THE Apprentice week four was a bit more technical and there were quite a few components to this one.
The two teams on The Apprentice needed to create the best electric bike with an accessory and there were some mixed results.
Though I'm absolutely over-the-moon that we finally got to see Marianne speak.
This one was funny in the end too, as I didn't think Lubna was the one who was going to go. I thought it would be Tom after Unison produced that bike.
I don't think Lubna necessarily did anything wrong.
But you've got to be on it, because by the looks of things Lord Sugar would rather someone step up and get it wrong then step back and do nothing.
Ugly bikes
I didn’t expect Empower's Aphrodite to sell that well because I thought it was a really ugly bike.
Iasha (the project manager) did ramble a little bit but she came up with a great story for it.
Storytelling is key for retailers and that’s why it did so well. It’s nice to see a little bit more of her.
The bike itself was not very good, I wouldn’t have bought it. I thought it looked really ugly and really masculine – not like Sophisticated Sarah.
On team Unison, I completely understood why Tom changed the name from Boundary to E-Fit, even though E-Fit does sound a little bit like an E-cigarette.
Boundary bike doesn’t link to the story they were telling.
As for the accessories, what they had to choose from was really random – what were those little flashing balls about?
When I saw the products, the helmet was the obvious one. The attire was crazy – I quite liked it, but it was quite niche for what it is.
Lubna, when she was trying to sell the attire, I think it all got a bit scrambled.
You know what, those situations are really high pressure: the cameras are all on you, and you still know the product but not inside out, so it is hard and you end up making mistakes. They end up showing all the worst parts.
Off-screen drama
Lottie this week, you almost felt sorry for her as no one was listening to her.
For me, her character has completely changed from week one where she was arguing and kicking off, to this week being told no and taking it on the chin and just getting on with it.
Even down to the project manager and who should be sub-team leader, she was like “my parents have bikes” and was basically the perfect candidate and Tom didn’t choose her.
The other side of that is interesting, because we haven’t seen what’s going on off-camera (though we have heard about it). The way people are dealing with her, clearly there’s underlying issues.
Obviously there’s a lot of drama this year.
I think with our year, we went at each other during the tasks and got along while in the house. Whereas this year, you’ve got to be pretty confident.
The problem is they are all very big characters. I think that everyone’s fighting to be heard. And I can imagine that continues in the house, which is a bit of a nightmare.
Marianne wakes up the boardroom
Marianne went quite hard on Tom in the boardroom and it surprised me how Tom reacted.
One thing about him is he seems quite moral and he tells everybody he “holds his hands up” – though there’s only so much of that he can do before Lord Sugar gets rid of him.
I think he believed he was in the wrong, and didn’t want to blame everyone else or blame Lubna.
But in those situations you do have to have to defend yourself and you do have to have an answer for everything. He’s already on thin ice after last week and I think he did really well to stay in it.
I think Marianne defended herself really well in the boardroom and it changed my opinion of her completely.
Even some of the other guys were like, woah, where did that come from?
The bike didn’t sell well and she had a big hand in that. But she did a really good job of defending herself without going overboard, she was quite cool with it.
Favourite to win right now?
Iasha. Because she did so well, I think she rambled a little bit, but she created that product and she eventually lead the team to get over a million in sales. She should be proud of herself for that one.
Ryan-Mark has some really nice ideas and some good touches that work really well. I really like him. I think he gave balanced, constructive criticism, because when you are giving criticism it’s hard not to just intrude and look like you’re being a negative.
But everything he said I agreed with. I think he’ll go quite far but I don’t think he’ll win it.
Sian’s Podcast ‘The Wake Up Call’ is available to download on iTunes now.
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