The Apprentice UK 2017

_Dara_

Had a look at Sarah's website. I cannot believe what she is charging for items you can get in the likes of Dealz for way cheaper. :eek: The market is saturated with pick n mix products and hers have nothing unique about them. She won't win. As I saw someone say elsewhere, she should have gone down the road of sustainable packaging and fair trade, unusual sweets. That would be a more unique slant.

Fair play to anyone here who clocked that James would be a finalist because he didn't get fired when he should have done. He's the anointed winner.

jr86

Re Linda Plant, as I said earlier it's fairly blatant she's just there to act controversial.

The year before she joined, they had Ricky Martin, who actually does interviews for a living, but he was far too much of a nice guy and with Claudine Collins already there they needed a "villain" so to speak to balance it out

The whole interviews are a bit of a joke in general (I mean do you really need 4 interviewers to weed out the crap plans?) when you think about it, but sure they generate publicity for the show and are often the main talking point of the series

They are obviously much more applicable in the older format

Rekop dog

Rekop dog wrote: »

I'd give James a good chance. If his business idea is based on something similar to his previous successful experience I can't see him going too far wrong. The whole process means nothing if your business idea is crap, unlike the old version where you could pick the winner easily after a few weeks.

Called James from a good while back.

Michaela was the biggest surprise in apprentice history for me though. That struck me as very much a gamble worth taking. If she was more prim and proper like Sarah she'd have walked it.

_Dara_

_Dara_ wrote: »

Had a look at Sarah's website. I cannot believe what she is charging for items you can get in the likes of Dealz for way cheaper. :eek: The market is saturated with pick n mix products and hers have nothing unique about them. She won't win. As I saw someone say elsewhere, she should have gone down the road of sustainable packaging and fair trade, unusual sweets. That would be a more unique slant.

Fair play to anyone here who clocked that James would be a finalist because he didn't get fired when he should have done. He's the anointed winner.

What Sarah is doing is, with respect to her, nothing innovative or extra impressive. Fair play to her, you have to actually get off your ass and do it, but there's literally millions of small business people out there doing what she's doing right now from their own homes - Buy Low and Foreign (China/Asia most likely), Sell High and Local.

15 years ago a friend of mine started a business in the midlands selling tiles and bathroom settings. I love him, but the guy is an absolute spoofer and would be the first to admit it yet he wasn't a scammer or anything, all legit and decent products.

With no previous experience, he rented a small premises in his hometown and ordered in supplies on a few pallets from China, repackaged them slightly and added a sprinkle of 'Turkish Travertine' marketing magic, then sold them at unreal mark-ups. And quite successfully too. It was remarkably easy to get this business going and profits to start piling up. I don't think Alan Sugar would be investing in this though.

I have another friend who moved to the US several years ago. He started his own online business importing cheap Irish products, Irish diddly-aye stuff and he sells them to mostly US customers on his huge online catalogue, again at a good mark-up. Of course he doesn't have his own warehouse full of these catalogued products. When a customer puts in an order with him, he puts in an order with his own supplier. He's doing outrageously well at that and the business is thriving, all from his house, a computer and his garage for minimum storage (There are a few top sellers that he stocks) Again though, I'm not sure Alan Sugar would be investing in this.

A lot of this is just being a middleman. Whereas some middlemen repackage the product or combine a few into a bundle and a new product, like Sarah with her sweets, it's still incredibly basic stuff for The Apprentice.

I wonder if Sugar is just out of f**ks to give at this stage - "Well, you know I have all the money I want at this point, but the one thing Lord Sugar doesn't own yet is a sweetie business! Reckon I'd give Willy Wonka a run for his money Claude?"

jr86 wrote: »

Re Linda Plant, as I said earlier it's fairly blatant she's just there to act controversial.

The year before she joined, they had Ricky Martin, who actually does interviews for a living, but he was far too much of a nice guy and with Claudine Collins already there they needed a "villain" so to speak to balance it out

The whole interviews are a bit of a joke in general (I mean do you really need 4 interviewers to weed out the crap plans?) when you think about it, but sure they generate publicity for the show and are often the main talking point of the series

They are obviously much more applicable in the older format

I totally understand the 'entertainment' value, and the watchabilty of 'love to hate them' personalities on TV, like Simon Cowell for example. I thought The Apprentice hit this balance quite well over the years with the interviewers for the most part.

To hit that balance, you need to let the interviewees actually speak and not put the viewer off from watching. Make the personality hateful and hard, ok, but there has to be some charm or watchable quality for the viewer otherwise it goes into pantomime territory IMO.

Where you just know as a viewer, that no matter what answer the candidates give or how well they come across, Linda is going to hate on them and turn it up to 10 immediately. That just gets boring, with no nuance to it at all.

However, Linda was way off the 'Simon Cowell' mark and was just overblown and in all honesty, a word which isn't befitting of this thread.

yerwanthere123

As others have said, this is an extremely weak final, I think only matched by the Joseph-Vana final. I can't believe how poor Sarah's proposition is, and as mentioned above the prices she expects people to pay are extortionate. 20 pounds for a jar of sweets? F*ck off.

_Dara_

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

As others have said, this is an extremely weak final, I think only matched by the Joseph-Vana final. I can't believe how poor Sarah's proposition is, and as mentioned above the prices she expects people to pay are extortionate. 20 pounds for a jar of sweets? F*ck off.

I loved Vana but her business idea was weak. She would have been great in the show’s old format.

Anyhoo this show has been more about entertainment ever since Liz Locke missed out on the interview stage over Stuart bloody Baggs (RIP). That was a strong statement of intent.

yerwanthere123

_Dara_ wrote: »

I loved Vana but her business idea was weak. She would have been great in the show’s old format.

Anyhoo this show has been more about entertainment ever since Liz Locke missed out on the interview stage over Stuart bloody Baggs (RIP). That was a strong statement of intent.

I'd like to think that was a moment of madness from Lord Siúcra rather than producer manipulation, but who knows. He did basically admit his mistake the next week and tell Stuart he was "full of sh*t".

Eyepatch

Am watching The Apprentice - Why I Fired Them, by Lord Sugar. It gives a nice summary of each of the trials and why each person got fired. Interesting watching Elizabeth and Michaella. No wonder so many people here expected them to be in the Final. They certainly provided great entertainment.

kopite386

So just from reading this thread I saw that James and Jade hooked up ?!
And I forgot about the whole Anisa and Andrew hook up

laylag

kopite386 wrote:

So just from reading this thread I saw that James and Jade hooked up ?! And I forgot about the whole Anisa and Andrew hook up

Yep they got together. And James apparently went into the process engaged to his long term girlfriend. When the story broke he apparently just turned off his phone and went off the radar to his fiance. Lovely guy.

Using "apparently" as my source is the daily mail website!!

jr86

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

As others have said, this is an extremely weak final, I think only matched by the Joseph-Vana final. I can't believe how poor Sarah's proposition is, and as mentioned above the prices she expects people to pay are extortionate. 20 pounds for a jar of sweets? F*ck off.

I actually liked Joseph and Vana but thought the final was poor, simply because it was so obvious imo that Joseph would win.

SimonTemplar

jr86 wrote: »

Re Linda Plant, as I said earlier it's fairly blatant she's just there to act controversial.

The year before she joined, they had Ricky Martin, who actually does interviews for a living, but he was far too much of a nice guy and with Claudine Collins already there they needed a "villain" so to speak to balance it out

The whole interviews are a bit of a joke in general (I mean do you really need 4 interviewers to weed out the crap plans?) when you think about it, but sure they generate publicity for the show and are often the main talking point of the series

They are obviously much more applicable in the older format

If I went for an interview, and the interviewer spoke to me like Linda Plant, I wouldn't want to work there.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I'm actually debating whether I'll even bother watching the final on Sunday - might just check in here to see who wins, and make better use of my time by watching Die Hard for the 50th time or something...

wyrn

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

I'm actually debating whether I'll even bother watching the final on Sunday - might just check in here to see who wins, and make better use of my time by watching Die Hard for the 50th time or something...

Yeah I'm not all that pushed either

jr86

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

I'm actually debating whether I'll even bother watching the final on Sunday - might just check in here to see who wins, and make better use of my time by watching Die Hard for the 50th time or something...

I'm actually going to miss it. Well miss the first half hour or so but you know what I'm not gonna bother catching the end.

Very underwhelming final and series. I wonder will ratings for the final take a hit?

Go Harvey Go

jr86 wrote: »

Very underwhelming final and series. I wonder will ratings for the final take a hit?

Viewing figures are certainly down on last year - many episodes have attracted less than seven million viewers, and the figure for the series opener was the lowest in almost a decade.

But the Beeb will remain happy as long as the show continues to feature in the BBC1 top 10 every week.

yerwanthere123

Given how underwhelming the final looks to be I think the viewing figures will take a bit of a dip alright, but after thirteen years the figures overall are very healthy indeed.

Rekop dog

Was actually thinking the reason Sugar didn't pick Michaela was probably due to some dodgy dealings in her other businesses. There was one business when he was stacking them in the interview that had an undefined label. Guessing Sugar wouldn't want his name associated with her even if her business may have been lucrative.

IvySlayer

Why didn't anyone suggest to Michaela that she steps down from her other businesses to appease Lord Sugar?

davyboy1975

Maybe it was the glasses that put lord sugar off, I mean maybe he has a thing against spectacles since tom won it a few years ago :-(

Eyepatch

Pity about Elizabeth being so bossy in her personality, as she appeared to be the most energetic, hard working and genuine person there.

seligehgit

Eyepatch wrote: »

Pity about Elizabeth being so bossy in her personality, as she appeared to be the most energetic, hard working and genuine person there.

Agreed but it appears likely that her business was simply not scalable.

Jamie2k9

All very quiet here, think James will win but out of both I would prefer Sarah.

reap-a-rat

How do you not already have a load of names prepared for your company? How?

wyrn

Haven't bothered tuning in. I think Lord Sugar has wanted James early in the process.

Jamie2k9

My God, Sarach would of found a better team by picking random's off the street,

No Jade tonight.

I like refreshers and dib dab sherbet, but chic they are not.

yerwanthere123

Really like the postable gift box thing for Sarah's brand, maybe there's more life in her idea than we thought.

robyntmorton

My problem is that for both finalists, there is a Sugar partner that was in that field to point them in that direction.

Is he treading the same ground now?