Week 9: Toys out the Pram

Of all the weeks Sir Alan could have chosen to fire Ben, I’m not sure this was it.

OK, so this week’s task: Pick two products and sell that at a baby fair at Earl’s Court (or ‘ells’ Court as Sir Alan called it). Why do people go to a baby fair? Because they are parents or parents to be, yes. But also to buy products that perhaps they have seen in shops or online at a special price.

As far as I was concerned this task was too similar to the task a couple of weeks ago when they had to pick a couple of innovative products and then sell them. Where is the business ability in picking a couple of products without having to undertake some form of marketing and even more particularly to focus on profit and margins rather than just sales. And to be fair, neither team sold that much. In reality for the cost of the stand, the effort in getting those products there and the time spent doing the task itself, they both would have made a thumping loss.

It wasn’t that interesting to watch either. Thank heavens for James and his one-liners otherwise I really would have been bored.

Lorraine was team leader with Howard and Kate. She did well but of course still looks like Alan Carr in a wig. Even Michael Ball picked up on my comment in one of my podcasts that she looked like Olive from On The Buses. Well either way – she did well leading from the front but because Sir Alan has told her about this instinct thing – she seems to have it in her brain that every time she must go with it. Sadly her instinct isn’t that great! She’s just lucky that pushy Debra got her way on the horse.

And talking of horses, I think James is turning out to be the team donkey. Braying quite a lot and being a bit of a slow moving animal that carries the baggage. Yasmina was efficient but fairly invisible and so it was Ben and Debra left in the limelight.

Debra is abrasive, cold, dominant and in fact has yet to shine in this competition. Sir Alan seems to like individuals that rub everyone up the wrong way. We have seen it before and we will see it again in this competition. I’m sure Debra will make the final. She won’t win though. As for James? He didn’t do anything wrong this time so it would have been wrong for Sir Alan to fire him.

Ben lacked experience and sadly the puff was all sounding a bit tired. Was he the right person to fire? Maybe. I’m just a bit sad that he went with a bit of a whimper. No fighting talk in the Boardroom and no strong defence of his abilities either. Had he carved out a decent argument, he could have cut the rug from under Debra’s feet. Never mind. I have consistently said he was rubbish, so it would be wrong for me to defend him and say he should still be in the competition.

Next week? Selling on a home TV channel. Something I have done before and it’s not as easy as it looks. However it will be interesting to see who understands what makes a winning team and what decisions end up as an utter mess and shambles.

Until then... cheerio!