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
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