It’s week four and what a great task! To make, market, package and sell natural body products. And where better than Lush? It was a pacey episode that certainly drew back the attention for you, the viewer. Why? Because there were plenty of twists and turns as the teams made mistake after mistake!
Noorul was put in charge of Empire... and he was terrible. One of the worst team leaders I have seen, in fact. His choices were laboured and ill-conceived. It’s only because his team kept an eye on costs and sold hard that they made it through. On any normal task day, his lack of focus, direction, leadership and inspiration would have led to a lost cause.
Not only was he saved by his hard working team (and I think it was Philip who pulled hardest) but also because Ignite made such a bungle of things. Oh my goodness me. The most basic rule in the book. Time and time again Apprentice candidates have made the same mistake. Spend too much and no matter how good your product is you will fail.
I have been in that very position myself in one of our tasks. And because I knew that costs were central to winning, it made me think. Alarm bells rang, the problem was identified and not only did we get it sorted before it was too late but our team went on to a significant victory. We also had a better range of products too! OK.. trumpet away... but you get my point. It’s simple in a task like this. How many units should you manufacture? How much should each unit cost? What is the break even point? And when can you cut costs to make further profits. No one had monitored sales during the day to see what mountain they had to climb. In fact it was only Nick pointing out that there was an error that made them think about it. Shocking!
Was it right that Paula was fired? Well, in the scheme of things as project leader she has to take responsibility. I have to say I don’t really care which of Ben or Yasmina should have gone – but it should have been one of them. Yasmina for making the mistake and taking her eye completely off the ball and Ben for simply blaming everyone else. I don’t care if he wasn’t given a look in. If he was that concerned, he should have been the whistle blower during the task. And because he was making the stuff then he was best placed to do it. I also think Ben’s Boardroom style is both aggressive and in fact over the top. On balance, he should have gone simply because he’s more annoying. Talks more, shouts the loudest and in fact is one of the worst performers in the team.
So. Did Sir Alan get it right? No. Paula was a very good team manager, led from the front and was a good and inspirational character. Of course she made mistakes and mistakes based on costing. Perhaps you can blame her for the failings… but I’m afraid that Ben and Yasmina were, in my view culpable.
Nick and Margaret were on top form. Nick for his intervention of lighting the touch paper on the problem and with a “I’ll leave you to it”, leaving the whole thing to implode! Meanwhile, I liked Margaret's withering assessment of Noorul’s pathetic leadership. “I think enjoying working with someone isn’t necessarily the same thing as someone being a good team leader,” she commented. Wonderful! Well done Margaret!!
Don’t forget that although Margaret has been a guest on our Apprentice podcast already (download episode 2 if you want to hear her) but she will be back later in the series. And Nick will be joining us soon too!
And talking of this week’s podcast; this week’s guests are Kylie Norman our showbiz editor, Emma Cox from the Sun, Hilary Jones from Lush Cosmetics, Jo Cameron one of the most memorable past candidates and Paul Torrisi joins me on how to do good Boardroom. Enjoy!
Next week the candidates will be branding and marketing a breakfast cereal aimed at children. Dru Masters who composes all the music for the series is also in on the task. If he’s not jetting around the world looking after a new music act… he will be one of my guests next week!