The BBC also quietly unveiled a web IPTV application around a TV programme last night. Viewers of the Apprentice were able to watch the programme via the web, predict which candidate would be fired, and participate in a live discussion.

It’s a shame that the Apprentice chat widget wasn’t a live Twitter feed using the #apprentice hash tag but then a moderated channel hosted by the BBC is probably a lot safer than an open Twitter channel.

The Telegraph came a cropper earlier in the week when Twitter users spotted the opportunity to deface The Telegraph web site via its like #budget Twitter stream.

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.

Week 3 was the design task. The teams were mixed up and the challenge was to create an original piece of personal exercise equipment and flog it to retailers. Debra led Ignite which designed a version of a traditional exercise ball. James led Empire which developed a gym-in-a-box. Here’s what we learnt.

Delegation
James delegated the design of Empire’s product to Ben and had no input in the project until a prototype arrived from the product design company. Delegation is fine, but for a team leader to have no involvement in the key activity of the task is poor. Ignite won the task despite fiddling and meddling from team leader Debora. She’s a strong assertive leader who delegates tasks, but not authority or responsibility.

Team motivation
When James was given the opportunity in the boardroom he voiced reservations about the design claiming that he kept quiet during the task as he didn’t want to demotivate the team. There’s never a good time to share bad news and human nature is to focus on the positive, but good communication is key to motivation and a good leader would have been able to rally a team despite misgivings.

Demonstrating value
Majid was fired because he wasn’t visible enough. In a team task make sure you’ve got a clearly defined role, that you complete what’s expected of you and that you make sure your boss recognises your work. This is applies in almost all aspects of business and is an excellent lesson for anyone in a client service business.

Product design
Maybe it was harsh editing or maybe the teams really did fail to take full advantage of insights provided by retail stores and personal trainers. Both teams arrived at their chosen product routes by luck rather than rational judgment. Research must lie at the core of the design process. Its why Loewy’s product design gurus Seymour Powell have a team dedicated to ethnographic research.

Selling
Lorraine stepped right outside her comfort zone in a bid to sell and did an okay job once she ditched the script and told a story. Debra would almost certainly have had her in the boardroom had Ignite failed the task. Instead she should have been congratulated for her efforts. Selling is a tough skill to learn if it doesn’t come naturally.

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.

The Apprentice is back

Episode one saw the 15 candidates split by gender into two teams and set up a cleaning business. Both teams set up car cleaning operations and generated respectable revenues in a single day of trading. The girls (Ignite) made the most sales but the boys (Empire) made the most profit by keeping their costs low. And therein lies Sir Alan’s first lesson.

Here’s what I learnt from the programme.

Focus on profit
There is a reason why the phrase “turnover is vanity, profit is sanity” is a cliché. It’s because it is spot on. In a start-up situation every £1 spent is a £1 that you are further away from breakeven and profit. The most important line in a P&L account is profit, then turnover and costs. It is crucial to keep costs as low as possible.

Business opportunities
Each team succeeded in negotiating deals with businesses that maintained fleets of vehicles. The programme didn’t dwell on this element of the task but it seemed remarkably straightforward. Either the opportunities were warmed up in advance or the show demonstrates the adage that business opportunities abound irrespective of the state of the economy.

Volume versus value
The boys ran a parallel shoe shining operating generating £60 in an hour at St Pancras Station. This is a low value business model that is reliant on volume. But the team chose its location smartly and was able to generate and turn around trade quickly. Had they sustained this activity for a day they would have generated significant revenue and profit as costs were low.

Process
Cleaning cars is not a complex job but without a process and clear roles and responsibilities both teams duplicated activities, ruined work that had already been done, and wasted time. The task of cleaning a car needed to be broken down into small chunks with a person taking responsibility for each and a clear sequence for each activity.

Management
Putting yourself forward as the team leader in the Apprentice is tough. Doing it in episode one is pure madness. Everyone is an unknown quantity and individual skills and strengths are unknown. The team management was poor but the level of bickering and bitchiness was extraordinary.

I can’t wait for next week.