Well we reached the finale of The Apprentice Series 5 last night.  Going head to head were Yasmina and Kate to land the job as Sir Alan’s Apprentice.

This year the two finalists were asked to create a brand new box of chocolates and the supporting marketing campaign.  It was a tough task as you would expect. Some of the past contestants returned to help out the two finalists.

This year was always going to be a close run thing as we had two highly capable individuals.  In my view either of them would have been worthy winners based on the task and their performances over the course of the last two weeks.

So what were the key learning points from the final of The Apprentice 2009?

1. Research really matters when it comes to something like a product launch.  Yasmina chose to go to a small focus group and a specialist shop.  From what we saw, it looked like Kate relied on checking out the competition in a supermarket.

2. You need to be able and willing to change track if the market is telling you that they have doubts about what you are offering, which Yasmina did.

3. Margin will always be a key consideration.  Yasmina’s background running her own restaurant meant that she had more focus on cost and selling price.

4. Creativity, especially when it comes to packaging really matters.  It is not always the smartest or brightest of people who are the most creative.

5. Communicating your ideas to third parties like a designer is important.  Yasmina and her team really got the essence of what their product was about and this was reflected in a slightly more exciting box.

6. Preparation is the foundation of a good presentation and both candidates did well on this aspect.

7. Perseverance and self belief can carry you through.  Yasmina was clearly struggling in the presentation rehearsal but kept going and delivered a highly credible presentation when it mattered.

8. You need to anticipate the questions that will arise from any presentation.  It was not clear that either of the candidates had given this much thought based on the footage we saw.

Back in the boardroom it was clear that Sir Alan was finding it hard to make the call.  In the end he hired Yasmina.  From my own perspective, it was probably down to the fact that Yasmina just had that little edge in terms of commercial awareness and business sense.  She was just that little bit more rounded.

So what was your take on the choice of the winner of The Apprentice 2009?

So we reached the semi-final stage of The Apprentice in the UK last night.  5 candidates remained James, Debra, Yasmina, Lorraine and Kate.

They all had to endure a day of being interviewed by 4 highly successful people known as Sir Alan’s trusted advisors.  It is always interesting to see this part of the process as for the first time in the process it comes down to individual performance rather than team effort.

So what were the key learning points from this week?

You need to be self confident

The candidates could be split into two camps.  Those that had high degrees of self confidence (Debra, Yasmina and Kate) and those who demonstrated self doubt (James and Lorraine).

You need to be extremely careful what you write in a CV

One of the things James said he would bring to the table in his CV was a degree of ignorance.  He said that he wanted to stand out and it was clearly picked up by the interviewers.  I got the essence of what James was saying essentially he would bring a fresh perspective but the words he used were not the greatest.

Lorraine similarly made the classic mistake of getting some employment dates wrong.

You need to be willing to show a bit of you

Kate was by far the most controlled and calm in the interview situation but as a result she did not really show her personality.  She was even described by one of the interviewers as a bit robotic.

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot with references

We had seen the bullish side of Debra during the previous 10 weeks and sadly her references seem just to confirm this from what we saw.  Maybe there was a learning point about choosing a balance of people to act as referees so that you get a more rounded picture.

You can never do too much planning for an interview

You could tell those who had spent significant time planning for an interview (Kate in particular) and those who were just winging it (James most noticeably).
Sadly, this lack of planning is all too familiar not just in The Apprentice but in real life in my experience.  You need to spend time anticipating questions that will be asked.

Back in the Boardroom it was no surprise that James followed by Lorraine were the first two to be eliminated. James was seen as more of a corporate man by Sir Alan and this is why he was fired.  Lorraine (like Lucinda last year in some ways) was a bit different so was always going to struggle to make the final as a result.

That left Sir Alan with two to choose for the final from Debra, Yasmina and Kate.  The first to make the final was Kate.  The second final place went to Yasmina with Debra being fired.  Maybe Debra was just too much of a risk for Sir Alan.

However, putting personalities aside, if you look at the times when they were Project Managers, both Yasmina and Kate performed well so maybe they were the logical choices for the final.

So we reached Week 10 of The Apprentice last night.  This week the teams had to select products and sell them on a shopping channel to the public.  The team selling most won the task.

Sir Alan made it clear that the aim of the task was to see who could cope under intense pressure and demonstrate business flair.

The Project Manager for Ignite was Howard with Yasmina (after some debate with Debra) acting as Project Manager for Empire. With only three on each team it was vital that the teams worked well together and there was clear evidence that overall they did.

The two teams took different strategies when it came to product selection.  Empire’s Project Manager made it clear that she did not want to be too risky.  As a result all of the products they chose to sell were low price and selling volume was important.  Ignite by contrast chose a mixture of higher priced and lower priced items.

When it came down to the final numbers, Empire, who had gone for the low value items had a narrow victory and had Debra to thank for selling around £900 of the £1,541.88 sales total.  Ignite had highly credible sales of £1376.73.

As always, there were lessons to learn.

1. Howard was by far the best of the 3 team members on Ignite when it came to the practice audition but despite probably knowing this chose to present with Lorraine.  On hindsight, it might have been a stronger combination to have Lorraine and Kate present the fashion product and the fryer.  Yet Howard should be acknowledged for supporting Lorraine after she struggled with the audition.

2. Yasmina set out a clear strategy of low value, high volume which would have probably helped with the product selection choices.  The absence of a definite strategy on Ignite maybe resulted in them spreading their product mix too widely.

3. Lorraine and Howard’s big downfall was that they spent too much time talking about the product (the fryer) and the chips it produced rather than plugging the phone number and web-site where they could purchase it.

4. The uniqueness of the fryer was that it used very little oil yet we never saw either Lorraine or Howard use this in the selling process.  Maybe a health benefit could have been used and perhaps there was a point about thinking creatively.

5. A good sales person will be able to shift volume of low price products and Debra certainly demonstrated this highly effectively.

6. Team working between the person directing and the person selling is absolutely vital.  If the person directing feeds good ideas to the presenter it really can make a difference.

In the end Kate, Lorraine and Howard found themselves in the boardroom facing Sir Alan knowing that if they survived they were in the semi-final.  In the end Sir Alan fired Howard, referring to him as too much of Steady Eddy for his organisation.

You can watch The Apprentice on BBC1 at 9pm on Wednesday or on the BBCiplayer.

Last night we reached week 9 of The Apprentice in the UK.  With only three weeks remaining and 7 candidates left the pressure is mounting.

This week the teams were given a stand at the Baby Show in London.  They had to interview suppliers, choose two products and sell them at the Baby Show the following day.  The team that sold most won the task.

Sir Alan chose the Project Managers for the two teams.  James was PM for Empire and Lorraine the PM for Ignite.

Empire gambled on a high end highly expensive rocking horse as one of their products and a home birthing pool as their lower end product.

Ignite went for a buggy which folded down so small that it could be taken on an aeroplane as hand luggage as their main product.  They also chose a safety helmet as a low cost impulse buy item.

Back in the boardroom when the sales were revealed, Ignite emerged as winners with sales of £1,669 compared to £722 for Empire.

As ever there were many lessons arising from the show:

1. Product research is important and from what we saw both teams did that quite well.

2. In terms of decision making, the teams weighed up the pros and cons and made their choices with little evidence of procrastination.

3. The smaller teams meant that there was much more willingness to work together and little or no bickering.

4. Sometimes you do need to be willing to take a risk.  The rocking horse was a risk but had Empire sold just one, they would have easily won the task.

5. If Empire and in particular Debra and Ben made one mistake with the rocking horse it was not negotiating a baby show special discount.

6. Lorraine the PM of Ignite only realised that she did not have exclusive rights to sell the buggy at the show when she saw it in the booth of another supplier.  On the other hand, when challenged about this by Sir Alan, she took responsibility and admitted that she had made a mistake.  Probably the most powerful demonstration of personal responsibility taking this series.

7. As PM, Lorraine showed that she had faith in the team’s selling ability and demonstrated that despite differences with Kate in the past, she was mature and professional enough to move on.

When it came to the final choice, Ben, James and Debra were the three who were at risk of being fired.  Sir Alan made his choice and it was Ben who was fired.

You can watch The Apprentice every Wednesday at 9pm on BBC1 or on the BBCiplayer.

Well we reached week 8 of series 5 of The Apprentice last night.  The task for the teams was to re-brand Margate, an English seaside town, which like so many in the UK is struggling to keep attracting visitors.

Empire was led by project manager Debra after a bit of debate with Howard.  Ignite were led by Yasmin.

Empire decided that they would focus on the Gay Community whilst Ignite decided to focus on the Family Market.

On both teams there were some good points that came up:

1. Team working was, on the whole, much better than in previous weeks.
2. Both teams really threw themselves into the task.
3. Both teams took the time to do some research.

The decision on the winning team came from the scores from a major advertising agency and a group of people from Margate.  Ignite won the task convincingly, getting 14 out of 20 points, while the losers Empire got 8 out of 20.

As always there were a number of learning points that arose.

1. The project management of the poster and leaflet production on Empire was poor.  They ended up with a half finished leaflet.
2. If you have not completed something, it is better to say so than come up with some half baked explanation in the hope that the recipient of the presentation will not challenge you.
3. If you are working with models for a photo shoot or in a business situation a team, you need to give clear direction
4. When making a pitch, you need to try and get a good opening.
5. When thinking about promoting something, you need to keep in your mind the overall aim.  It appeared that at times the teams lost sight of this.
6. Both project managers demonstrated once again that the communication skill of listening was not their strong point.

Back in the boardroom, Debra took in James and Mona to face Sir Alan and while it was a close run thing, Mona was the person who was fired.

You can watch The Apprentice every Wednesday on BBC1 or on the web on the BBCiplayer.

We reached week 7 of The Apprentice last night.  This week the teams were required to select two products from a choice of 12 and sell them into retailers.

The teams were led by Mona (Empire) and Lorraine (Ignite).  Sir Alan made it crystal clear that he was expecting everybody to sell.  On Ignite only 2 out 5 on the team sold and they generated £1,302 of sales.  They we were convincingly beaten by Empire who clocked up £4,501 of sales.

So what did we learn this week?

1. If you are given a crystal clear goal (in this case to sell) you need to achieve it.
2. If you are a team member who does not rate the team leader it is no use being passive and not pulling your weight.  Philip (who was fired) found this out the hard way.
3. Never lose sight that in any interview situation, the person appointing needs to think about how well or not someone will fit into the organisation as much as their capabilities. 
4. Whenever you go into offer a new product, make sure you have as a minimum some basic information on prices of comparable products.  When asked about how the price of the sleeping bag suit compared to a basic sleeping bag, they could not answer effectively.
5. Calling for appointments to potential retailers is a numbers game.  You need to make a sufficient number of calls to secure appointments.

You can watch The Apprentice every Wednesday evening at 9pm GMT or on the BBCiplayer.

In the week 6 of The Apprentice, the teams were given 10 items to sell.  They were required to do research, identify the gems and then sell.  As ever there were a few red herrings.

This week Sir Alan chose two of the more vocal and potentially more confident candiadates to lead the teams.  Philip led one team and Ben the other.

It seemed like Philip had learned from the past when he started off by trying to clear the air with Lorraine who there had been conflict in the past.  While this was a very positive step, sadly it did not last and throughout the task he did not listen effectively.  One thing that he failed to consider was the contribution that Lorraine was trying to make about a rug (which turned out to be one of the most valuable items) and as a result the team ended up making a net loss of £34.

Ben, as leader of Empire was totally confident in himself and was determined to lead from the front, taking 7 out of the 10 items for his sub-team and allocating 3 to the other sub-team.  The results were even worse than Philip’s team, a net loss of £169.

While it is easy to sit and watch and make observations when you were not the person doing the task, there were some real big learning points for leaders:

1. If you are going to be selling something, you need to make the time to do some proper research into what the items are worth.
2. The leader needs to take the time to determine the different roles that need to be performed and then assign these so that all of the key things are covered.
3. You need to have some plan of attack.  It seemed that neither of the teams had thought much about where they might find some buyers for the items they were selling.  This could have saved them time.
4. You always need to be willing to listen.  In reality, it would have taken very little time for Lorraine to determine whether the carpet was valuable or not.  Philip could have made the decision to let her have a set period of time to do the research.
5. The job of the leader is not to be macho superman or wonderwoman.  It is to lead the team.  Ben, by deciding that 7 of the items would be taken by his sub-team was trying to be superman rather than leading.
6. You need to be able to acknowledge what you don’t know.  Philip was speaking like he knew with certainty that the rug was worth nothing when he clearly did not know.   

The tasks are clearly becoming more challenging week by week and I am sure more insight about the leadership capabilities or otherwise is going to emerge in the coming weeks.

You can watch The Apprentice at 9pm every Wednesday on BBC One or check out the website by clicking here

Last night was week 5 of The Apprentice in the UK.  The task to create a brand identity for a new breakfast cereal.

Ignite were led by Marketing Consultant Kimberly with Empire being led by License Development Manager Kate.

Your immediate thought would be the team that won would be the team led by the expert Marketing Consultant.  Yet again we saw that being the expert is not always a guarantee of success.

So what did we learn from this week:

1. It is easier to be an expert than lead and manage a team
2. If you are leading a team you need to be willing to take decisions
3. When time is short, there is no room for procrastination
4. If you are the leader and are not convinced about an idea, you need to be willing to speak up and say so
5. If you let people who throw tantrums if they don’t get their way continue to behave in this way, you are giving a message, sub-consciously that it is okay
6. You need to sort out time utilsation and priorities and create a plan, otherwise you end up not having enough time to spend on things that really matter- the cereal box in the case of the losing team
7. How you say things makes a difference.  Kate, the project manager of the winning team made great use of supportive language

At the end of the day, the finished product from the winning team was streets ahead of the losing team and is often the case being an expert does not always result in effective leadership.

You can watch The Apprentice at 9pm on BBC1 or on the BBCiplayer

In week 4 of The Apprentice, the teams were tasked with developing, producing and selling two natural beauty products.

The teams were mixed up again, with Noorul leading what turned out to be the winning team and Paula leading the losing team.  The big learning point from this week was that it is often the most basic of mistakes that can be the most costly.

So let’s compare both of the teams.  As a team leader, Noorul was clearly not leading and any time where a decision needed to be made he looked like a rabbit in the headlights.  There was absolutely nothing in the way of creativity and the product, particularly the soap was awful.  When it came to selling he just could not do it, despite the fact that in one of the clips he would rate himself 10 out 10 when it came to selling.  Yet despite all of this he and his team delivered a profit of just under £500.

Paula by contrast was a great team leader.  She took decisions, made things happen, a good example being the sale of the remaining stock as a single batch.  She was creative and pretty dynamic on the whole.  So what was the big mistake that was made?  Choosing a hugely expensive fragrance and not considering the financial consequences.

So what in summary are the leadership lessons can we learn form this week’s show?

1. A great product, with good marketing and selling is not enough
2. Crunching the numbers might be dull but essential to running any successful organisation
3. Delegation need to be clear and unambiguous
4. It is important to be self aware
5. When in a situation of conflict, choose your tactics wisely
6. Not being an expert in something is not a defence.  If you are the leader, the buck stops with you.

You can watch The Apprentice in the UK every Wednesday evening at 9pm or on the BBCiplayer

So we reached week 3 of The Apprentice here in the UK last night.  The task was to design a new piece of gym equipment that could be retailed under £30.  It was quite a challenge for both teams to come up with something different from what was already out in the market.

The piece I wanted to focus on in this blog post was the leadership of the teams.  There were two very different styles of leadership demonstrated in this task.  James the team leader of Empire (the predominantly male team) adopted quite a light touch approach to leading and trusted his people.  Debra the team leader of Ignite (the predominantly female team) adopted much more of an autocratic style.

At the end of the day, Ignite were the team that won the task.  On one hand this might have been down to good leadership or it might have been down to the team members.  What was more interesting to observe was the behaviours.  On the winning team, the team leader because of the style adopted demonstrated a number of behaviours

Indecision

There was a huge amount of indecision and procrastination going on about what the product should be and it appeared that the team leader was procrastinating and avoiding decisions.

Ignoring non verbal communication

On more than one instance the team leader was completely oblivious to body language and expressions that gave clear clues of discontent in the team.

Control freak

It was crystal clear that as team leader, Debra needed to be in control of everything, micro managing others and appearing to completely ignore what others had to offer.  A great example of this was dictating to one of the team members how to take a photograph of the product.

Undermining others

A good example was the way that she continually put down the person making the pitch.  Rather than saying something constructive to improve the pitch, the focus seemed to be in undermining Lorraine.

On the losing team, Sir Alan Sugar told James that he came within a whisker of being fired.  Ultimately what appeared to save him was the comment from Margaret who was observing the teams that he was not reasonably okay as a manager.  While it would be easy to say that as team leader he should be fired, there were some things he did well.

Empowerment

In complete contrast to Debra, he did not try to micro managing people and gave them space to execute.

Judgement

There was good and bad on this point in my view.  The bad was that he did not get involved in the product design.  The good was that even though he was less than impressed by the product, he made the call to say nothing and avoid de-motivating the team.

At the end of the day, his passion, fighting spirit and emotion in the boardroom, along with the chink of light on his management capability were what probably saved him.

Each of the leadership styles had merit. From my own perspective I would question whether the style adopted by Debra on this task, whilst producing a winning result, would work long term if working in Sir Alan’s organisation.

What’s your take?

You can watch The Apprentice on BBC One at 9pm every Wednesday or on the BBCiplayer.