Its a alright one yeah... obviously its likely been done already and the firms he's using likely already provide this service to other brands too. Though he can market it, get some more publicity as a result of the apprentice and seems to be adding something more unique with his cyclist thing. While we might not hear about him in the press again he might well do OK as a business owner anyway.
The Apprentice - Series 9
- Thread starter fozzybear
- Start date
Its a alright one yeah... obviously its likely been done already and the firms he's using likely already provide this service to other brands too. Though he can market it, get some more publicity as a result of the apprentice and seems to be adding something more unique with his cyclist thing. While we might not hear about him in the press again he might well do OK as a business owner anyway.
I thought it was a price comparison website. It just seems to be referral based? Just a directory of legal firms.
Less impressed now.
Yeah price comparison would be good - doubt many law firms would want to get involved in that though - publishing and making prices transparent and inevitably facing pressure to cut them/reduce margins. Then again the internet has managed to absorb and demolish a fair few industries so I guess its only time till someone tries it.
Yeah his idea isn't particularly innovative but its an alright business for him - can seem him doing OK out of it if he can use his appearance on the show to market it a bit and the cycling niche thing he's targeting could be interesting.
Soldato
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Surprised that Karen thought Luisa did well in this task. I thought she completely left the other woman in the lurch by sending her off to do the food. She got off really lightly this week. Hope she doesn't win.
Neil says they will add spice and that secures orders?
So in theory you could make up anything (as it's all role play anyway) and get away with it? I.e. team Endeavour could have said they'd remove the skull and stick something else in it's place and that would have won them more orders?
Either provide an opportunity to test the product and make changes before the pitch or the teams should pitch the product as is.
What they allowed Neil to do (and others in previous series) was remove all value from the task.
Stupid IMO.
So in theory you could make up anything (as it's all role play anyway) and get away with it? I.e. team Endeavour could have said they'd remove the skull and stick something else in it's place and that would have won them more orders?
Either provide an opportunity to test the product and make changes before the pitch or the teams should pitch the product as is.
What they allowed Neil to do (and others in previous series) was remove all value from the task.
Stupid IMO.
As an Ocado customer, I'm really disappointed with them that they placed that order. Makes me think that the only thing Ocado care about when deciding what to food offer their customers is packaging and not the quality of the food.
Associate
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This is what I don't get about the show. They could say anything in the pitches, because they aren't running a real company, so they don't need to worry about fostering goodwill, or having good customer relations. In the one year they were supposed to make a bunch of breadrolls, but they only made a tiny fraction of what they promised, so the PM gave the client some money back even though he would never see him again.
Associate
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Glad it wasn't just me that thought that: I was shouting at the telly "FFS, you backstabbing little tart ..." - ghastly little madam talks a good fight, but is sadly lacking when it comes to substance. Needs bringing back down to earth with a bang, that one ...
Really don't understand how Karren Brady can be "so impressed" with her, unless she is seeing something different going on than is being presented to the viewing public.
I think shes just trying to convince herself to be honest. Luisa has an appalling character.
I've often wondered about this before, the same goes for the design task where they sometimes come out with "oh yes we can make the chair a bit lower/higher" or whatever.
I'm in two minds; on the one hand, in a realistic situation most new suppliers pitching a prototype would probably be willing to cater to the needs of a retail giant if it would help secure them some big orders. It's not like when they go into a pitch they have already produced huge volumes of stock. On the other hand, it does make a mockery of some of the earlier task fundamentals such as the creation of the product they are pitching.
Although probably not feasible within the constraints of the show I think the idea about letting them pitch and then revise based on feedback within a given time period would actually work better and would probably help the teams who come up with the best concept rather than the ones that execute it with the least flaws first time.
As for the fostering goodwill thing again that has irked me for a while, essentially in some tasks there is no need to actually have satisfied customers, it is just about one-off sales. Take the food tasks for example, in a previous series they had to create a gourmet takeaway and LS said something along the lines of "this needs to be high quality not any old slop" but there was no actual regulation of that in the process - no subjective rating by consumers or a panel, all that mattered was the team that turned the biggest profit on the day.
In the real world, if you served up some ropey food you wouldn't succeed in the long term due to customers not coming back and word of mouth. However in this one-day-only scenario, repeat business is going to be virtually zero regardless of how amazing your food is so there is very little incentive to actually produce good food, all that matters is how much you can sell it for and how much it cost to produce. Sell an unbelievably tasty meal for £5 that cost £3 to make, you get £2 profit. Sell some disgusting slop for £5 that cost £1.50 to make, you get £3.50 profit. Longer term the first option might be more successful, but not under this format.
Anyway coming back to the latest episode, I must admit I did think Francesca was 'well and truly stitched up' as she put it, it seemed very strange having her in the kitchen when she clearly had no clue about food - Louisa played a shrewd game there ducking out of it by playing down her own food business. Should she have tasted the food? Of course, but I'd have hated to be in that situation - on my own for pretty much the first time in the series (team of 3) doing something I know nothing about. Even if she had tasted the food, would she have had time to do anything about it (i.e. come up with something better, given she had no clue about cooking)?
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Associate
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I think Francesca is going to be out next week,she's not really done anything, the only thing of note is that she looks a lot like the previous winner Stella english.
I reckon Jordan and Neil will be arranged the last 2.
I reckon Jordan and Neil will be arranged the last 2.
Nah, Luisa's going to win it imo.
Caporegime
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Blocking people from comin in by the loooks of it.
