I say "Drive your profits, not on the road,
but in your business." These basic things are very simple
but a lot of people miss them.
Digger:
What are the most
common mistakes being made by businesses that you come into
contact with?
Ruth: Firstly,
they have no understanding of their cost base. Business is four
processes. It's Marketing, Sales, Fulfillment and Accounting.
Most people talk about Marketing and Sales - rubbish, let's talk
about accounting. What do you need to bring in at what cost and
at what profit so you know what you need to mark it at. Because
your marketing is your Price, your Product and your Promise.
We've actually gone through this today about whether we should
put the prices of the sales training on the website and I'm
saying "Absolutely yes" because most people don't.
People are scared of costs for some reason and I'm not. You need
to be very, very aware of it. Take this to your own life and how
many people have no idea how much is in their bank account?
People never look at their balance when they go to the cashpoint
and I think "Why not?!" Because you're running away
from it.
Digger:
Unfortunately it rules my life in a way.
Ruth:
But it should. That's the cost base. And the second thing is
that people have no idea how to motivate themselves or their
staff. That is crucial. And the third, which is unbelievable, is
communication. People are not just not communicating - they
over-promise or under-deliver.
Digger:
They might think they're communicating by sending emails...
Ruth:
But that's the worst method of communication.
Digger:
How many times have you left a voicemail - it happens to me all
the time in business - I leave dozens of voicemails and they
don't call back, even though their message says they will.
Ruth:
If I want to get hold of somebody, for example if they owe me
money, and I've called them and they ignore me I say "Can
you call me urgently". I don't leave detailed voicemails. I
don't think it's a relevant way of communicating information.
All I'll use email for is to back-up what I've said.
Digger:
But if you can't have that conversation in the first place.
Because lots of people use voicemail as a way of blocking any
calls coming in.
Ruth:
That's down to how you sell, and, believe me, we cover that. I
get a lot of people come to me who do tele-sales and marketing
and who say "How can I get to the Decision-Maker Contact
(DMC)?" So it's all to do with that and there's a very clever
way to do that. If somebody's not paying me and ignoring me I
will use text, but from a text number they don't know saying call
me urgently. You'd be amazed at how quickly they call.
Digger:
Yes, I have tried similar techniques myself successfully.
Ruth:
Communication is always weak in bad businesses.
Digger:
It's amazing how many big businesses are bad businesses as well,
and I don't know how some of them survive.
Ruth:
No, and a lot of them work on hypothetical credit, which I have
an issue with because a lot of people will lend and lend and
lend. I've got a business that I'm helping in Cambridge and
their turnover is dependent on a chain and they're third along.
It's a case of having to set your expectation at the beginning
and insisting on 50/50 payment, 50% on order and 50% on
completion.
Digger:
We do that and invoice for a booking deposit of 50%.
Ruth:
Cashflow is crucial.
Digger: Why are
salespeople generally looked down upon or with some suspicion
and why is it that there are so few really good salespeople?
Ruth: I'll be
honest, you offended me when you sent that through. I thought
"I'm not looked down upon, I'm a salesperson." I'll
tell you why it is, you answered in the remainder of your
question. Because most salespeople are liars. I could sell you a
brand new Merc for 15k. I can't deliver it. But you'd be amazed.
Some of the best deals I've done are deals I haven't done at
all. And that is because people over-exaggerate. The two things
that scare me in life - that's somebody who thinks they can sell
and they can't and somebody who can sell more than me. I'm not
an arrogant woman, but I've met very few of the latter.
Digger:
You get these sales calls and they sound so bored and they don't
sound motivated at all.
Ruth:
They're order takers, aren't they? I won't name names but I did
a sales conference for a 'phone company and I managed to upset
the majority of them 'cos I said "Put your hands up if you
think you can sell" and they all put their hands up and
then I said "Okay, I'll give you a situation. I want a
mobile phone and I walk into your shop and you sell me a mobile
'phone. Can you sell?" And about a third put their hand
down and the rest kept their hand up. And I thought "you don't
get it."
Digger: Following on from
the above then, can you tell us what you see at the key qualities of
a good salesperson?
Ruth: First identify
what is a sale and what isn't. Can you provide something they
need. Secondly build the dream of what that is. Thirdly,
identify your margin and establish that you can do it at a
commercial cost. And the last thing is that you don't need to
close the deal, because the deal can close itself.
Digger:
Timing can be important. Sometimes it's not the right time to
close even when people are interested, so you have to chose
the right time.
Ruth:
Three word that I hate, which I would wish to be removed from
the dictionary. 'Probably, maybe and quite'. "Are you
interested?" "Yes, I'm quite interested."
You're either interested or you're not. They drive me mad.
Digger:
But would you say that to somebody?
Ruth:
Oh, I'd say it, but not in that way. I'd say "Hang on a
minute..." I was talking to a client the other day where
I'd done a speech and I was talking to the person who had paid
me. I told them I was launching this academy and that we were
launching the Miracle Business Course which will make an
improvement on any business. I asked them if they wanted me to
come and run it for them. "I might be interested"
she said. "So are you?" I asked. "I'm quite
interested" she said. I said "If you don't want it,
say so." She looked at me and said "You're right, we
can't afford it."
Digger: Some people
don't like to say no.
Ruth:
Why?
Digger:
I don't know.
Ruth:
I mean, as an example, if I hadn't thought that this interview
would be good PR or if it had been about 'celebrity' and so on,
then I would have said no.
Digger:
I've interviewed several people who have nothing to do with
'Retro' so you're in good company, but maybe we can find a retro
pretext for this!
Ruth:
You're trying to say I'm old, aren't you?! I will say to people "Why
do you want this?" and people will go "Oh my God,
direct question." Of course it's a direct question.
Digger:
I don't know if it's a British thing. There are, of course, a
lot of people whose function seems to be to say no or to impede
progress.
Ruth:
But they're a different type of person.
Digger:
There's a lot of them about, Ruth.
Ruth:
Yes, but they're usually salaried. I'd term those as 'The
non-relevant people.'
Digger: Who would be at
your ideal dinner party of guests, living or dead, fictional or
real people? And why?
Ruth: I'm gonna
really surprise you with some of them. Carol Thatcher, because
we get on well and I never thought we would.
Digger:
Have you any idea what she said that upset people so much on the
One Show?
Ruth:
No, but I wouldn't comment on that because I was with her last
week. All I know is that the press persecuted her. Next
person..... Ooh, David Seaman because I was the biggest David
Seaman fan in the world.
Digger:
You haven't got a poster of him on your wall anymore?
Ruth:
Not since he grew his hair. I've never met him, which is
shocking.
Digger: You
should write to him! Or maybe you'll bump into him at a
celebrity bash. Hopefully he wouldn't be disappointing.
Ruth:
Without sounding un-PC, he's very northern and I'd expect him to
say "Hey up, lass." I'd invite my
Grandad
because he's not here and I'd give anything for that and
time is the one thing I can't buy back. And my family. That's
it, I'm quite sad aren't I?
Digger:
No, someone I spoke to the other day said they wouldn't want
anybody famous, just their family.
Ruth:
Carol I know really well and she's a very nice woman. And I'm
trying to get the time so we can spend some time together.
Digger: What makes you
laugh?
Ruth:
My 5 year-old nephew makes me laugh. My 3 year-old niece makes
me laugh. I was peeing myself at Harry Hill's TV burp. Toilet
humour and stupid things. Falling over and those run-of-the-mill
things. I'm very light-hearted and I take the Mickey out of
myself.
 |
 |
|
|
| Harry
Hill |
David
Seaman |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
| Carol
Thatcher |
Heston
Blumenthal |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Goodbye
to Woolworth's |
Digger:
Do you do it in business as well?
Ruth:
You have to do it in business.
Digger:
I sometimes do it inappropriately! When I had a 'proper job'
there would be serious meeting and an opportunity for a bit of mirth
would come up and I'd say something and some people would give you
filthy looks.
Ruth:
I like to lighten the situation with something relevant. I'm not
sarcastic. I will say what I think but you know when I start a
speech that I'm taking the Mickey out of myself. But I do think
I'm quite funny!
Digger:
You came over as very funny on your shows and on The Apprentice,
and we got to know people well there, didn't we?
Ruth:
Yeah, after three months on telly you think you know people.
Digger:
Yes, I know what you mean but I think you CAN get to know what
makes people tick after only a little while of observing them. I
understand that a lot of editing goes on.
Ruth:
Oh, a hell of a lot.
Digger:
But even so I still think it doesn't take that long before you
get the general feel for somebody.
Ruth:
Yeah, in our programme especially you get to know the business
side. I'm not too sure about the private side.
Digger:
What makes you angry?
Ruth: I'll
tell you what really winds me up is when you call somebody and
you get "Press 1 for this, press 2 for that, press 3 for
the other."
Digger:
Don't get me started!
Ruth:
That's one, and the second thing is I hate bad service. And the
third thing's my ex-husband, but let's not go there!
Digger:
So you hate bad service? Sorry, I thought you said you hate
people who hate bad service!!
Ruth:
I will go to a restaurant and if the food's bad and the service
is excellent then I'll think the chef's having a bad night. If I
go to a restaurant and the food's good but the service is
shocking you'll never see me again.
Digger:
Do you give positive feedback a lot as well? Because I'll
complain but I'll also say when things are really great.
Ruth:
Yes, but if it's bad then they'll really know.
Digger:
I wish more people would do that.
Ruth:
So do I because then it would improve.
Digger: What makes you sad?
Ruth:
What makes me sad ..... Hmmm, I'm thinking. Good businesses
going bust, like Woolworths. It was a good business but with a
lot of debt. I'm quite nostalgic about it.
Digger:
The retro connection we were looking for!!
Ruth:
I'm also sad when people aren't given opportunities. I suppose
everyone has their own issues, but then when you see someone
worse off than yourself then that makes me sad.
Digger:
What makes you
hopeful?
Ruth:
Erm ... What do you mean by
hopeful?
Digger:
Well, I don't know. Some people I have spoken to have said "When they look at
young children it makes them hopeful for the future of
mankind..."
Ruth:
Oh no, that doesn't give me hope! (Both laugh) They're little buggers!! I
would actually say what I've achieved, because as weird as it
sounds I've never taken anything for granted. So if I can do it,
then it means that most people can.
Digger: What have been
your biggest achievements to-date and what would you still
like to accomplish?
Ruth: My biggest
achievements are obviously that I've got my own businesses. I
earn more now than I've ever earned but a penny earned as a
self-employed person is worth more than ten quid as an employed
person. Because if I'm earning ten quid for someone else
that means they're earning £100. What would I like to
accomplish? I want to take over the world. No, I want realistically
to have my businesses known for the products we provide and not
the person who runs it. I want RBC and RBA so that Ruth Badger
isn't part of the name. I suppose it's to have businesses
survive and flourish, which they are after 3 years since The
Apprentice, but I want the services to stand alone.
Digger: With the
marketplace the way it is at the moment, have you any advice
for business people on how they can take advantage of this?
Ruth: The most important thing now is to understand and to
build that relationship with the customer. The fact that
customers can go anywhere, well yes they can, but everybody's in
the same situation which gives it a level playing field.
Digger: A lot of people seem to be sitting on their hands.
Ruth: They do. It's all about addressing the situation and
acting now.
Digger: How
does it
feel to be probably the only participant in The Apprentice
whose name and face people remember?
Ruth:
I would say I don't know whether that's true.
Digger:
I would say it is. Nobody I know can remember the names of any other
participants. They can only remember your name.
Ruth:
Well, I'm absolutely flattered by that.
Digger:
Good.
Ruth:
Again, I would never take anything for granted.
Digger:
What did you learn from
that show?
Ruth:
Oh, tell the truth to that camera because 6 million people are
watching. You can't lie on television because it will bite you on
the backside.
Digger:
People were doing it all of the time on that programme weren't they?
Ruth:
Yes, in order to be successful, it's very simple to do, just deliver
what you say you're going to. And you're not famous by doing The Apprentice.
There's a lot of people who go on there and think they're
celebrities but it's not a fame-driven show. You're only as
successful as you can actually prove by your performance.
Digger:
'Cos I've seen some people who have been on various series and I've
seen them since and thought "Where are they from?" But I obviously
am aware of you.
Ruth:
Yeah. And that's the difference between them and me, I suppose.
Ruth Badger interview. February 2009.
Many thanks to Lisa Williams and Ruth
Badger for their kindness and
help with this interview.
More information at:
Ruth
Badger Consultancy website
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