Thursday, April 13, 2006

The Apprentice - Episode 8

Last night on The Apprentice we saw "business lecturer" Sharon McAllister incur Sir Alan Sugar's wrath and get fired. It was a strange decision but probably the right one.

This fascinating series has now reached a stage where all the obviously weak candidates have been fired already. We are left with a group of people who all appear to have some considerable strengths, but also some weaknesses.

The most quirky aspect of the programme is Sir Alan Sugar and his two sidekicks, Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer. If it's true that these two are Sir Alan's most trusted advisors then the candidates would be wise to take a good look at them to try and figure out what the man himself looks for.

Sharon's downfall was that she sulked and couldn't handle working towards a direction she didn't agree with. Many people in business, and in life, have the same mentality. Sometimes we have to accept that our own opinion is not the same as the majority's opinion, then get our head down and help the majority achieve the goal. It is no use at all to moan, sulk and continually harp on that "we should have done this or that" whilst we are trying to accomplish a task. I would have loved to see Sharon go further. I thought she had some good ideas and was a good person, but the sulking had to stop.

Syed " I'm from the East End you know" has already got a lot of stick for making his team miss the deadline in last night's episode. All because he and Tuan were making the biggest sale of the day, to a buyer who couldn't see them until late. No one at all pointed out the obvious fact; that without that sale his team would have lost hands down. Give him some credit for getting the order, but then castigate him for behaving like a total prat I say. The problem is that Sir Alan likes him.

With total confidence I forecast that the next two people to get fired will be Michelle and Tuan. It will be left to Ansell, Ruth and Syed to fight it out.

The interplay between Sir Alan and Syed is fascinating to watch and there is a strange bond between them. As if he sees Syed as young version of himself. He wants him to succeed, recognises that he used to be like that too, but can't help thinking that Syed is a bullshitting barrow boy.

My money is on Ruth or Paul winning the grand prize. Michelle and Tuan will get fired in the next two episodes and Syed will get fired but probably be offered a job by Sir Alan anyway.

In 30 years' time my kids will be watching "The Apprentice 2036". It will feature Sir Alan's son as the head of Amstrad. His trusted advisor will be Syed Ahmed, the guy who worked his way up over the last 30 years.

Trust me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with your assessment about Ruth or Paul winning it. Actually, I slightly favour Paul - based solely on his accurate assessment of an earlier firing. I think Ansell is keeping quiet and staying out of trouble, he's the Tim of this series. Ansell is the dark horse, the wild card, if you like. I also agree that Michelle and Tuan are probably on their way out.

Where we differ is in our opinion of Syed. The last series had Saira, a brash salesperson who connected with Sir Alan on the same level as Syed. She didn't get the job, though. An attitude can only take you so far - I think Syed is going to fall by the wayside. Besides, did you hear the excuses that he came up with for getting late? That was hilarious, to say the least.

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Thanks a lot for reading and for your comment. I didn't watch the last series so can't really comment on that. Maybe I didn't put across what I was actually thinking about Syed. I think he will be fired before the end, but I think that, if he matures and stops all the bullshit, he has some good qualities that could really help him do some good things. Time will tell!

Thanks again for a detailed comment.

R