I’ve never met Sir Alan Sugar in person but, even allowing for the distortions of an editor determined to up the aggro, his behaviour on The Apprentice leads me to worry about whether he appreciates what being an adviser to the government will be like. He doesn’t strike me as a man who has the temperament or the skills required to be an adviser. I see him more as someone who is comfortable issuing orders and, naturally, expecting them to be obeyed, rather than someone who offers recommendations and hoping they might be taken up.

Being an adviser is a frustrating business because, even though you know you are right, you have no authority when it comes to taking action. Advice inevitably triggers resistance – lots of it subtle and hard to detect – because the people who are supposed to be taking action usually see the advice as implied criticism.

Poor Sir Alan has already said something ill-advised that will put the people he aims to help on their guard, even if they have never watched The Apprentice. He said: “With all due respect to the people in Victoria Street [the offices of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform], they are what they are, they are civil servants, and they have never actually been in business. You have got to have someone there to guide them in the right direction.” Not, I think, designed to endear him to his new audience.

I can offer some advice to Sir Alan about being an effective adviser:

• ask people for their ideas (yes, even people who have never been in business) and work out how to build on them;
• make gentle suggestions, not dogmatic proposals;
• welcome criticism (preferable to acquiescence);
• understand the objections - they give you valuable information about where people are coming from;
• ask questions, rather than indulging in justifications; and
• remember that if your advice is rejected, it was your failure, not theirs.

I’m confident that this advice will not be heeded. But, unlike Sir Alan, I’m quite used to having my advice ignored.