The Apprentice - series 6 - 2010

[ROSM]

She's hardly a plodder - the branding or urbon was inspired and came from her inspiration whilst her team were not exactly helping her. She wins people over when she speaks to them. This wasn't the only task that these kinds of things happened in but in the final to be able to brand and promote something like she did was key.

It's also 2 years in a row where the final has been a taste task and both years the worst tasting product has won!

 

[Tooting Gull]

The bus deal was a narrowly avoided f***-up. They could have sat back and not sold a single ticket and STILL had 20% of everything the team made that day. He got very very lucky. I have no idea why people - including Sugar - were spinning that as a brilliant move. He didn't think it through. It didn't look like a deliberate ploy to secure their distribution. He just made a naive offer (the tour people looked bloody surprised and then were not preprared to releaser them from the contract) and got a way with it. Could easily have stuffed them up and he'd have been gone. Suspect a bit of post-event re-editing to make it seem like it was inspired to help justify putting Chris in the final.

That's pretty churlish. The guy made a decision which, without question, would have seen him fired had they lost. It was all or nothing, death or glory stuff. But as he explained himself, he thought it was worth it to get that contract ahead of the others, seeing it as essential for victory. That was a great call, pure and simple. To say 'it could easily have stuffed them up' is totally irrelevant. It didn't. You could use that rather lame claim for any number of successful business ventures.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

, as someone said earlier, it's easy to take risks when your parents are millionaires.

So even more power to Stella's elbow.

 

[ROSM]

That's pretty churlish. The guy made a decision which, without question, would have seen him fired had they lost. It was all or nothing, death or glory stuff. But as he explained himself, he thought it was worth it to get that contract ahead of the others, seeing it as essential for victory. That was a great call, pure and simple. To say 'it could easily have stuffed them up' is totally irrelevant. It didn't. You could use that rather lame claim for any number of successful business ventures.

having seen the 'you're hired' programme afterwards, it seems that many people are like me and don't believe that it was a thought out strategy rather than his mouth running away with him.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Not sure I agree with you tooting. I don't think the guy realised what offer he was making at the time. I totally agree that if he had realised how much he was offering then it was an inspired - and risky - strategy. However, watching him I think he just cocked up and offered a percentage of the whole day rather than a percentage of sales from the tour operator. Genuinely, I've watched it a few times and he didn't realise what he was offering at the time. The people he was dealing with were surprised, jumped on the offer and made him confirm it - which he did hesitantly still without realising what he had done. Only when he got back to base did his team leader realise what he had done. They then went back to try and reverse the deal but the tour operators were having none of it (it was clearly a ridiculous offer).

So if he had done this deliberately, as a strategy, then you're spot on. I don't think he did - he's inexperienced in business and he made a major clanger. That was since either generously or editorially re-interpreted as a strategy. Was it crap. Sorry - he got lucky.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

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Look from 5 minutes - he really didn't know what he was offering. This was not a strategy - it was a mistake that came good.

 

[Mellotron]

Agreed. Thought it was laughable that it was being called a masterstroke afterwards. It was VERY obviously a mistake.

 

[ROSM]

You know, I remain unconvinced that Baggs was the total bellend he was made out to be, and even if he was I suspect that the brash, know-it-all trait could have been knocked out of him, without harming his entrepreneurial character.

spot on Sim. I don't think Baggs was as bad as his interview painted him. Yes he had been sketchy on detail but also that licence he holds is not simply handed out for £350 as had been claimed. yes it costs £350 but you have to be checked out and prove you deserve it. What he has faced is close to defamation - however he wont sue as he's gained so much publicity from this show.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Baggsy's interview was THE moment of the series for me.

"No, you're not a big fish in any pond. You're not a big fish. You're not even a fish".

 

[Tooting Gull]

Agreed. Thought it was laughable that it was being called a masterstroke afterwards. It was VERY obviously a mistake.

No, VERY obviously a mistake would have been something that lost them the task. But they won. The only thing at issue is whether he was lucky or brilliant, my take on it is different mainly based on his own words ('I thought we need that deal to win'). I believe in the weighing-up process he thought getting them to do the work for the team was worth that percentage. But I would accept that since none of us know for sure, the jury has to be out on that one.

One thing is obvious though - it wasn't a mistake. It's about winning.

 

[kevo]

He knew he needed them to promote the walks to stand any chance of winning, and secured the deal. Maybe he didn't think through what he was offering, but it worked. It seemed obvious to me that to have the tourist centre promoting the walks was the key to winning the task as they were likely to bring in far more business than the teams could on their own. He realised this and made them a rather rash offer which actually paid off. It wasn't just about that task anyway - he is obviously a very bright bloke, although on balance Stella deserved to win.

 

[Commander]

Actually, I hinted that she was going to get to the final. She didn't even know she'd won until very recently (they film two endings)

Oooh I knew this weeks ago as well, I wonder who you know that I know...

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Oooh I knew this weeks ago as well, I wonder who you know that I know...

He works at the firm she left, to go on the show.

 

[Commander]

He works at the firm she left, to go on the show.

I see. He definitely knows someone I know then.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Did anyone else watch this with their partner and get embroiled in a boys vs girls thing?

I could identify with Chris because of his entrepreneurial spirit, eloquence and academic background. My wife could identify with Stella's loner streak, coolness, efficiency and totally non-academic background. In some respects they reflected ourselves, so the wife was cock-a-hoop when Stella won.

Moving forward, I think Sugar should rename the programme, as "The Apprentice" doesn't seem to reflect what just happened. Chris WAS an apprentice, i.e. young, new to business, great basic qualities, bags of potential, whereas Stella had been in the workplace for more than 10 years and was in her 30s. Still, fair play to Stella, she ticked almost every box and was certainly the sort of person you'd want in your team.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

The bus deal was a narrowly avoided f***-up. They could have sat back and not sold a single ticket and STILL had 20% of everything the team made that day. He got very very lucky. I have no idea why people - including Sugar - were spinning that as a brilliant move. He didn't think it through. It didn't look like a deliberate ploy to secure their distribution. He just made a naive offer (the tour people looked bloody surprised and then were not preprared to releaser them from the contract) and got a way with it. Could easily have stuffed them up and he'd have been gone. Suspect a bit of post-event re-editing to make it seem like it was inspired to help justify putting Chris in the final.

Agree with this. The bus deal was a lucky break, another case of the other team doing worse rather than an inspired spark of genius

 

[Pavilionaire]

It's a bit of a moot point. In the real world you get time to work out your pricing and marketing strategy. The key thing is Chris recognised he need to get the Tour company on board and incentivise them to make sales.

Clearly, when he offered 20% on everything he didn't take into account the "what if" scenario should the tour company made £NIL sales.

The fact that Sugar views it as a masterstroke leads you to think Sugar's viewing the bigger picture about how he actually got the tour company to commit, rather than the actual financial deal itself that was cut.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

I take your point PAv - but what I am saying is that I don't think he meant to offr 20% on everything. If you watch him it looks like he explained his offer badly and left it open to interpretation. They clarified (in their favour) and he stumbles and doesn't have the experience to correct the misunderstanding. My point is that I don't think he made the "on everything" offer deliberately or knowingly.

But what the heck - the best candidate won (I'd employ her). And we don't know what goes on because of course th whole thing is edited for coherence and to move the story along. Based on what we saw - I would not have employed The Bomber. I would have employed Stella and Liz.

 

[Wozza]

I didn't see the end of You're Hired.

What was the prize in the end? A job working for Sugar, or money to set up a new company with the 'help' of Sugar?

 

[Tooting Gull]

I could identify with Chris because of his entrepreneurial spirit, eloquence and academic background. My wife could identify with Stella's loner streak, coolness, efficiency and totally non-academic background. In some respects they reflected ourselves, so the wife was cock-a-hoop when Stella won.

.

Yes, could be tricky and throw up some problems. 'I empathise with Chris - in fact, I've had a great idea myself. Would you mind putting the kettle on, I lack the necessary efficiency.'