The Apprentice.

I think the blue trouser suit girl, Megan?, with the cake café might have outshone Marnie the boxer in the final analysis. Megan was very switched on, but I think her business was too close to a couple of others who have won before, so Alan Sugar had to get rid of her.

Sago

Katie59

Poor Alan Sugar having to be a partner in a Boxing Gym or Hairdressing Salon, there is no prospect whatever of making any money out of either.

Boxing is mostly voluntary because boxers dont have money to pay for training, successful individuals do make money but they are very few.
Hairdressing is bare bones pay and many rent chairs out by the hour to pay the rent, competition is intense.

The candidates may be the best of the bunch, neither has a USP the business models can easily be copied. If the plans were presented to “The Dragons” they would get laughed out the room.

Boxing or boxercise as it’s known is great exercise, my DIL pays a lot of money for sessions at a London gym.
Regarding hairdressing, a top stylist can make a lot of money, I have friends who will happily hand over £100’s of pounds for a couple of hours in the chair.

It’s an illusion, by the time rent, rates, labour insurance and all the other overheads profit is slim at best.

Katie59

Poor Alan Sugar having to be a partner in a Boxing Gym or Hairdressing Salon, there is no prospect whatever of making any money out of either.

Boxing is mostly voluntary because boxers dont have money to pay for training, successful individuals do make money but they are very few.
Hairdressing is bare bones pay and many rent chairs out by the hour to pay the rent, competition is intense.

The candidates may be the best of the bunch, neither has a USP the business models can easily be copied. If the plans were presented to “The Dragons” they would get laughed out the room.

Boxing or boxercise as it’s known is great exercise, my DIL pays a lot of money for sessions at a London gym.
Regarding hairdressing, a top stylist can make a lot of money, I have friends who will happily hand over £100’s of pounds for a couple of hours in the chair.

Poor Alan Sugar having to be a partner in a Boxing Gym or Hairdressing Salon, there is no prospect whatever of making any money out of either.

Boxing is mostly voluntary because boxers dont have money to pay for training, successful individuals do make money but they are very few.
Hairdressing is bare bones pay and many rent chairs out by the hour to pay the rent, competition is intense.

The candidates may be the best of the bunch, neither has a USP the business models can easily be copied. If the plans were presented to “The Dragons” they would get laughed out the room.

What a dilemma for Lord Sugsr!
I've enjoyed the series - but wouldn't employ any of them this time.

biglouis

The woman who wants to open the boxing gyms at least has some experience of her sport and has raised a considerable amount of money by her own efforts. Its a good start.

She has the promise of money, presumably if she can match it with money from Lord Sugar.

Having watched the entire series, unlike some posters, I do not recall hearing any contestant actually personally address or receive a comment from Karren nor Tim Campbell at any time.

Would you normally address an interviewer who you had never met by their first name

I was 16 when I went to my first interview (civil service) and was accompanied by my grandmother. Both the school uniform which I wore and the accompanying relative were considereed perfectly acceptable back then (1960). She told me to call the men "Sir" and the woman "Miss" as I had at school.

Until the 1980s I always called older/senior people in the workplace Mr and Mrs even if they called me by my first name. Then I went to uni and had all that knocked out of me.

Actually I'm sure at the beginning of the programme when they handed in their business plans, Lord Sugar said something like, " And Baroness Brady is now joining us on the interview panel." He was obviously setting a more serious tone, and any astute candidate might have grasped what type of behaviour he was expecting in this situation.
Although easy to trip up if they had been calling her Karen for weeks.

The woman who wants to open the boxing gyms at least has some experience of her sport and has raised a considerable amount of money by her own efforts. Its a good start.

In 2011 the late Stuart Baggs was summoned to one of his final interviews with Margaret Mountford.

He breezed in with a cheery “Hello Margaret” Margaret immediately shot him down with “Would you normally address an interviewer who you had never met by their first name?”

These mock interviews are set up to be as realistic to true life and which the candidates may well encounter during their careers.

“

They don't have long to accomplish these tasks and they don't have any space for alterations or improvements. In any respectable enterprise they would not have to come up with a bulletproof product with no chance of tweaking it, and in any respectable enterprise the market research would begin before they settled on a final plan. So I cringed to see one team having to try to put a positive spin on a male cosmetic that turned the skin green - poor souls! - in Real Life they would have had the opportunity to test, tweak, test, tweak till ready.

That said, I felt very scornful of the team that produced the "Artic Saviour" game. It wasn't a question of not being able to spell it, none of them were pronouncing it properly, so they spelt it as they heard it. HOW many were there in that team that not one of them knew the correct word, or the fact that Penguins are only found in the southern hemisphere? Why didn't they base their product on something that at least one of them knew something about?

I only started watching with a catch-up of the previous series. I'm not normally a reality fan, and I do feel almost all the candidates are poseurs of the first water, looking not so much for a business career as an opportunity to become a "celebrity". I suspect that the people who left the "Process" were the ones who were taking it too seriously, woke up and saw the treadmill and decided to get off before they made twits of themselves.

I’ve always enjoyed The Apprentice, and I’ve liked this bunch - they seemed supportive of each other on the whole, not as self-important as usual, and there’s been a lot of humour. Of course it’s ridiculous to expect anyone to devise a decent product, market and sell it in a few hours, but it gives a snapshot of what they can do. The process has to be carefully edited or it wouldn’t be entertaining.

As for the candidates being “bullied” in the interviews - if I’d put myself forward as a businesswoman and didn’t know the difference between turnover and profit, or had missed the staffing costs out of my business plan, I’d take the mockery on the chin!

Team Marnie here.

(accidently found while scrolling through the channels

Oh that old excuse! 😂

I have the memory of an 🐘.
It was Megan who used the name "Karren". She came back to the room with the girls waiting and said, "I accidenrally called her Karren instead of Baroness Brady". The next girl got it right because Meghan had tipped her off.

cariad

I think the one who said ‘Karren’, then corrected herself, wasn’t the first one to forget the ‘Baroness Brady’. That was a previous one, and she had forewarned the others about it.

First of all I think there has been a misunderstanding over the 'Karen/Baroness Brady' issue...I have just watched (in TOTAL amazement!) the last episode (accidently found while scrolling through the channels I must add!) and it was the contestant who actually corrected herself after she called Ms Brady, 'Karen'...as she turned to leave she then hurriedly said 'Baroness' Brady...Secondly, a poster suggested "I think we have to put aside their cosmetic procedures and dress sense."...I could NOT agree less!! I know at 74 I would be considered 'old and irrelevant' in this new world order but I do keep up with modern trends and am often told that I 'don't look or act my age' but SERIOUSLY?! Why can't these BEAUTIFUL young women see what they have done to themselves? Why do they all seem to be practically clones of each other and PLEASE, somebody tell me why they pay actual money to get lips that resemble either at best, a pair of pink slugs or at worst, a baboon's backside?! There was sooo much botox floating around in that studio no wrinkle would dare show itself, unless it was on Alan Sugar's face obviously! My point is that if they don't even realise that, in many people's eyes, they have made themselves the object of ridicule (sorry, I know that's subjective but nevertheless it's true) how do they expect to be taken seriously, garner respect or inspire confidence in their self professed abilities? Well actually, let's face it, that overall ability didn't add up to much either did it? Thankfully the only one who looked and sounded as if she even knew vaguely what she was doing, what her aims were and had even an original business plan is in the final! No, not the one who would win 'who's got the biggest lips competition'!!

I probably won’t watch the next series. ‘Baroness Brady’ was the last straw. Doesn’t anyone look at the business plans as part of the audition process? Maybe they are selected on the basis of choosing those with the most bombastic claims on their tapes.

“Alan Sugar had referred to her as "Karen"! Therefore the contestants already know her as simply "Karen".

It is normal to refer to someone of equal “rank” with a christian name, lower ranks should use “sir or lord” as appropriate unless otherwise directed.
You may not like the ranking system but if you want to progress you have to live with it.

Well I love it! Alan Sugar reminds me of my dad - same quick mind/quips (although I suspect they might be rehearsed!) I think the interviews are deliberately tough to discover whether these people can back up their claims etc and as someone said these are very egotistical people, so this is designed, I'm sure, to take them down a peg or two. They, themselves have chosen to endure this process on tv. If they've watched the show, they should know what they are letting themselves in for.
Having said that, I did think the "baroness Brady" bit was OTT and unnecessary since throughout the process, Alan Sugar had referred to her as "Karen"! Therefore the contestants already know her as simply "Karen". That was very wrong
I like trying to decide what I would do in the shoes of the contestants, to fulfil the tasks set. Wish he'd do a show for people who might have a good idea for a product but no idea how to bring it to market, nor in owning the business that does. I'd happily accept a percentage of profits if any of my ideas were taken up and I think AS could have a new show on these lines! Lots of people have good ideas but don't want to start up a business.

Frogs

I always think it’s ridiculous to expect the candidates to plan and successfully complete a variety of weekly tasks in 2 or 3 days. It’s not surprising they then mess them up and get ripped to pieces by Lord Sugar.
In the real world these sort of projects would take weeks if not months of planning, with the chance to consult experts in the particular field and with the benefit of being able to use the internet to research.

It must take a lot of hard work to mess up dog food though!

I can't imagine any self-respecting dog going for that gunge.

I always think it’s ridiculous to expect the candidates to plan and successfully complete a variety of weekly tasks in 2 or 3 days. It’s not surprising they then mess them up and get ripped to pieces by Lord Sugar.
In the real world these sort of projects would take weeks if not months of planning, with the chance to consult experts in the particular field and with the benefit of being able to use the internet to research.

Well, she is a one-off!!
We hope 😁

Dottydots

I watched it and could have cried for those poor girls. How they were spoken to was disgusting.

What do you think the young girls are there for: in the hope they will be seen
They aren’t wilting violets straight out of the convent.

Callistemon21

I don't think there are many people like Katie Hopkins, to be fair!!

Don't get me started!