Week 4 of the Apprentice (available of iPlayer) saw the teams tasked with designing two natural body products to sell to the public. Again Sir Alan mixed the teams up. Paula leading Empire designed a sea weed based soap and shower gel while Noorul led Ignite which designed a honeycomb based soap and shower gel. Here’s what we learnt.

Research
Again we learn that research and integrity is critical to the success of a product. Neither team gave any consideration to the health benefits or ingredients in the products that they were developing. Clare English in our consumer team has already blogged about this; she recently led the team that won Skinfood so knows her stuff when it comes to marketing beauty products.

Product design
Neither team tested its products until they were about to head out to flog their wares. Ignite would surely have seen significant numbers of product returns and would never have secured repeat business because the honey in its soap melted into a goo as soon as it came into contact with water. Despite this Ignite won the task captilising on Empire’s financial miscalculations.

Team work
Never underestimate the ability of an individual to screw up under pressure. Paula, Yasmina and Ben screwed up in spades by confusing the decimal point when calculating the cost of her ingredients and confused cedar wood with sandal wood. This basic error lost Empire a task that it otherwise would have won. Paula as leader was deemed culpable and was fired. Always double check your numbers. And then check them again.

Business models
Beauty is a high margin business. Products cost pennies to make but with smart gift wrap and good marketing they sell for pounds. Match product integrity with brand and you’ve got a cracking business model.

Management
Managers should lead from the front. Noorul spent his time as team leader five paces behind his team which won despite his poor leadership and inability to sell. Had his team lost then he surely would have been for the chop.