'The Apprentice' week 2 - Dog Daze

Week 2 continues with a doggy challenge.

The Challenge

Two days to design an innovative product for dog loving "nutters". Pitch the product to three retailers and of course the highest profit wins.

The key to this task was designing a product which appealed to everyone and was cheap enough for the mass market. The final aspect was then the sales pitch to the retailers.

The Brainstorm

Rory, the team leader, told the team that brainstorming required everyone except the leader to take off their jackets and ties. The leader kept his on to show he was the leader.

Rory explained about discipline:

"Discipline - something I go f***ing crazy for... I will send you out"

Adam had a few comments about Rory's leadership style.

"...bit of a headmaster... feel like a five year old.."

Stealth(Girls):

Katie, the team leader, doesn't brainstorm she has an "Ideation". She acted as a good leader during the brainstorm controlling and opening up discussion. I can also credit her with one of the best quotes of the week (speaking to one of the other girls who is pushing a dog nappy idea):

"I'm going to ask you to drop the nappy."

Focus groups / Prototyping

Eclipse(Boys):

Rory led the team and virtually enforced his idea on the team with the "pooch pouch" which essentially was a Velcro belt / pouch contraption.

Jadine was still harping on about clips thinking about 'eclipse' clips for the doggy blanket one of the ideas that was rejected.

During a late night argument Rory and Tre continued their argument:

Rory: "I am your boss"
Tre "Your nothing to me"

Some classic quotes from Tre during this bit:

Tre frustrated about the lack of design at the prototype meeting:

"Cant be bothered... tossers!"

Tre on getting hold of the other half of the team:

"go outside and leave them a nice message"

Tre says more on Rory's management style:

"Rory, only thing he knows how to say is shut up"

Stealth(Girls):

The girls eventually settled on the dog cabinet and I must have switched off during that bit of the show as nothing much seems to have been memorable.

The Sales Pitch

Both teams pitched to 'Harrods', 'Pets and the City' and 'Pets at home'. This was supply and demand economics, the maximum profit was always going to come from volume sales and therefore 'Pets at home' was the key pitch.

Eclipse(Boys):

The boys did better at the up market small scale shops even though 'pets and the city' stated their product was "not a fashion statement". For 'Pets at home' they had clearly priced themselves out of the market.

Stealth(Girls):

The girls had a problem appealing to the upmarket shops with a flat pack but with the large retailer they hit the mark with their IKEA / Argos style dog closet.

Ghazal who was in charge of pitching just froze and had to hand over. We have all been there but what an unfortunate time to freeze.

During the girls pitch to 'Pets and the city' there was a fantastic exchange:

'Pets and the city': so you are stereotyping people?
Candidate: No... this epitomises a group of people...

Exactly what is your definition of a stereotype?

Boardroom One

It was all a bit close to call both teams had made mistakes, the boys would appeal to the upmarket retailers but the girls would probably corner the mass market.

Sir Alan started with the boys:

Sir Alan: "Think it was a good idea?"
Tre:"No"

Tre then proceeded to twist the knife in blaming Rory for just about everything.

In the end the girls won having sold 2000 units to 'Pets at Home' and making a solid profit of £5000.

Sir Alan imparted his wisdom on the task to the boys:

"Moral of the story...Effort into talking to the person with the potential to buy."

In the Cafe

In and around the cafe before the boys went back into the boardroom there was a final bit of honesty for Rory and Tre:

Rory: "picked the wrong product"

Tre talking about Rory:

"Has dug his own grave... talk about his faults for a day...talk about his good points waste of a fag packet if I wrote it down..."

Boardroom Two

Francis said her usual line to tell the boys to get in the boardroom.

Sir Alan kicks straight off with "Listen, you lost"

Ifta's poor performance and lack of contribution quickly came up the following exchange:

Sir Alan: "What did you actually do?"
Ifti:"Afraid I didn't contribute much."

The grilling continued as Sir Alan demanded to know who was responsible:

Sir Alan: "Who's responsible?"
Tre: "Rory"

Tre adds another knife to the pincushion in Rory's back.

Rory elects to bring back Tre and Ifti and it very much looks like Ifti would be a goner.

The Final Firing

Sir Alan instantly focusing on Ifti asking for an explanation and Ifti honestly explains that he misses his family and finds it crippling being away from them.

For the first time Sir Alan softened the blow:

"With regret, your fired"

But wait its not over, Sir Alan still wants to fire someone else as the other two don't deserve a "get out of jail" free card.

Sir Alan presses on with his interrogation of the remaining two candidates, turning the spotlight on each in turn:

Sir Alan to Rory:

"Do not want to hear chapter and verse, half the magna carter read out to me."

Sir Alan to Tre about Rory:

"Make mincemeat out of him."

Rory on Tre:

"...Not a team player..."

Sir Alan to Tre

"You're very disruptive ... very, very concerned."

Then finally as usual Sir Alan makes his final pitch:

Sir Alan to Rory:

"... Total absolute disaster... Rory here's the hat trick You're fired!"

Final Words

With Rory gone only Tre is left to go back to the house and I shall leave the last word about Tre to Simon who makes this comment whilst waiting to find out who survived:

Simon: "If you keep Tre on a leash you will be alright"

Next Week: Sir Alan tells the candidates to go make some money.