The Apprentice Series 3 - Episode 1
Got Milk? (Source Unknown) |
Selling Coffee in Islington
| Arrival: |
The house is fantastic! There was obviously considerable excitement when arriving in the house and for the first few days it felt rather like a frat house and I wondered whether I had been naïve in thinking this was a serious business programme. Clearly, the common character trait amongst the candidates is being pretty out spoken and at times it was clear that no one was doing the listening! That said, they are all really good fun.
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| The Task: |
I think my view of the first task is perfectly summed up by the picture at the top: pretty relaxing really. OK I lie, but it was certainly an experience!
What you see on TV would suggest that we were all bickering the whole time, but in actuality I have never worked with a group of more dedicated people who really wanted to do well and there were many moments of utter hilarity. |
| Boy's Team: |
One of the great things about watching this first episode was seeing what the boys got up to and even what the other part of our group got up to. The boys clearly made mistakes as well but focused on selling coffee rather than any extra products. (Interestingly we were 'advised' by Nick to buy other things as well as coffee - obviously that turned out to be poor advice!). It appears that they did a fantastic job on the selling even if they suffered from the continuous transmission of Tre. I think the 'birthday dance' was hilarious!
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| The Milk Thing: |
OK - I guess I have to address this one: what wasn't made clear is that we did actually only order 65 litres of milk in the end. Quite reasonable as cappuccino's and lattes are predominantly milk. But I was pretty annoyed that we had to do the figures based on a total guess as to how much we would sell and at what cost.
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| Boardroom: |
This can definitely be summed up in one word: scary. Sir Alan Sugar is every bit as he comes across on screen: direct and to the point. That said, I am so glad to have the experience of engaging with Sir Alan Sugar in the boardroom as clearly I have a lot to learn from a man like him.
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| Andy Jackson: |
Andy is a lovely guy and I felt pretty bad about having to pull him up in front of Sir Alan Sugar. Having said that I felt he was a weak leader in the boardroom, if I am honest it was made extremely difficult for him to run a group of very feisty Alpha females incessantly talking over him, so it is hardly a surprise it turned into chaos. I am sad that he has gone as he was lovely to have around.
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| Gerri Blackwood: |
Gerri is superbly good fun and lightens the mood with good humour (check out her falling over video on the BBC website. It's under 'Unseen; Gerri Stumbles' and it is brilliant!) and, even though she made my life difficult in the boardroom, that is all part of the game and I respect her for it.
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<Read Episode 2>
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