This week Sir Alan Sugar came up with a great task. To succeed the team will need to show creativity, teamwork, organisation, budgeting, relationship building and customer service skills and behaviours.
Who Does He Think He Is, David Bailey?
Am I alone? I thought this week’s task was easy.
Set up a stall, take photos of people and sell them the photos in one of the UK’s busiest shopping centres, Bluewater.
Both the Team Leaders volunteered and that was the biggest mistake Simon made.
Immediately he volunteered and said how good he was at photography and knew the jargon and techniques and said, “I’m the best at this”, he was a goner.
No-one likes a smart-arse or a big head and immediately Simon opened his mouth, the rest of the team had it in for him. Which I think is a shame because I do believe Simon was a genuine nice bloke and had much more to give.
Simon asked his team “Is everyone OK if I am the Team Leader?”
There was silence, total silence.
I would have said “Maybe not then. Any other volunteers?”
No matter what Simon did, Claire had it in for him big time.
She was out to get him and allow the whole team to fail. She thinks she is better than everyone else on the show.
One of the biggest issues I always see on The Apprentice is the lack of teamwork. Very often, if they are not the Team Leader they are out to ensure the team fails. The team members become uncooperative, they bitch, they fight and they disagree.
The teams do not seem to be able to leave their egos behind, pull together and work as a team, all with the same drive, which is to win.
Both teams split their task into two separate areas. The ‘front-office’ (i.e. the selling and taking of the photos) and the ‘back-office’ (i.e. the printing of the photos and other merchandise).
The selling and photo taking in both teams went extremely well.
“Come And Get Ya Photo With David Beckham”
In fact, Helene’s team had a great idea and decided upon having a David Beckham look-alike. It was a fantastic crowd puller. Women and children wanted their photo with ‘David Beckham’.
However, both teams could not get the ‘back office’ to work.
What Can Lucinda Do?
It was funny to watch when Lucinda was saying, “I can’t even get a mobile phone to work – I can’t do technical things”.
But guess what? She was in charge of the PC and the printing. And then guess what? Yep, everything went wrong. She didn’t know how to print the photos. It was a farce.
Helene should have move Lucinda out of that role for the sake of the team winning. It was Helena’s decision to make.
She didn’t, she allowed Lucinda to carry on and fail.
I am beginning to wonder what Lucinda can do.
May be next week we shall see her manage a team.
“What Colour Hair Do They Have?”
The back office in Simon’s team was just as bad. They did not know what order went with what photo. Simon was taking the photos, passing over the memory stick to the back office and no one knew which photo to print or which size.
They should have made it simple. Have different priced packages, £10, £20, £30. Each package to consist of a different number of photos and merchandise. Make it simple. You are still giving the customer choice.
Once the customer had chosen their photo, delete the others.
Simon should have pulled his team together, spent 15 minutes discussing the problem and coming up with a resolution. Those 15 minutes would have been a great investment as they lost so many sales because the wrong photos were printed.
When I face a problem, that’s what I do. A quick 15-minute chat, allowing all to talk. I listen, take it all in and facilitate how we resolve the issue.
“I’ll Destroy Him If He Takes Me In”
Those were Alex’s words aimed at Simon.
My wife and I at exactly the same time said aloud “not convinced”.
I know Simon was fired but Alex didn’t destroy him. In fact, Alex was nervous, quiet and had it in for Claire.
I think SAS saw Simon as a great doer, a number 2 but not someone who could lead one of his companies.
Alex won’t last much longer.
And I did expect Claire to go.
Claire might go all the way, if she can learn to keep her mouth shut.
Who Impresses You?
Now we have seen four shows, who impresses you?
Pose and Smile – You Are On The Apprentice - To learn more about this author, visit Andrew Rondeau's Website.
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