Lessons From The Apprentice (6.10 - Los Angeles)

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The Candidates

Kinetic: Muna, Kristine, Derek, Marisa, Angela, Jenn, Heidi, Aimee

Arrow: Nicole, Frank, Michelle, James, Carey, Tim, Martin, Aaron, Stefani, Surya

Prelude:

Trump wants an member of Arrow’s team to move over to Kinetic’s team. James asks for volunteers while on the phone with Trump. No volunteers. James is tasked with making it happen NOW. James chooses Nicole, which really pisses off the rest of the team.

Nicole thinks it was personal. Unfortunately, James had to pick someone, which gave him an 80% chance of making someone mad (he could have selected himself!)

The Task:

The teams will be working for Universal Studios Hollywood selling passes to their theme park. They will be using a mobile ad/order input system.

Kinetic Corp / Arrow Corp

Angela is project manager for this task. Nicole comes up with the idea of putting the girls in rollers skates to move around and sell tickets.

Arrow wants to create a kiosk or station that attracts people to them rather than having to go to the people.

Arrow immediately realizes that using a booth rather than being mobile is a disadvantage. In order to compete by announcing that buyers won’t get free water bottles unless they buy from them. Worse, as the girls are making sales the team is going up to them and telling the buyers that their prices are cheaper at the booth.

The girls are extremely PO’d at the dishonest tactics being used by Arrow. They think it’s slimy.

What I Might Have Done:

The booth wasn’t a bad idea, but contradictory to the mobile devices the teams were given to use. The booth still could have been used, but it was important to get mobile and go to where people are.

The teams should have stayed away from the dishonest tactics or trying to steal customers from the other team. Personally, I think that’s time wasted from getting a sale of your own.

The result:

Kinetic made a total $24,440. Arrow made $31,366. Trump saw nothing wrong with the tactics used by Arrow.

Nicole is done with Tim. She blames Tim for not injecting his personal feelings for her in the business decision. James moved her to the other team. To get into good favor with her, Tim tells her that James will be going after her in the boardroom because she came up with the idea of the roller skates.

The Boardroom:

Instead of blaming the loss on the shady tactics of the other team, Angela instead blames a flawed selling concept using the roller skates. Angela believes the kiosk concept was a better idea.

Trump believes that Tim should have fought for Nicole because of his personal feelings. I think Trump is wrong. Personal feelings need to be put aside for business.

Ivanka believes that the kiosk gave the other team legitimacy. The team puts the responsibility on the project manager. Angela is unable to defend herself from being fired. For that, she’s fired.

Who’s Not Apprentice Material? Frank, James, Aimee, Surya. Both Tim and Nicole prove that their personal relationship interferes with good business sense. They both get added to this list today.

Final four predictions: Heidi, Kristine

Lessons Learned:

• Business first. Put your personal feelings aside and do what is best for success.
• If you have to lie to get a win then you don’t deserve the win. There is nothing wrong with aggressive sales, but resorting to lies is just wrong.
• Never betray your team for a relationship. If your relationship is more important then do the right thing and leave your team. Giving away their secrets is not acceptable. Period.
• Trump isn’t always right.

What would you have done?

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Tags: Business Principles
Posted in Business Principles