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
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