Tweet

The Apprentice Youre Hired

Written by: Andrew Rondeau

Article Overview: So who did Sir Alan hire? Surprized?

The Apprentice Youre Hired

Be warned – this posting reveals who has been ‘hired’ as the 2008 Apprentice and the rest of the post is only my observation and opinion based upon 60 minutes of edited TV, nothing more.

We have come to the end of The Apprentice otherwise know as the ‘job interview from hell’.

Remember the mayhem of the first week and the fish stall.

Remember the boys grafting to complete all the laundry.

Remember Alex running down the stairs in his Superman jimjams.

Remember Jenny, the lair.

We have experienced a great 12 weeks, haven’t we?

And now Sir Alan (SAS) has finally made his decision.

And the winner is....







Lee.

A worthy winner?

I think so.

He’s raw, he’s rough, he’s driven, he’s a quick leaner and he will work 24 hours a day. His team won every time he was the Team Leader. He has great management skills. People like to work for him.

I’d employ him.

So what was the final task?

Well we had four of the delegates in the final (SAS gave us that twist last week).

The final four were divided into pairs, with Claire and Lee on one side, and Alex and Helene on the other. Six now-fired ex-candidates were added to the teams.

The task was to create a brand of men’s fragrance and take into consideration the packaging, the selling price of £29.95, the profit, the smell, the buyer and the brand.

And what did we witness?

Lee and Claire interviewing a load of maintenance men who most probably still wear brut.

Names like ‘strong’ and ’girth’ being banded about.

The actual names they agree upon were poor.

Roulette?

Who would buy a men’s fragrance call ‘roulette’?

And the advert was even worse – straight from the 1970’s.

Roulette was really ‘old hat’. It didn’t match the modern man at all and that was who they thought their buyers would be.

I did like the design of the ‘Dual’ bottle. I liked the fact you could take ‘some with you’ while travelling. But there was no thought about the cost of the bottle production. Alex and Helene totally misjudged the business element of the task.

And that is what got both of them fired.

Lee and Claire pitched their sales pitch very well and Claire was a master as answering all the awkward questions.

The Decision

You know, I'm happy that Lee has won the battle to be named as The Apprentice, 2008.

It will be interesting to know where SAS will employ Lee and I wish Lee good luck.

“That’s what I’m talking about”

Related Articles
  The First Apprentice: Great Managers Work For the Team
  Work at Home Mom - The Secret to Success
  A New Year's Observation
  Styles of Leadership
  Never Quit: A Lesson from The Apprentice

Article Tags: 60 minutes, advert, apprentice, delegates, final four, fragrance, girth, great management, helene, job interview, lair, maintenance men, management skills, mayhem, modern man, old hat, roulette, sir alan, team leader, worthy winner



Related Forum Posts
The "Young" Apprentice - I think a cool new idea for "The Apprentice" would be to have all young contestants, rather than just selling sex (e.g. Season 6 in Los Angeles) or using celebrities for ratings. Maybe every applicant for the show would have to be between the ages of 15 to 18 or 18 to 22, since there've been seasons where younger contestants have been stereotyped and discriminated against for their age and limited business inexperience (e.g. Lee Bienstock in Season 5). So why not make the stomping ground fair? Why not have an Apprentice Season where only talented youngsters fight over a job with Trump? I mean, it gets kind of boring hearing the contestants say "I'm older and have more business experience than so and so.... and that's the reason you should hire me Mr. Trump." That's a ridiculous argument because many youths are smarter and more successful than people even twice their age.
Re: The Celebrity Apprentice - Episode 10 - [quote="litekepr":3ax40azh]I don't agree with Piers just calling his friends to buy things, but in sales you use what you have and he has a contact list. Its a shame they did so many of that sort of projects this season -- I don't think it added to the show in any real way. Maybe one or two weeks that would've been fun to watch - but not this often.[/quote:3ax40azh] Hi Shri, I agree with you that we can't fault Piers for using his connections to win, but I think this week's episode would've been so much better had they not been allowed to invite their contacts to purchase art. The Celebrity Apprentice contestants should've been restricted to only sell to people who randomly visited the gallery on that night (just like in the 1st season of "The Apprentice").
Re: The Celebrity Apprentice - Episode 5 - [quote="Tami Szabo":214vsguq]Vinny really shot himself in the foot by resigning and then saying something about Piers being a stronger leader. Really, this is about finding the best leader and Vinny just confessed he didn't think he was. He didn't really leave Donald Trump much room to fire Piers after that statement. On the bright side, I was very impressed with Carol as a leader. She is someone I would definitely want to work with. She was respectful of her team and seemed to really utilize the talents of each. I have to say she shone! I haven't watch The Apprentice in the past so it's great to see some "nice girl" do well after some of the previous episodes where nice girls got sent home without necessarily showing their true talents.[/quote:214vsguq] I think the major difference between this season of "The Apprentice" and the previous ones is the fact that Trump isn't looking for the best leader or person to hire. Being the winner of "The Celebrity Apprentice" is simply about doing whatever it takes to win the most amount of money for your respective charity (i.e. the last person standing has the honor of delivering a $250,000 bonus check to his/her designated charity). It's all about following the show, "Survivor's" tagline of "outwit, outplay and outlast" and that's why Piers is a strong contender.
Re: New Apprentice - will it be a bust? - [quote="Evan":12gjs7wz]Being a fan of the Apprentice I admit that the quality has decreased since the first season but I was sad to see that they canceled the show. I was excited to hear that the show would be making a comeback but it seems to be less and less focused on business tasks and more about bringing in celebrity guests. [/quote:12gjs7wz] I really enjoyed the first season of the apprentice and it has gone down each year since then. The commercialization hasn't helped his ratings -- maybe that should be an indicator to go back to the original premise. I'd like to see the left and right hand people in the board room not just be yes men and woman. If he had celebrities who actually had business experience, that would be one thing. But, haven't we seen enough reality shows flop even though they had past and present "celebrities"? I haven't missed an Apprentice episode yet, but that might change this year. Shri
Re: English TV Programme - I really like the Apprentice when it was running on SABC3 here in South Africa. It is the kind of programme that should be on our TV


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Halloween Howl Seven by Author Paige Agnew

Are You An Accidental Consultant?

Emotional Intelligence in Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.