blonde poker forum

Apprentice is back on 6th October BBC-1 at 9pm

Rhod Gilbert is hosting "you're fired"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/the-apprentice-2016-when-is-it-on-tv-whos-joining-lord-sugar-plu/

Rudeness right from the first post!

Regards

C

I'm in.

Bring on the egos...

Same old same old

Guess I am in for the haul

Regards

I

Probably not in this year.

Regards

R

In! Sweepstake again?

in

In

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5NJRj7JhcnNp5WKzq12nn8y/meet-the-candidates

In,

Could sort the sweepstake again if there is enough interest.

Just let me know what people think for buy in level.

Happy to do a multi level also depending on interest.

Regards

B2B

£20?

Regards

C

In.

Regards

T

Excited

Regards

G2L

Have they changed the format? If not that'll be me I think.

Regards Rfg.

"Sometimes I feel like James Bond when I’m in my suit"

...could be any of them....

looking forward to the fun!

regards

Ri

In for sweepstake

regards


rs

Who's team do you like? I've gone aggro :D

LilDave: Grainne, Michelle, Sofiane, Oliver
Stato: Samuel, Alana, Jessica, Trishna
Alex: Mukai, Frances, Aleksandra, Karthik
Warbs: JD, Courtney, Paul, Rebecca

Rofl that Jessica was hilarious.

early favourite? I guess the sub team leader from the Titans. Candidates seem even worse than usual this year.


Thought the firing was incorrect, her team beat the guys equivalent team and the sub team got absolutely smashed. Sugar usually likes to eliminate the old/ethic minoritirities that they are forced to put on the show pretty early though and she was clearly never going to win. Firing all three would have been best I guess.

Regards

PL

This is preposterous, the BBC would never indulge in cultural Marxism.

 ;whistle;

First look at the candidates and barely a sensible one amongst them.

I know that is half the point but for the first time i found myself watching thinking "I can't be bothered with this".

the first episode is always a bit of a wash though, you get to the bvoardroom and you spot someone you hadn't seen in the task at all

regards

TE

The golden rule of week one:

Do not volunteer to be PM in week one. :)

I can see the comedy potential in this series being high though.

regards

rs

Couple of Jason Statham types that will be trying to appeal to The Lord's dark side.

Early doors, but it seems a weak field.

Possibility of fisticuffs, perhaps?

Regards
4K

The show has turned into a bigger farce than normal. 

Natalie, Mukai, Karthik and Dillon are all terrible. 

Stand-outs for me are Sofianne, Trishna (wont win friends), Granine and I think Jessica could be the dark horse. 

We have an apprentice sweepstake at work and every week someone has to write a re-cap of the episode to send round to everyone. Thought I may as well post mine here too in case anyone didn't watch it:


Apprentice Week 2: Advertising – Jeans

With the teams still divided along gender lines, they are asked to create advertising campaigns for jeans made from Japanese denim.

The boys have no problem allowing self-professed fashion supremo Mukai to be the PM although some must be looking at his bow tie and doubting his credentials. The lads decide to target the undeniably large market of ‘wealthy teenagers’ but seem to have taken inspiration from a post-apocalyptic film in calling their jeans Day After Tomorrow.

The girls manage to re-write the rules of democracy (where were these lot on Brexit night!?) by denying last week’s boardroom survivor Rebecca her vote in order to elect lively Jessica as PM. Eventually they take off to shoot some pictures but after a while in the Taxi they realise they’ve lost the actual jeans. After arriving at a lovely Japanese restaurant there is much quarrelling and the PM then loses her composure, tearfully exiting the venue. Once Jessica regains her composure and train of thought she returns to lead the team to a special area of the restaurant where the shoot will take place: the toilet.

The guys in team Titan get cracking on shooting a TV advert for their DAY jeans, but silver fox Dillon is more interested in harrassing flirting with the skateboarding young man they’re casting. The advert turns out to be cheesier than Alan’s one-liners, with a close race for what was the most wooden - the models’ acting, the skateboard, or Dillon after the lad blew him a kiss.

So now the teams have to present their toiled-over campaigns to a panel of industry experts. Jessica really ups her game and delivers a great pitch, supported strongly by Rebecca, but the panel weren’t impressed by the cheap-looking packaging. It was clear that the photo-shoot location provided the inspiration for Nebula’s packaging, as it looked like card and was the perfect size to store loo rolls in. They missed out on the BOGOF marketing link-up though.

PM Mukai must have fastened his bow tie too tightly that morning as he chokes through a poor opening few lines. JD steps in to offer some barely-comprehensible words, but as they are delivered in his trademark gruff manner he fails to save the DAY. The expert panel slam the team for incorrectly calling their jeans unisex, but everyone knows men can’t wear women’s jeans. The panel didn’t, however, spot that their logo is suspiciously like that of Wrangler…

So, with both teams more Kamikaze than Kaizen, we wonder how Alan is going to decide which team was the least woeful in the task? He refuses to put his name to either calamity and hauls both PMs back into the boardroom. Jessica brings back the seemingly-always-sneering Scot Natalie and Alana whom she had a clash of personalities with. Alana gets very flustered and tongue tied in the boardroom but manages to avoid the boot.

Mukai brings back the overly-aggressive and outspoken Karthik and Alan firmly puts him in his place, telling him he’s a loose cannon while almost pointing the finger of woe. For pitching poorly, JD is brought in too but Alan soon removes him from potential elimination and turns his attention back to the girls.
 
Jessica manages to plead her case that all the girls kept ‘undermiming’ her and, unfortunately, Elvis’s long-lost daughter Natalie pays the Yen for barely contributing on the task. She bolts out of the room and storms off with her case, denying Karthik any sleazing opportunities.

We are offered a sneek peek of next week’s show and see Karthik either mixing a large batch of rock to make sweets, or wax for his huge eyebrows – tune in next week to find out which.

Absolutely absurd week. They are all absolutely terrible.

How the hell both pms didn't get fired too, I do not know.

Awful....reallly struggling to see anyone who's got a clue!

As for last nights firing.....no idea how "what's a strapline on jeans?" she got through to the programme.

regards

Ri

+1




Great write up Mr Hammer.

Whilst the programme is great fun to watch, its losing all credibility.

They are trying so hard to find people willing to come up with massive catchphrases and with egos bigger than almost anyone I can think of, that the original ethos of the programme is being lost.

How have any of the people got past any sort of filter, unless its sole aim now is to attract idiots? :dontask: :)up

I must be 1.01 to get on next year then if i apply?  Don't think i am results orientated enough though to win it.  ;D  Want me to apply to see how right you are?  I have always been tempted to enter it.  Never been a pro gambler on the show.  Think i would go down well with Sugar with my no nonsense straight talking approach exposing corporate wannabe bullshitters along the way.  What price you make me to get on it if i apply?  

Are you photogenic? What's your back story? What kind of personality do you have in front of a camera?

The producers are looking for people who they believe will make the show appealing to the biggest number of viewers - although that may sound strange in view of what we've seen so far from this year's candidates. Frankly, business acumen is a probably only 10% of the entire equation. They're far more interested in getting diversity mixed with a few tinderbox characters to ensure some onscreen fireworks.

So, arbs, how about doing a 60 second screen-test vid and stick it up on here (and maybe TfT too)? Depending on what I see, I may even offer you 5-1 against getting on. If you're looking good on the show, I can cover my bet with some "in-Play" bets. lol.

In the meantime, the best candidates from this week were all wearing skirts: Grainne, Trishna & Rebecca - and maybe Alana if she can work on a poker face.

Jesus they are all just so awful lol

Like there's probably 5-7 of them who I'd class as 1000/1 to ever get on the show.

Alana for example, how?!

Haha, you;d probably get on and no doubt go far Sugs loves a bit of a punt. 

Half of the clowns on it I am sure I have worked alongside or worked alongsde very similar for years. 

If you could find some IT wizz come up with an app to being a winning punter that could pull in the masses you'd be nailed on. 

My business plan to AMS would just be to back the wides at various dog tracks.  Sure he would love it.  Put in the TFT ROI chart as substantial evidence of previous results and away we go.  What can go wrong?

Absolutely clueless , reminded me so much of this fella.

Have to wait for some funds first. Entire roll on Kyle Edmund.

ahead of tonight

is anyone still watching the series? (i am grudgingly, habit more than anything)

anyone seen anyone they rate on it?

regards

TE

I'm watching and enjoying.

i actually think karthik (sp) is decent.

courtney was my tip (probably optimistically because i have him in sweepstake) but last week looked weak.

irish girl looks feisty and has something strong about her i think.

also think frances seemed decent so far too, but her poor results (lost every task) probably will hurt her in the long run.

regards

pbl

Still watching for the comedy mostly.

I think it ends with LordSirAlan saying "fuck it none of you get my £250K" they are that bad!

regards


rs

Formulaic as it is, I still enjoy watching it

Quite fancy Jessica and Frances

Regards

n

Watching because of bets.

I have Karthik and Frances left in my 4 person team. Loving the big K but I'm just desperate for him to stay under the radar each week :D

Watching because of bets.

I have Karthik and Frances left in my 4 person team. Loving the big K but I'm just desperate for him to stay under the radar each week :D


regards


ca

FYP :)

I had high hopes for the sausage supremo, which were misplaced. Michelle shot herself in the foot and u ended up with Dillon instead, Grianne my girl though she's going to make Warbs Goulder and Stato paayyyyyyyyyyyyy

Really I just need soffiane to stop being an A1 bellend every week and I will have a good chance

The nature of our bets make getting pm fired in the early weeks v expensive and that's happened to me twice in the first month.

So nice Jessica goes.....of course before she can use her "skill set" as PM. Yet another one hadn't listen to Lord S in the boardroom the week before!

Happy to leave she says...missing her young child.

I wonder why they don't allow some brief time out for them during the process, like X factor do?

Regards

Ri

Because it needs to replicate what will be expected of them when Alan makes them his business partner - you gotta work like a dog!

I don't really rate any of them from what I've seen, but am leaning towards favouring the ones that you don't see much footage of. These are the ones not saying/doing stupid things, or making bad deals. So after a few weeks when nothing was heard out of a few of the ladies, that surely bodes well.

Wait, what's this about Jessica leaving? Did I miss this?

Regards
Pbl

Karsick finally went then.

Still, at least we know that he can tell his child the exact moment he was conceived, and where ?!

regards

TE

Opps...  I meant Rebecca , I think ::)...

Jess is telling a few porkies, but doing ok!

regards

Ri

Just caught up on this.

I have two bets this year, women vs men and Courtney to win, I guess I run ok 😂😂

here's how I run.

My remaining team going into last week was; Grianne, Dillon, Soffiane

The rules of our betting;

Losing team caption = -4pt pp
3 people i boardroon = -4pt pp
fired team caption = -1pt pp

dont forget these bets

winning tem captain 3pt pp
no-one in board room = 3pt pp

OH AND THIS LITTLE CRACKER.

Double fired = double stakes.

So I've got Grianne left, Warbs has Courtney, Alex has Frances and Stato has Alena/Trishna/Jessica.

What everyone recko the business plans going to be like?

I think Trishna wins

I'll take Jessica and Grianne against the field from here, in what has been a very weak year i think

I also think it would be a better watch if we knew the rough nature of the business plans at the beginning of the series.

We still have the best programme to come, interview week. Always a good watch

regards

TE

Jessica???? She's absolutely disastrous?

I've continued to be impressed by Trishna; albeit in a below average group.

Apparently Lord Sugs gave the game away by following the winner on Twitter.

Regards
4KS

Yeah she's clearly made the least mistakes, but if her business plan sucks she will not win the investment.

Courteney has to have a stonking business plan, why else would you keep someone so useless in the process?

If Trishna doesn't win from here the whole thing is a waste of time because the others are a shambles.

I assume that decision was based on the business plans because otherwise I don't understand how the PM survives.

Regards

C

I believe that the business plans sugar does not ready until the interviews week. He has a rough idea of the industry/concept of each plan from their applications.

Regards

LD

What a car crash that was.

Courtney survives only through the incompetence of his opposing team. Honestly, only Alannah emerges with any credit from that task.

Next week's interviews are going to be fun.

Regards
4KS

Goodbye to the moodiest least friendly contestant ever Trishna, who went 10 weeks with an expression as if she had a slice of lemon permanetly wedged in her mouth

I am warming to Alannah

Can't be having Courtney or Frances, Queen of snakes, neither good enough

my ranking of Jessica, Grianne and Alannah is more fluid than it was as the former two both had very poor tasks indeed

Regards

TE

My thoughts on the remaining 5.

Courtney

No Charisma, no passion, seemingly precious little ability, on the tasks anyway it's really tough on the surface to see how Courtney has a chance, he's going to get ripped to shreds by Claude and co. in the interviews and I think this is the one spot where being the only guy will hurt him. However. On paper it's all quite positive for courtney, he's got 8/10 wins, no boardroom appearances and 2 wins as PM.  His business in novelty gifts, simple buy-product-sell business business is something that Lord Sugar will relate to, as it's how he started, if he comes in with a strong business plan and can stand behind it with some results from his past business life then he probably has a good shot at sneaking into heads up play, he's never really been under pressure in the boardroom but whenever he has a little he's come off ok and despite being as interesting as tarmac he shows some good composure. More positives for courtney too, he's surrounded by potential blowups (Jessica) and potential breakdowns (Alana), however the past ten weeks have shown him to be pretty useless at virtually anything he's done and that particular issue is going to take one hell of a business plan, and one hell of a performance in the interviews to over-come. I'm afraid I don't think he has it in him, although it won't take a divine intervention to see him sail effortlessly into the final.

Grianne

Been the most composed, assured and seemingly capable from weeks 1 - 7, despite not actually doing that much. Then she had a shocker in week 8 (claiming that the mermaid would be in the tank swimming around in the aquarium i think is actually the stupidest thing anyone has done all series), was appalling in week 9 (the video games) partly responsible for the "magic shells" disgrace and then her role in the pitch itself should have seen her sacked. This week as PM she gets pissed up on day 1 and forgets to communicate with her team and has a howler in the pitch getting slammed by over £60k (bigger margin of defeat than the Big K, although how THE FUCK Jeeeen, the not-raspberry raspberry gin with the blue writing sold £70k worth of stock i'll never know). Really by all fairness she should have gone, her saving grace has been her boardroom skills, she's a warrior and in a seriously weak field it's been pretty straightforward for her. It wasn't until last night she was even in a sweat of leaving and her savvy boardroom skills saw her safe pretty quickly, she's the most professional of the remaining candidates so I think it's fair to expect her to have the most reasonable and polished business plan and certainly on evidence she should fair very well in the interviews unless she has some serious skeletons hidden away. You'd expect her to be a big favourite to make the top two. Danger is still there for Grianne though, as her last three weeks performances are going to bring her heat and she doesn't really have much to back herself up with from the previous seven, if, as expected she makes the final 2 she's going to need to SERIOUSLY raise her game as on current form she should lose to Frances and Alana comfortably on operational abilities. You have to think that doing her own business plan when she's much better prepared and passionate about it she'd be a lot better, not we have any evidence of this. Still has to be considered favourite though.

Alana

"You don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the other guy running away from it" has been the motto of Alana's run, she's been consistently poor-average but every week provided the odd moment where she looked good, everytime she's been in real danger (been a few) she's been alongside someone in far greater trouble and showed a little coy in steering herself out of danger. However her composure in the boardroom has been lacking completely and there have been several emotional breakdowns, tough to say if this helped her cause at all, probably not, but I think it's very safe to assume it won't help her cause AT ALL in the interviews and unless all the crying was an act she's just going to fall to pieces in the interview process. Her track record of setting up and starting her own business from scratch is again something Sugar will relate too and if she has some success to fall back on then she might hold it together if her business plan is sensible, I actually think if she gets to heads up no-one would be a big favourite over her. Unfortunately though she just doesn't have any depth or backbone and I think this is the stage she gets really found out.

Frances

She's the toughest one to call in the interviews I think, on surface she's got a lot going for her. She's shown she can sell ok, organise a group of blokes that include Soffiane (no mean feat) and been pretty strong under pressure. However, the one time she was in real danger in the boardroom she broke down in tears alongside Jessica, and she's going to face serious heat in the interviews over her record (losing 8/10 tasks) and I think they are going to hammer her on the "WAG having fun" image thing which will make her blood boil, and she hasn't done well vs personal attacks so far. She's come across very snaky, 2faced, underhand in a lot of spots so far and I imagine that's going to come up and she'll struggle to defend herself against that (this is what caused Sugar to gg Samuel when he looked much stronger than others), along with a few juvenile moments. Her business is childrens clothing - product business, Sugar loves a product business, I don't kow how successful she's been and I get the impression she has less experience than most of the other 5 but if she can pull a solid business plan out in a similar product based field, and back it up with some results then I think she probably has enough composure to make it past the interviews. Fancy her to do well in a final as well, but lots that could go wrong for Frances though, if Alana for example produces the goods it'll probably be at her expense.

Jessica

Comes across as ditsy, scatterbrained and all over the place but has shown some real class in moments. When put under real pressure though she has cracked every time - week 2 or 3 she started crying as PM when she forgot the jeans for the advert, she broke down twice in the boardroom and has had numerous other minor breakdowns during tasks, given that she's for sure got the least actual business experience of the remaining candidates I just can't see her getting through the interviews, and this is before we consider what her business plan will look like, not impossible it's something sensible and well thought out, but also not impossible it's just utterly ridiculous. I don't think Sugar really see's her as a serious option as a business partner either although I think he admires her gutsy spirit, think she's probably favourite to be 5th unless she can produce a great business plan and some currently unproven calmness under the toughest pressure. She's done great and I think genuinely deserves her spot here, clearly she's a good businesswomen but it's over now I feel.


My Predictions:

5th = Jessica.
4th = Alana.
3rd = Courtney.

2nd = Frances.
1st = Grianne.

I can't see Jessica getting better than 5th, whereas I think Alana is likely to reasonable business plan we have to follow the evidence and that is that she just doesn't have the minerals for a boardroom showdown, and Grianne and Frances are in a different league to her in this arena, Courtney is as dull as dishwater and whereas he might hold his own ok in the interviews he won't be able to overcome this and I think as long as G and F have their business plans in order they will come through. Perhaps because I have Grianne in my bet I'm putting her #1, but in reality it's going to be VERY close, I expect Grianne to have a better business plan so going on that.

One thing for sure though none of these 5 are in the top 50 candidates of all time!

Regards

LD

5th Grainne
4th Courtney
3rd Frances

2nd Jessica
1st Alana

Regards

RE

Jesus Dave - you pour your heart and soul into the apprentice don't you!

Can't understand this love for Alana itt, she's beyond horrif. Offers nothing and has literally broken down in the boardroom whenever under mild attack. 

Grainne best candidate left in imo pains me to say, even though she's on Dave's team. Courtney has ran so pure to still be in it's untrue. Frances really come into her own and has ran joke bad to be on the losing team so many times. Think she'll come 2nd if her business plan is sensible, which it may not be!

Omg exact opposite opinions!  This is how the purest of wagers are born!!

Such a poor year.....pre interviews ,twist my arm and I go Alana too.

regards

Ri

What have I missed in Alana?

Regards
LD

in part its just because every candidate is poor and none stand out.

in part (against not much competition) i thought she did a decent job on giiiiiin.

i hadn't considered her a potential winner until last night, I do now.

then again, i quite rate Jessica, so what do i know....?

regards

TE

Grainne - playing the game too much, see ya later. Would imagine her business plan is an app/tech related and it turns out to be a terrible idea.
Courtney - insufferable to work with and also an idiot. Would be surprised if he could put a coherent plan together. Giin? Really?
Frances - seems to always buddy up to the right people doing very little actual work, granted she did alright on the last task except for drawing attention to Britains chequered past and not knowing where India was.
Jessica - Outgoing, seems nice, happy to admit when she's wrong, just doesn't seem that smart.
Alana - Yes she breaks down fairly easily, but she's taken to more of an eye roll position now. Clearly the most intelligent out of them all and probably most likely to come up with a business plan that isn't utter bollocks.

LD: if you want Grainne, I'll take Alana and everyone else is a push? £50?

Regards

RE

I'll take that bet if u want more action. I know Dave is snapping your hand off

Terrific post , thank you.

If Dave doesn't want it you can have it

Well I can't very well wirte a 6 paragraph post stating Grianne #1 and Alana #4 then turn a bet down can I. Consider yourself booked :)

I guess we'll wait to see what the BP's hold! I'm hoping that Grianne is going to be something in line with her current work in make-up studio, if she comes to the table with some make-up then I'm flying to Ireland myself to punch her in the face (unless she wins ofc, in which case I'm flying to Edinburgh to collect my £50 :) )

Very good! Best of luck to you, hopefully next series isn't as dreadful as this one has been.

RE

The quality of banter on this thread beats anything we've seen so far from the candidates. Some excellent posts & evaluations, I'd only be duplicating if I were to attempt the same. Other than this...

Yes, Alana was pretty flakey and weak early doors, but I feel that she has grown in confidence through the weeks. As a result, she's been the one who's shown some composure under pressure more recently, and also some real intelligence and like-ability in the way that she's handled herself like in the video game task, both with her teammates and with the clients.

So much will rest on the viability of the BP's, however, so it could be anyone's game other than Courtney's, IMO

Regards
4KS

Maaaaaaan please can't it just be thursday already :(

Sadly
LD

Claude is a God

So what exactly is Courtney's plan again?

Seems the best strat on this show is just to take in an existing business which is doing well and ask for investment in it rather than a new business idea.

If you didn't see the announcement - final is on Sunday.
Regards

C

Interview episode is just amazing television every year. Claude is just...too much <3.

Thought Frances performed the best in the interviews and in the boardroom and has been robbed of a place in the final.

Courtney probs has best plan and most exciting for Shugs. Only explanation for how someone that dull and weak has made it to the final.

Grainne seemed to just get written off because Sugar wasn't interested in a makeup business :D "You're gonna sell makeup??? As a business?? Nah not for me that darling"

Alana...just no words, how has she done this...
 

Grainne got written off because she doesn't have the professional qualifications in the field she wants to teach people in and seemingly doesn't even know much about makeup except how to put it on people.

Courtney's plan is absolutely terrible. I or anyone could go into his shop on the day of a product release, buy one of the new product, copy it and have it drop shipped from China to anywhere in the world for cheaper than him within a month.

Jessica's business plan was sadly awful, thought she'd be pretty thorough with it. Just before Sugar fires her he asks her so you want to do the same thing that failed again? Yep. Ok bye

Frances did do well in the interviews but those sorts of businesses run on 3-5% net margins, it's really tough to stay competitive in what is essentially PoundLand for babys clothes. As she said about her (now defunct) shop in Nottingham, it treaded water. This is really common in retail with no vertical to go with it.

Selling eggs and flour for 3 quid a pop? Now that's what I call margin!

I'll give you a spin in the heads up for £50 as well if you want Alex (I want Alana Qh)?

My favourite part of last night's episode was when Alan inadvertently panned himself by admitting it didn't get previous winners anywhere when they'd ring up people as say they're his business partner b rotflmfao

Alannah's business plan is so superior to Courtney's i am not sure i will know what to do with myself if he wins.

She has input costs of 18p a slice and sells that slice for £3.

surely just a case of hiring a few staff in regions she can't currently reach, scaling the distribution a bit initially then building it up?

all that compared to novelty items with the comatose man who was happy to put "fart in a lift with supermodels" on his questionnaire.

No contest. (until he wins)

Regards

TE

 

Rupert was right!

My analysis of the interview process!

Grianne -

LD's ante-post favourite! I think my analysis was correct though, she had the most credibility going in but her naivety shone through in spades with her plan, it was quite shambolic in all honesty. The crux of a good business plan is;

i) What I'm going to do.
ii) Where and how I'm going to do it
iii) Who my customers are, how many potential customers I have, where they are
iv) How I'm going to sell to them, how much i think i can sell and for how much = X profits
v) Why I'm the person that can deliver this.

She really couldn't accurately answer any of this, if she'd have come in with something like,

"Open X make up artist training centre at cost of £85,000, primary business will be training and recruitment, training industry is worth £150m and with Z sales strategy we hope to capture 0.4% (£600k) market share in year one, with myself and 4 stylists expecting a net profit of £50k. Expanding to 10 Stylists in month 15 and the opening of our second centre in month 24 with revenues by year 3 of £2.4m and net profit of £250k" Then it would have been a totally different day as I think LS would have had little choice but to final her.

Final nail in her coffin was coming up with "going to start a make-up brand as well" out of the blue, bottom line she just doesn't understand the business well enough to know where the growth needs to begin. 100% uninvestable.

Jessica -

She is likeable and talented for sure, the way she described her previous business as having plenty of money but it just dwindled through mis-management I completely buy. I'm sure with her selling the stuff she flogged tons of it but obviously little knowledge or care for what was going on behind this, I don't think she's really shown that things would be different this time round and with her business plan a carbon copy of the previous failure it became easily univestable and she was toast coming in. If Lord Sugar was looking for a sales manager for a big clothing business then I've little doubt she'd have gotten snap hired, her plan had more structure and backbone than grianne's though so a well deserved 4th spot.

Frances -

She also never had a chance in the boardroom, reality is if Lord Sugar wanted a business like this he could set it up in an afternoon and employ a Frances to run it, you need a big wharehouse (he must have) retail contacts for line-end stock (if he doesn't have he will get easily) cash to buy stock (he has a bit of cash laying about im sure) a big retail space (he can get whichever space he wants.) Frances is great but he can find someone similar and have 100% of this business... She doesn't really bring much unique to the table here.

On the same note, Frances doesn't REALLY need Lord Sugar, £250k in cash is nice and having him on hand is very valuable, but she knows the market, her business is successful if she needs cash for stock the banks will lend and she can keep 100%. Surely starting an online site then looking for bigger premises is the way for her. It would have been a bad deal from both ends and I think he knew this instinctively as he went into the boardroom LS.

Courtney & Alana

Abso breezed it, I'd be surprised if off camera Claude and Karen weren't saying "well Alan it's obviously Courtney and Alana isn't it?" and been universal nodding from all the advisors. Unlike the others they brought business plans that were logical, based on facts, backed up by current trade and success and genuinely warranted the investment, both show clear scope for expansion and growth. Forgone conclusion from 20minutes in it was these 2 imo.

Regards

LD

HEADS UP BATTLE!

Tighty - have to disagree that Alana's business plan is far superior, the food food business has great margins yes but it's really really tough.

Just like pretty much every high margin business the £/item profit is low, she sells a cake for £3 (which is £2.40 after VAT) that costs 20p to make, she's making about £2.20 a cake GROSS PROFIT, a £1m gross profit will require 450k cakes sold, 1,300 per day.  So it's a volume business, and volume businesses have 3 major problems;

1) (The most crucial) can you actually sell the volume
2) Can you produce the volume and maintain the quality
3) Waste, distribution and Storage - you're handling a lot of stock, this is expensive and difficult.

1) Can she sell the volume?

Of course she can, can she sell the volume at £3 p/cake though? I tell you this now, she won't be getting £3 a brownie at trade price, if she gets a chain of delicatessens to take 1000 a week, they will have the price RIGHT down, £1-£1.20 a piece probably, now all of sudden we're on 78% margin and making 75p per item 1.3m of these need to be sold to make a GP of £1m. If she hits the jackpot and gets into supermarkets of Pret then her margins will get squeezed into the floor.

2) Can she produce the volume and maintain the quality

Don't see why not, actually will be her biggest strength this as she seems really organised and if she gets production right from the offset (something that will DEFO happen alongside Lord Sugar) then her costs will hopefully come slamming down as she starts to produce more. Low costs and high output.

3) Waste, Distribution and Storage

This is where food businesses have a shocker, waste is a big thing. In my restaurants I've also tried to work on 1.5% waste/turnover so if you're turning over £15k p/week net you're expecting to waste about £225 in stock, things get dropped, go past the date, made wrong, need to be given away for whatever reason. How do you store everything, the rules around food storage is intense nowadays and require a lot of red-tape and man-power.  These are fresh, short-life products so they need to be delivered daily pretty much, cost of running 2 delivery vans with drivers for 1 year, about £100k? That's a lot of cakes you need to sell to cover that cost.

It's this that makes a LOT of food businesses unfeasible and why the glam around Alana's magical margins is a big mirage, gross profits very high initially but margins get squeezed and costs alongside running this type of business make for low Net Profits.

Courtney's business on the other hand is a low-margin, high volume business, stack him up using the same questions;

1. Can he sell the volume

Certainly you'd rather have any of the other 4 top 5 selling his stuff, maybe he employs Jessica as his sales director? I don't know, he's not got a lot about him...

2. Can he produce the volume and maintain the quality

Yes, 100% he can do this, and the more he can sell then the lower his costs will likely be, although selling in higher volume usually damages your margins.

3. Waste, Storage and Distribution

Waste is practically zero, storage is easy he just needs a wharehouse (will cost, maybe Lord Sugar will lend one at the start?) distribution again is just an expense, can use Royal Mail, freight service etc depending on the quantity.  Some suppliers will even ship direct to customers for you saving all this.

So whereas Courtney has lower margins, less charisma and less sales ability his business is a hell of a lot less risky, really the BIG thing for Shuggs (and one of his guys nailed it on the show) is he's betting on Courtney's instincts, can he spot the right products at the right times and will his flair for design be good enough, and actually I think this is the one thing we've seen from Courtney that has been decent in the tasks. Alana could fall down on a million different things, with this is mind I think I make courtney a favourite in the final.

That being said, I don't think AS has any involvement in the food business, and he's getting a bit older, doesn't really need the money and the chance to be in a new industry and have a crack at it with a clearly very capable person might appeal to him, however this comes around every year and every time he goes with the safest option.

Truth is he's virtually gtd to make money in Courtney's business, I doubt courtney has enough about him to make it a big success but if he gets some good sales people on board then the chance of failure is pretty minute.

Courtney to win imo, happy to take bets.

Interesting

Can she scale it up? i think is the key question on one person

Can he find ideas early, and keep finding them to be in growth spells for different products at the start? i think is the key question for the other

i guess i would back Alannah rather than Courtney to have the drive to do this.

Yeah, exactly.

If it was soley a question of drive Alana would win for certain, but it's also a risk-vs-reward consideration, i think courtney with Lord Sugar's help is likely to have a very good novelty gifts design and wholesale business, I think he's very unliekly to dust off the £250k and very likely to turn a profit. Shuggs sharpens up his production, gets some sales people in and gets courtney on with designing new products then it's all looking very safe and solid. Is he going to turn it into an innovative, world leading business thought? Seems unlikely from what we've seen from Courtney.

Alana could, I believe, create an amazing business with Lord Sugar's help, she's more passionate, driven, innovative and has much more personality. But, with competition insane, business fraught with danger, less knowledge for LS, chance of failure is much higher.

Lord Shuggs has never gone for risky businesses in this process, ever. I think because of how dull Courtney is I think this could well be the time he starts, but I just think he'll go for courtney because he knows he's going to make money here.

but Suralan has always wanted to diversify away from businesses he already has and knows, i think, in previous series and go into new areas?

so in recent series he's gone into recruitment, beauty products, Plumbing and electrical installation, an inventor, search engine optimisation. think thats the last 5 series

he's essentially been doing novelty goods/wholsesale buy and sell since he was 16, which Courtney offers.

But he's always gone for the safest option, every time.

I do hope Alana wins actually I just have a feeling its courtney

I backed Alana in play during the interviews (when 5 left) @ 7/4 last night with a friend  8)

But after hearing Courtney's business plan I think he might be fav at this point. He might be a bit drab but he was shy and coming up with 33 novelty gift products from scratch is impressive however you look at it.

Oh and Claude absolutely bums him.

If Alana had Courtney's business she'd be unbackable at this point.

Once again we have superb analysis from our in house expert, SuuPPrlim. Agree with everything. Only thing to add was that I was truly impressed by Courtney's speed in coming up with his Lord Sugar Dispenser under pressure. Perhaps the edit helped, but still....

It's an interesting dilemma that Lord Sugs is faced with. He may have already decided (in show time) that he'll let the decision rest on the candidates' performances in the final task. After all, neither of them actually properly employ anybody else in their businesses, and this is something they will have to do when funded. Whilst all the eliminated candidates usually try their best, there's still a great deal of man-management required if the task is to be won. This is where I think Alana will crush Courtney; but strange things happen...

Having said that, whilst he won't want to blow £250k, at the same time he'll want to have some fun with it - and this may also be where Alana is slightly ahead. He also has a penchant for working with people he quietly admires, or has an affinity with - which is where Courtney has an edge.

Dilemma indeed.

Regards
4KS

Maybe Alan has seen the success of Bake Off and wants a slice of the action......with Mary as consultant obviously :)


Regards

Ri

Indeed! Good points. I think Sugar takes a lot of pride in the fact that every business he has started is now making profits and he doesn't want to damage the statistic with a failure and i think that's more of a worry than the £250k which represents about 1/5000th of his net worth.

Going to be close!
Regards

LD

:O wow Sugar, Mary Berry and Alana working together, with Paul Hollywood, Sue and Mel involved in some level as well, yes please!!! I vote Alana.

On a side note, if it was the public vote and we got to vote where LS puts his £250k who you think would have won????

Regards
LD

Purely on likeability, Jessica is a star. Not that much business acumen but she seems a lovely girl, people warm to that.

Think the public would vote Alana, other two girls came across as a bit too cocky/game players to me. I'm pleased she's in top 2 as others seemed determined to dismiss her throughout the process.

Courtney is just dull, couldn't see the public voting for him even if he had a decent business plan.

Big K everytime I'd hope :-p

I'll do another £50 on Alana with you LD, and Alex can have £50 as well if he wants it. Let me know.

RE

So lose £100 if Alana wins total and win £50 in Courtney wins?

OK - money has to be delivered in person though, so if I lose I get to see you and I won't feel like iv lost :-)

Booked!

Alannah then.

Suralan went for his gut feel in the end.

Regards

TE

time to settle those bets....

I was very impressed with how Courtney presented and very unimpressed with Alana's presentation. Thankfully the idea came through in the end. GG

Regards

RE

Yeah n1 Rupert, gg.

Courtney defo pulled of the pitch of his life, so he can sleep knowing he didn't fuck it up he just wasn't good enough on this day, seems quite determined and passionate about designing stuff though so once he figures out how to sell it a bit better he'll probably do ok.

Well done Alana, you dont have to run faster than the bear...

I've done my bollox this apprentice, can't wait for the next one!

Regards
LD

Wish he'd go back to giving the winner a job.  The business proposals have been average at best and as a whole very poor and unimaginative.

Everyone left the job after 0-3 years. Looked like every single one of the businesses is still going and in contact with Sugar.

One of them even tried to sue him!!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10333568/Former-Apprentice-winner-Stella-English-sued-Lord-Sugar-because-she-was-bored.html

The job is kind of shit as well, tough to get respect of the peers when they've been grafting to get up and this person wins a reality TV show and dances in on 100 bags a year. £250k investment to start a business with a sicko partner is miles better imo, it also adds a great bit of variance to the show too, as the candidates can be amazing but can have awful business plans, or can be average and have a great business plan.

Regards
LD

Obv people picked for tv etc but need to go back and get a few candidates with some actual business acumen. Total joke that half the last 5 didn't even know how to draw up a business plan.

Anyone else get the feeling when watching that Courtney will be getting pointed in the right direction by those involved.

One thing you don't want when you're planning the finer details of the biggest pitch of your life.....is the worst cast of are rice ever helping you with it!!

I see Courtney and Jessica are now in a relationship which might help them both out working together as they probably make a good team but I thought his decision to have her in charge of everything as sub team leader was really bad!

Happy Alana won....although I thought it was interesting Oliver suddenly knew the logo/concept was wrong and her name/branding should be prominent.

Hmmm....think someone might have had a word in his ear.

Regards

Ri

That's why it is an investment and not a job now...

Show is much better as a result!

It's pretty funny though isn't it :D

Regards
LD

Experimentally tried to order a giin and tonic. Didn't go well

Did you say it right?

Think so, was even with a friend so obv didn't want any of the gins you drink by yourself