Unofficial Apprentice (US) Season 10 blog

Who is the cheater on The Apprentice?

2010-11-05T19:29:00.010-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice
Who is the cheater?
Let’s take a vote.

Both teams are summoned to the boardroom for some disturbing news. Apparently, one of the contestants sent out text messages to friends and associates asking them to bring out money to Trump towers during a previous task. This is a violation of the rules.
So far there were only tow tasks that were judged based on the sales.

The Ice-cream task (click here for the ice-cream task) which had Poppy as PM of Fortitude and David as PM of Octane.
The New York Pedicab tour task (click here for the task) that had Anand as PM of team Octane and Kelly as PM of Fortitude.

Assuming that this is someone that is still in the competition (the person that sent the texts might have lied that they were PM) then this leaves Poppy and Anand.
Poppy was PM for the ice-cream task. From what was shown, it looked like the girls were lagging behind in terms of sales. Based on what we saw on the show, it was a surprise that they won. Could Poppy be the one?
Anand was PM for the New York Pedicab tour task. The men had a better product. They also staked out Trump towers and targeted the tourists here. The women chose Wall street and that did not work out too well for them. However, the men still had a very significant win over the ladies. Could this person be Anand? Apparently he is an entrepreneur in NYC and would probably have a lot of connections there.

This would be very unfortunate since he is such a strong candidate.

Stay tuned.

Week 8: 4-page advert for Donald J. Trump Signature line for shirts, cuff-links and ties

2010-11-05T18:45:00.007-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice
Week 8
Task : 4-page advert for Donald J. Trump Signature line for shirts, cuff-links and ties
Judged on:

Creativity
Brand Integration
Overall Presentation

Week 8 of this reality TV job interview and the competition is getting really hot.
Anand calls out Stephanie with regards to the missing contact information in Team Fortitude’s marketing materials. Stephanie does not take it kindly that Anand has taken it upon himself to point out the truth that she lied to Mr. Trump; (at least according to what transpired in the boardroom).

The contestant to watch though, is Brandy. She clearly explains how she took Mahsa (the strongest member of Team Fortitude) down essentially taking care of her biggest problem.

Thankfully, Mr. Trump finally shuffles the teams. I love how Anand and Stephanie end up in the same team especially after the minor altercation that they had in the suite after the last task.
Brandy steps up as PM of Team Octane and takes a “sex sells” approach. This makes Liza a tad bit uncomfortable. Team Octane produces a campaign focusing on wealth, power and sexual prowess. Brandy is a bit nervous during the presentation and fumbles a bit. However this pales in comparison to just how racy the spread looks. The Macy’s executive even mentions that he is not sure if he would be comfortable using the campaign, since they are a store that sells to families.
David is PM for team Fortitude. The team quickly agrees on a black and white theme pitched by Anand. The background and models will be sort of washed out and then the important items, ties, cuff-links and shirts will stand out in vivid color. Unfortunately, David takes this idea and runs away with it. He ignores any further input from Poppy and Anand. He promptly sends Anand to the bench with a bag full of expletives. He is also extremely condescending towards Poppy. David is so overconfident that he has a brilliant idea that he fails to notice small but important details like the shirts should fit the models properly or brand integration which is a key performance factor for this task. He needs to be careful though since pride usually comes before a fall. David offers a decent presentation, unfortunately, what sticks out like a sore thumb is the fact that the main model on the front page does not fit into the shirt. The collar is too big for his neck. Maybe they should have picked a different model or tried to pick shirts of different sizes.
Enter the boardroom...
Is it time for David to go home? He owns up to 90% of the task. Bad mistake. If they lose, then he is definitely going home.
David claims he picked all the models. He just picked the first model that he saw and stuck with him. I am surprised that the executives chose Octane’s ad even though it was considered racy. If only he had listened to Anand and Poppy. He does not give credit to Poppy for the fact that she was in charge of the actual design.
It is unfortunate that David thinks Stephanie is going to back him. Stephanie knows that in this case, it would be easier to get David fired and not Poppy or Anand, especially after listening to their arguments about how David shut Anand and Poppy down.
David decides to keep Stephanie in the boardroom since she agreed with him during the task but turned around and suggested that he should be fired.
He lets Anand go back to the suite. It would be a tougher battle for David if Anand stayed on. I guess David thinks it’s going to be extremely easy to throw Poppy under the bus.
Unfortunately, the writing is on the wall. David, “the virus” is finally fired after admitting that he is the boss.

Stay tuned...

Week 7: Create a backers’ audition for a musical

2010-10-29T18:03:00.006-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice
Week 7
Task : Create a backers’ audition for a Broadway musical.
Judged on:

Marketing material
Overall presentation of the backers’ audition

As Week 7 starts, it’s clear that both teams are just sick and tired of all the sideshows that keep distracting them from their tasks each week. Will we be saved from David the virus?
Will Mahsa’s overbearing personality finally wear out everyone’s patience?
Honestly, each week I look forward to what Liza is going to be accused of and what ridiculous thing David is going to do.

The teams are tasked with creating a backers’ audition presentation for a musical. All they have is a score and the script.
Brandy and Mahsa declare war on each other. Hopefully this will distract the rest of the team from Liza. It’s about time. Just let the poor girl compete please. Mahsa says Liza is incompetent. Wow! Mahsa should look in the mirror.
I am happy that Liza stepped up to be the project manager, unfortunately she has no idea what a Broadway musical is. This might be a disadvantage for her. However, this being a team project, the rest of the team should bring her up to speed on what a Broadway show is.At this point, it might seem obvious that the ladies will sabotage Liza as PM so that she can get fired. Unfortunately for the ladies, I do not think Liza is getting fired just yet.
As Fortitude works on their project, it is clear that Stephanie wants to take the main responsibility of the task. She says she has studied with the royal conservatory for over 30 years. Is she not the same person that said she is done carrying the whole team on her back? She also goes on to say that Liza has no culture. Excuse me. There is no one that has no culture. That's like saying someone does not have a heartbeat or a brain. Just because my culture is not similar to yours does not mean that I have no culture. I am sure that if Stephanie traveled to another country, she would find things that she has never seen before. Does that mean that she has no culture?
Liza looks like she is managing the project well. Getting Mahsa and Stephanie out of the room and tasking them with the design was a very smart move since you do not want these two creating chaos in the task.
I love Liza’s introduction of their presentation. It grabs your attention and prepares you for the presentation. Their presentation was great too except that it felt like the narrations were interrupting the flow of the show. Another huge mistake was failing to include a list of the producers. This is the main purpose of the task; Get sponsorship for the production of the musical.
Steuart steps up to be the PM for Octane let’s see what he is made of. David shocks me with his good points and creative ideas about the actual presentation. It’s interesting that Steuart has already decided that if David’s ideas do not work out, then David will be under fire. The men have a great presentation unfortunately, at the end, Steuart overshadows the this by his lackluster closing shot.
Enter the boardroom...
At this point, it’s not clear who won this task. The judges agreed that both presentations were great, the marketing material was to the point and easy to understand.The ladies lost because they did not include a list of the producers.
Mahsa and Stephanie were tasked with the design. However, Stephanie is trying to defend herself by saying that she does not think her musical background was exploited to the fullest. I think it was though, because she helped choose the five songs for the presentation and the general flow. Didn’t she say that she did not want to shoulder all the responsibilities anymore.
In a very interesting turn of events, the focus of the boardroom shifts from the tasks to Mahsa’s theatricals. Mr. Trump, Ivanka and Don Jr. all agree on how unprofessional she is. Mahsa was portrayed as a liar and a dishonest contestant. Her lack of loyalty to her team was also questioned. Unfortunately, the ladies’ loss was overshadowed by Mahsa’s theatrics that have been building up to a climax throughout the weeks. And it all came back to haunt her. I love the way Brandy said “it’s all coming down.”

It’s time for Mahsa to take a bow.

Stay tuned.

Week 6: Create and Sell a Pedicab tour of New York City.

2010-10-22T17:21:00.005-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice
Week 6
Task : Create and Sell a Pedicab Tour of New York City
Judged on: Sales

Week 6’s task is to Create and Sell a Pedicab tour of New York City.
All the contestants need to:

Pass the test and get the license
Design a tour and sell it
Peddle their behinds off across NYC.

Obviously, the team with the most sales wins.

It’s back to the suite and Liza faces a cat attack from her feline teammates. Kelly lets us in on a little secret; all the other ladies have been trying to get rid of Liza and she has been defending her. She promises to stop defending Liza from now on. I don’t think Liza needs defending. She’s a strong player, sincere and very respectful of her team members. The problem with her teammates is that they want to play dirty. Every time Liza has pointed out something it was a genuine comment. It’s Liza against the world, literally.
I am glad that Kelly steps up to be PM. She has been in the shadows for most of the previous tasks. I think she was OK on the last task except for not acting on the man with scabby feet and for suggesting the tacky finale. (Read Week 5 blog here).
Unfortunately, Kelly and Mahsa do not pass the test pedicab riding test. This is a huge blow to the team since it means that they have two less drivers.
The ladies decide to target Wall Street’s lunch time crowd and use their sex appeal to attract the men. Since Kelly is a bit hesitant about this concept she should strongly voice her opinion at this point. And she does have a valid point. Men on Wall Street are busy. People that work on Wall Street use their lunches for quick impromptu meetings or informal consultations.Hopefully the ladies’ sex appeal can save them.
The ladies’ team starts to panic when they do not make any sales for a couple of hours but why is Liza announcing that they have free rides without consulting the rest of the team?
Mahsa throws a fit because Kelly tells Eric Trump that Poppy is doing really well in sales. She goes on to say that Poppy is only 23 years old with no experience and no leadership abilities. But hello, she is selling and that’s all that matters at this particular time.
Brandy couldn't have put it better; “Mahsa is overbearing. People that are truly confident in themselves don’t need to tell other people how wonderful they are”.
Maybe Kelly shouldn’t have singled out Poppy since all the girls worked hard to bring in the crowd. What an outcry it created. If the girls end up in the boardroom, Mahsa and Stephanie will definitely not defend Kelly.
I wonder why they are wasting precious time fighting instead of bagging those last minute sales.
In team Octane David has clearly declared war on Steuart. Anand steps up to be PM.I am looking forward to a great performance. From his contributions in the boardroom, I think he has the exposure and skills needed to run a small business. He’s a small business owner too, so that’s a plus for him.
Anand is very focused and is doing a great job so far as PM. They focus on pre-sales a day in advance and try to create a buzz about their new venture.They also add value to the pedicab ride by running it as a roman chariot. Very smart. Buyers always look for the “it” factor that would make them patronize one business and not the competitor.
David immediately checks out from the task. He is not contributing any ideas. He lurks in the background and when he comes to the forefront, he is just there to create a disturbance.His defence “he always likes to ruffle feathers because it gives him a rise and its funny”. I do not think a potential employer would like such a character in his team. David’s tour ride is despicable. He tells a sad tale of how he no longer has money and that’s why his wife left him. No one wants to pay for a pedicab tour to listen to someone else’s marital problems. There are too many TV shows that focus on that and they are free. Overall, the men look like they are doing pretty well in sales. They chose a really good location, right outside Trump Towers. A prime location to meet tourists.
Enter the boardroom...
Clint begs and implores Mr. Trump to rid the team of the plague manifested as David. David clearly states that he does not respect anyone. There should at least be one person that he can work with. He is immature, disrespectful and lacks focus. The men trumped the women hands down.
And why is it not surprising that Kelly would say Liza has the best opportunity for growth. Liza runs her own business for Pete’s sake. A business that was very successful before the recession. I actually think that Kelly is currently the weakest player in team Fortitude.
For once Mahsa is not very confident that they won.
The ladies are out to get Liza. In a task that they clearly lost because of choosing a poor location and an ineffective PM, they still pick on Liza. Mahsa and the three blondes all pick on Liza because they know that if it boils down to the location, they would all be in jeopardy.
Kelly made two huge mistakes in bringing Stephanie and Liza back to the boardroom.
Stephanie did choose the location together with Mahsa, Brandy and Poppy. However, she is one tough cookie. She is not going down.
Ivanka and Mr. Trump already pointed out that it was not really Liza’s fault that she couldn’t sell on Wall Street. Men on Wall Street are too busy to ride a pedicab.It is clear that Liza will not be fired. I am glad that she distanced herself for the “boardroom fight” between Kelly and Stephanie.
Unfortunately, Kelly has nothing on Stephanie, who went on to paint a very clear picture of what a bad PM Kelly was. She pointed out how Kelly delegated everything to her.
In the end, Kelly is fired and I totally agree with Mr. Trump on this one.

Stephanie is the contestant to watch. Her ferocity really caught me off guard me on this one! I think she's gonna try to sink her teeth into her teammates jugular, getting rid of them one by one.

Stay tuned...

Week 5: Fashion show for Rockport Spring/Summer 2011 Footwear

2010-10-15T20:00:00.000-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice
Week 5
Task: Fashion show for Rockport Spring/Summer 2011 Footwear.
Judged on: The team that presents the best fashion show that brings out the walkability of the brand wins.

Week 5’s task is to present a fashion show for Rockport Spring/Summer 2011 footwear.
The team that presents the best fashion show that brings out the walkability of the brand wins.

I think its time to have the teams reshuffled.
I like the look on Brandy’s face when Mahsa comes back from the boardroom. She mentions that Mahsa’s finger does not belong in the corporate world.
Stephanie steps up as PM for the ladies’ team and immediately sets the tone; “do your job and if you do it, we’ll win”.She carefully delegates the tasks and clearly explains what each team member is supposed to do. Kelly suggests that for the finale they should bring all the models out in their underwear. I think the ladies are probably still recovering from the fact that they did not push the envelope on the previous task. But I think going to the extreme on this current task might come off as tacky.
The ladies look like they have the task in control. Their preparation for the task seems very smooth, the division of labour is very distinct. However, Kelly should have done something about the man with scabs all over his legs. Probably have him modeling trousers not shorts. As if that was not enough, the ladies still insisted on having the men come out in their underwear for the grand finale. From the expressions in the crowd, this was not such a smart move. The MC is very fluent and her presentation matches well with the modeling. Her narration truly keeps the audience glued and entertained and brings out the walk-ability aspect of the Rockport shoes.

In team Octane,Wade finally gets his chance to be PM. He appoints David and Gene as MCs. Considering the fact that David had a recent dental malfunction, it would have been safe to have him perform other duties because he might have been on pain killers. Also, David is sort of a loose cannon and having observed him in the previous tasks and in the boardroom, I doubt he can work up a crowd. At least not the sort of crowd that you would find in a fashion show. As the show progresses we see chaos during the rehearsals. It’s not really clear how Dave and Gene were supposed to share the role of MC and they have a difficult time collaborating on their task. This clearly shows during both the preparations and the rehearsals. Dave makes fun during the rehearsals. As the PM, wade should have stepped in and tried to save the situation.During the fashion show, Gene mixes up the names of the shoes and the names of the models. David abandons Gene on stage. It’s funny that Wade should mention the only way they can win is if the women sent naked models out.
Enter the boardroom...
The men were so terrible that Mr. Trump promptly sent Fortitude back to the suite and kept all the men in the boardroom.
The clear choice would be to fire Wade. He was a hands off PM. He did delegate the duties but when Dave and Gene were rehearsing, Wade should have realized that they would not deliver as MCs. He should have tested their public speaking skills. Mr. Trump says Dave should have chosen Steuart and Anand as MCs. Unfortunately this power duo cannot do everything. They were already in charge of casting and dressing the models.
On the other hand, Gene and Dave should be fired for not delivering as MCs and that is ultimately why the men lost. It is interesting how David would jump in and try to discredit Anand and Steuart (who have done a great job on all the tasks so far) and yet he pretty much demanded to be MC and then he ran away from the stage when he realized that Gene was messing up.
Eventually, Gene and Wade are fired. I think that Dave should have been fired too. I would have really liked to see how far Gene would have gone in this competition. I think he has great potential and he is very competitive. As for Wade, he probably did not know exactly what to do to manage David’s passion.
Once again, David survives the boardroom. He truly is like the proverbial cat with nine lives.

Week 4: Create a viral video for Kettlecorn from Popcorn Indiana

2010-10-09T17:48:00.002-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice
Week 4
Task : Create a video advertising popcorn from Popcorn Indiana
Judged on: The potential of the video to go viral

Competition is heating up on the Apprentice.
Week 4’s task is to create a guerrilla marketing stunt. A video promoting popcorn from Popcorn Indiana.
The winning team would be the one that creates a video with the potential to go viral.

As Week 4 starts, I am still yet to see any strategies in both teams. It seems the only one with a strategy in Octane is David; His strategy is ”make the PM’s task as difficult as possible, so the PM can be fired”.
In the previous task, David survives the boardroom yet again. He lets Steuart know that he is not happy that Steuart called him out with regards to his insubordination of James.
According to Steuart, David brings negative energy to the team. I would have liked to see Wade as PM, especially since he had promised Mr. Trump that he could manage David and put David’s “passion” to good use. Clint is the new PM having stepped up when Wade was still in the boardroom. Hopefully, he can handle David. GOOD LUCK!
The men seem to have a better idea of what the video should look like. A popcorn fight on 5th avenue, outside Trump Tower CAN attract a huge crowd. According to Wade, since popcorn is a product that is used by the whole family, the concept might be too violent especially for kids. But kids have pillow fights all the time, that’s how I looked at it. I think the popcorn fight would bring an element of fun.
Octane gets a blessing in disguise since David has to be away from the task because of a broken tooth. They can work without distraction. They manage to stage a HUGE popcorn fight and their video has a good chance of going viral. I mean, they only shut down 5th avenue right in front of Trump Tower.
Mahsa steps up as PM for Fortitude. It will be interesting to see how Mahsa performs as PM since she has been extremely vocal and critical of the PM’s in previous tasks.
Tyana has a good understanding of what a viral video is. A stunt that is hilarious and filled with humour that a viewer would feel compelled to forward it to all their friends.
Unfortunately, she is not coming up with any substantive ideas or alternatives that the team can implement.
Mahsa tries to delegate the duties, however, it looks like she wants to direct the video shoot all by herself. This could be risky, because if it fails, then she would have no one to blame. But she would probably pin it on someone else by saying that they did not help.Fortitude’s video is a good commercial but I do not see it going viral. Tyana probably made the worst decision when she decided to distance herself from the final phase of the project. It shows that she is not a good team player.
Enter the boardroom...
I think its pretty clear who the winner is. Tyana says that she does not think they won. She has not even seen the men’s video. Mahsa goes for the jugular and says that she thinks Tyana has been the weakest link for each of the tasks they have had so far. Tyana openly admires and appreciates the men’s video and Mahsa cannot believe what she is hearing. She calls Tyana evil.
I like the look on the men’s face as they watch the ladies’ video. They are probably thinking “did the women not see the words stunt and guerrilla in the description of the task?”
Mahsa tries to say that they did not have enough time but Ivanka points out that both teams had the same amount of time. Mahsa quickly drops this point of defence because it would expose her as a poor time manager. Apparently, Liza and Tyana did not contribute in the creativity part but how could they when they were sent out to run errands. However she did not single out Poppy, even though she was out shopping too, and hence did not contribute to the creativity. Mahsa then claims that she did not have any help shooting the video and blames Liza. But she had help because Tyana had one of the videocams.
Mr. Don Jr. suggests that if the women’s video was a bit more extreme it would have had a good chance of going viral. Mahsa agrees vehemently yet she was the same one that kept telling one of the actors to tone it down.
Fortitude lost because they did not push the idea to the extreme. For this, Mahsa as the PM should have been fired.
However, Tyana had irked all the members of the team by checking out on the task. She was not a good team player and criticized the ideas that were put forth by the other team members without offering any alternatives. Tyana keeps insisting that they lost because of the concept even after Ivanka mentions that the executives liked the idea, it was just not pushed enough.
Tyana gets fired and Mahsa heaves a sigh of relief. Again, it’s not clear why Liza was brought back to the boardroom.
Hopefully, having been a PM, Mahsa will try to follow direction when the other team members are PMs.
Most important aspect of project management that is highlighted this week is being a team player.

Week 3: Run Hotel and Spa for dogs

2010-10-04T17:47:00.001-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice

Week 3
Task : Run a Hotel and Spa for dogs.
Judged on:

* Execution of responsibilities
* Creativity and sustainability of the value add
* Overall experience

Wow ! Week 3 started on a very sour note. You would think there was a memo to “attack” Liza.
Stephanie suggests that Liza “shut up, accept what people say and move on, learn from it”.

It’s about time James stepped up as PM for Octane. He looks very confident about this task. David is readying himself to make Jame’s job as PM extremely difficult. Wade came up with the value add; A log that shows the owners what the dogs have been doing the whole day.James assigns the most important component of the task to Dave. Dave has to set up the web-cams.
James makes a huge mistake by not giving audience to the owner, hence the expression “dollar waiting on a dime”. It does not matter how much planning you do or how brilliant your ideas are. If your product or service is not meeting the owner’s needs then you will still fail.This is a service delivery task. Services are not really tangible and James should have listened to the owner of the business so they could learn the business from someone who does this day in day out. It’s more like on-the job training.

It’s not clear why David is involved with the props and trying to make nails out of binder clips. At what point was he going to start on the web-cams? James did what most project managers have thought of doing numerous times before: benching a troublesome team-member. A good PM should know how to manage a difficult team-member. But what if you are on a strict deadline? Get rid of the distraction. Why was everyone trying to talk at the same time during the presentation to Cesar Millan? It gives the impression that they are not that organized. They should have let James handle the presentation.

In Fortitude’s fortress, Tyana looks like she’s trying her best to delegate but why put Mahsa to work directly with the dogs when she has clearly stated that she is scared of dogs. This does not augur well with Mahsa who in turn calls Tyana a “jealous cow” and thus it’s time for her to go home. I am not sure jealousy would hold up as a reason to get Mr Trump to fire Tyana though.The ladies seem to be faring well, but it seems the team is looking for any flimsy reason to gang up against Liza. I guess, their strategy is get rid of the strongest member of the team who also happens to be the biggest threat.If anyone has worked with computers, designing websites, graphic design etc, we know things always go wrong when you least expect it. Their value add which includes a photo and a description of what the dog did is good but not really out of this world.

In the boardroom, the “attack” on Liza continues with one of the team members bringing up an incident that did not even have to do with this particular task; the allegation that Liza called one of her team-mates a b****. The ladies are already baying for Liza’s blood yet they are not even sure whether they lost or won.

I still do not understand why David survived the boardroom. It might be because James made it very easy to get fired and literally gave David a new lease of life. David is like the proverbial “cat with nine lives”. Wade was as surprised as most of us that he was brought back to the boardroom.

I do hope that Wade will step up and show us how to manage David. If he can, then he should be the next apprentice because the real world of business is full of people like David who are very difficult to work with and do not care for leadership.

In the end though, despite of everything, Octane lost because of the PM. I have a feeling not listening to the owner was the biggest mistake of this task.

My Verdict:

	%	Men	Women
Execution of responsibilities	20	5	15
Creativity & sustainability of value add	50	40	35
Overall experience	30	25	25
Total	100%	70%	75%

Week 2 Task: Sell Ice Cream in NYC.

2010-09-25T17:42:00.003-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice
Week 2
Task : Sell Ice cream in NYC.
Judged on: Sales, the team that makes the most profit wins.

*	After an interesting first week, the teams get their second task. Selling Ice cream in NYC. The hardest thing to do in this economy, is to sell.

As soon as Mr. Trump announces the task, I instinctively figure out that Dave would be a good salesperson for Octane. It is no surprise when he volunteers,I think his telecoms sales background would give him an edge. That said, I still have some reservations about how organized he would be as a PM, especially after his performance in week one, (read my week one blog here). My thoughts are echoed by Clint, and I quote “this could be the kiss of death for us”.
Over at Fortitude’s fortress, Poppy is the new PM. A huge shock since Poppy does not have any sales experience. Hopefully she has better PM skills and can identify the salespeople in her team. I thought maybe Mahsa or Stephanie would be PM.
Initially both PMs seem organized as they identify key duties for their team members. Poppy needs to watch out for Stephanie, it looks like she is going to take over this task. This is a tactic that has been used in the past on both the Apprentice and the Celebrity Apprentice. An Alpha contestant “hijacks” the PM role hoping that if the team ends up in the boardroom, they can use this as a reason NOT to get fired by simply claiming that the PM did not manage the project (no pun intended).
As the episode progresses we are treated to a shouting match, cajoling and begging as both teams try to make a sale. It seems neither team has a sales strategy in place. Huge mistake.
Two important sales strategies (or lack of) highlighted: branding and price.
We see team Fortitude members get angry when Liza mentions two different prices to some of the prospective clients. I guess that was her way of trying to ensure that the team gets “THAT” sale no matter what. However, if I went to a car dealership and was told, “hey we can sell you a car for $10,000 or for $8,000.” I would want to buy it for $8k no doubt. If there are two salespeople that can’t seem to agree on the price, I would probably go somewhere else. Why? They are both probably trying to rip me off, but one is just greedier than the other. The girls should have discussed their price range and have each individual member approach a different client and try to sell. Start at $5, if they are hesitant then offer a discount and drop the price to say $4 or $3.50 if they buy two. You trick the customer to think that its cheaper but they are actually paying you more because now they are buying two instead of one.
Both teams should have also avoided approaching potential clients as a gang. I would get defensive if say 4 or 5 people approached me to try and sell me something.
I am not sure how early the shops open but I would think that the teams would have bought their uniforms before they started selling. Maybe they had to sell a few ice cream Popsicles to get the money to buy the uniforms. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.
As day one draws to a close we see David make a decision that might cost them the victory. We are also introduced to the sales stallions Anand and Steuart. These two have probably done a lot of sales in the course of their careers.
Day two...both companies start playing dirty, a strategy that companies use all the time. Octane took Fortitude’s prime spot, taking advantage of location and geographic distribution. Fortitude also carried out their research to find out what Octane was doing. I liked their tactic of ruining sales for Octane, giving free samples so customers do not buy Octane’s ice-cream. Meanwhile, Octane slashed their prices to $1. This is usually a good move if you are going to sell a lot of merchandise, but was it a good move this time? The price might have been too low.We’ll find out in the boardroom.
I was surprised when Poppy mentioned to Stephanie that she would pick Liza if they lost. I think Liza had a brilliant idea for the uniforms. Also, Stephanie was the one in charge of sales and the task was to be judged on sales.
As always, the boardroom is a good lesson on what I call “101 ways to be unprofessional”. Mr. Trump is really in a fiesty mood this time and delivers a shocker to Liza. Liza turns out to be the star of this episode. She defends herself with dignity and respect. It is clear that some of her teammates have already aligned themselves against her as evidenced when Poppy tried to make an attempt to apologize back in the suite while watching the men sweat it out in the boardroom. One of them even mentions it that she is isolating herself (Not clear who said this).
Well, Mahsa, “knew” they won even before the results were announced because she "did not have faith in the men". As Mr. Trump said, you can never know you won.
When Mr. Trump did not ask all the men to leave and then have David come back in with James and Alex, it was pretty obvious that he already had an idea who he would fire.
I believe that if Alex fought for himself, David would have been fired because he was the PM. His team had no strategy and they lost. Alex made it very easy not to fire Dave. So I guess my prediction from last week was wrong.
The contestants need to keep in mind that they are not there to make friends.Its WAR!

Stay tuned for Week 3.

P.S Congratulations to Alex who got his dream job as construction management inspector and materials tester. Way to go Engineer. Wishing you all the best in your new job.

Week 1 Task : Design an ultra modern function space.

2010-09-20T19:37:00.006-04:00

My two cents on The Apprentice
Week 1
Task : Design an ultra modern function space.
Judged on:

Execution
Functionality
Originality

*	On this season’s Apprentice, it's all about getting America back to work. The contestants are either unemployed or struggling entrepreneurs and this is a good platform to get theirs!

The first week is where we get introduced to the contestants and this task brought out the dynamics of the group.
As the show progresses, I like to try and understand the candidates and make my own pick, compare this to my friends and see if the producers pick the same people to be fired week after week and ultimately hire The Apprentice in the end.

The first person to catch my attention is Steuart. While the contestants are in the boardroom for the introduction, he is shown making a comment about how Dave does not look prepared because he looks tired and stressed. Here is someone commenting about a person they have just met, even before the tasks start. Well it later turns out that Dave is on unemployment and has 5 kids. Its no wonder he looks tired. Steuart takes another jab at Alex because he confuses Phoenix and Icarus. Well it might be 5th grade Mythology but how sure is he that everyone did their 5th grade in the US. He needs to be more open minded. Let's see how far he can get.

Wade is an interesting candidate. I am not sure I quite like the way he volunteers Gene to be project manager. The first task is usually the hardest since no one knows their team's talents or weaknesses. He is probably setting Gene up for a fall because “I do not want to stick my head under the lawn mower”. --His own words. I would say he is a schemer. With over 11 years in real estate, he might actually be someone that the producers have their eye on.

Gene does not do too well on day one. His leadership style is military and it seems to strike a bad chord with some of his teammates...read David.

Dave strikes me as someone that is going to cause trouble for Octane. I kinda have a feeling that should the men lose, either Dave or the PM will be fired. But you never know, this is reality TV and it is sometimes very unpredictable.

Enter Nicole. She strike me as a very intelligent woman. She’s all about beauty and brains but lacks judgement.She practically grabs the opportunity to be project manager. Again, the first task is not something that any of the contestants should jump at, unless they have very good PM skills including delegation, or they have a lot of experience related to the task in question. She has neither of the above. It is very clear at the beginning of the task that if the women lose, Nicole would be fired. Tyana mentions that she has experience. Nicole should at least try to listen to Tyana’s ideas and modify what she does not like. But she is shown saying Tyana's ideas are tacky. She also says Tyana frustrates her which is an obvious bias. Biggest mistake. However, she eventually decides to take Tyana furniture shopping but only because she wants someone to blame in case that turns out to be the reason they lost.

The female contestant to watch is Mahsa who apparently has been bossing people around since she was a child. I liked how she was so direct and open at first. She seems to totally grasp Nicole’s leadership sense. She was quoted as saying that Nicole has a lot of grace on the outside but is lacking in soft sense. That said, she is a bit of a turn off in the boardroom. She has good points but she tries to talk over everyone (maybe this comes from her attorney background). I try to keep an open mind, but Ivanka seems to pick up on that too.

My Verdict:

	%	Men	Women
Execution	20	10	10
Functionality	50	35	25
Originality	30	25	15
Total	100%	70%	50%

Enter the boardroom...
The women's space was very boring. The colors were drab and the office had no life. The reception was very inviting, I just wish the rest of the space would have followed the same trend. Mr. Forty threw the final spanner in the works.

The men's space had more life. It actually looked like something I would like to work in. The boardroom was missing a TV,very important in today's business world it was also too small. They did not have defined reception are.

It was no surprise that Nicole was fired, although I thought that they might fire Mahsa because of her lack of professionalism. But this is reality TV and it thrives on such characters.

Project Management Lesson 101:
Find out your teams strengths and weaknesses and manage these. As a PM you are not really managing the project, but managing the human resource to help you accomplish your goals.

Stay tuned...