I’m off to Sunderland tomorrow to talk to PR students at the university and I’m leaving my blog in the capable hands of Louise who is overseeing Speed’s latest apprentice day.
The team is set to spend the morning hearing from creative luminaries including SeymourPowell’s Dick Powell, Williams Murray Hamm’s Richard Williams, and Epoch’s Anthony Lucas, before being led through a series of creative workshops by Branded’s Alice Hunter.
But more from Louise tomorrow as it happens.
What a cracking task. The teams headed to Chiswick Auctions in West London and were tasked with identifying the price of ten items ranging from bric a brac to antiques and collectables. The objective was to determine the price of each item and then sell for as big a profit as possible. Kate moved to Ignite led by Philip. Noorul joined Empire led by Philip.
With encouragement from fellow Apprentice fans I’m thinking of getting the Twitter #apprentice gang and other fans together in a central London venue on 10 June to watch the last show and celebrate Kate’s expected win. Email me if you’d be interested in coming along.
In the meantime here’s what we learnt from week 6.
Business planning
The Apprentice tasks all require good research and planning. It’s like real life really. Neither team excelled in this task because neither had a strategy. Sir Alan told the losing team exactly what the strategy should have been – identify the high value items, set a minimum price or reserve and then focus on selling the items as quickly as possible for as big a profit of possible.
Research
To be fair on the teams I don’t think the teams were given the tools to be able to quickly assess the value of the items. Access to the web would have helped. But perhaps that wasn’t the point and Sir Alan was looking for a back to basics approach. Desk research without the web is tough. It requires a military approach to hitting the phones to call round dealers.
Sales
Neither team had a sales strategy. Beyond the strategy that Sir Alan outlined in the boardroom. Noorul was shown the door because he failed to make sales while Ben survived because he was superb at closing sales.
Delegation
There were errors in management on both teams. Ben split the items between his two teams seven to three. Philip was dismissive of Lorraine’s insight. Again. Good leaders are prepared to get their hands dirty but delegate work equitably and they listen and gather opinion from their team before making decisions.
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Shout out to Bogel Bros which is again producing a lego animation of each edition of the Apprentice. If you don’t have time to watch the programme, catch-up each week on YouTube with lego versions of Sir Alan, Nick and Margaret and the candidates of 2009.
Week two of the Apprentice (available on iPlayer) was the catering challenge in which teams typically under or over order materials. The challenge required each team to serve canapés at receptions for a pair of law firms in the city.
Here’s what I learnt from the programme.
Management
Both teams sensibly selected a person from their ranks with catering experience. The kitchens worked well. It’s becoming obvious that candidates have all watched previous series before signing up for Apprentice 5. Hesitation is out and quick thinking and decisiveness is the order of the day.
Product knowledge
Knowing your product is critical in sales. Both teams struggled to make a convincing sales pitch because their knowledge was limited. Ten minutes with Jamie Oliver’s Naked Chef or the Nigella Lawson’s Domestic Goddess would have taught the teams everything that they needed to know about producing classy canapés.
Negotiation
Neither team negotiated well. The boys priced on the basis of a single call to an events organiser and pitched in a cost that was ridiculously high and went through a ridiculous pantomime of discounting. Both teams suffered financial penalties after agreeing to discounts.
Product excellence
Seth Godin says either be remarkable or don’t bother. Half measures simply won’t do. Clients of a city law firm do not want to be served by a bunch of hairy, pimply blokes in togas. Crisp black suits would have been much more successful.
After seeing the girls’ team serve up chunks of French stick topped with tomato (served as bruschetta) and a sloppy mixture of tomatoes and courgette wrapped in sweet pancakes (served as bellini) it makes you wonder what team leader Yasmina Siadatan produces in her restaurant.
Both teams produced lousy food. They cut costs and it showed.
The boys’ lost because of a number of failures: their product quality was poor (the girls’ was no better), they didn’t budget their food costs and as a consequence their pricing was ill informed, and they spent precious budget on costumes and room dressings that were unnecessary.
Team leader Rocky Andrews was fired. I had him down as a cert for the final based on his experience owning and managing a chain of 15 sandwich shops in the North East. But it was the right call and in a rare display of humility on the Apprentice Rocky admitted as much. This isn’t the last we’ll hear of him.
