Tag Archives: Jadine Johnson

Movies & TV, The Apprentice

Katie’s Gamble Pays Off

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Over this series of the Apprentice there have been only two tasks where the loosing project manager has survived the boardroom. Coupled with the fact that over the past three weeks Stealth have lost the task, and their project manager, and in two of those tasks the project manager had been a survivor of the board room who had begged for a chance to be project manager to prove themselves, things were looking bad for Katie.

Up against her was Eclipse being led by Tre, who on paper was by far the stronger candidate. Tre had been on the winning team the same number of times that Katie had lost.

However, despite the apparent indications of previous performance, the result was exactly the opposite. Katie and stealth were victorious, and it was Tre who ended up in the boardroom.

So what went wrong – or should that be what went right? The task this week was to sell products to the trade. The key thing that the teams were told was that the task was about cold calling and making appointments with retailers – this wasn’t about just selling to people on the street.

In the case of Stealth, the bad run of recent weeks has cleared out a number of the people who were sources of friction, leaving just Katie, Kristina and Naomi. Whilst there are tense relationships amongst the three of them, especially between Katie and Kristina, they seem to have grasped that you need to put those issues to one side, and as a result they came up with a good strategy and it paid off. Whilst they didn’t get any advanced appointments, after a solid block of work on the phones they made appointments with possible retailers, and managed to sell all their products.

Looking at Eclipse, the story was very different. Over the past few weeks the source of friction – Tre has been kept largely in check. The other candidates seem to have got a handle on how to manage him. His only previous attempt at being project manager, way back in week 3 was marked by a team not really under control, and as I noted then it was more a competition as to who made the biggest hash of it. Here, up against a well organised and motivated Stealth, and without one of the others keeping him in line the disorganisation of Tre really came out. Whilst they managed to get one appointment arranged in advance (one more than Stealth of course) they didn’t follow this up with more cold calling, and pretty soon took to wandering the streets and visiting shops without appointments. Simon had managed to get a list of possible retailers which he had handed to Lohit, but it transpired many of them were incorrect anyway. The whole task was an absolute mess from start to finish.

When it came to the boardroom, Tre was hammered by Sir Alan. He then makes a pretty brave decision, and opts to leave Simon out, taking in Lohit and Jadine who together had made the biggest sale of the day. In the final boardroom it as always came down to strategy. Jadine, much like Ifti had a bad case of homesickness during the task, and really didn’t defend herself well. Tre as always fought his corner. Lohit, much as he has done on his previous visit to the boardroom got quite heavily hammered by Sir Alan of not having the ‘killer instinct’.

However, much like the treatment of Syed in series 2, Sir Alan gave Tre another chance. Although Sir Alan seems to have a real problem with the fact that Lohit is relatively quiet and well spoken, he survived too, with Sir Alan saying that he was still a possible winner. Ultimately it was Jadine and her bad day that were shown the door.

It was however one of the most apologetic firings of the series. Sir Alan explained that this time he was looking for someone with experience, and that he felt that Jadine still had too much to learn. However after firing her he congratulated her on getting so far, and said that he couldn’t say anything negative about her. He told her to go home to her daughter and wished her good luck.

Once she’d gone though, he again told Tre how lucky he had been – will he go the same way as Syed? Tre and Lohit seem to be two extremes, on the one hand Lohit comes over as quiet and efficient, whereas Tre spends much of his time talking about how much better he is than everybody else, and then when he is put in charge just blows it totally. As in the past Sir Alan does seem to be willing to give the loud candidates the benefit of the doubt, but ultimately when it comes to the crunch, doesn’t go with them – putting aside Ruth Badger in favour of Michelle last year, and Saira Khan in favour of Tim in series 1. On that basis, and with only a couple of weeks of the series left, I’m pretty sure that Tre won’t win. Despite her win tonight I think Katie’s card is marked too. There is definitely a very flirtatious level of sparring between her an Sir Alan, which whilst it is entertaining, certainly isn’t the basis of a business relationship. Lohit does seem to be unpopular with Sir Alan, so perhaps isn’t the right fit, whilst all thought that Simon who has never faced the boardroom had a lucky escape this week. In the past, candidates who have avoided visits to the boardroom in the early stages have often slipped up when ultimately they do face Sir Alan.

However it can all change next week, in what looks like it will be another entertaining episode. The teams try their hand at hosting some TV shopping, and from the clips so far look to make a catalogue of errors. Will we be seeing a whole load of potential media careers go up in smoke?

Movies & TV, The Apprentice

The Cream of British Business Talent?

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Tonight, the Apprentice candidates were given a test of their entrepreneurial skills – £200 and a white van, and one day to make as much money as possible – just the way that Alan Sugar started in business. As with week one, they seemed to be competing with each other as to who could make the biggest mess of the whole task – hardly the supposed cream of British Business Talent. If this is it, I’m not surprised we’re loosing out to the Chinese!

The show kicks off with Sugar paying the candidates a surprise visit, and mixing the teams up. Troublesome Jadine gets swapped back into the girls team, with Katie the successful project manager from last week put into the boys team instead. Sugar then gives each team £200 in cash, tells them that he has arranged for them to work in the borough of Richmond the next day, and that they can do anything they like to make money. Interestingly both teams opt for service businesses, rather than the buying and selling that Sugar started out with. Sir Alan didn’t stipulate it had to be a service, but may have been a limitation imposed in the rules. Ultimately it all hinges on the choice of service and this is where it ultimately all falls down.

The boys opt for a door to door gardening business – which as the assistant in the equipment hire shop says is possibly not the best choice, as most people who have gardening work done would have a regular contractor. Plus his colleague points out that the somewhat overcast weather is not exactly great for gardening anyway. Having said that, gardening seems a positively good idea compared to the girls – who decide to organise a children’s face painting business, the problem being it’s actually a Tuesday, and in term time.

Contrary to the opinion of the equipment hire assistant, the boys team do pick up some odd gardening jobs – sweeping leaves, mowing lawns, tidying up and so on, certainly they do better than the girls who after managing to paint a few faces spent the rest of the day wandering aimlessly around looking for custom and bitching at each other – Jadine being the main source of much of the bitching it seems.

As part of the task, the teams are allowed to change business idea and provide a different service during the evening. On the boys team Katie and Paul who having been responsible for sales during the garden task and doing a minimum of actual gardening decide that a mobile DJ service in the local wine bars would be a good money spinner. The rest of the team disagree, correctly thinking that a wine bar wouldn’t employ an unknown DJ at short notice – and Katie and Paul are told not to bother, a decision they ignore. Having said that, it does give the two of them a chance to hit it off, and by the end of the afternoon they are walking arm in arm…

Over with the girls, things are going from bad to worse. Having failed to find any more faces to paint, in desperation they come up with a kiss-o-gram plan, something Sugar implies in the boardroom is barely distinguishable from prostitution! Having said that, the boys team goes through a similar issue, and in the end goes round pubs singing. At the end of the day, the boys have nearly doubled their money, whilst the girls have pulled together a minimal profit.

In the boardroom the knives come out. Most of the girls blame Jadine for being a disruptive influence, so it is no surprise when she ends up in the boardroom. Alongside her and Naomi the project manager, the third potential victim is Gerri, who again had been handed finding locations for the face painting in this task, and much as with the coffee locations in the first task, fails to come up with anything suitable. Having said that, in this case I think she was in a difficult position anyway as the choice of service was poor in the first place. However it all goes wrong for Gerri in the boardroom, rather than arguing that it was hopeless with such a poor idea, she seems to back down and not defend herself, so despite Sugar being increasingly concerned about the disruption caused by Jadine it is Gerri that goes, apparently for being a slow starter, and not having done much on the task. Having said that, I could have quite happily fired quite a few of them tonight, the whole task on both teams was a veritable disaster from start to finish, with both Nick and Margaret, usually quiet observers being shown getting increasingly aghast at what is going on, and in Nicks case we hear more from than we have for a long while. From the preview of next weeks show, it does seem that we’ll be hearing more from them too…

Next week it’s selling sweets (and it appears reducing small children to tears) in London Zoo… There has got to be some apparent talent come out sometime soon though – I wouldn’t employ any of them so far!