Tag Archives: Phoenix

In tonight’s Apprentice semi-final, Lord Sugar finally bowed to the inevitable.  And if it was inevitable, what can we possibly learn from it? The task was to create a range of “affordable luxury products”.  Excuse me, Lord Sugar… affordable to whom?  How much luxury?  On the face of it this is close to a tautology, yet it isn’t.  Because everything is affordable to someone.  But this simple line of reasoning evaded one team, and they failed to define their target...

When will any of this year’s candidates show us something special?  For sure (to borrow a phrase from Stephen Brady), we have seen some good performances and some consistency.  We have also seen some of the usual appalling performances – but, I will grant you, fewer than usual.  But I have not detected any outstanding individuals among this year’s bunch. What am I missing? Or is there really nothing to miss? I have been pondering these questions, but it wasn’t...

Last night’s episode of the Apprentice focused our attention on one key point; and I hope you didn’t miss it. Sadly, the two teams did, in their different ways, miss the point.  And the candidate who did so most spectacularly, paid the price. The task was to create an awareness-raising campaign to support the promotion of English Sparkling Wine.  The teams had to do this principally by creating a website and a short video, and then pitch their campaigns to...

Tonight’s episode gave us a litany of business lessons, a further reminder of the importance of demeanour but, ultimately for me, one really important principle to focus on: decision making. The teams’ task was to select two urban artists to represent and to mount a one night show and sell to maximise the commission on sales, including to a corporate buyer. Whilst urban, or street, art is a familiar part of modern cityscapes, few of us understand the market, so...

That’s two weeks in a row I think Lord Sugar fired a strong candidate.  Today’s show taught us the importance of what you have to say for yourself. But before I get into my analysis of what I took away from the show, let’s look at how the task played out. The Teams and the Task The task was to create gourmet street food to sell on the streets of Edinburgh. Lord Sugar emphasised the gourmet element, saying “I don’t...

Well, I said creativity would be central to this year’s Apprentice (in my 3 April blog post) and what could be more creative than this week’s task? That task was to: Come up with a new fitness programme that will start a trend Create a promotional video and branding, and Pitch it to three health and fitness chains to secure licensing deals Both teams could claim an “expert” as team leader. The Teams and their Ideas Phoenix Phoenix quickly chose...

There is plenty to argue about in tonight’s episode and it would be easy to find clear and simple business lessons, whichever team had one, that would account for their victory and the other team’s loss.  But I don’t think that was what today’s episode really taught us. Instead, I think the message is darker; perhaps the darkest yet, since I have been commenting on The Apprentice. The task was simple: to buy second hand goods and to sell them...

Two Roads Diverged… Once again, the cause of the losing team’s failure is absolutely clear … and once again, the same problem plagued both teams … and also, once again, Lord Sugar’s opening remarks presaged the key problem: it’s almost as if he knows what he’s talking about. Fancy that! But the response within each team could not have been more different and that, as Robert Frost said, “made all the difference”. The Task The two teams had to design,...

Last night’s first episode of the new series of The Apprentice gave us one simple, powerful business lesson. But, unusually, we had to wait to the very end to learn it.  Along the way, two new teams formed, with the names Phoenix (men) and Sterling (women) to add to the growing list of Apprentice team names.  The teams competed to choose unbranded goods, design a brand, over-print the goods, and sell them at two prime London locations each. Phoenix was...