The UK’s growing number of tech entrepreneurs is more likely to share personality traits and management styles with tech pioneers such as Mark Zuckerberg than CEOs like Alan Sugar, the results of a recent survey have shown.
Research conducted by IT recruiter Randstad Technologies revealed that 37 per cent of workers in the UK’s burgeoning tech industry share similar personality traits with Zuckerberg – famous for his inquisitive nature and innovative approach to business, whilst only five per cent are found to share the driven and confrontational personality traits of Sugar.
The UK’s tech hubs, including Silicon Roundabout in London, the M4 corridor and Silicon Gorge in the South West of England, are all found to contain professionals that identify far more with the leadership style of Zuckerberg, suggesting that the country’s growing tech workforce have the innovation and imagination to develop disruptive new technologies.
Commenting on the research findings, managing director at Randstad Technologies, Ruth Jacobs, said: “It’s great news for the UK’s booming tech sector which needs leaders who are able to combine technical brilliance and emotional intelligence to provide relevant and useful products.”
Sugar, who made his name in the tech industry with company Amstrad, is said to be on the verge of leaving the sector to “make new friends”. One of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs, he also stabilised the finances of football club Tottenham Hotspur over ten years as club chairman.
“As contestants on The Apprentice know only too well, a boardroom grilling by Lord Sugar is an uncomfortable experience,” said Jacobs. “The fact that technology professionals are not mimicking his style might be good for all of us”.
Jacobs added: “Although he has always appeared to be more focussed on traditional selling than creating great technology and chasing a good profit rather than creating a good product, it’s difficult to argue with Lord Sugar’s success.”
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