Season 18 of The Apprentice started on BBC1 last week and as usual, I will be watching and laughing along. While it may style itself as a business show, it is first and foremost entertainment. That being said, there are still things that we can learn from it.
Much has been written about the programme not changing over the years and being unrealistic, both of which are valid. However, it does provide one person with the investment they need to grow a business that they may never get from anywhere else. I have no doubt that they are worthy winners and it appears that their businesses are still thriving. If it provides us with entertainment along the way, then all well and good.
I thought that this year I would watch each episode and then comment afterwards as to what we can learn from each one.
Episode 1 – Corporate away day
The teams were required to provide a corporate away day for two clients, based in Scotland. The team with the most profit would win, having taken account of refunds that could be demanded, which indeed they were.
As ever with these tasks, it was excruciating to watch. Each of the teams has to provide food for their guests and there is a distinct lack of culinary skills on display. However, they are not there to demonstrate their ability to make a fish cake or a brownie, they are there to show their business skills. As a result, they are being judged by the wrong criteria.
They are also set up to fail as one part of the team negotiates their revenue while the other negotiates on their activities which will define their cost. However, the groups seem not to be allowed to talk to each other so inevitably, the revenue does not match the cost and expectations are similarly misaligned.
So, what can we learn from this episode:
1. With this sort of selling, you need to establish the client’s budget at the start. Get them to tell you that before you start suggesting prices. That way, you can be more realistic when you ask for a higher price.
2. Break down your costs for the client so that they understand how the cost is calculated. That way, if you need to drop the price, you can remove some of the activities to reduce the price.
3. Plan the event. The losing team lost mostly because of time issues which meant that their food was cold and they had no time to finish all of the activities. Without a good plan, you are doomed to fail.
Overall, I thought that the wrong person was fired. In a large group, it is difficult for everyone to be fully involved so being fired for “not doing enough” was unfair in comparison to the project manager who made so many mistakes and wants to run a corporate events business. I hope they have learnt a lot from this as they needed to!
Episode 2
Before we start, it is worth asking the question, why do they continue to bother claiming “The cars will be outside in 20 minutes” and then showing the candidates getting dressed when it is quite obvious that none of them gets ready in 20 minutes. What are they thinking?
Episode 2 was all about making mini cheesecakes for sale. As usual with these sorts of tasks, there was some general ignorance displayed (how many grammes are there in a kilogramme? for example) and a lack of any idea of what food goes with what (avocado in cheesecake anyone?) but lets just look at the business related elements of the tasks.
Part of the task was to make cheesecakes for a corporate client. It is fairly normal in all of these tasks for the candidates to visit the client and try to tell the client what they are going to get rather than ask questions first. I realise that we only see part of the interaction but it never seems that they start with some basic questions, such as “what is important to you?”, “why do you want the product?” and “what is your budget?”
In these sorts of tasks, understanding the client’s budget is so important so that you can pitch your price accordingly. Asking for a price that is way outside their budget just makes the negotiation more difficult. Understanding why they want the product gives you leeway to ask for more money if you can.
There were some dubious claims made by some of the teams, particularly about offering a premium product and artisan producers. Everyone knows that they have only just got together and have no track record in delivery. It is a ridiculous claim and really only goes to demonstrate that you cannot be trusted. Quite how they got such a high price for their product I will never know. At least once they realised that their product was not premium, they proactively offered a discount to the client. This helps to reduce the impact of any disappointment and makes it more likely that the client will say yes to the offer.
Finally, last week a candidate was fired for not having worked hard enough yet this week, that behaviour was overlooked and a candidate who made mistakes was fired. There never appears to be any consistency in decision making which is unfair for the candidates.
More next week!
Episode 3 – Online Escape Room
In this episode, the teams had to create digital / online escape rooms. It is an interesting task as it requires imagination and creativity as well as the ability to pitch a half built product for investment.
As usual, the teams divide into two, one to create the game, the other to create a logo and an opening video. I’m not really sure that these are equal tasks in terms of what is required of them. Creating even the concept and basics of a game in one day is a tall order. That said, the logos were pretty dull and uninspiring so perhaps more time as required there.
What was most impressive about the episode was the technology used to create the game. That you can create these scenes with almost anything in them in a day is amazing and the software to do it is stunning.
Both teams did well given the time available and what was required of them. However, it is probably not a surprise that the team that lost was led by a project manager who was not involved in creating the game but led the pitch to potential investors. In this game, getting the investment was all that mattered and the concept of the game was therefore critical. It is probably not a surprise that one investor commented “You do know that that was bananas!” about their game!
Overall, there were not too many disasters so not so many lessons to be learnt. However, one team started their pitch with a reasonable approach of trying to tell the audience something that they do not know. However, by telling people from the gaming industry facts about the gaming industry, they are not really doing that and as a result, the opening of their pitch fell flat.
More next week.