Apprentice UK III

So, I don't have much to say about what happened. There are few things which I think could be done in other way.However, it is the game show and I am not Sir Alan Sugar.

Instead of reporting what happened I will like to talk about what I thought about the finale.

First of all I was shocked when Sugar fired James. It just doesn't make any sense at all. However, people were saying James was there just for the TV. Despite the fact that he is the one who have won most tasks in the whole competition, he was fired. I don't know what Sir Alan sugar was cooking in his head. And I was shocked more when he fired Paul, leaving Saira and Tim as the finalist.

However, it starting to make sense when he gave the final task to both the remaining contestants. And it was evident that its too hard to teach new tricks to old dog. He asked both Saira and Tim to create an event. Which will be judged on the basis of creativity as well as the success of the event. Profit will not be "the Criteria" for this challenge. Which meant he wanted some event which doesn't have the short term profits but have long term benefits. He also want to see who listens to him as well.
So, Tim had a fashion show which was a simple and great idea and Saira had the wine tasting which is more lucrative as well as more fun. She had a great business plan but she didnt get one part and that to listen to the requirement, or say listen to Sir Alan Sugar.

She was more focused on making profit and selling the idea. Tim, on the other hand was hiring the prospective customers.

Saira made profit of 800 pounds and Tim was left with 2500 pounds in loss. But what he did is to make sure to listen to the Master. And that is the first duty or the apprentice or aspiring to be apprentice. That is why Sir Alan sugar said " you are hired" to Tim Campbell.

* if you liked it or if you hated it or if you are in the middle of like and hating please leave a comment and let me know what you feel about it*

Cheers

The Apprentice UK: II

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4th episode: Sir Alan Sugar asked all his contestants to sell in retail environment. Selling is one of the most important aspect of business(stating the obvious). Because of the obvious reason i.e sales directly proportional to profit. One know how to sell in order to stay in the business. And to be honest, their is not one general formula for successful sales. People have to come up with different sales techniques all the time.

So coming back to challenge, Now the teams' task was to pick products form "Harrods" and sell them. Both the teams have designated areas with equal potential. Both the teams picked up almost similar kind of products. The products mainly consist of stuffed animals and accessories. Both teams have different strategies, however the same goals i.e to get the most customers and make more and more sales. what do you think? am I going to tell you what happened....oooo noway Jose...tune in BBC America and watch the show.

I like the way they are teaching the basics of business and good way to get motivation as well.
be back with more(To be Continued...)

Cheers
MS

The Apprentice UK

Since we were kids, generally people around us ask: "What do you want to be when you grow old?" I don't know about others, but what I have generally seen is that people tend to get attracted towards corporate culture, and corporate culture demands every candidate to have certain skills. The selection committee of corporation figures out if a person is suitable for a job or not by a job interview. Job interview- isn't it one of the most scary things in life? Especially for people who are aspiring to be in corporate culture. There are also interviews for different sectors as well, but the focus on this blog is towards corporate and business interviews.

Now, generally before getting a job a candidate need to go through several level of interviews. Ask any person, irrespective of whether they are from finance, HR, IT, R&D etc. how their job interview or interviews were. I am sure they will have a good story with juicy tidbits in it. However, if you ask the according stress level to get that job, mostly everybody will share the same experience, which was"stressful."Now lets talk about a job interview which takes 12 weeks in total to end. Job interview for 12 weeks means 12 rounds for a job interview. Yeah, this is the concept behind "The Apprentice."

People in the business sector generally know Donald Trump all over the world. He started the original show. His catch phase "you are fired" became so famous, which also made the show super-hit. Then the show progressed from Apprentice to Celebrity Apprentice. Martha Stewart also has a version of show and now there is a UK version of the show where the boss is Sir Alan Sugar.

Amazing idea, that is what I say, and good way to get the basic concepts on business. This season so far Sir Alan Sugar has fired 4 people so far (mind you its on BBC America so I might be a little inaccurate). I started watching the show form the second episode, so I missed the first task. However, the second task was pretty interesting. For those people who don't know what happens in the show :

1. There a two teams of highly qualified successful businessmen/ businesswomen.


2. Both the teams are given same task and both teams will pick project managers for that particular task .


3. Now, the winning depends on the nature of the task.


4. Finally, the winning team will get rewards and loosing teams get board-room bashing and one of them gets fired.

So, coming back to second task, it was very cool. Both the teams was suppose to create a product for a world's worst consumers-kids. This task was focused to see how people can handle themselves when they are dealing with one of the worst market segments, and also it will help an individual to learn how to focus on the specific segments by keeping aside their prejudices. That was one of the most important lessons. It is hard to get rid of prejudices, however IMHO this was the actual challenge for this task. So both the teams approached the task differently. Both the teams did research and created products. One team won and the other lost, and so one person from the loosing team was fired. But the lesson was important-to focus on the market segment. If you make houses for low income group and try to sell it to high income group do you think you can make money? IMHO I think no, unless high income group person is looking for investing to generate some sort of cash flow because all the market segments are driven by specific wants and specific needs.

On third week both the teams were given the task to buy certain items, and who ever buys all the items and saves more money will be the winner. So, this task was also important for the fact that in order to sell stuff you also need to know where to buy stuff from. The cheap but good quality stuff brings a lot more money into our pocket. So, now the funny part was both the teams were shopping in relatively expensive areas for this task. Then one guy, from one team took the team to less expensive areas and they got the good deals.

Its just basic stuff which we tend to forget.

To be continued.....


Cheers
MS