The Apprentice UK 2017

yerwanthere123

Very, very surprised he didn't put Michaela in the final. Very, very surprised that Sarah is in the final! James looks like the clear winner to me now.

seligehgit

TBH I'm really surprised he didn't go for Michaela,a proven entrepreneur.

fullstop

As Sarah would say "that is so frustrating to hear" :rolleyes:

Utopia Parkway

Must be the most boring final two ever in The Apprentice. Don't think I even knew Sarah's name until about 3 weeks ago. She was so unremarkable during the whole process.

Someone who sells sweets in plastic jars and an IT recruiter is a bit disappointing to be honest.

Recruitment seems to be a popular winner of late. Wasn't Ricky Martin and Mark Wright both in recruitment of some sort?

dark crystal

I knew Joanna and Elizabeth wouldn't make it, but I honestly though he'd take Michaela straight to the final. That was a shocking firing.

I reckon James has this now.

jr86

Elizabeth's business plan was very uninspiring so as I had assumed she was brought through as entertainment value. That said I actually think she was the most credible business person if it were the old format.

It was blatantly obvious James was the potential winner when he survived a firing as losing pm a few weeks back.

IT recruitment is massive and there's great potential there

Sarah is completely forgettable, and her business idea is hardly anything special

It doesn't sit right with me that she made the final over Michaela.

Finally, that Linda plant is nothing but a cheap ratings stunt

jr86

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Must be the most boring final two ever in The Apprentice. Don't think I even knew Sarah's name until about 3 weeks ago. She was so unremarkable during the whole process.

Someone who sells sweets in plastic jars and an IT recruiter is a bit disappointing to be honest.

Recruitment seems to be a popular winner of late. Wasn't Ricky Martin and Mark Wright both in recruitment of some sort?

Mark Wright is SEO.

From what I see his business is booming completely, in a crowded market

_Dara_

Michaela should be there. Really dull final two. Last year I was rooting for Alana. This year... meh.

I can't see Suicre going for another confectionery business but James doesn't seem at all trustworthy. But then I can't see Sarah being ballsy enough. Her not having a working website is ridic. I know a duo who have a cake and coffee van that they drive around to events. It's a new business and they already have a simple but sleek website. For Sarah not to have that is worrying and very surprising.

Michaela should be there. And honestly, Elizabeth would also inspire more confidence in me than the two finalists.

jr86

In the circumstances I'm actually now surprised sarah even made it through over Harrison, never mind to the final

Assumed she'd have a very solid business idea

jr86

Lord Sugar saying michaela can't focus on several businesses at once?

Eh how delicious is that ironing?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

What a boring final 2 - should've been Michaela and Jade in the final. May not bother with the Apprentice next year, it's a shadow of the show it used to be, and this season has been the worst of the lot.

LushiousLips

Michaela should be in the final imo. Both as a person and her business plan.

md23040

The best bit of the apprentice this year was on “you’re fired” were Michaela absolutely flamed Mike Soutar with her jibe with her running successful businesses all the time, isn’t that right Mike.

It was a totally, your owned moment where he tried to laugh it off before his face totally dropped and the other panel members including Rob Gilbert split their sides laughing with the Julius Caesar thumbs down salute.

Deserved throughly to the prick who has had many magazine failures including Zoo and Nuts.

Michaela is too smart for them and was a clear winner. Not arsed at all about the final but Sugar has missed a serious and credible business entrepreneur and proposition.

yerwanthere123

I think it's increasingly clear now that Michaela was too good for the show, and that ironically seems to have played against her.

wyrn

Thought Hugh had a great idea on You're Fired. Hire Michaela and have a % in each business she opens while being her business partner. Genius. I really think Lord Sugar missed out there.

If James wins it'll be a sham. He should have gone the week he lost when PM

Eyepatch

I'm not at all surprised that Michaela went. She has a most unsettling, couldn't care less way about her. The fact she had ammassed all of those businesses, shows her to be a bit unstable, wihout the ability or stayng power to focus on one or even two busnesses and stick with them. Seems like someone going from Billy to Jack, starting this business and quckly move on to something else. Granted, she's very intelligent and has no probelm setting up businesses, but there it stops, far as I'm concerned. Lord Sugar would have been mad to take her on.

The two remaining people are most uninspiring, to say the least.

yerwanthere123

Well, that was a complete anti-climax. The two most bland of the remaining 5 make it through. Repackaged Sweets versus The Golden Recruiter. 'What's her name again?' vs 'The guy who ****ed Jade'.

I was trying to find the words as the episode came to a close, and then the OH found them for me: We have no one to root for in the final this year.

I would have liked to see Elizabeth v Michaela, but Elizabeth wanting to start another Interflora with no USP or twist was a tough sell. Sugar did like her though.

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

I think it's increasingly clear now that Michaela was too good for the show, and that ironically seems to have played against her.

It's a strange one. I was on the fence about her up until recently, but she totally won me over in that latest episode. She spoke all the right terms and backed them up. She honestly looked like the only one who had a hope of turning £3m into £30m without needing Sugar to hand-hold her every step of the way. Set that woman up with a few connections, an office and some staff and leave her to it - I'd be very surprised if she didn't thrive.

Eyepatch wrote: »

I'm not at all surprised that Michaela went. She has a most unsettling, couldn't care less way about her. The fact she had ammassed all of those businesses, shows her to be a bit unstable, wihout the ability or stayng power to focus on one or even two busnesses and stick with them. Seems like someone going from Billy to Jack, starting this business and quckly move on to something else. Granted, she's very intelligent and has no probelm setting up businesses, but there it stops, far as I'm concerned. Lord Sugar would have been mad to take her on.

The two remaining people are most uninspiring, to say the least.

Respectfully I disagree about Michaela. If that 'couldn't care less' attitude was proven to be harmful to her businesses, fair enough, but it wasn't.

If they had have showed Michaela making a complete eejit of herself, beyond not being able to answer how many businesses she's opened in the last 7 years (Note that that is not the same as not being able to answer how many businesses you own outright) then there would be something to raise an eyebrow.

When they didn't give us details of those businesses, their size or their ongoing status, there is no reason to assume that she is unstable or hasn't stuck with them.

Having a group of businesses isn't a good enough reason not to consider her, not when they are successful businesses and one of them has a turnover of over £3m. If they had have shown that these were shítty/shell companies, well and good, but they didn't. They tried to show her as a cross between a serial entrepreneur and a cowboy, but they failed on the latter IMO.

What they did show is that Michaela is a bit of a marvel. So much more than she showed (to me, anyway) for most of the process. I'm honestly a bit stunned that she wasn't one of the finalists after that episode.

'You have too many successful businesses, this is a worry for Alan Sugar.' Really, seriously?

That's mad.

siblers

It's a bit annoying that they don't give more details of the business. In Elizabeth's case they made no mention of how she works with housing companies and hospitals to generate extra revenue until she was in the boardroom, during the interview process they made it seem like she had a a very straight forward business which isn't really the case, it made me wonder what other details they left out from the various business plans.

I was very surprised Michaela was fired, I thought she was a shoe in to win it, never mind to make the final

siblers

Eyepatch wrote: »

I'm not at all surprised that Michaela went. She has a most unsettling, couldn't care less way about her. The fact she had ammassed all of those businesses, shows her to be a bit unstable, wihout the ability or stayng power to focus on one or even two busnesses and stick with them. Seems like someone going from Billy to Jack, starting this business and quckly move on to something else. Granted, she's very intelligent and has no probelm setting up businesses, but there it stops, far as I'm concerned. Lord Sugar would have been mad to take her on.

The two remaining people are most uninspiring, to say the least.

Setting up a business and there it stops? She has a magazine that's turning over 3 million a year, she also expanded the business by hiring new staff and moving into a new office.

The other businesses are ones she is a shareholder in and probably does **** all in the day to day in the running but the show decided to omit her explanation for those businesses.

As for her attitude, again, if she didn't give a **** she wouldn't have such a successful business, nor would she have finished third

miamee

I missed the previous two weeks so I was surprised to see last night that Jade had gone, I was sure she would be a semi-finalist or finalist.

Same as most of you, I was very surprised at Michaela being fired and am not a bit excited about the final. I may even give it a miss. Sarah has been pretty wishy washy all through the process and that kind of person is usually the type Sugar would clear out at some stage but not this year for whatever reason. Perhaps she had very few losses leaving him with few opportunities, I can't remember. It's not been a great year.

jr86

Yup, poor year all-in-all for me too

And very underwhelming business ideas.

Then again if you had something decent I'm sure you'd go through Dragons Den or even chambers of commerce/enterprise boards for example

Eyepatch

Re Michaela, I accept she has a lot of support here. Something about her personality really turned me off. Hell, she ddn't even know how many businesses she had started up. Just her attitude towrds the interviewers! She came across as if she couldn't care less as to what they had to say. She came across as disdainful of the process.

Compared to Elizabeth, who showed such a desire to succeed and even was working on chaning her personality in order to get that deal with Lord Sugar. In the interviews, she was well able to speak up for herself, but still came across as a likeable person.

It's probably a personal thing with me, but I just could not take to Michaela on a personality level. Possibly the same thing with Lord Sugar. To say she was too good for the show, sounds just crazy to me.

siblers

Eyepatch wrote: »

Re Michaela, I accept she has a lot of support here. Something about her personality really turned me off. Hell, she ddn't even know how many businesses she had started up. Just her attitude towrds the interviewers! she came across as if she couldn't care less as to what they had to say. She came across as disdainful of the process.

Compared to Elizabeth, who showed such a desire to succeed and even was working on chaning her personality in order to get that deal with Lord Sugar. In the intterviews, she was well able to speak up for herself, but still came across as a likeable person.

It's probably a personal thing with me, but I just could not take to Michaela on a persoanlity level. Possibly the same thing with Lord Sugar. To say she was too good for the show, sounds just crazy to me.

Elizabeth was incredibly abrupt and quite rude in one of her interviews, to be fair to the contestants, if you worked your ass off to grow a business and were then being slated by those interviewers, you wouldn't just sit there and take it.

miamee

I think the interviews may have been difficult for both Michaela and Elizabeth because in the real world, they are both their own boss and boss of others. They may not have done very many job interviews before or certainly not recently. I thought Elizabeth was quite defensive in her interviews and I was watching thinking "she's ruining it for herself now". She's absolutely been one of my favourites all along so I was disappointed to see that.

robyntmorton

I expected an Elizabeth/Michaela final to be honest, and both will do well out of it even without the investment.

I liked Elizabeth from the start, in that she was always upfront and to the point, but any potential client knows that if they say to her “we need 25000 of X” it will get done. It’s just a pity she didn’t articulate her USP (that we saw)

The final two are pretty uninspiring, but it’s most likely James to win at this stage.

_Dara_

Eyepatch wrote: »

Re Michaela, I accept she has a lot of support here. Something about her personality really turned me off. Hell, she ddn't even know how many businesses she had started up. Just her attitude towrds the interviewers! She came across as if she couldn't care less as to what they had to say. She came across as disdainful of the process.

Actually, I agree, Michaela did have a slight arrogance about her, last night and throughout the process.

Eyepatch

Eyepatch wrote: »

Re Michaela, I accept she has a lot of support here. Something about her personality really turned me off. Hell, she ddn't even know how many businesses she had started up. Just her attitude towrds the interviewers! She came across as if she couldn't care less as to what they had to say. She came across as disdainful of the process.

Compared to Elizabeth, who showed such a desire to succeed and even was working on chaning her personality in order to get that deal with Lord Sugar. In the interviews, she was well able to speak up for herself, but still came across as a likeable person.

It's probably a personal thing with me, but I just could not take to Michaela on a personality level. Possibly the same thing with Lord Sugar. To say she was too good for the show, sounds just crazy to me.

I get what you mean. She did seem a bit tired of the process by the end and while she was leaving she said she was happy to be through that 'hell-hole' or something to that effect.

Apparently though she has a young child who she was missing throughout the filming of the show. That doesn't excuse any and all flaws a person might have, but might explain why she seemed a bit jaded with it by the end.

As for the interviewers...

Who is the older lady? I forget her name each year, but she is absolutely horrible and pretty useless there. I get that one of the interviewers has to be 'Really Bad Cop', but it went way OTT. She didn't let Joanna get one sentence in, just berated her. Similar with Elizabeth.

I'm more a fan of Claude's style: Harsh, but still gets something out of the candidates. With yon older lady, as much as I like the interview episode overall, I found myself wanting it to end or get to the boardroom just so I wouldn't have to experience her disgusting screen presence once more (without having to turn the show off outright of course).

mojesius

[Deleted User] wrote: »

As for the interviewers...

Who is the older lady? I forget her name each year, but she is absolutely horrible and pretty useless there. I get that one of the interviewers has to be 'Really Bad Cop', but it went way OTT. She didn't let Joanna get one sentence in, just berated her. Similar with Elizabeth.

I'm more a fan of Claude's style: Harsh, but still gets something out of the candidates. With yon older lady, as much as I like the interview episode overall, I found myself wanting it to end or get to the boardroom just so I wouldn't have to experience her disgusting screen presence once more (without having to turn the show off outright of course).

I agree, she was uncomfortable to watch. I'm sure it's all in the name of entertainment but she was pure poison to watch. You can ask the tough questions in a civil manner without wearing someone down.

Eyepatch

Obviously, the purpose of the "interviews" is to needle the candates and put them on the "back foot" to see how they react under extreme pressure.
I wouldn't be 100% sure that James is going to get through. His history isn't great, considring he got sacked from the large busines he was with. Now, to grow his own business, he has to poach clients from his previous employers. Added to all of that, he breaks down and cries. Not helping his case. Loved the way Elizabeth went over and hugged him.

The other finalist - can't even remember her name - might, in the end, be a better candidate.

How they perform on Sunday, may have a huge influence on the outcome.

_Dara_

Deleted User wrote: »

I get what you mean. She did seem a bit tired of the process by the end and while she was leaving she said she was happy to be through that 'hell-hole' or something to that effect.

Do you know, I actually sensed relief off all the firees last night. Joanna was practically beaming! I think it must be an absolutely draining experience and a long time to be away from loved ones so I'd actually say that in the moment, once you realise you haven't won, that in a way relief might wash over you.

I really hate the older lady interviewer too. She would not let Joanna speak. :mad: The other woman was quite nice though, definitely the kindest of the interviewers.