Apprentice Series 4 Episode 5
After a reshuffle of the teams, they were told they would have to come up with some new ice cream flavours, and sell them to retail buyers. Lucinda was to lead Alpha and Claire was put in charge of Renaissance, with the ticking off she got from Sir Alan last week still ringing in her ears. Claire seemed calmer than in previous episodes and although the editing led you to think the other team were cruising a victory (a sure sign in fact that they weren’t), Renaissance did snatch some last minute deal which pushed them across the winning line.
Lucinda had managed to do a seemingly good job of leading her team, although I was shocked by her behaviour in the boardroom. She said that she had been told by Helene that Jen was “a snake” and “evil”. I mean, who would repeat gossip from a private conversation - if it was ever even said - like that in public. It was embarrasing for all involved. It was some kind of bitchiness more suited to the playground and certainly diminished Lucinda in my eyes, which was a shame as she had done a reasonable job and could have kept her dignity. It took Margaret Mountford to steer the conversation back to the business.
In assessing the loss, Sir Alan was mostly appalled by two factors: The decision to agree to exclusivity in order to get a deal, although I don’t see how that actually contributed to them losing the task, and the sales meetings that were setup with companies that could make their own ice cream, although I’m pretty sure that the other team did manage to sell to a company that usually made their own so I’m not sure why that in itself was such a crime. Lindi had been made 2nd in charge and Sir Alan decided she was culpable for the errors. I’d liked to have seen more of Lindi, and don’t think Sir Alan’s decision to fire her was the right one.
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James said,
April 24, 2008 @ 8:40 am
Nahh, I disagree there. Lindi was quite rightly booted in this episode, not just for failing to stop Jennifer with her ‘Exclusivity’ offer to the cinemas but also using the ‘Exclusiveity offer’ herself.
The three failed leads didnt assist matters, neither did Lindi’s actions in previous tasks (The classic 24 hr hotline) showing that she can sell but she definetly makes some dippy mistakes along the way.
Lucinda stayed because she actually did well, okay she wasnt forceful enough with some things but…
Jennifer was close to being fired but probably only stuck it through thanks to not really making a scene of herself in the previous tasks.
Rob - DidYouSeeThat.co.uk said,
April 24, 2008 @ 9:06 am
Hi James - thanks for the comment. I can see that the whole “Exclusivity” thing was a mistake, but looking at the numbers, I don’t see that it contributed much to the actual loss. It didn’t seem like the reason for the team’s failure. The failure still comes down to the sales team, but the blame seems more evenly spread to me than it appeared on the show.
Thanks for stopping by
James said,
April 24, 2008 @ 12:37 pm
No Problem
The deals were not accountable for the failure, however as stated by Alan the deals would have been voided by him beforehand, had they been found out. (Margret wasnt with Lindi and co so she had no clue about it). Basically its punishing a mistake that was made.
Thinking about the loss though.. makes me wonder on how Claires team pulled it out, winning. Heres my theory.
- Lucinda’s team gained deals but not as many deals as Claires team thanks to some false leads and also her selling team returning to the house early.
- Claires team didny get as many big sales but had more smaller sales overall and only returned home when it was totally needed.
Quality of Sales or Quantity? This task asked for a quantity, besides… did the two teams in Lucinda’s team need to be together constantly? Couldnt they have split up to sell seperately? They sure had enough ice cream to do so.
Anyway
As this is meant to be a comment box ill keep stcum now with my big long posts 
Rob - DidYouSeeThat.co.uk said,
April 24, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
Hi James, it’s a fair point to make that the deals would have been voided if Sir Alan had known, and in the absense of any other particular issue to sack one person over it’s an ok thing to use.
It strikes me that the general trend of the show is that one team does well, another does badly and Sir Alan can get all angry and fire one person for being rubbish. Actually, in last nights, both teams did a good job but one team did less well than the other.
You mentioned why couldn’t the sales team split up and sell more seperately. I think it’s a rule of the show, which is never said on air, that one team is allowed to split into no more than two groups at any one time - basically because it would be a nightmare to film if everyone went off and did their own thing. So each team can divide into two because there are sufficient cameras to cover that.
Thanks again for your thoughts