THE APPRENTICE - BLOG RE EPISODE 4 (UK)
Episode 4 of the Apprentice was good entertainment and with a few fireworks going off too!
The task was to design and produce 2 original, natural products in the crowded beauty market.
Paula Jones, a Human Resources manager in the public sector, was appointed Team Leader or Project Manager of Empire and was joined by Debra / Debbie Barr and Yasmina Siadatan.
As we noted last week, Noorul Choudhury has been fairly quiet and sure enough, this week, Sir Alan Sugar appointed him Project Manager of Ignite, joined in the team by Kimberley Davis and Howard Ebison.
The commentator noted that Alan Sugar's key point has consistently been keep costs down. James McQuillan encouraged Paula to place emphasis on this area too….. Hmmm. Didn't quite go to plan!
Paula's approach as a Project Manager was very positive, praising and encouraging the team members at the outset. A good start to begin building camaraderie and esprit de corps.
Noorul's background as a science teacher was initially encouraging from a product creation viewpoint, but he appeared to be very indecisive, frustrating the rest of the team. Philip especially reacted badly, giving Kimberley a hard time due to his innate frustrations with the lack of direction, decision-making, etc., although he said he was stressed working with her as she also couldn't make decisions, but the details of this weren't clear on the edited version.
In step 1 on The Apprentice week 4, choosing a product, Noorul's indecisiveness first showed itself, whereas Paula seemed to take to the task with enthusiasm and confidence, being proactive and decisive. Noorul's team pitched in with ideas but he didn't react, seeming that the lights were on but on this occasion, no-one was home, or they'd gone a short break!
Philip, Lorraine and Kimberley were all dressed up in bee-keepers' outfits to collect the honey for their team's product but couldn't get Noorul to decide how much they needed by finalising a recipe. Lorraine spent most of the task shrieking as she was afraid of bees! This begs the question of why send her or why didn't she admit this beforehand? Improved communications would help both teams each week.
Paula asked that Ben Clarke and Yasmina keep an eye on costs as she confessed that she was hopeless with numbers. During recipe concoction, Yasmina and Paula got confused in 2 critical areas: which oil to use, Cedarwood or Sandalwood, with one costing around £28 / kg while the other cost over £1,200 / kg! A fundamental difference methinks…
They worsened the situation by mixing up percentages and grams, using 450g of the expensive oil vs. the 3% they should have used! The effect was to send their total fragrance costs to over £700, which Nick Hewer coolly pointed out to them, chuckling on the inside I suspect…. Yasmina had assured Paula that costs were very low, so 'around a fiver?' was Paula's conclusion to which Yasmina agreed. Where was Ben? Washing pots and pans or mixing up ingredients! So the stockbroker played little part in the figures, despite being asked to and he also sidestepped anything to do with design and product selection. A very slippery character (and set of shoulders!) it seems to us.
Kimberley's background is as a marketing consultant but Philip the estate agent shouted her down several times during the label design process, snatching the phone from her at one stage. His retort to her of 'get some balls' was uncalled for and exhibited lack of being a team-player we felt. It was left to Lorraine to apologise for the unprofessionalism of arguing on front of the label designer….
She said it!
Once the teams found themselves doing poorly sales-wise in a tube station (Bond Street), they should have moved elsewhere (e.g. going back to the market sooner) as, by the nature of tube stations, as they sadly discovered, folks are inherently pretty busy en route to their destinations and in the main aren't interested in stopping there to sample products. The markets were much better locations as people are generally there to buy! Noorul's team being dressed as bee-keepers in a tube station where people might view them as bio-chemical hazard suits wasn't the brightest of ideas, although it was more eye-catching in the markets.
Noorul seemed to struggle with his sales pitch and didn't look to have sold anything. Philip was keen to get him lower prices to shift their stock (they still had 120 bottles and the crowd was thinning out) but again Noorul was indecisive. It was quick-thinking of Paula's team to get rid of their remaining stock to a fellow stall-holder for £400. Again, Paula praised her team at the end of the task. Overall, a good Project Manager; just let down by the team-members who should have checked the figures as she asked. I suppose she also plays a part in the blame for not firmly requesting Ben to check them, but as prospective leaders, they should be proactive and as fellow team-members, helpful, unless they're scheming to get rid of others and hoping that they get the blame of course!
When Alan Sugar asked Noorul's team what they thought of him, Philip went unusually quiet. Several said that they enjoyed working with him. Margaret Mountford pointed out that that wasn't the same as him being a good leader!
Sir Alan didn’t like Ignite's liquid-looking honey soap. He much preferred the professionalism of the appearance of Empire's products. However, Ignite made a profit of almost £494 while Empire lost £68 due to the massive cost overrun! Nick pointed out that if they hadn't got confused about the products and percentages vs. grams, they would have made a profit of £598 and won! In which case, we feel Noorul, who as a very weak Project Manager, would have been fired.
Was the right person fired? We concede that the Project Manager has to take responsibility but Paula's leadership, design and marketing efforts were very good. She delegated figures to Yasmina and Ben, who let the team down badly. Ben should have got involved but was seeming to 'hide'. Yasmina was actively involved in the figures so she should have gone in our opinion.
What do you think? Write your comments here and let us know….
Eve Grace-Kelly and Vinden Grace
MD and Director respectively
QCC
http://www.qccgroup.com
Business and Personal Coaching by Qualified Coaches
Saturday 18 April 2009
Thursday 9 April 2009
The Apprentice UK - A Coaching Perspective On The Latest BBC Episode
Episode 3 of The Apprentice on the BBC - The Fitness Contraption
The task this week on the UK show The Apprentice on BBC TV centred around finding unique product for the fitness market. The teams had to come up with the design concept; get a prototype made by a designated manufacturer; then market it to pre-assigned potential outlets.
The same retail prices were allocated by Sir Alan Sugar and his team of Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford and, we believe, identical manufacturing, transportation and packaging costs assumed. Therefore, the task's aim was to gain the biggest number of orders rather than the usual maximisation of profits.
Debbie (Debra Barr) was manager for Ignite team while James McQuillan took that role for the other team, Empire. The latter has Product Management experience so we expected him to rise to the challenge well. Ben Clarke was in charge of design for Empire and initially mentioned a sex-related device, which James quickly pooh-poohed! They came up with a device to reduce women's 'bingo wings' with names such as Bingo-Buster and Wing-Worker. James' advice was sound: keep it simple. This was especially good advice given the incredibly tight timescale! They went to a sports store to get product ideas, which they perhaps should have done first?!
Majid Nagra was all for adding product extras, which overcomplicated was meant to be an inexpensive product. The end-result, the 'Home Multi Tone', was rather a Heath Robinson-looking product that Ben embarrassingly had a struggle packing away in front of a sports shop Buyer. The team admitted some aspects were 'just for show'! They called it a home multi-gym but failed to research the market to see that their potential buyer in the sports shop would not be interested in this sort of product when he was more interested in selling shop visitors multi-gyms costing hundreds if not thousands of pounds!
In terms of picking the leader, the team seemed uncertain about Debbie, one member, Lorraine Tighe, asking her could she manage all the big personalities in the team, while another, Paula Jones, said the biggest challenge would be managing her own (Debbie's)! Clearly she's seen as a bit of a handful and is rude when it really doesn't seem to be justified. Her put-down of Lorraine below didn't help in portraying her as a good manager and she doesn't seem to be a team-player. This was evidenced by her comment to Kimberley Davis back at the penthouse while awaiting the boys from the boardroom with 'Your failure is my success. I don't really care if you lose! I know that might be harsh…' Kimberley said she felt it was indeed harsh! If Sir Alan Sugar is reviewing the tapes of the discussions back at the house, and he would certainly get the highlights, is this really the way Debbie thinks she should portray herself in order to get a job with him?! Today's managers are generally deemed superior if they lead from the front and build a consensus where that is possible we feel, not be autocrats as (perhaps) in days gone by. In truth, we wonder if Debbie's strategy is to be tough on others and gain notoriety that way, earning herself nasty soubriquets in the papers and so get a reputation that boosts a TV or other independent career outside Sir Alan Sugar's empire… (See Jenny Celerier's and Kristina Grimes' - 2008 contestant and 2007 runner-up respectively - new training company as just one example: www.kgjcp.com)
Ignite came up with a variation on the Swiss ball, a body rocker on which one sits to do exercises. Lorraine put herself forward to do the pitch, although Debbie gave her little encouragement, saying that if, on 'inspection', she was not up to it, they would assign someone else. Not a great morale boost prior to the task! Project Managers need to boost their team-members' confidence not undermine it. Undoubtedly they are all there to win, but Sir Alan, Nick & Margaret are surely also looking for team-players and leaders of the future for their organisation.
Debbie was deemed to bark at people (who said). She allocated Yasmina Siadatan to shoot the photographs and then wouldn’t leave her to undertake that task on her own. If Debbie's team had lost, she would definitely have been in the firing line as she micro-managed everyone.
Debbie's team apparently had no discussion re financials so when John Lewis's buyers asked them for an exclusivity contract, they had no idea of what to ask for. Debbie said they'd chat about it and come back to John Lewis, but one team member blurted out that 20,000 units for 6 months would seal the deal, to which John Lewis replied that it was too much.
Sir Alan Sugar felt James' team's prototype was very poor. James seemed to backtrack at this point, agreeing that Ben's concept was good but the prototype was poor, earning Ben's enmity. Ben was extremely miffed, pointing out that James hadn't voiced many reservations when the prototype turned up, but to be fair, by that stage, given the tight timescales, what other choice was there? James waffled too much trying to defend himself, stating that he was a bit fuzzy (he certainly issued lots of fluff!) at times and didn't want to 'stifle Ben's creativity' and also dumped on several team members. Seemed like a poor attempt at offloading blame for failure onto Ben and generally sidestepping responsibility as Project Manager. His boardroom manner clearly exasperated Sir Alan Sugar. James, and all boardroom 'defendants', especially Debbie given her comments above, need to consider that he may have to work with these people on other tasks. E.g. Philip Taylor received good feedback in the boardroom for having defended Lorraine. Margaret had made complimentary remarks about James to Sir Alan Sugar, saying that despite his poor boardroom puff and bluster, in the field he was actually quite good, geeing up his team, etc.
Howard seemed to play a silent game, at which Sir Alan Sugar accused him of sitting on the fence so much that he was in danger of getting a sore a**e! Definitely quote of the week! Noorul Choudhury seems to be playing a quiet game too. Not sure what he's contributed yet….
Philip didn't look best pleased when James returned to the house and Majid had been kicked out. Will Philip try to get rid of James as revenge?!
Ignite team's spokesperson Kate Walsh tended to just list the features of the equipment, whereas the art of selling requires extolling the virtues or benefits of the product. What it simply does is not sufficient: how does the product or service help the buyer or solve a problem? That's the key to selling.
Majid was deemed by James, Nick and Sir Alan Sugar to have been a passenger rather than have played a constructive part in the proceedings. Nick's eyebrow and stern look were working overtime with Majid at this point in the boardroom! Sir Alan Sugar pointed out that there was no room to hide behind the filing cabinets in his organisation…. Majid didn't really stand up for himself in the boardroom and agreed in The Apprentice - You're fired! that he was very laid-back. So was his just a bid to get TV exposure for the various businesses that he runs?
The contestants need a strategy in the boardroom - not just trying to drop others in it, which is seen straight through by Sir Alan, Nick and Margaret and certainly doesn’t win them any helpful colleagues for the next task!
Sir Alan deemed that the Empire team had not targeted the audience well (at that price) and given them what they wanted. As business coaches though, we generally feel that Sir Alan Sugar's team don't give sufficient feedback on what they would have done. It's easy to criticise the teams and no doubt makes for a more interesting show in terms of entertainment, but as a business-focused show, we were surprised not to hear more constructive feedback on what very experienced business people such as Sir Alan, Margaret and Nick would have done in the circumstances. No doubt editing of the show plays a large part! So we're not sure whether The Apprentice is intended to be a business show with entertainment thrown in or an entertainment show with a dash of business?! One thing is certain: it's highly watchable… Looking forward to episode 4!
Vinden Grace and Eve Grace-Kelly
Director and MD respectively
QCC
The task this week on the UK show The Apprentice on BBC TV centred around finding unique product for the fitness market. The teams had to come up with the design concept; get a prototype made by a designated manufacturer; then market it to pre-assigned potential outlets.
The same retail prices were allocated by Sir Alan Sugar and his team of Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford and, we believe, identical manufacturing, transportation and packaging costs assumed. Therefore, the task's aim was to gain the biggest number of orders rather than the usual maximisation of profits.
Debbie (Debra Barr) was manager for Ignite team while James McQuillan took that role for the other team, Empire. The latter has Product Management experience so we expected him to rise to the challenge well. Ben Clarke was in charge of design for Empire and initially mentioned a sex-related device, which James quickly pooh-poohed! They came up with a device to reduce women's 'bingo wings' with names such as Bingo-Buster and Wing-Worker. James' advice was sound: keep it simple. This was especially good advice given the incredibly tight timescale! They went to a sports store to get product ideas, which they perhaps should have done first?!
Majid Nagra was all for adding product extras, which overcomplicated was meant to be an inexpensive product. The end-result, the 'Home Multi Tone', was rather a Heath Robinson-looking product that Ben embarrassingly had a struggle packing away in front of a sports shop Buyer. The team admitted some aspects were 'just for show'! They called it a home multi-gym but failed to research the market to see that their potential buyer in the sports shop would not be interested in this sort of product when he was more interested in selling shop visitors multi-gyms costing hundreds if not thousands of pounds!
In terms of picking the leader, the team seemed uncertain about Debbie, one member, Lorraine Tighe, asking her could she manage all the big personalities in the team, while another, Paula Jones, said the biggest challenge would be managing her own (Debbie's)! Clearly she's seen as a bit of a handful and is rude when it really doesn't seem to be justified. Her put-down of Lorraine below didn't help in portraying her as a good manager and she doesn't seem to be a team-player. This was evidenced by her comment to Kimberley Davis back at the penthouse while awaiting the boys from the boardroom with 'Your failure is my success. I don't really care if you lose! I know that might be harsh…' Kimberley said she felt it was indeed harsh! If Sir Alan Sugar is reviewing the tapes of the discussions back at the house, and he would certainly get the highlights, is this really the way Debbie thinks she should portray herself in order to get a job with him?! Today's managers are generally deemed superior if they lead from the front and build a consensus where that is possible we feel, not be autocrats as (perhaps) in days gone by. In truth, we wonder if Debbie's strategy is to be tough on others and gain notoriety that way, earning herself nasty soubriquets in the papers and so get a reputation that boosts a TV or other independent career outside Sir Alan Sugar's empire… (See Jenny Celerier's and Kristina Grimes' - 2008 contestant and 2007 runner-up respectively - new training company as just one example: www.kgjcp.com)
Ignite came up with a variation on the Swiss ball, a body rocker on which one sits to do exercises. Lorraine put herself forward to do the pitch, although Debbie gave her little encouragement, saying that if, on 'inspection', she was not up to it, they would assign someone else. Not a great morale boost prior to the task! Project Managers need to boost their team-members' confidence not undermine it. Undoubtedly they are all there to win, but Sir Alan, Nick & Margaret are surely also looking for team-players and leaders of the future for their organisation.
Debbie was deemed to bark at people (who said). She allocated Yasmina Siadatan to shoot the photographs and then wouldn’t leave her to undertake that task on her own. If Debbie's team had lost, she would definitely have been in the firing line as she micro-managed everyone.
Debbie's team apparently had no discussion re financials so when John Lewis's buyers asked them for an exclusivity contract, they had no idea of what to ask for. Debbie said they'd chat about it and come back to John Lewis, but one team member blurted out that 20,000 units for 6 months would seal the deal, to which John Lewis replied that it was too much.
Sir Alan Sugar felt James' team's prototype was very poor. James seemed to backtrack at this point, agreeing that Ben's concept was good but the prototype was poor, earning Ben's enmity. Ben was extremely miffed, pointing out that James hadn't voiced many reservations when the prototype turned up, but to be fair, by that stage, given the tight timescales, what other choice was there? James waffled too much trying to defend himself, stating that he was a bit fuzzy (he certainly issued lots of fluff!) at times and didn't want to 'stifle Ben's creativity' and also dumped on several team members. Seemed like a poor attempt at offloading blame for failure onto Ben and generally sidestepping responsibility as Project Manager. His boardroom manner clearly exasperated Sir Alan Sugar. James, and all boardroom 'defendants', especially Debbie given her comments above, need to consider that he may have to work with these people on other tasks. E.g. Philip Taylor received good feedback in the boardroom for having defended Lorraine. Margaret had made complimentary remarks about James to Sir Alan Sugar, saying that despite his poor boardroom puff and bluster, in the field he was actually quite good, geeing up his team, etc.
Howard seemed to play a silent game, at which Sir Alan Sugar accused him of sitting on the fence so much that he was in danger of getting a sore a**e! Definitely quote of the week! Noorul Choudhury seems to be playing a quiet game too. Not sure what he's contributed yet….
Philip didn't look best pleased when James returned to the house and Majid had been kicked out. Will Philip try to get rid of James as revenge?!
Ignite team's spokesperson Kate Walsh tended to just list the features of the equipment, whereas the art of selling requires extolling the virtues or benefits of the product. What it simply does is not sufficient: how does the product or service help the buyer or solve a problem? That's the key to selling.
Majid was deemed by James, Nick and Sir Alan Sugar to have been a passenger rather than have played a constructive part in the proceedings. Nick's eyebrow and stern look were working overtime with Majid at this point in the boardroom! Sir Alan Sugar pointed out that there was no room to hide behind the filing cabinets in his organisation…. Majid didn't really stand up for himself in the boardroom and agreed in The Apprentice - You're fired! that he was very laid-back. So was his just a bid to get TV exposure for the various businesses that he runs?
The contestants need a strategy in the boardroom - not just trying to drop others in it, which is seen straight through by Sir Alan, Nick and Margaret and certainly doesn’t win them any helpful colleagues for the next task!
Sir Alan deemed that the Empire team had not targeted the audience well (at that price) and given them what they wanted. As business coaches though, we generally feel that Sir Alan Sugar's team don't give sufficient feedback on what they would have done. It's easy to criticise the teams and no doubt makes for a more interesting show in terms of entertainment, but as a business-focused show, we were surprised not to hear more constructive feedback on what very experienced business people such as Sir Alan, Margaret and Nick would have done in the circumstances. No doubt editing of the show plays a large part! So we're not sure whether The Apprentice is intended to be a business show with entertainment thrown in or an entertainment show with a dash of business?! One thing is certain: it's highly watchable… Looking forward to episode 4!
Vinden Grace and Eve Grace-Kelly
Director and MD respectively
QCC
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