Episode 4 – Buying Task
In this episode, the teams were sent to Jersey to buy nine specific items. There was a target price for each item and they were incentivised to achieve a lower price. The team that spent the least was going to win.
Again, there were unrealistic expectations of the teams in this task. They are required to buy these items, some of which were quite obscure but they are not given the means to determine what they are, they have to blindly ask people if they know what they are. While it requires them to show some initiative, being able to do basic research is also a good business skill.
Another interesting feature of the episode is the set up at each venue. The team are always seen approaching the doors of the shop from within so clearly a camera crew is set up inside. This means that there has to be some organisation to get set up, all of which takes time, which could be very frustrating in a time sensitive task. As the team need to find each potential shop along the way, there can be no planning as to where to go in advance so it must be quite a shock to shop owners to have these hoards descending on them!
One last comment on the requirements of the task. They needed to finish at a specific location by a specific time with a fine imposed for being late. However, the location was a considerable distance from the road where the cars dropped them off so they had to run to the finish line, wearing all their business clothes, high heels included. This is just a ridiculous requirement and detracts from the credibility of the show (what little it has!!)
Anyway, some lessons learnt from the task.
Some items were bought from shops with fixed prices, some from places where the price could vary. In every situation, both teams tried to persuade the seller to sell to them at a ridiculously low price. One team wanted to start at a 75% discount on the marked price. This is just insulting to the seller and is more likely to annoy them and ensure that you don’t get a good deal.
In a location where the price is fixed and advertised, getting any discount is a good deal so it makes much more sense to aim for a 5% discount and be done quickly than haggle for 10 minutes to achieve little more.
In a location where the price might be negotiated, it makes more sense to try to get a better discount but all they ever do is offer a low price and promise to do the deal immediately. In this situation, it is the buyers who are under a time pressure and so need to do the deal quickly. The seller has no such requirement so offering a quick deal for a low price is not an incentive for the seller.
The teams constantly claim to be negotiating but in reality, they are just haggling. They have no variables to offer other than price. They never make an attempt to try to create some value for the seller in return for lowering the price. When attempting to get a good discount, there has to be some incentive for the seller, not just the desire to get rid of them out of their shop!
As ever with this task, there is a lack of planning in where to go and how to find each of the items. It does not help that they are unaware of some of the basic items on the list (Jersey Royals = potatoes for example) but failing to plan is fatal in this task. This is further not helped by dividing the items between the two sub-teams randomly rather than using some basic planning in advance so that they divide the area that they are looking in sensibly. As has been said many times, fail to plan, plan to fail.
Episode 5 – Branding a Formula E Car
In this week’s task, the teams had to brand a Formula E car and then seek sponsorship from various corporate clients. Overall, the task was reasonably successful with one team securing over “£38m” of sponsorship, presumably Monopoly Money!
The episode starts, as usual, by selecting a project manager. It is quite amazing how many of them nominate themselves because they “feel like they can do a good job”. No qualification, no experience, they just feel like they can do a good job. That really is no justification for being project manager. This task was about branding and someone who does that should have been in charge.
The main learning from this week, as if we might not have guessed, was that designing anything by committee is doomed to failure. In designing the brand, the car and an advert, there were too many competing voices and so neither produced great results.
As usual, the split of the tasks means that one half of the team designs the brand and the other the car. Not only do they only have half a day to do each of these, they do not seem to be able to talk to each other. Again a recipe for failure.
Both of these failures are compounded by not accepting that they have not done a great job but making the most of it. The teams that designed the adverts tried to defend them and claim that they were great when clearly they were not. Much better to accept that they were not great but build a story around them that they could use in their pitch to sponsors and the subsequent negotiations.
The final part of the task was to sell adverts on various parts of the car to sponsors. Again, as with most “negotiations” on The Apprentice, they were more of a haggle but at least some of them made an effort to try to bring different elements in and upsell when they needed to.
More next week.
Episode 6 – Breakfast Cereal
In this week’s task, the teams had to create and brand a new breakfast cereal for 6-8 year olds. Before we get into the task, a couple of comments about the editing and direction of the programme.
At the start, one candidate is seen answering the phone when it is clearly pitch black outside. As usual, they are told “the cars will be outside in 20 minutes” yet when they leave, having got showered and dressed, it is full daylight outside! Why can’t they just be honest with us about the timing? Secondly, the candidates who survive the boardroom are always seen coming back with a small, carry on suitcase. Clearly, this is not the only suitcase that they brought with them, they have far too many clothes for that. Why do they continue to insult our intelligence with these requirements?
Anyway, back to the task. As usual, they had a ridiculous amount to do in the time allocated (if the timing is as claimed in the commentary!). As a result, the teams were running out of time to complete each part. Despite that, they all had time to talk to the camera about their experience during the task!
One of the crucial elements was to create the actual product. None of them have expert knowledge in combining flavours so it can be so easy to fail at this stage. Indeed, judging by the faces of some of the people who tasted it, I suspect that they didn’t produce anything great! However, the biggest fail here was to include tropical flavours in a product called Arctic Crunch!
The second major element was to design the packaging. There is a basic requirement here, seen in so many Apprentice tasks, which is to include an image of the product on the box! One team completely failed to do this and not surprisingly lost!
The final element of the task was to pitch the product to industry buyers and try to secure orders. During one pitch, one candidate claimed “The way I see it this could go global!” which is a big claim for someone with no knowledge or experience in the industry!
One team was offered a large order in return for exclusivity on the product. This was obviously very tempting as it gave them a large order but it also meant that every other retailer failed to place an order as they would not be able to stock it for some time. This was a big risk that paid off but possibly might not have done if the other team had created a credible product.
Some lessons learnt this week:
A large order with exclusivity can be great but could be a failure. It is crucial to understand all possible orders before accepting such a deal.
Make sensible claims during a pitch. Tell the story of the product development and discuss how it will appeal to the target market. Don’t tell the audience what they already know.
Think very carefully about your target market. What appeals to one age range will quite possibly not appeal to a different age range and this is particularly true for children where the age ranges for products are quite small compared to adults.
More next week.