Week 10 – Vegan Cheese
In this episode, the teams had to create a new vegan cheese. The main elements of the cheese were available so in terms of this part of the task, all they had to do was to design a flavour and add it to a base ingredient. The other part of the task was to name the cheese, design the brand and packaging and then create a short video to promote it. The teams then pitched their product to two major retailers.
The division of work was rather unfair in this task. There was very much more work to be done by the branding team than the cheese team. It meant that the allocation of tasks was critical. There were three people in one team and four in the other. This gives a significant advantage to the team of four; one extra person in this task makes a big difference.
The team of three decided that one person would do all of the branding and two of them would create the cheese. This was a really unfair split in terms of effort. There was a reasonable reason in that the taste of the cheese was very important to success or failure and having a second opinion was therefore important. However, creating a product name and an advert on your own is a really tough job and probably required two people.
In the end, they created a curried cheese and, not surprisingly, lost! They wanted to create an exotic flavour but no one wants the end of their meal to be curry flavoured. So, despite having two people to create the cheese, they did not create a great product. No amount of great branding could have saved them and two of the team ended up being fired, although I do think that it was a difficult choice.
Next week, the final five will be interviewed and will have their business plans ripped apart. It is always entertaining though doesn’t always generate many lessons learnt. Let’s see!
More next week.
Week 11 – The Interviews
In the penultimate episode, the final five candidates are interviewed by four business advisors. These are always entertaining although not necessarily for the right reason.
It is quite remarkable that the candidates have not learnt from previous years. Every series the same flaws are exposed in their business plans. The same mistakes are made. It is not difficult to watch previous series to know these things yet they still fail to provide the required information. Not learning from the past is disappointing to say the least.
There are a number of things that we can learn from the episode based on what we learnt about the candidates’ business plans:
Starting a business in a market where you have no experience is difficult and likely to go unsupported. It is quite surprising that some candidates decide to propose a business in which they have no experience. There is a huge learning curve whenever you start a business without having to learn all about the business itself. If you have experience in a particular area, use that to start a business and go from there.
You need to include all relevant information in a business plan. If you are going to manufacture something, then you need to include where you will do this, how you will manage the process and how you will quality control the process. Starting a manufacturing business on your own, even with the help of a business guru, is extremely difficult as you have to do all roles yourself. Until you have some income, hiring additional resources will be costly.
You need to include all the relevant numbers in a business plan, particularly what your costs are going to be. It is not possible to judge the worthiness of a business without these. If you are getting a cash injection, how are you going to spend it? As the cash is a one off input, it is probably best to spend it on one off items as much as possible. If you commit to a recurring expense, such a salaries for other staff, then the money is going to run out quite quickly!
Next week is the final where the two final candidates present their new businesses to a panel to determine which is the most investable. I would expect few mistakes by this stage but we will see!
More next week.
Episode 12 – The Final!
In the final, the last two remaining candidates had to launch their own business. They needed to create a brand and a digital billboard before presenting their business proposition to a room of experts.
Since these were the last two candidates, mistakes and gaffs were not very evident, apart from the suggestion that Candidate Phil, who makes pies, call his company “Phil my pie”! However, there were a few things that were noteworthy, mostly related to Phil the pie man!
Phil runs a family pie making business, which has been trading since the 1930’s. While he has expanded it significantly since taking over, it is still a family business and this is very meaningful to him. It is some what of a surprise that he is prepared to give away half of it in return for £250,000.
While the business has not always been profitable, they are turning over £2.5m so giving away 50% for £250,000, even with the help that will come with it, seems to be a poor deal from the outside.
At one stage, Phil commented that the business was not all about making money. For a family man who wants to leave the business to his children, this makes sense. It is as much about community and providing a service as making money. However, that was not the way that Alan Sugar saw it. “Business is all about making money as far as I am concerned” he responded.
It is probably for the best that Phil did not win.
The winner, Rachel Woolford, runs a boutique gym and is looking to expand. She seemed like a worthy winner having performed well throughout the process and I hope that she is very successful.
One final lesson worth noting, both candidates have a great backstory. However, when it came to make their pitches, they failed to tell it. Story telling is such a great way of getting across who you are and what drives you that it is a shame they did not do so. I have no idea what advice they are given when doing these activities but it is a shame that they didn’t use this great form of communication.
I hope you have enjoyed reading these blogs and have learnt something from them. Hopefully I will be back next year with further commentary on next year’s series.