Many of the negative people (haters?) out there have latched on to this phrase as though it is (only) some silly South London saying, and deserving of ridicule.
Amusingly however, the joke is on them, for whilst researching for this post I came across this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecking_order#Pecking_order_theory_in_finance

“Pecking Order Theory” is in fact high level capital structure and management theory for financial managers which is obviously what Lord Sugar was referring to, not chickens!
Its also a little interesting that Google rates a WordPress.com tag here as more relevant for this search than authority web documents with major academic citations too, no?
Some wag has also launched a site called www.peckingorderoptimisation.com too, (I actually think it might be Mark as a backup in case ClimbOnline.co.uk all goes pear-shaped) but I will not link to it (in case it is not) and I would not want to help a competitor get higher than them in the SEO Pecking Order.