*** The Apprentice 6 ***

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sunama said:
What lie are you referring to?

Do you mean the misunderstanding around the definition of a telecoms company and an ISP (which can also offer VOIP services)?
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It wasn't really a misunderstanding, Stuart just glorified his business, kind of like how cleaners invent fancy job titles like hygiene technicians to make it sound better than it is.

sunama said:
IMO Stuart should never have apologised and should've explained that as his company can is licensed to sell customers internet services, as well as voice telephony (via the internet), he felt that the terms telecoms company describes his company well.
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Like the interviewer exposed though anybody can have the license in question for a small fee, for all we know Stuart might just advertise his services in his local paper or via a website and the alleged turnover of £3m is just fantasy like most of the other stuff he said.

sunama said:
Why not? Appearing on the Apprentice (and not winning), can open doors that would otherwise remain closed. A simple example would be if he were trying to raise money from Venture Capitalists. The fact that he has been on the Apprentice can immediately get his foot in the door.
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In that case the type of exposure he got was counterproductive so it's backfired, he's now the guy who was called a liar, blagger and full of **** by Lord Sugar on the Apprentice, not the type of contractors a business would want to hire? If his tactic behind Apprentice was to get good exposure he did it all wrong.

sunama said:
He needs Alan Sugar's money, resources and infrastructure to do this. Also, bear in mind that Stuart is a salesman.
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He had Sugars resources during the tasks and got beaten by Liz in sales repeatedly.

sunama said:
He loves the hard "in your face" sale. To this end, he would've said anything in the boardroom to make the "sale" (ie. sell himself to AS). The claims about the ponies, the money back guarantee and 1000% ROI were all sales tactics that had no foundation.

If AS had drawn up a document for Stuart to sign, regarding the money back guarantee, I'm pretty sure Stuart would not have signed it.
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Which proves the point that he's a liar and a blagger then?
 
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mmj_uk said:
It wasn't really a misunderstanding, Stuart just glorified his business, kind of like how cleaners invent fancy job titles like hygiene technicians to make it sound better than it is.
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...and that would not be a lie. Its just a play on words.

mmj_uk said:
Like the interviewer exposed though anybody can have the license in question for a small fee, for all we know Stuart might just advertise his services in his local paper or via a website and the alleged turnover of £3m is just fantasy like most of the other stuff he said.
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Providing his company is turning over the figures that he stated, he wasn't lying. My belief is that he wasn't lying about this. I say this because the accounts should be available on the Companies House website, which the Viglen interviewer has used before to check up on companies run by other candidates. The fact that he did not pull Stuart up on this suggests that it all checked out.

Stuart stated that he had a license and was not lying. Whether this license is issued for £1M or £1, is irrelevant. The fact remains that Stuard did have an ISP license.

mmj_uk said:
In that case the type of exposure he got was counterproductive so it's backfired, he's now the guy who was called a liar, blagger and full of **** by Lord Sugar on the Apprentice, not the type of contractors a business would want to hire? If his tactic behind Apprentice was to get good exposure he did it all wrong.
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It certainly wasn't. As I stated, Stuart has now had doors opened to him, that would otherwise have remained shut. Not everybody is so quick to accuse someone of lying. Some people do their research and hear what the candidate has to say about what happened. Then they make their decision. I for one, would never make a decision based on a misunderstanding on the definition of the term: "telecoms company".

mmj_uk said:
He had Sugars resources during the tasks and got beaten by Liz in sales repeatedly.
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Liz was a VERY strong candidate. She was older and better than Stuart. That has nothing to do with Stuart's sales tactics in the boardroom. The fact is that while Liz sold products well, Stuart sold himself better. This is a fact, as proven by the fact that AS fell for Stuart's sales speech about the ponies.

mmj_uk said:
Which proves the point that he's a liar and a blagger then?
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Most successful sales-people (while not lying), will use words in such a way that they will go right to the limit.

If I tell you:"mmj, you are looking for a salesman. I believe I can sell £1M worth of merchandise for you in 1 month".

The above is not a lie. It is very unlikely I can achieve this, given that I am actually a poor salesman, but the above would not be a lie as it has not yet happened. All Stuart did was make a prediction on his future performance. That's all.

He is a hardcore sales-man, pure and simple.

I completely understand where you are coming from. You expect everybody to have a strict/high code of practise such that everything they say is absolutely realistic and truthful. In the (real) world of business (and especially sales), this is not the case. Chris was lying through his teeth during a sales task coming out with all sorts of stories. By your reasoning, surely, he should've been sacked...right?
 
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Vampire said:
Apprentice candidate admits fraud! :eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-12060100

Sadly it's not 'Stuart Baggs - the brand', but wow, I wonder if Lord Sugar was aware he had court proceedings pending while he was on the show?
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Mr Gittins added: "The clients had no knowledge of what he did."
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This is cobblers. If you only earn £40K a year and you want a £200K mortgage it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise your going to have to fib about your salary. He may well have been commission driven but those people needing those mortgages would have known what was going on. He has committed fraud but in order get people the house they wanted - not to actually rip anyone off.
 
If he admitted to the charges of fraud before the series even started filming, i'm surprised that he got through to the shows.

Seemed like one of the more level headed contestants this year as well.
 
EddScott said:
He has committed fraud but in order get people the house they wanted - not to actually rip anyone off.
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In fraud, I believe that it must be proven that you are gaining in some way. His gain was to make the sale and gain the commission for the sale.

I'm pretty sure that many mortgage brokers do exactly what he did. His mistake was getting caught. However, this does not change the fact that what he did was wrong. Plain and simple.
 
She hasn't been conned. She wanted a job in AS's organisation. She has this and a nice salary.

If she is smart (which I know she is), she will settle in her new role, do it well for 3 months or so and then ask AS for something more challenging...perhaps heading up a product/service. Basically, AS has given her a role, which he feels she would be most comfortable and best at.
 
physichull said:
Each to their own I suppose, but there is more to a job than a nice salary.
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It's not about the salary. You are right.

It's about where she can be in 3-6 months. Only an idiot would be lumbered doing administration, for a full year. She is smart and I'm sure will re-negotiate her position and move on to something bigger and better (within AS's organisation), before her year is complete.

Some people think that just because you start a job in a particular role that you will be lumbered with it for the rest of your life. This is not always the case and is certainly not the case with ambitious people, who will always be thinking about their next step up the career ladder. Given the fact that Stella has risen through the ranks of the bank she works at, it is very likely that Stella is already thinking about what her next step and how she will take it.
 
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