BY DONNIE RUST

RICKY MARTIN 2012 APPRENTICE WINNER

Super Scientific Recruiter

One of a handful of reality television shows that have an

underlining purpose beyond simple entertainment, The

Apprentice has remained one of the highest viewed and

closest followed programme for it’s the entirety of its nine series run.

We were very pleased to speak with last year’s winner of the show Mr.

Ricky Martin who, working alongside Lord Alan Sugar has created a

company that has a strong parallel to the show.

Ricky Martin, 2012 The Apprentice winner has everything that

you’d expect of a winner of a show followed closely by the business

echelon of the world, he’s young 28, he is smart and a fast talker. He

speaks with clarity and force and a year on in his business venture

working alongside partner Lord Alan Sugar, he is clearly a man not

given to reflection of the past but entirely focussed what he’s doing

now to get to where he wants to be in the future.

“The Apprentice show is styled as entertainment,” he reveals,

“But it is directed at sourcing the very best business men and women

and developing sustainable

businesses.”

This sourcing of the best

through a rigorous system is

something fitting and akin to

Ricky’s background. Growing

up in Hampshire, South East

England, the son of a bricklayer

and an office manager Ricky

always predicated towards facts

found after methodical research.

Set to follow his interests from

a young age he found himself

excelling in areas of biochemistry,

mathematics, science and biology

from a young age.

“Subjective topics didn’t

really interest me I preferred

facts,” he reveals, “I went

Cardiff University, and studied

biochemistry. You can only excel

in something that you have a

passion for however, when I left

university I found myself in the

same situation as every school

leaver. Asking the most terrifying

question, what am I going to do

now?”

For a man who had a

reputation for speaking his

mind, at length, Ricky knew

that the laboratory was not the

“To have Lord Alan Sugar asking me what he can do to help my business success is an incredible thing.”

Everyone who gets onto the

show has watched it at some

point and Ricky speaks quite

candidly on how he entered the

2012 series with the foreplan of

not making the same mistakes

as previous participants, or to

highlight particular behaviours

that he thought was worthwhile,

but that despite this he was

unprepared for the whole

experience.

“Everyone starts with

the knowledge that they’re

surrounded by cameras and

that anything they say could end

up on the screen, you promise

yourself to do better than anyone

in the last series. You hope you

can predict what they will throw

at you,” he tells us, speaking

honestly and with good humour,

“But any preconceptions or plans

go out the window very soon. I

think that is part of it. But after

working sixteen hour days for

six days a week and always being

on your toes. You stop worrying

about anything other than just

getting the day done.

“The Apprentice is a gauntlet

of fire, we had 11 different

tasks that required completely

different approaches and

methods. It’s entertaining but

the aim is to find out who has

the solution orientated and who

is stopped at just seeing hurdles

and problems.”

After winning The Apprentice

2012, Ricky went into business

with Lord Alan Sugar to set up a

scientific recruitment company

Hyper Recruitment Solutions.

“Lord Sugar is an exceptional

business partner and that’s not

just flattery. People see him on

television and think that’s all he

does,” Ricky reveals, speaking

with open honesty, “But he is

a business man through and

through. His appearances in

The Apprentice as only part of

his working day and he is in the

office handling business before

the cameras arrive and after they

have left.”

It is an enviable position to

be in, but also a daunting one as

many of us would be terrified

to have the presence of one of

Britain’s foremost business-

personalities watching their

every move. For The Apprentice

the depiction of Lord Alan Sugar

is slightly skewed towards being

a demanding and controlling

figurehead.

“HRS has been set up in

place for him and found himself

working in medical sales and

then in scientific recruitment

which he was involved in for six

years before he went into The

Apprentice.

“One of my hobbies was

professional wrestling,” he

reveals tellingly, “Televised,

spandex and long hair is what

some people may see. But I

was hooked and engaged by

charisma, story telling and large

then live characters.”

The ApprenticeWith any other television

show you accept that it is all in

the aid of entertainment, but

with The Apprentice there is the

question of how the reality of

the participants compare to the

viewing of the show.

“It’s taking business people

from different business sectors,”

Rick explains, “It’s the variety of

personalities and approaches

that give the show it’s spark. But

variety is also important for any

business.”

Speaking with Ricky, he does

not sound like a person who is

easily intimidated but his tales

on what goes into working on the

show is enough to make even the

most brazen of business people

reconsider.

“You have 400 hours worth of

footage that has to be condensed

into an hour show,” he tells us, “So

you don’t get a complete concept

of what goes into it. However the

editors do a good job at depicting

the truth behind it. This is work,

real work and the whole point of

the show is to test your mettle.”

the same building as Lord Alan

Sugar so we have infrastructure

support of his infrastructure

and he often comes in or calls

up to ask what he can do for us.”

Ricky reveals, “To have Lord Alan

Sugar asking me what he can do

to help my business success is an

incredible thing.”

“He doesn’t have experience

in this service driven area and

so when it comes to scientific

recruitment he is happy to

hand over the reigns to me.

During the meetings though

he is refreshingly black and

white,” Ricky points out, “Having

sharpened my teeth in the sales

industry I’m used to people

colouring things up but he cuts

straight to the point. He’s like a

laser, he cuts through everything

that isn’t important and just gets

straight to the point.”

Something crucial that Ricky

points out is that The Apprentice is set up as entertainment for the

masses but is actually looking for sustainable business partners, “The

upper crust of the very best people with the mental agility to work

well under pressure and achieve targets and goals.”

“It tested me,” he says, “Not until I started my own business have I

been required to bring my A+ Game to such a level as I did during my

time on the show. I worked hard before but trust me, nowhere near as

hard as I have to now. ”

Hyper Recruitment SolutionsA year after winning The Apprentice 2012, now that the buzz

of the show has echoed off, and HRS and its directors are left with

specific targets and goals to achieve, how is business?

“It has been going very well so far,” Ricky states, with an appropriate

level of pride, “We’ve overachieved on all of our goals.

“Everything was started from scratch and I think one of the trying

times in any business is sorting out the foundation,” Ricky reflects,

“Doing the bits that don’t actually feel like your job, like setting up

telephones, computers, desks and chairs and recruiting your own

staff. If you’re able to get that done fast you’re on a win.”

A year in and while the plan was to have five employees by this

stage Ricky is sitting on a staff contingent of seven.

“Science recruitment covers a wide variety of industries and

although we have focused in one of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology

and clinical we are moving into other areas including food and drink

and environmental as well

as looking at other countries

including Germany, Swiss,

Australia and America.” Ricky

says.

One of the main aims of Hyper

Recruitment Solutions is to focus

on sustainable recruitment on

a long term scale for ethical

companies looking to provide a

service, a means or product that

will improve the world. All of his

staff are scientists themselves,

not salesmen and are working

as scientist to recruit into the

industry.

“Of all the discoveries that

will change the world at some

point a scientist’s hands will be

involved, we want to provide the

best hands to it,” Ricky concludes.