Right so here we are have arrived at the final episode of The Apprentice, which sees the last two standing, Mark and Bianca go head to head for the right to become Lord Sugar's business partner. So let's see how it went.....
So the final task was for the two finalists two launch their business by creating a video for it and also do a presentation in front of industry experts. Both candidates were helped by some of the former candidates in the process, which saw Mark's team consist of Sanjay, Felipe, James and Sarah (who was picked last as the leftover!) and Bianca's team, which comprised of Daniel, Katie, Felipe and Lauren. Mark's business, a digital marketing business intended to help smaller businesses grow and he named his business "Climb online" however Sarah in Mark's team was dubious of the name as the way it read in the design was "climbonline" as all one word (which they changed anyway). Mark also decided to offer a personalised service to business which would help make his business stand out in what is a very crowded market. Mark once again showed that he was very nervous about the event and struggled to get his lines right while filming his promo video for the business and he also kept fluffing his speech in rehearsal, which threatened that his pitch could be a disaster.
Bianca's company was to create high quality ladies tights and hosiery of various skin tones and named her business "True skin" and as they were designed to be a premium high quality product, Bianca wanted to sell them for £25 each. However the market research done by her team confirmed that the price was too high and the packaging was a bit bland, but regardless of this Bianca chose to go ahead with her plan, although she did bump the price down to £20. Bianca also made an arugably poor managerial decision by telling three of her team, Daniel, Felipe and Lauren to head back to the house while she and Katie worked on the video for her presentation, as Bianca didn't want too many opinions. Lord Sugar's advisor, Nick Hewer, also criticised Bianca for making a poor managerial decision by not listening to the market research.
As for the night of the pitches, Bianca went on first and delivered an excellent pitch to the industry experts who seemed quite impressed with her plan, although they did express their concern over the cost of the product and her lack of manufacturing experience. Mark despite an early sign of nerves also delivered a very good pitch to the experts and showed his excellent knowledge of the industry, which impressed many of the experts in the crowd. One negative however for Mark was the choice of entertainment arranged by Solomon and James, which was quite cringeworthy as it was two men dressed in orange and blue material, which covered their faces, they both mimed climbing a ladder, which even saw Lord Sugar almost bury his head in his hands!
In the boardroom Lord Sugar questioned both Mark and Bianca once more on their business and although he thought Bianca's plan was a good idea and could prove not only to fill a gap in the market and very lucrative he also realised that Bianca had no experience in the manufacturing process involved and as such was relcutant to want to "hold her hand" throughout the process of initialising the business. Bianca however expressed that this wouldn't be a problem as she knew the manufacturers that she needed to meet with and Lord Sugar could purely carry out his advisory role. Mark's business was also commended by the fact that he already had experience in that field but Lord Sugar was concerned that digital marketing is already very crowded business and also that Mark would need to pay staff to be employed to go out to meet with other businesses. After this Lord Sugar summed up and then he made his decision and he decided to hire Mark as he felt his business plan was the more solid of the two given Mark's experience, which saw him become Lord Sugar's new business partner.
Well to be honest I'm not entirely sure I agree with Lord Sugar's decision to hire Mark, even though he is a very capable candidate and he knows his business very well, but I just felt on a personal level he was a bit too cocky, who off and on in the process used some strategic tactics to play candidates off each other to his advantage. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh as the process itself is all about competition and Mark at the end of the day was excellent at dealing with competition and even eventually saw off his main rival, Daniel, before claiming the big prize. And to be fair Mark did present his business well at the presentation and managed to get through it without any major stumbles (and just one minor cough at the start!). And I think even though Lord Sugar said he saw Mark's plan as a bit of a gamble, it was the devil in him that made him want to go with Mark's business plan instead, I just felt he was playing it safe by going with the guy who was already established in a business he already works in. Regardless though Mark has done very well to come through as the winner of this year's show and there is no doubt he is a solid credible winner.
As for Bianca well I was a bit disappointed that she didn't win it as her business plan actually appeared to be the more edgier of the two and it would have been interesting to see Lord Sugar "get into tights" as one of his advisors, Mike Souter said in the previous interviews episode (well not literally of course!). Bianca also pitched very well to the experts and answered all the questions put to her with a real sense of confidence. The only mistakes I think Bianca made were to price her product as high as she did as quite a few of the experts (and even Sarah who was on Mark's team) said they wouldn't pay more than £6 for a pair of tights! Bianca was willing in the boardroom to cut her prices and make the product accessible to either the mass market or the high end market, but in the end it was Lord Sugar's reluctance to want to hold Bianca's hand through the process required for manufacturing that put him off. But I think Bianca's plan certainly was something different than Mark's and had indentified, and I hate to use this phrase, a gap in the market. Although Bianca was actually criticised in the press for having allegedly stolen this idea from a disabled business gradate she had met at a networking event last year, who demanded in the press that Lord Sugar fire Bianca. Whether or not this a true or not who knows? Perhaps it is just another attention seeker, but then again its not the first time we have heard of someone stealing another's person's idea. Regardless of all that though I think Bianca did really well throughout the process and deserved to be in the final.
Right so that's it for my look at The Apprentice 2014 and given that this was the show's 10th anniversary series, it was a very entertaining one with some fun moments, even if it was a bit gimmicky with the multiple firings early on, having 20 candidates instead of 16 (I hope they don't do that next year). It also had an entertaining rivalry between Mark and Daniel, which escalated as the show went on and both men had even gave credit to one another that they may not have gotten so far through the process if they didn't clash. The 10th series is also notable as its the last one to feature Nick Hewer who has decided not to come back next year so no doubt someone will step in to fill his shoes. Nick's various stern expressions and dry and sardonic wit were a staple (another cliche sorry!) of the show, even if he did sound quite patronising half the time he often provided some amusement in the show and no doubt his presence will feel missed next year by quite a few (if not many!).
Anyway so that's it for now and (update on 24.12!) I don't think I will manage another post before Christmas so I will say hope you have a Happy Christmas just now!
Until the next one bye for now and Merry Xmas to ya's.
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