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Source: (consider it) Thread: The Apprentice 2015
Schroedinger's cat

Ship's cool cat
# 64

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Starting tonight. And already we have the usual collection of utterly vile people. Kill them all, save the country.

So anyone spotted a glimmer of humanity in any of them? Anyone think that Claude Littner might actually be out of his depth?

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Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984

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I tend to just watch the you're fired program - the main program is too excruciating - and scheduled against Grand Designs on C4.

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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell

Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged
balaam

Making an ass of myself
# 4543

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Which is why I am now watching Grand Designs on +1. (and posting in the ad break.)

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Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
balaam

Making an ass of myself
# 4543

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I was half expecting a double dismissal on week one. How April stayed in only the Lord (Sugar) knows. I have never seen anyone show so little emotion, not even Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek.

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Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Schroedinger's cat

Ship's cool cat
# 64

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I do think, once again, that when he had the whole lot in the boardroom, he should have just fired the lot of them, and found another way to get an investment partner. Like, someone with a decent business proposal, rather than, say, someone who can sell fish on the street.

Ah well, then we wouldn't have the pleasure of seeing a bunch of pompous pricks humiliated.

the winning team made a profit of, what £350? Between 8 of them? So that is £40 for a days work? I am sure they would all be happy to work for that.

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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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I watched it, but not sure if I'll watch the rest of the series, though it is quite likely I'll get sucked in. It seems daft that they don't actually test out their business proposals from the off. The hapless bloke that got fired might have had a brilliant one, but we'll never know.
I don't think the man that tried to sell fish to a vegan restaurant and then blamed everyone else for not being project manager when he wouldn't do it himself will be around long.

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged
Sipech
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# 16870

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I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

The task wasn't really about selling fish. It was about stripping away any infrastructure that the candidates may have had in building their careers thus far. They may have done well having landed in a workplace where they have the necessary support structures to thrive, but now was the time to take that away from them and see if they can stand on their own two feet.

Most wouldn't, so failure was inevitable. The person who would go would be the person to show no initiative whatsoever.

[/Devil's advocate]

The programme continues to be a parody of business. It's rigged towards selling crappy products for a quick buck with no regard for long term strategy, ethics or providing customers with valuable products at a fair and reasonable price.

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Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012  |  IP: Logged
Spike

Mostly Harmless
# 36

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quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
How April stayed in only the Lord (Sugar) knows. I

Call me a cynic, but I reckon the producers have recognised that she will probably make good television so have advised Sugar not to fire her too early.

If any of them were any good they'd actually be out there building up their business and getting sound investors rather than attention seeking on the telly.

quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:

The programme continues to be a parody of business. It's rigged towards selling crappy products for a quick buck with no regard for long term strategy, ethics or providing customers with valuable products at a fair and reasonable price.

You've just described Amstrad!

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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing

Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Schroedinger's cat

Ship's cool cat
# 64

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quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:

The programme continues to be a parody of business. It's rigged towards selling crappy products for a quick buck with no regard for long term strategy, ethics or providing customers with valuable products at a fair and reasonable price.

You've just described Amstrad!
I think that is precisely it. It is a model that works, to make quick money. Most of the candidates are about making some quick money. But I wouldn't knowingly buy a coffee from them, because that is all they are after - quick, cheap money gains. The same reason I wouldn't deliberately buy an Amstrad product.

Some of them will make their money in the short term. I doubt whether any of them - including Lord Sugar - will have a viable, long-term business to pass on.

Making quick gains is what dropped us into the financial crisis. Long-term, slow growth from repeat customers is what actually makes a business work. Long-term, committed financial investment is what helps a business develop.

At the end of the day, it is an entertainment show. I wouldn't follow Lord Sugars business strategy any more than I would employ anyone who would be a candidate on the show. It's an x-factor-style show: people with no talent being humiliated. I only watch it because these people deserve to be humiliated.

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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.

Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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Oh dear. I think I'm getting sucked in again and will be watching this every week.
I guessed Aysha (sp?) was going to face the finger of doom in the first minute or so.

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged
Schroedinger's cat

Ship's cool cat
# 64

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Catching up on this week.

Oh my.

And these are Camerons ideal Brits.

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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.

Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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Anyone watch this week's? As a librarian and a member of a writing group I was cringing. I think anyone that calls themselves a wordsmith isn't one.

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged
Schroedinger's cat

Ship's cool cat
# 64

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I was also cringing. The challenge was to "write and produce a best-selling children's book in 24 hours". Well if they could do that, they can tell Sugar-cakes where to put his money, because they will make a whole lot more marketing that. And if they can do it once, I am sure they can repeat it.

Any book worth anything takes a long time to write. I can write better than they can, and I can't make money out of it. This actually applies to a number of the tasks they are given - you cannot do business well if you have deadlines like that to meet.

So yes, they have diddled a number of stores out of some £1100 between them. For something they will probably have had to bin.

Which is the other question with this - the winning team sold £600 worth of books. The cost of production of these, including the graphics people and the printing costs, would have been at least this much. So they made a loss on it, even ignoring the fact that 7 of them spent a day working on it, for no financial gain.

So what is this teaching them? Nothing about business. Nothing about writing or production of a creative item. Nothing about how to produce and sell a book for children.

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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.

Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128

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quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
So yes, they have diddled a number of stores out of some £1100 between them. For something they will probably have had to bin.

I always wonder about this. For presumably the stores etc. know they're coming - it seems unlikely (shall we say) that an "Apprentice" camera operator would have been sent to every bookshop in London on the off-chance that the team might come along.

And does money genuinely change hands? Do these stores ever sell the stuff they're "buying"? Or is it all pretend?

In the last task, the object clearly wasn't "producing a good book" but "flogging as many units as possible" irrespective of quality. And surely that's the point of nearly all the tasks: Sales.

[ 06. November 2015, 08:17: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]

Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009  |  IP: Logged
Snags
Utterly socially unrealistic
# 15351

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quote:
In the last task, the object clearly wasn't "producing a good book" but "flogging as many units as possible" irrespective of quality. And surely that's the point of nearly all the tasks: Sales.
It's about the only business model Sugar knows ...

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Posts: 1399 | From: just north of That London | Registered: Dec 2009  |  IP: Logged
Schroedinger's cat

Ship's cool cat
# 64

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quote:
Originally posted by Snags:
quote:
In the last task, the object clearly wasn't "producing a good book" but "flogging as many units as possible" irrespective of quality. And surely that's the point of nearly all the tasks: Sales.
It's about the only business model Sugar knows ...
I have read his biography, which is interesting. He has made his money and his business by buying something new first, before anyone else has it and has tried it out, and selling cheaply to early adopters. When there is some competition, he bottles out and moves onto something new.

That is not a viable business model. But it is the one he knows and believes in. For all his talk about relationships, he doesn't care about return customers. He cares about making a buck now.

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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.

Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Spike

Mostly Harmless
# 36

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quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
So yes, they have diddled a number of stores out of some £1100 between them. For something they will probably have had to bin.

I always wonder about this. For presumably the stores etc. know they're coming - it seems unlikely (shall we say) that an "Apprentice" camera operator would have been sent to every bookshop in London on the off-chance that the team might come along.

And does money genuinely change hands? Do these stores ever sell the stuff they're "buying"? Or is it all pretend?

In the last task, the object clearly wasn't "producing a good book" but "flogging as many units as possible" irrespective of quality. And surely that's the point of nearly all the tasks: Sales.

I've often wondered this as well. In every series they have to design some amazing new gadget which they then have to sell to some of the country's biggest retailers, but I've never seen any of this stuff on sale anywhere.

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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing

Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984

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I seem to recall that once a team sold half a million star shaped biscuits to asda.

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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell

Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged
Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984

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I lie, £800,000 worth of "Special Stars" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Eastwood

And then that project leader didn't win the series ...

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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell

Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged


 
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