The Apprentice Week 10 – Girls on Top
July 4, 2013 6 Comments
The Apprentice Week 10 – Girls on Top
courtesy of BBC
This week’s task in The Apprentice saw the 6 remaining candidates back in gender team. The task itself was one of Sugar’s favourites, as it replicates his own early success; both teams are given £150 to invest in stock and maximise the return by selling first on a market stall and then in a shop.
For the boys, Myles pips Jordan to be PM, with Luisa’s experience in retail winning out over Francesca. There was an immediate contrast in approach, with Luisa clear in her strategy (“stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap”) and her choice of items (fashion). This allowed the girls to start sourcing their items and checking out the market stall pitch immediately.
Myles proved to be indecisive, or maybe out of his depth, and the clear teamwork seen with the girls was missing. The lack of decisiveness led to a delay in getting out to source items. Perhaps not surprisingly, Myles decided to go for luxury items (which he has experience in marketing) for a market stall in Shoreditc! Even his team wasn’t convinced.
At the market place, Luisa blossomed, and the strategy and general choice of items resulted in a steady stream of sales. They reinvested the stock wisely and had enough of it to fill out the shop on day 2. The boys ended up with 16 ceramic novelties priced at £20 up. Their sales were slow, but it was Neil who again managed to pull in the most. An alternative line of greetings cards didn’t sell, so Jordan tried to offload them to local shops, with no success. Myles strategy and products were a mess. They sold so little on the market that they couldn’t fill a quarter of their shop, so they converted it to a makeshift market stall, using the doorway.
Neil suggested a high risk strategy to invest and sell a high ticket item. Unfortunately, the novelty vase that Jordan came back with impressed neither his teammates or the customers and it also didn’t sell.
In the boardroom, it was no surprise that the boys lost. Neil was in the best position to survive, due to his sales, but Sugar (ignoring his previous success as pm) labeled him a One Trick Pony. Jordan had been completely ineffective, but it was Myles who had to go, especially after last week’s lucky escape.
What was surprising, was that each of the boys outlined their business proposal to Sugar, and none of them was inspiring. Jordan, in particular, is unlikely to get past next week as his App idea requires an IT person as a 3rd partner. Sugar will not go for this.
So, its taken a long time, but the girls, and Luisa in particular, came good. If her business proposal is a Retail one, Sugar may be prepared to put aside her obnoxious behaviour in earlier tasks and take her on as a partner.
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I agree none of the boys’ business ideas really stood out, although Neil’s is the one most likely to have legs (although in a very competitive market).
Jordan was very odd in the boardroom. With all his discussion of business partners and percentages, it was almost like he thought he was on Dragons’ Den. Also, if his partner is the one doing the technical stuff, if Sugar was interested in it (which I seriously doubt) why wouldn’t he just cut out the middle man and partner with the software guy instead? What does Jordan bring to it? Strategy? Easily cut out.
I’m not sure I could live with Luisa winning. She has been on an upswing recently and she was excellent on this task, but she sets a terrible example with her boorish behaviour.
http://slouchingtowardstv.com/2013/07/04/the-apprentice-going-ga-ga-over-zsa-zsa/
I totally agree, Tim, about Luisa. Leah may be the dark horse, not on performance but several fired candidates have referred to her having a good business proposal
I actually really like Luisa… I can’t stand Jordan though! I thought he’d talked himself out of it in the boardroom but unfortunately not! Next week’s ep should be good – the interviews are always the best 🙂
Luisa is certainly good TV, but her behaviour is appalling and I would hate the message it would send out if she wins. However, her stock has certainly risen in recent weeks. Jordan is a dead man walking after this week’s task, and his silent partner business proposal. I’m also looking forward to the gladiatorial interviews next week.
Maybe I’m too quick to forget, but I can’t remember anything she’s done that been so terrible (besides Jason and the “abdication”…)! Oh well, they’re all going to get destroyed in the interviews anyway!
Check out done of my earlier posts for a quick reminder…
Luisa is great when she is in control and a complete nightmare when she is not. In the end it could be about what kind of relationship Sugar wants. As a partner she is not working for him and her drive is certainly a strength.