Archive for the ‘The Apprentice’ Category

In the second episode of The Apprentice UK 2011 it was boys versus girls once again.

This time the challenge was to develop a mobile phone app.  The team with the most downloads were deemed to be the winners.  Once again the girls triumphed.

So what could we learn from episode 2 about business and leadership?

Don’t Limit Your Thinking

After 6 hours the boys were well ahead in terms of downloads but got slaughtered when the global market kicked in.  Perhaps this was because they were thinking in terms of a UK market rather than a much bigger global market.

Build Some Challenge Into Brainstorming

One of the things that surprised me was that no one seemed to be asking the basic but challenging questions when brainstorming.  Things like who the target market was, the interests of the target market or even the geographical area to be served.

Hold Your Hands Up When Your Judgement Was Wrong

It was interesting watching the girls in the boardroom. They were all distancing themselves from the app choice.  Yet I did not hear any of them acknowledge that their judgement calls about the app was wrong when they romped to victory.

Be Decisive

The Project Manager on the boys team was looking for someone else to take the decision  for him on who to bring back into the boardroom.  Not a great quality in a leader.

Don’t Be A Bystander

The person who got fired ultimately lost out because they did not show what they had to offer in any of the first two tasks.  This strategy might work when it is a job that people are trying to get but not when seeking investment.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people to become highly successful managers and leaders.  He invites you to sign up for his free audio e-course Leadership Success here

Well the 2011 series of the UK Apprentice kicked off last night.  Very familiar format with one big difference.  Until now all the candidates were competing for a £100,000 job working for Lord Sugar.  This year they are competing for £250,000 to get them started in business and the opportunity to have Lord Sugar as a business partner.

As is always the case the first task gives the candidates a very simple business task to show what they can do and give them the opportunity to demonstrate a good grasp of business basics.

This year the teams were given £250 each to buy some fresh produce and convert it into something they could sell.

The good news was that both teams made a decent return on the investment.  The girls team came out the winners making a bigger return than the boys.

There were some individual moments of brilliance.  One being one of the guys negotiating successfully to get the entire ingredients for the soup for £40.

And there were many lessons too.  Here are some of that I picked up:

You Have Got To Have A Plan

From what we saw it looked like the teams got a return more out of luck rather than having any coherent strategy.

The Detail Matters

Lord Sugar referred to basic accounting skills not being used by the boys team.  For any product you need to know the cost and have a pricing strategy.

Make Sure You And Your Team Play To Your Strengths

The Accountant who got fired did himself no favours by not using his own financial skills and the skills of other team members appropriately.  I understand that he wanted to show that he was capable of more but sometimes you just need to start doing what you do best and then build from there.

Recognise The Collective Contributions

The project manager of the girls team did well but seemed to be taking credit for everything, especially in the boardroom.  The reality is that it is the collective contributions of the team that gets the result.

I am sure that there are going to be many more lessons to come.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers.  You can sign up for his free weekly leadership and management success tips here.

After 10 weeks of seeing the candidates in action in team situations, we got to see much more of them as individuals at the interview stage.

For me this is one of the most enjoyable parts of the the series.

As always the interviewers gave the candidates a real grilling which is exactly what you would expect for a job with a six figure salary.

After the deliberations it was Stella and Chris who triumphed and made it through to the final next week.

Personally, I think Lord Sugar made the right choice for the two finalists.  In the interviews both Chris and Stella showed that they could remain calm even when they were put under some intense pressure.

However, I don’t believe it was just what they did in the interview stage that counted.

If we look over the course of the last 10 weeks, both Stella and Chris showed:

1. That they can perform well consistently
2. They can lead and manage well
3. They are willing to put their hands up and take responsibility when things don’t go so well
4. They can take and act on feedback
5. They are professional
6. They can work as part of a team even when they are not the leader

Lord Sugar talks about not looking for a Steady Eddie or Cautious Carol and to some Stella and Chris might have many traits of these two characters.

At the same time, Lord Sugar knows that the person coming into the job needs to be able to fit in to the organisation, work with others and represent his business interests well.

Not a million miles different to what any organisation that is looking for a slightly more senior person.

It will be interesting to see who gets over the final hurdle and secures the role of The Apprentice UK 2010.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps highly effective accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers.  He invites you to sign up for his free audio e-course leadership success here

Well The Apprentice week 2 was broadcast here in the UK last night.  While in previous groups there have been some strong personalities, the girl’s team demonstrated perfectly how not to operate as a team. 

So what were the real learning points?

People need to listen to each other rather than talk over each other all of the time.  Yet in truth I bet some of this is happening every day in organisations across the globe.

You need to speak up if you don’t agree with something and explain your reasons.  Many of the people said that they thought it would not work but they did not give specifics on why not.

Use the resources at your disposal.  Some team members were shipped off the Brighton to do research yet they did not appear to seek any feedback on the viability or otherwise of the book reader from what we saw on camera.

Don’t stand in the wings and criticise later.  The book stand seemed to become the product choice almost by default, perhaps in the absence of other unique ideas.  Team members were critical of the choice even when they had not offered any credible alternatives.

It takes courage to lead a team.  Did the project manager get everything right, well no.  At the same time she kept focus on the task despite the mayhem.

Decisions need to be taken.  Delaying taking decisions just shortens the time for implementation.  We always need to remember diminishing returns and the fact that the extra thinking time often makes little difference to the final solution.

I wondered what learning points you would add if you watched this episode?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to realise their professional potential by helping them to become highly effective leaders and managers.  To sign up for his free audio e-course click here.

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.