Baroness Brady Fern Britton Meets...

Today, I'm meeting one of Britain's best known businesswomen.

She's been dubbed the first lady of football.

When she was 23, Karren Brady

took charge of Birmingham City Football Club.

This is where I sit down here with my fellow directors.

I was 23 years old, and I was desperate to look at least 25.

She's been awarded a CBE for her services to Women in Business

and Entrepreneurship,

and also she sits at Lord Sugar's right hand in the boardroom.

Can I just say something? It is outrageous the way you're behaving.

Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge is a Conservative Life Peer.

She's also Vice-Chairman of West Ham United

and successfully led its bid to move into the Olympic Stadium.

And here is where our West Ham statue will be located...

But Karren Brady's extraordinary success hasn't come trouble-free.

In 2006, she had a terrifying wake-up call

when she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm.

It meant she had to undergo major surgery.

She normally is in control - she was not in control then.

She was terrified but she just faced it.

Karren Brady is undoubtedly a steely businesswoman.

But she's also a working mother and a Catholic.

She doesn't push her belief on anybody

but it's definitely in the heart.

There's a great comfort from having a strong religious belief.

I want to find out how

she juggles those competing demands with her

home life and her career.

Karren Rita Brady was born on 4th April, 1969,

to mum, Rita, and dad, Terry.

She had one older brother - Darren.

She was very adventurous...

Obviously naughty at the terrible twos, but overall

a very nice and well-behaved child.

She was never a problem, as far as I was concerned.

She was probably Daddy's girl, that's why.

The family lived in north London and Karren's dad was keen for them

to do better.

We were born in Edmonton in a place called Mitchell Road,

which was by no stretch of the imagination,

a salubrious sort of upbringing or a wealthy home, but my father as

he started to do well, we started to move and we went from

a three-bedroom house to a four-bedroom house

to a five-bedroom house.

Things started to improve for us, but my father always

installed into my brother and I,

the ability that you only in life get out what you put in. I was very

opinionated from a very young age.

I was always in trouble, always speaking my mind.

Erm, I would imagine I was what I, as a parent now, would say

a bit of a handful.

Did you give your parents some backchat?

I don't think it was so much backchat because I think I was

quite frightened of my dad, but I always thought I was right.

One of your grandmothers, you went cleaning with, didn't you?

Yeah, Nanny Nina.

She was always around Nanny Nina.

Yeah, they used to go every weekend, her brother and her.

Nanny Nina was a very house proud lady and she was

always doing cleaning, and whenever Karren was around her she always

used to help her. This is Karren, of course, she is excellent.

Everything is in size in the cupboards -

big cans, smaller cans, small.

All lined up. All the books all together.

I remember her showing me how to clean, and she used to,

you know, really put her back into it, and she used to

light the fires in the office.

And I remember going with her and I think it started to shape me

that hard work is it doesn't matter what you do,

as long as you work hard,

but there are some smarter ways in which to work harder,

and I remember thinking,

"When I grow up, I am going to work in the office.

"I'm not going to clean the office."

First, Karren had to complete her schooling.

She was enrolled at Poles Convent -

a Catholic boarding school in Hertfordshire.

We are Catholics - practising Catholics. I am quite regular at

-going to church. I find...

-Yeah.

I find it's very relaxing, very soothing.

-RITA:

-I went to a Catholic school and my mother went to

a Catholic school, so it's just been passed down.

Let us pray.

Karren, of course, when she was at Poles Convent,

had religious lessons every day.

It was a very strict regime on those things.

The convent we were at is now some very beautiful five-star hotel,

and whenever I go back. people say, "This was your school?!"

I say, "No, trust me, it was not like this when we were there!"

-You were taught by the nuns.

-Yes, Faithful Companions of Jesus.

And are you a faithful companion of Jesus?

I am a faithful companion of Jesus.

I probably wasn't when I was 12 or 13, when I was in the convent,

but I think having a spiritual side means that you

live your life with an open heart.

And you embrace things that are difficult, you want people to

do well. My grandmother had a motto that you should never

look down on people unless you are helping them up.

And I think that's a very spiritual way of living.

And God did move in a mysterious way

when you were late home from school one day.

There's a tiny little town called Ware, and we used to go down

there on a Saturday cos there was nothing else to do

because we really were in the middle of nowhere,

and we were always late back.

And I remember we were going back and I said, "Look, I'll say

"I tripped up and hurt my ankle," so I sort of limped into school

and I said, "Oh, it took us ages to get back cos I hurt my ankle."

And the nuns said, "Well, we'd better take you to the hospital."

I said, "No, I'm sure it'll be fine."

They said, "No, we'll go to the hospital."

So they took me to the hospital and I had an X-ray

and he said I'd broken my ankle.

-So I spent the entire evening...

-You hadn't even tripped.

I hadn't even tripped.

I'm sure there was some poor person was told to go home,

"Your X-rays are fine," and they had a broken ankle,

and I came back to school in a wheelchair,

and a cast on my foot and my friends were like, "What happened?"

and I said, "Well, they said I'd broken my ankle."

And it really was a case of God works in mysterious ways.

When she wasn't in school, Karren followed her father's example

and tried her hand at a few business ventures of her own.

-She put an advert in the window...

-In the front window of our house.

-..doing nails and massages.

-Yes.

Hoping that people would go by and see it, and come in,

and pay her for it.

My brother and I were always very entrepreneurial.

We had little car-washing businesses,

and all sorts of other crazy things to try and get some extra

pocket money for things that we wanted.

Your very first job, I think, was as a Saturday girl in a hairdresser's.

-That's right, yes.

-A lot of people have done that.

-Yes.

MUSIC: Uptown Girl by Billy Joel

You went in and thought,

"Well, there's an awful lot that needs improving here."

# Uptown girl... #

They had quite an odd system of how you booked people in

and I could see inefficiencies,

and I just streamlined the system.

And I'd pick things up very quickly, so I was cashing up,

I was doing the till, I was doing the books,

I was making the appointments, I was making the calls,

but I liked it. I liked the fact that I could do something

and I could do something useful, and I could do it well.

When you start finding things that you're good at,

your confidence starts to...

increase and you start to realise actually that you do add value

and you are important to the organisation, and I was lucky enough

to learn very young that actually the skills that I had,

the enthusiasm I had, the determination I had,

all of those were key things.

At 18, Karren decided university wasn't for her.

I remember her saying to me, "Dad, I don't want to sit somewhere

"and live on Pot Noodles every night.

"I'd rather get out in the world and make something of myself."

Karren landed a job with top advertising firm Saatchi and Saatchi.

And then worked in sales for LBC Radio.

I think my starting salary when I left Saatchi's

and went to there was £9,000 a year.

So it was quite low-paid work.

So, had you left home at this stage?

Yes, I'd left home. I left home at 18, yes.

-And you were living in a flat share or something?

-Yeah.

In Enfield so, erm, it had no heating, I remember that.

And it's interesting, people say to me,

"What were your ambitions when you were younger?"

Well, one was to have heating...

and then it was to have a car,

so things - ambitions - sort of build up.

Anyway, my job was to sell radio advertising on LBC.

'You're listening to LBC Radio, here on 97.3 FM.'

-'Charles is calling us from Watford. Good morning.'

-'Good morning.'

I was given between 4:00am and 5:00am, that was my time slot

to sell advertising, so it was very difficult and it involved

a lot of, you know, knocking on doors and...

And they gave me a whole list of big companies

that had never advertised on the radio

because I guess they thought,

well, you know, you can't do any damage to these clients.

Karren picked one of the companies on the list, Sport Newspapers,

and went to see its boss, David Sullivan.

I got through to his office, and I got his address,

and I went to see him and...

-Without an appointment?

-Without an appointment.

And I parked at his office, and I waited for him for many hours,

and, in the end, his secretary said, "Look, he'll give you ten minutes

"because you've been waiting so long."

I said to him, "Look, spend some money on advertising,

"and if sales go up, pay for it,

"and if they don't, you don't have to pay."

And he said, "OK, that sounds reasonable to me."

We shook hands and I remember driving back to the office thinking,

"Oh, I've made this sale." and then thinking, "Maybe not."

THEY LAUGH

I was thinking, "Well, what's the worst that can happen?

"I can get another job."

Anyway, sales did go up, and within about eight months,

he was the largest advertiser on the radio in the country.

And, by the way, I was on a very high level of commission

which was brilliant for me.

Which took your £9,000 up to where?

-About £40,000.

-Wow!

-Yeah.

I was ambitious and I...

It annoys me when people confuse ambition with ruthlessness

because they're two very different things,

but I was ambitious, I was determined,

and I also had an enormous amount of integrity which I think

was from coming and being, you know, being in a convent for so long.

When you're starting your life's journey,

when you're thinking about your spirituality,

it's all about core values, I think.

And core values are your principals,

they sort of make you who you are,

they're the reason you do things the way you do them.

What Karren's core values helped her achieve certainly impressed

the Sports Newspaper boss.

Before long, he'd taken Karren on as a marketing executive.

And she soon had another proposition for David Sullivan

and business partner David Gold.

I saw a little advert in the newspaper

and this advert said "Football club for sale."

And I thought, "God, that's interesting."

So I phoned up and...

What was it that was interesting about that?

I just thought it was interesting

that a football club could be for sale

and the Premier League had just started which was causing, you know...

Even I'd heard of the Premier League

and I wasn't a particularly big football supporter.

So I phoned up and I got the details, and I went to my chairman,

and I said, "There's this football club for sale.

"You buy it and I'll run it."

And he said, "Football?! Very male-dominated.

"You'll have to be twice as good as the men

"to be thought of as even half as good."

I said, "Well, luckily, that's not difficult."

FERN LAUGHS

And he said, "Go on, then, we'll give it a go."

And that was on the Friday.

And on the Monday, we owned a football club and I...

-Birmingham City.

-Birmingham City.

-TV PRESENTER:

-'Birmingham City is not a very successful football club.'

The place was a dump.

It was... The ground was falling apart.

'Off the field and behind the scenes, the situation has been no better.'

I think the average gate was probably about

6,000 or 7,000 people.

'By the beginning of 1993, the club was ownerless,

'facing bankruptcy and relegation from the First Division.

'At that moment appeared an unlikely knight in shining armour -

'the proprietor of the Sunday Sport, David Sullivan.'

-DAVID SULLIVAN:

-I've always wanted to have a football team.

Why? I think for the new challenge, the new thrill.

And I suppose I'm a frustrated sportsman who never was good enough

so the next best thing is to own a sports team, or a boxer,

or something like that.

'Sullivan's first move was to appoint his marketing director,

'Karren Brady, to run the club.'

I knew we'd get stick

but I had total confidence in it.

If I was putting in some blonde bimbo front woman

who really couldn't do anything, then I'd be very nervous.

But I knew she could do the job.

I also believe Karren is a saleswoman par excellence

and she was probably the best person in our organisation to do the job.

I realised how badly the club was run...

and the depth of how badly that was run was almost incomprehensible.

But that was the beauty of the club.

Because it was run so badly, we felt we could really do something

and that's when we decided to go ahead with it.

I was 23 years old

and I was desperate to look at least 25,

so I went into this press conference,

there was about 200 press there,

and I had big hair, big shoulder pads, big earrings,

and I did this very serious presentation of all these things

I was going to do with my football club, very, very serious,

and I remember when I finished,

I said to the press, "Any questions?"

A little hand went up, and I said, "Yes, sir?"

And he said, "What are your vital statistics?"

THEY CHUCKLE

Ah, I thought here we go so...

That was my sort of... my birth into football.

She's hard, she's tough, please welcome Karren Brady!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

David Sullivan, my partner, said,

"I think Karren would make a great CEO."

I was a bit surprised, you know,

and I recall the Birmingham City fans really believing

that this was a gimmick.

What was this very attractive young woman

coming to run Birmingham City Football Club?

APPLAUSE

THEY CHANT

I think, as players,

we were more interested in, probably, her looks

than anything else...

Typical men talk, as you would expect, you know,

an attractive young lady coming into a football atmosphere,

but she soon turned that around.

You know, there used to be traditions amongst football clubs

that ladies, women -

wives, for example - weren't allowed in the boardroom.

Can you believe that?

The wives had to go and sit somewhere else.

And she said, "Well, excuse me, I'm a director of the club,

"so I'm coming in here."

and they started to realise

you're dealing with a bit of a tough cookie there, in Karren.

When I went to the games with her, or went to the office,

you know, to watch her,

right away, she was just equal.

I've saved you a place upstairs in the Director's Box. All right?

She just had everyone on their toes, doing their job.

And there she was, on the front pages of the local newspapers,

almost on a daily basis.

Well, of course that raised the profile of the football club,

which was what was in our minds, that's what we wanted.

You weren't averse to selling yourself quite sexily at the time -

in your football strip, and being hoisted onto footballers' shoulders.

Behave yourself!

Was that just a business decision - did you think, "Sex sells,

"I need to sell this football club, I'll do it."

Erm, I don't know - I think at 23,

when a photographer says to you, "Hold this scarf,"

or do this, or do that, you just sort of do it,

and you don't really realise any implications from it.

I mean, nothing I've ever done I have ever been ashamed of -

that's for sure.

I work extremely hard, and sometimes 13 hours a day,

and when you're putting in that sort of effort,

and you're doing very well, and you're reaping the rewards,

it's very hard when people say, "Oh, yeah, she's just the bimbo,"

or, "She's just the girlfriend, and that's how she's got the job."

Look, you know, of all the people you will ever meet,

I am the biggest feminist and the biggest believer in equality,

but there was nothing inequal about me posing with a...

I think a scarf - I don't think it was anything more!

-I saw a picture of you in shorts...

-A football?

-..and the strip, the kit.

-Oh, that's when we launched the new kit.

-Yes.

-We did that for our local charity thing.

We've brought you your kit. So you wear it for training -

and if you don't wear it, you'll be fined by Terry.

-Fiver. A fiver every go...

-For each item you're not wearing.

I enjoyed it - I had a lot of fun doing it.

I mean, I was 23 years old, I was a single, young woman

running a business... and I was loving it,

I loved everything about it.

There was always a question of, "Have we done the right thing?"

when...when the media tried to turn her into a kind of "girlie,"

and then suddenly she emerged from that period

realising that, in a way, they were using her,

and, then, once she realised that, she began to use them.

She was there for about six months,

and she said, "Come up, I'm doing an open day,"

and people were having photographs.

She's giving out autographs, and interviews, and...

We just stood on the sideline of the pitch,

-and we just couldn't believe...

-It was just mad.

She was like a celebrity.

It still was a brave decision to put a 23-year-old girl in charge

of every aspect of the football club.

Wherever you turned, you had people saying, "Are you sure?"

Over a number of months, you could see this change of mood

as they began to realise

that this was a woman of substance.

Neither David nor I could have dealt with, you know,

the day-to-day running of the football club -

we were running our own businesses 150 miles away.

It became very clear that we had nothing to worry about.

What I found was so interesting is you had no interest in football,

-as you said, you could see it as a business opportunity.

-Yes.

So, if you went into a shop,

it would be the things you were selling,

but you are selling footballers.

When your assets, all your assets, and all your value is in people,

running a business with a good core and a good culture is vital.

You know, I had an 18-year-old.

The 18-year-old will work in the ticket office

and the most he or she can earn is probably...£15,000 a year,

and then I've got an 18-year-old who occasionally plays a football match,

and he could earn £15,000 a week.

How do you make both of those 18-year-olds

feel valued to the company when their pay is so different.

And that's the trick of a football club -

it's about everyone doing everything within their skill set

to make the business a success.

-He's got to lose some weight, hasn't he?

-He's like that all the time!

'And they realise that without one another,

'there's no harmony,'

and they all start to respect one another,

and what people create in the business.

And that's about creating good culture.

Later on today, you're going for your fitting

for your blazers and flannels.

'I mean, running a business is about having vision,'

and very often it's a vision that only you can see.

There's two choices and you need to make a choice which

you want now, and, obviously, everyone's going to have the same.

And getting other people to see it -

and not only getting them to see it,

but getting them to believe it,

and then getting them to help you deliver it.

It's important to the club that we turn up as a team

looking like a team.

I mean, last year, when we used to go to away games

everyone used to wear different clothing,

jeans - some had jeans on, some had suits on.

You know, it's easier to identify them when they wear the club badge.

And really good leadership, whether in life or in business,

is all about managing people's hearts and minds.

And the minds thing is about communication...

-Karren?

-Yeah.

Some of the footballers said they'd rather wear a tracksuit.

Well, tough titty.

..and the hearts thing is about giving people passion

and a respect - a desire to want to come to work -

and often organisations that are the most successful

have that type of ethos right at the heart of them.

You see, you've made that sound so simple.

Dave, are you in your bath?

Can I call you straight back? Thanks.

Karren's self-belief and hard work paid off.

When she'd arrived at Birmingham City, the club was in administration.

In her first year, it made a trading profit.

..everything else they should pay for on departure.

We shouldn't even have to spend time bothering about it.

When we went there, we had average gates of below 6,000.

The board - but driven by Karren -

she ended up with gates of 30,000.

A huge, huge success story.

I mean, you see young footballers coming through at the age of 16, 17,

someone like Wayne Rooney,

and you think, "Wow, how does he do it?"

and Karren did that in the business world.

You have to be confident,

you have to be damn good at what you do, and that's what she is.

But Karren's single-minded focus on work didn't go unchallenged.

She was a long way from home for the first time,

in a new environment, a new industry, a new world to learn.

I think the biggest thing that came out of that was she met Paul.

We kept meeting at all these different public appearances

and became friends, and then it turned into what it turned into.

You're 23, running a football club,

earning a decent wage -

-no real time for proper boyfriends and social life.

-Mm-hm.

Still first one in, last one out at work.

And yet love has this way of getting in through the cracks.

He was...erm, had come from Canada, I'd come up from London,

we didn't know anyone,

and, every evening, there was some sort of, I don't know...

local school thing, local supporter group thing,

and, very often, because neither of us had anything else to do,

we found ourselves going to these events together,

and we became friends.

I was petrified, you know,

I was worried about what people would think,

and tried to keep it as secretive as possible, but...

it was only a matter of time before everybody found out.

In a way, I sort of disapproved, you know?

I didn't know Paul other than a footballer,

and I just thought, "Is that classy?

"Is that the right thing to do?"

Of course, once I'd met him, I thought he was the most charming...

You know, cos most footballers aren't.

-I think I've got a good story for you.

-'Oh, right. What is it?'

It's basically a story of how Karren Brady is having an affair

with Paul Peschisolido, one of the players.

Do you want to take some pictures?

'Is the footballer married, or...?'

No, no, they're not married - neither of them are married.

Well, here we are - I'll read you the intro.

It goes, "Sultry soccer boss

"Karren Brady was as sick as a parrot last night

"after it was revealed she had scored with her club's

"ace centre forward.

"Curvy Karren is said to be obsessed with the £1 million rated

"Paul Peschisolido."

-It's all right, isn't it?

-'Yeah.'

Basically, we want about 8K for this story."

-RITA:

-Well, he's good looking!

-TERRY:

-He's good looking!

Good footballer, as well, I might add.

And...I knew straight away that he was...

-he was the man.

-A genuine guy.

When did it get beyond friends?

When did you know, "Actually, this is a decent man."

Pretty quickly!

Yes, I would say pretty quickly.

Erm...and, I mean, we were...

we were married within... I think about 18 months.

You were both very young, as well, when you look back.

Yeah, I was...26, and he must have been 25.

# Once upon a time there was light in my life... #

Karren and Paul were married in June 1995.

# Nothing I can say A total eclipse of the heart. #

It's almost yin and yang. It's a perfect...perfect match.

They're very different...

but that's what makes things work.

They complement each other, they work with each other.

-Most importantly, they love each other.

-Mm.

We support each other

regardless of, you know, whose career is flourishing,

or who's doing what.

We're just, you know, very supportive of each other,

and we have a very close-knit family

that we all...look after one another and love one another,

and just make it work, you know? That's all you can do.

Some men wouldn't be able to handle

having their wives in a stronger position than them.

How does Paul deal with that?

Or, in fact, a wife earning, perhaps, more money than him?

In our early days, Paul earned far more money than I did,

and, you know, careers go sort of around in cycles,

and maybe I'm doing better than he did now,

but...money is not important to us.

It never has been, it's never been a driver.

I mean, I know some women who have separate bank accounts

from their husband,

and they have their money, and they have their money.

I find that completely bizarre -

everything we have built, we have built together.

Money doesn't define us, it never has,

and, you know, he...

There are things he is very strong on, and I go along with,

and there's things I am very strong on that he goes along with,

but it's all about the give-and-take,

and it's much more important to laugh than it is to worry, I think.

Does he share your Catholic religion?

Yes, he does.

He comes from a very strong Catholic family,

and his religious beliefs are right at the core

of everything he does.

I was delighted to find out that Karren was Catholic as well,

cos I don't think...

In England, I'm not sure whether it's as common as it is

for my upbringing, which is Italian upbringing.

-SUZANNE:

-She doesn't push her belief on anybody,

but it's definitely in her heart.

And I would say that Paul is the same.

You know, they've got some...

you know, they think alike in that way.

Faith is certainly something that we've always had,

it's something that we try to...

We don't shout it from the rooftops.

but I think it's very important to have, and...

it's just there.

What I love about doing these interviews

-is to acknowledge the fact that we believe God exists...

-Mm-hm.

..and why should it be such an unusual thing

to meet someone and talk about their belief in God?

I think religion and the things that you believe in

are very personal things, and very private things,

but, in the main, most religions have the same beliefs,

which is be kind to other people, be compassionate,

live your life with an open heart, be honest.

And I think those are great values.

They're great values whether you're religious or not religious.

There is a great comfort from having a strong religious belief.

That...everything happens for a reason, and that...

you know, your compassion and the way you deal with things...

makes you a complete soul, I think, which...

I think it's a good way to live your life.

A year after their marriage, Karren and Paul had their daughter,

Sophia.

Paolo was born in 1998.

But having children

didn't mean Karren was going to slow down at work.

She had the baby at 12 o'clock, and was back at work at 1 o'clock -

I'm exaggerating, of course.

She had the baby and went almost straight back to work -

-we frowned upon that, didn't we, at the time?

-Yeah.

-PAUL:

-I think she says she perhaps wishes she spent a bit more time

at home after she had our... after we had Sophia.

But, you know, you've got someone who is making fresh food

for the baby, at the same time juggling the phone, trying to work.

She was at home, and she might as well have been in the office,

-the amount of time the phones were going.

-Yeah.

She was on a roll with getting things organised at the club

at that time, and so she took the decision,

-best to get in there before it starts to go wrong.

-Yeah.

When you had your daughter,

you made headlines by going back to work

within... Was it three days, or something?

-It was pretty quick.

-Yeah.

-I mean...

You know, it's interesting - 19 years ago,

phrases like "work-life balance," "flexible working,"

they just didn't exist.

Erm, and I was running a business, I was starting it from scratch,

I felt I had a responsibility...

And I wish someone had told me a career lasts a lifetime,

because I didn't realise that,

and I thought, you know, I had to go to work,

I had to look after my child, and I...I became completely exhausted

from being up all night with her, and going to work all day.

Anyone who works and has children and says it's easy

is either a liar, or certainly doing it better than I am.

It's incredibly hard to fit everybody in,

and all of us will tell you the last person on the list is yourself.

It's a torturous experience, trying to have a family.

You know, you read about these women that have it all -

no-one has it all.

-Everyone is compromising something somewhere.

-Yeah.

You, like me, Fern, have spent your whole life juggling...

sports day, board meeting, nativity play, board meeting,

parents evening, board meeting.

And you never know where you should be,

and when you're at one, you think you should be at the other.

And I came to the conclusion that I can only do what I can do,

and, actually, the best title for me

wasn't CEO, wasn't chairman, wasn't anything -

it was working mother,

because, actually, my children and my work

were the two most important things in my life,

and I wasn't prepared to give up either.

So, forget the guilt that we all feel.

Definitely.

Guilt is a baggage that you can't ever escape from.

You just have to learn how to distribute it more evenly,

and it becomes easier to carry around.

In 1997, Birmingham City was floated on the stock market.

-REPORTER:

-'Off-pitch, Birmingham's management

'are hoping the club's flotation

'will bring in enough money to fulfil their ambitions.'

Being the youngest managing director of a public limited company

is a great achievement of mine, and something I hold with great respect,

and something that I take very seriously.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'..sends in the cross. And there's the chance.

'There's Harding, in the net!'

12 years later, the club would be sold for £82 million.

She was again instrumental

in the sale of Birmingham City Football Club,

which, arguably, can be put down as one of the great sales

of a football club in the history of the Football League,

or, indeed, the Premier League.

It was a fantastic deal,

and she'd built up this First Lady Of Football image

because of her success at Birmingham City.

But Karren's success may never have happened.

Only a few years earlier, in 2006,

doctors diagnosed a life-threatening condition.

You never take a day off work sick, you're never ill, you're strong -

you would go to work even if you weren't feeling very well.

-But then, one day, you did wake up all blotchy and swollen and...

-Yes.

..very unwell.

Yes, well, I wasn't so much unwell.

I looked as though I had had a fight Mike Tyson!

I was all swollen, I had all these blotches all over me,

and my husband said to me, "We have to take you to A & E,"

and they took me straight in,

and I'd had some allergic reaction to something,

and I decided to go for a full medical.

So, a medical that would literally check every aspect of my health

from top to bottom, to get to the bottom of what I was allergic to.

And it turned out I wasn't allergic to anything

but I did have a brain aneurysm.

-REPORTER:

-'What is an aneurysm?

'Well, it's a weakening of the artery wall that then balloons out.

'This one has been photographed just as it ruptured.'

And I remember the doctor phoning me

and him saying, "Oh, I'm sorry to have to tell you,

"you have a brain aneurysm," and I had no idea what it was.

And I said, "Oh... What's that?"

And he said, "Oh, well, it's a blood vessel on the brain,

"and you'll need to go and see a brain specialist,"

and I said, "Oh, OK," I said, erm...

Would he be able to make the appointment for me?

and he said, "Yes,"

and I said, "OK, I'll give you some dates in the next few weeks,"

and he said, "No, you need to go tomorrow."

I said, "I need to go tomorrow?"

I said, "I'm not going to die by tomorrow, am I?"

and he said, "No, you don't understand, this is very serious."

I think it was a scary time for... everyone.

She was very calm, but the first time, I would say,

I ever saw her unsure of herself, and scared.

She normally is in control. She was not in control then.

Machines and other people were in control of her life.

I think Karren can fix anything.

That...that you... There is never any "No,"

but she couldn't fix herself. She couldn't change it.

She just faced it.

You know, she was terrified, but, again, she didn't show it.

And she used to almost cry in her bed of a night,

thinking that she may never recover from this,

and see her daughter get married, or her son grow up,

and that lingered with her for a long while.

You know, someone who has never been sick,

to get caught up in the medical world is...

You know, it was difficult for me,

because you have to make the choices.

So, which kind of surgery do you have,

where do you have it, who does it?

You become an expert on something you...24 hours before,

you didn't know anything about it.

And, also, the first time ever, I should think,

that you were no longer in control of yourself.

Well, that's right.

And, erm, one person was saying to me, "Have the surgery,"

and another person was saying to me, "Have a coil fitted,"

which is a non-invasive way of dealing with it.

Erm...and they sort of pitch to you what they think you ought to do,

and I said, "Look, you're asking me - I don't know.

"Pitch to each other,

"and then when you've come up with a unanimous decision

"of what I should do, I'll have that."

And they said, "Right you're going to have it coiled." And I said,

-"Fine."

-'Tiny platinum coils are fed up the catheter into the aneurysm.'

Once the aneurysm is filled with coils,

we finish the procedure.

'And the result? Dark coloured blood flowing round the brain but not into

'the aneurysm itself, because that's been filled with platinum coils.'

For someone who's always said they're fearless - you have no fear -

that must have given you a taste of what fear is.

I understand how people, when that happens to them,

you realise how short life is, and sometimes you want to

change your life. You want to give up your job, you want to

travel the world, you want to get a divorce, you want to do

things that, you know, you have always wanted to do and never done.

Erm, for me, it just made me realise that I love my life,

and I wanted to keep doing it for as long as was possible,

and the hardest thing for me was not my life

but the fact that I might not be around for my children's lives.

And that terrified me, that's the one thing that kept me

awake at night - that I would miss out,

that someone else would be advising them

and helping them, and doing things with them that I should be doing.

And that's the fear.

It was a very tough, trying time...

For all of us it was.

..for all of us.

But for her to go through this horrendous operation

which was life-threatening. Well, we were all praying at that stage.

All of us.

Birmingham City boss Karren Brady is preparing for an operation

tomorrow afternoon on her brain to cure an aneurysm,

a swelling of an artery, that could prove fatal if left untreated.

In those few days waiting for the operation, how present was God?

Well, God's always present in my life but all I asked God for

was the ability to see my kids grow up and that's...

And just to give me the strength to carry through,

and it was interesting when I went down for my surgery,

I refused to be wheeled down. I wanted to wanted to walk

towards the operation,

and I remember walking towards it,

and the person who was in...

There was like a screen...

Cos they do a lot of this on imagery and there was

a person... There was a big operating table

and there was a person behind the screen eating a sandwich!

And I remember thinking,

"The last thing I'm going to see is someone eating a sandwich."

Like, life goes on,

you're just a number in these things. It was funny.

THEY LAUGH

And how many hours of surgery is that?

Oh, five or six. Yeah, it's quite a delicate operation.

My doctor said I had the best possible result.

I don't go for the checkups which I know is awful

but I want to live my life. I don't want to think about it any more.

I think it's a great leveller of life

when your own life is in threat, to come through it, come out

the other side and to get on with your life must give you a different

perspective of life straight away.

It changes everybody's life when you

suddenly realise how vulnerable we all are.

I think after having the aneurysm

everything under that is, you know, nothing.

SINGING

Which football team is singing this chant?

-Ms Brady.

-Is it Coventry?

-It is, well done.

How does she do it? Let's find out from Karren Brady.

Ladies and gentlemen, Karren Brady.

Karren's public profile in football and business had led to

a number of television appearances over the years.

Were you a football fan as a...?

Yeah, I was... Well, I am an Arsenal fan.

BOOING

As usual, I will value your comments.

Alan Sugar brought her in to grill the finalists on his popular

TV show, The Apprentice.

-So, what are you fantastic at?

-Sales.

In business, people do let you down, so how do you cope with that?

Please make sure it doesn't happen again.

What if they don't listen to you?

I would stop doing business with them.

Karren proved her mettle.

She would do a fantastic job for you

and if you don't give her a job, I will.

-What do you think, Margaret?

-I'm still waiting for the explosion.

And, so, when Lord Sugar's regular sidekick Margaret Mountford

announced she was leaving the show in 2009, Karren got the call.

The gentlemen will be followed by a new addition to my boardroom,

Karren Brady. Karren was the youngest ever managing director

of a public limited company.

It was a total no-brainer that Karren would be

the first person I would ask.

Alan Sugar's decision to

bring in Karren Brady on to The Apprentice was a coup de grace.

That was a brilliant move because it's such a natural fit.

It takes everyone's input to make one thing happen.

Do you believe what you're saying?

Can you hear what you're saying?

I thought it was just me!

She's straightforward.

She says what she feels and she doesn't take any nonsense.

42 at £13.

Margin is king in this task.

I only wish they recognised it.

She's fair. She gives everybody a chance.

But, you know, she doesn't suffer fools gladly, either.

-Where have you retailed them at £45?

-We haven't.

-You haven't.

So you can't say it's a recommended retail price because you haven't

retailed them at that price. So take it down because it's misleading.

She is a natural at it, as you can see from the programmes.

Our job is, you know... is to be honest.

So we take no sides, we offer no advice.

We are not mentors.

We are not there to be sounding boards.

We observe. And in The Apprentice, there's no retakes,

there's no set ups, there's no script, there's no nothing.

Everything you see is everything that happens.

So our job is to help him come to the right conclusions by just

being honest and factual about what we see.

I haven't seen anything from you. Neither have my two colleagues.

You're fired.

-Man!

-Dan, you're fired.

-You don't know who's going to be fired?

-Never.

Does Lord Sugar know who he's going to fire?

I don't know, actually.

I think he... You know, half of the show is about the task,

and half of the show is about how people handle

themselves in the boardroom, and that's the part that is

his domain and depending on, you know, how honest you are and how

you take responsibility for things depends on what he does.

That was the boys' team, wasn't it?

Cos they were arguing like a bunch of old washerwomen.

It was like that throughout the entire process.

I love watching you because when you're watching them,

you're rolling your eyes and scribbling something down

and then you have to dob them in to Lord Sugar.

-I know, the ultimate grass.

-Yeah, yeah, ultimate grass.

Let me tell you, keep a very close eye on Natasha

because she comes in here, she talks the talk.

I think he sold the lowest amount in the market.

I saw a lot of finger pointing and arm folding

-and not a lot of doing, I'm afraid.

-Hm.

She can see sometimes

herself in these young ladies on the opposite side

and I can see by her face when she is looking at some of these people.

"I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have said that."

What Karren does say demonstrates her passion for other

women to become as successful in business as she has.

There's that famous episode where, I think there were women,

kind of, bickering in the boardroom.

BICKERING

She was quite angry then, I think, you know.

BICKERING CONTINUES

-Can I just say something?

-Yeah.

You are representing businesswomen today, one of which I am,

and I have to say, it's outrageous the way you're behaving.

75% of my management team is women,

and I've never come across anything like this.

She said, "Remember who you're representing."

And, you know, that kind of thing is absolutely what she's all about.

Young women out there that want to have an opportunity

-to do this. You should be an example to them.

-Well said.

She's really, really changed the whole landscape,

I think, for women in business.

But she'd be the first person, I think, to say,

there's still a lot more to do.

It's really important to her that women,

who are in that position, bring other women with them.

And I think she'd like to see more women doing that.

And you obviously see very clearly, if there is a division,

between how men work, how women work,

and is there a difference there?

Yeah, there very often is. You know,

everybody who comes into the process now is very entrepreneurial.

They either have run a business, they're running a business,

or they want to run a business.

It's very different to wanting to be an employee.

So they're very dogged and determined people, and, suddenly,

when you bring all of these people who think

they are "the best" at everything, and you bring them together,

the tensions run very high, and it's...

The women have, in the past, been worse than the men.

But they soon learn the ability

of working as a team, whereas the guys never really learn it.

It's much more about their personal view

and the way they want to do things.

In January 2010, Karren had a new opportunity to demonstrate

the importance of teamwork.

Her old bosses sold the Blues and bought the Hammers.

We always had an eye on West Ham United.

You know, that was our football club, if you like.

It was the football club that we always wanted to be part of.

West Ham was a Premiership team but it was in trouble,

and not just on the pitch.

To be honest, we wouldn't buy this club at all if it wasn't West Ham.

It makes no commercial sense for anyone to buy this club.

-We bought this as fans, as supporters.

-As we signed the papers,

we were now the new owners of West Ham United.

It was just a natural thing - where's Karren?

Karren was made vice chairman of the club.

This became a much greater challenge for Karren

because this was a very famous London Premiership club.

Because of her success at Birmingham City

she arrived there, unquestionably, as the First Lady of football.

I didn't really think that we'd get to have

much interaction with her, to be honest.

And the opposite couldn't be more true, really,

because she's just here everyday,

really rolled her sleeves up and got stuck in.

She had a vision.

She straightaway got to the crux of the issue.

The club had £100 million worth of debt.

There was no clear ownership of the problems, there was no

real teamwork, and I'm not talking about the team work on the pitch,

the teamwork off the pitch.

People didn't understand the debt that the club was in,

they didn't understand how bad things were because

no-one had thought to share it with the people that worked there.

It had a real lack of culture, it had no focus.

When you say "culture," what do you mean?

It was a very male-dominated environment.

I mean, there wasn't a single senior woman anywhere within

the entire organisation and I was horrified that I'd sort of

almost gone back to the past.

She literally transformed the place.

It was a completely different place to work in

from the minute she arrived.

-Your customers, of course, are the fans.

-Yeah. I mean, football

is an interesting business because a West Ham supporter

doesn't wake up and support Spurs, and vice versa,

but, equally, if they don't feel engaged with the club,

if they don't feel the club is being run the right way,

if they don't see the future, you know, looking bright then

they stop supporting you. So part and parcel of running

a successful football club is accepting

it's not Monopoly, it's a responsibility.

There was one particularly controversial

proposal for the club which was a challenging sell to the fans.

It meant moving from their Upton Park stadium,

home for the club since 1904,

just a few miles down the road to the London Olympics stadium.

The Olympic stadium move was, you know, a dream really for West Ham.

It was a twinkle in the eye.

When we first arrived, we knew this was a possibility

but a distant possibility.

You know, there were just so many problems associated with

the idea that a football club could go to the Olympic stadium.

Moving to the Olympic Park was a difficult one for you to sell and

a difficult one for you to wrestle with.

Well, it was interesting that when

we initially started talking about it, supporters were anxious

and nervous, and didn't quite know what it meant.

But myself and my team sat down and explained every single

thing to our supporters.

We needed the fans on board, and Karren slowly

but steadily changed that whole perception that this was

going to be great for West Ham United.

But it wasn't just a case of winning the hearts and minds of the fans.

Tomorrow, two rival London football clubs

submit their bids to move into the Olympic stadium

when the games are over.

West Ham's bid will mean the athletics facilities can remain.

We're not going to tuck our goalposts under our arm

and walk over here and play a football match on a Saturday.

£95 million will be spent on converting the stadium.

It pitted Karren against

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, whose former chairman

had his own business view on the proposal.

It's not a proper venue for both football and athletics

together. It's just a flawed idea.

There was opposition from other football clubs,

there was opposition from other interested parties. It was,

you know, it was a difficult process. Every time we won it,

they decided to re-run the process, so I think it was

like being jilted at the altar by Boris Johnson.

-So... Anyway, we kept going.

-We went through three bidding processes.

It was quite a protracted process.

Um, at times, it was really challenging.

West Ham Football Club will be calling

London's Olympic stadium home after they were

confirmed as the main tenants this morning.

Whilst the stadium already looks impressive, be under no doubt

that when we move in in 2016

it will look and feel like the home of West Ham United.

I won't go into too much detail

but I don't think they parted with too much of their own money!

I think a lot of the recent controversy about the deal

was you seemed to have got it for a bargain.

If you look at the headlines, you think, "Oh, that's a good deal."

But if you don't understand the ethos behind it

and the commitment we have made to it, you don't

understand how important it is. Because without the football club

as the anchor tenant, nobody could generate

the base of which everything else is built on top, and I, for one,

am very proud that we will have the opportunity to deliver that legacy.

I am smiling to myself because that was a perfect politician's answer.

It wasn't meant to be.

And I know you believe it.

I do believe it.

For her to secure that, you know, it's the deal of the century.

People still come up to me and say, "How has she done that?"

It really is an amazing achievement.

Could you have done it without Karren Brady? I have my doubts.

When she walks out, really, for that first game to a full stadium,

in 2016, you know, that should be her moment, cos she's done it.

Karren had another proud moment last year

when she was appointed a life peer in the House of Lords.

I Karren, Baroness Brady, do swear by Almighty God that

I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth,

her heirs and successors according to law, so help me God.

She was following in the footsteps of her friend,

fellow entrepreneur and on-screen boss.

It was my honour and pleasure to actually bring her in.

It was quite an unusual day, because I was a Labour peer at the time

and she was a Conservative peer at the time.

It was a bit like bringing Arsenal bringing Tottenham in.

Or Tottenham bringing West Ham in, so to speak.

We were in the balcony, and her family,

and I'm looking down and thinking, "That's my daughter."

I think my mum and my nan would have been

so proud of her to know that their granddaughter

and great granddaughter

was achieving such

a great honour in this country.

To think that she would end up one day as a baroness

never occurred to me. I should have thought of it.

I should have thought one day, you know, she will,

or will she one day end up the Prime Minister?

I wouldn't bet against it, that's for sure.

I am proud to be a Conservative peer

because I'm proud of my party's record on

women's economic empowerment.

Such an institution needs a bit of shaking up, I think.

It's an incredible place.

I mean, it's full of the country's brightest people.

I mean, you have got scientists, inventors, lawyers, judges,

other politicians but all of them experts in their field and

it makes for a...for a very special place.

How often do you get there?

I'm on a roster every Monday evening

so I get to the House on a Monday about four and I stay

until the roster's off which is often about ten o'clock at night.

And I go and vote when my whip calls me to vote.

I'm Karren Brady. Hello.

I'm a businesswoman.

Thanks very much.

I'm a business owner.

She's absolutely fearless.

I'm a company director.

How can you stop her? Why would you want to stop her?

And I'm a mother of two.

The kids will always be number one.

That's for sure.

The young, entrepreneurial Saturday girl from North London has turned

her dreams into reality through self-belief, ambition and hard work.

You are now the brand, Karren Brady, the brand.

I don't see myself as a brand. I have never, sort of, gone

out of my way to produce things and sell things in my name.

I don't do anything like that.

But I do take my role quite seriously,

and when you put yourself forward as somebody who champions other

women, you need to be thinking about that in everything you do

and everything you say.

It's become such a huge part of who I am that it's a core value of mine.

But, you know, real success is largely a part of hanging on.

I hope when people think about someone who left school at 18,

who didn't have any particular skill

other than their ability to work hard, who pushed themselves,

who took risks, who went outside their comfort zone,

who never gave up on themselves, and I never let go.

That's survival.

Yeah, survival.

You know, I wish when I was younger I had female role models.

People that I could look up to, people I could aspire to be,

and I hope I'm a role model to everyone who works for me,

let alone for people that think, "I wonder

"if it's possible for me," and I can say it's definitely possible.

I think she'll always be looking for the next challenge.

She sets herself the biggest goals that you could possibly imagine

but, every single time, she smashes it.

I see a lot of myself in my daughter.

I come from relatively humble beginnings and have made

my way in life without a great education but a great faith

in myself and I'd like to think that my daughter took that road as well.

Christmas just around the corner.

What does Christmas mean to you?

Well, Christmas for me is about thinking about your spirit

and what you're in touch with.

And, for me, you know, it's all about family but, obviously,

I have my family round for dinner every Christmas

but the guest of honour is always the food.

-Do you cook?

-I DO cook, yeah.

I love to cook but I can only really cook one thing, which is

a roast dinner. So it works for me.

And what about going to church, do you do church?

Yes, we do, yes, we do, always, yeah.

I mean, it's interesting that the church is very busy on that

time of the year, and I think that you ought to almost

have, like, a season ticket if you go regularly.

You should be allowed to go in.

But, no, we live in quite a small village so everybody

knows everybody. And our monsignor, who is head

of our church, he often pops into us on Christmas Day for a drink.

Your best Christmas present ever was what?

My best Christmas present ever... I could tell you the worst.

-Tell me.

-My husband bought me a frying pan one year.

He nearly got it over his head.

It was the last time he ever brought me a practical gift.

Did she tell you that? That's not true. That's...

I'm going to tell you that is a complete lie.

I think I went to an expo and they had this nonstick pan,

he was doing examples of how he was flipping omelettes and that,

and I thought it was cool so I just bought it

but it wasn't a Christmas present.

She's lying. She wants to make me look bad.

And the last thing was

what are you looking forward to next year?

Well, next year is a huge year because next year we'll move

to the Olympic stadium,

and I have to deliver a stadium that everybody is proud of

so those are the things that sort of keep me awake at night.

Making sure everything is perfect, everything is how it should be,

and, obviously, making sure we have a team that's fit to play in it,

that's worthy of the accolade of having a 54,000 seater stadium,

so ensuring that the business runs smoothly, the transition

across to the new stadium goes well, that's my focus for next year.

Well, I hope that all goes well. Happy Christmas.

Thank you, Fern. Happy Christmas to you, too.

How refreshing to meet somebody who is as nice as you hope

they're going to be.

Karren Brady is a woman's woman

and she obviously, clearly, is a role model, whether she likes it or not.

The way she's conducted herself in business

and the way that her core values lie in home and family and decency.

And add on to that her religious faith,

she really is an inspirational woman.

I hope it inspires you to have a fantastic Christmas

and a very good New Year.