Calling all ingenious Kiwis!

Brace yourself, New Zealand - The Apprentice is coming.

TV2 has announced it's launching a local version of the international hit reality show which sees businessmen and women risking penury and putting their pride on the line to be crowned top dog.

I for one am on tenterhooks to discover who'll be putting the wannabe tycoons through their paces.

Who is the Kiwi Donald Trump? Aotearoa's Alan Sugar?

Sir Bob Jones could school the young 'uns, although he may be a little hard to get hold of if stories of him shunning technology are to be believed.

Graeme Hart could offer his advice from a philanthropic stance - with an estimated fortune of $8.8billion, he doesn't exactly need the cash or the coverage.

Suzanne Paul has a Madonna-esque talent for reinvention, though infomercials may not be the required specialist subject.

Or what about the Mad Butcher, aka Peter Leitch? The man's a marketing genius and also open to helping out those trying to work their way up the corporate ladder...

And what sort of challenges might the scrappy little corporate hounds have to undergo?

See who can run the most efficient dairy farm? Come up with new tasty flavours of pie? Have an ice cream-eating contest?

Get NZ to bump Italy off the top spot as the favourite tourist destination? Or invent a new sport to replace zorbing?

I'm not doing down Kiwi ingenuity in the slightest, but they need to be some pretty specific challenges to show the kind of all-round skills NZers possess...

If you're keen to apply (as a contestant, I presume, though that tycoon spot might not have been filled yet) visit www.tvnz.co.nz/theapprenticenz