The Apprentice: here we go again... [BT broadband office]

The Apprentice: here we go again...

Posted 29 March 2007 at 9:42AM by Simon Dickson in Doing business online

They may all be talented individuals, but can they work together as a team - with the words 'You're fired!' hanging over their manager in the event of defeat? But that's enough about Steve McClaren and his lacklustre England side... Wednesday night also saw the return of The Apprentice, with sixteen business wannabes competing for a job with Sir Alan Sugar. (And if you've recorded the opening episode, look away now.)

It's hard not to feel a bit sorry for poor Northern lad Andy. If you're one of the project managers in the first week, it's very simple - you have to win the task. With the teams barely knowing each other, all eyes are inevitably on the managers. Mistakes will inevitably be made on both teams, with so many strong personalities trying to establish themselves in the pecking order. But as long as you're the winning manager, your mistakes don't matter.

And so series three began more or less identically to series two, with the losing project manager departing at the end of the first episode. Did Andy deserve it? I'm not so sure - but unfortunately the rules say you have to fire someone from the losing team, which ruled out most of my immediate choices.

I didn't really warm to quantum physicist Sophie - a bit too much 'me me me' during the task, then a bit too much 'we we we' when she found herself on the losing side. But Andy didn't do himself any favours by pleading for mercy, before Sir Alan had even given his verdict - and then basically trying to talk him out of it. For that alone, he had to go.

What were your highlights of the show... and who would you have fired?

Tags: Alan Sugar, BBC, The Apprentice

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Comments

1. At March 29, 2007 10:09 AM, Nikki Pilkington wrote:

I don't think Andy was a great manager, and he should have been fired mainly for calling all the girls 'swwetheart' all day. But I think it was a close call between the 3 of them.

Sophie didn't listen when he told her what to order, Geri sat waiting for 2 hours waiting for him to call (whilst selling only 11 cups of coffee!) when she should have moved the van, and he was just, well, wet!

The other team managed to buy the wrong coffee and STILL spend less on supplies!

2. At March 29, 2007 11:47 AM, Gavin Ingham wrote:

Sales training tip of the week came courtesy of Jadine Johnson. Jadine totally missed the point that this was a transactional sale. If you want to sell as much coffee as possible in a day and you are never going to do it again you sell, sell, sell and deliver good, solid coffee. But like many salespeople trying to impress she made it far more complicated that it was.

Her complication of choice. brand Eclipse. What? What on earth was she banging on about brand for? What on earth was she putting Eclipse logos on coffee for? What on earth was that song about Eclipse being the place to buy your coffee from?

Errr. no, it's a TV show and you're going to get fired if you don't wake up and smell the coffee!

(See Gavin's full review at http://www.gaviningham.net/blog/ )

3. At March 29, 2007 11:49 AM, Kath Smith wrote:

Andy wasn't great was he! Why did he not check up on the other two girls & tell them to move somewhere else, he said he checked his phone every 5 minutes but it took him 2 hours to make any contact with them!! that said I wouldn't have waited 2 hours, use your initiative girls, MOVE! As for the one who just didn't listen, enough said. Andy just had no control.

4. At March 29, 2007 2:55 PM, norman downie wrote:

Alan Sugar should have fired all 3 of them - none of them are employable for his job. None were team players, there was heaps of ego and back stabbing going on and the ability to think on their feet was missing.

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