Paula was definitely the one to go of the 3 in the boardroom yesterday. It's just a shame though as in Your Fired programme afterwards she actually came across well....that didn't seem to show up in the apprentice shows.
Ben is awful, but to be fair to him, Paula delegated the finances to him and Yasmina, but then totally took over (we see the clip of her holding the pen and doing sums) - with Yasmina....leaving Ben to hold the mixing spoon.
She really should have delegated properly and left them to it.
Noural should have gone. He has absolutely no clue when it comes to business. Luckily for him his team saved him with some good selling.
I thought the other team did very well. The product looked nice and they all did well at selling the project and I thought Paula was a good project manager. She motivated people, delegated well and the whole team looked like they were having fun. Yasmina should take most of the blame for such a stupid mistake with costing. Ben should have been more pro-active in helping with the costs. I think Ben should have gone. I think Yasmina is quite good apart from that one stupid mistake.
I still think the wrong team won. The problem with the show is that is focused so much on the short-term. Given more time the losing team could have corrected costs and had repeat custom. The winning team misled customers, with a poor team leader and still made a profit.
Paula shouldn't have just left Ben and Yasmina to it as Paula and Yasmina worked together to find a nice smelling fragrance that Ben admitted that he wasn't brilliant at. So Paula should have been there, Ben should have just played a more active role in costing.
Paula was definitely the one to go of the 3 in the boardroom yesterday. It's just a shame though as in Your Fired programme afterwards she actually came across well....that didn't seem to show up in the apprentice shows.
While I agree with you that she came across well in "Your Fired" programme, I also think she came across as competent and likable in the main programme. I know that it's a business programme rather than a popularity contest, but Alan Sugar rarely gives of any of the likable characters any slack when it comes to mistakes ... while odious turds like Sophoclese and Ben get countles let offs.
It's a real shame she has gone ... her group handled the task excellently in so many ways, but one absolutely MASSIVE cockup cost them dearly.
In contrast, Noorul's team seemed to lurch from one disaster to another under his complete lack of management. It's quite staggering that his team managed to make a profit and save his skin. I'm sure his days are numbered.
I disagree I cheered because finally he made a right decision. Ben totally humiliated and owned Paula in the boardroom and she nearly had a breakdown. It was her fault the fragrances mixed up and therefore the prices rocketed.
Paula was definitely the one to go of the 3 in the boardroom yesterday. It's just a shame though as in Your Fired programme afterwards she actually came across well....that didn't seem to show up in the apprentice shows.
Ben is awful, but to be fair to him, Paula delegated the finances to him and Yasmina, but then totally took over (we see the clip of her holding the pen and doing sums) - with Yasmina....leaving Ben to hold the mixing spoon.
She really should have delegated properly and left them to it.
Shouldn't Ben have stepped in though? He was supposed to be in charge of finances.
That was his role and she was perfectly correct in saying he did nothing to fulfil it.
Either Yasmina or Paula should have gone. They were the two people responsible for the pricing fiasco. Ben had nothing to do with that. Pricing is what lost them the task, nothing else. All other parts of the exercise were executed adequately.
Not sure why people find Ben vile, he is a bit of an idiot, that thinks too highly of himself. But to say he is vile is way too strong. He like all the other candidates, think too highly of themselves, they are all up their own backsides.
He come out and gought his corner in the boardroom, some which yasmina didnt do at all. Only heard about 5 words from her, when only three of them were inthe boardroom.
Paula isnt the angel people make her out to be...when Nick mentioned the pricing mistake, she was the first to pipe up, to blame Yamsina and Ben.
I think he made the wrong decision. Paula came up with a good product and motivated her team to sell well. She had loads of potential in my opinion.
Hear Hear.
Paula had delegated the matter of costing to both Yasmina and Ben so she should have stayed clear away rather than allow herself to get involved and allow Ben to carry on with the mixing of the product which he was quite happy to do (that let him off the hook later in the boardroom IMO).
He said there was no way he was going to 'carry the can' for something he wasn't involved in.
Paula was wrong in that regard but her product was still very good, well sourced, looked attractive and with a good name.
If she hadn't got involved in the costings, I think Sir Alan would have fired Ben or possibly even Yasmina. It's a shame she made the mistake of getting involved which led to her downfall. I would have liked her to have stayed.
I disagree I cheered because finally he made a right decision. Ben totally humiliated and owned Paula in the boardroom and she nearly had a breakdown. It was her fault the fragrances mixed up and therefore the prices rocketed.
Ben didn't humiliate Paula ... he shouted her down (as he does with everyone in the boardroom) and made a tit of himself ... if anyone was humiliated by the experience it was Ben himself.
Paula didn't look even close to having a breakdown ... she's one of the few people who can leave the show with her head held high and her dignity intact.
I disagree I cheered because finally he made a right decision. Ben totally humiliated and owned Paula in the boardroom and she nearly had a breakdown. It was her fault the fragrances mixed up and therefore the prices rocketed.
Humiliating someone in the boardroom by behaving like a thug is not a barometer for measuring business acumen.
Remaining composed and showing integrity, as Paula did, make you far more employable in the real world.
In the last series Shazi was fired for doing somthing that her PM explicitly agreed to. siralun made a big point of the fact that a PM has to be able to rely on people doing what they've been told (completely ignoring that in that case that is exactly what the firee did).
Now, he has ignored the fact that a PM, sensibly aware of an area of weakness, delegated a task to two other people (thus ensuring that there were two well qualified to perform the task - one to undertake it and one to do the all important cross check). Absolutely perfect team leadership.
One person and one person alone failed out of those three and it was Ben.
But now siralun has changed his priorities entirely and ignores the fact that Ben did not do what was asked of him and lost them the task.
Ben didn't humiliate Paula ... he shouted her down (as he does with everyone in the boardroom) and made a tit of himself ... if anyone was humiliated by the experience it was Ben himself.
Actually you will find that Paula was close to a breakdown.
I dont think Ben shouted Paula down, however he was aggressive....which I guess you have to be in the boardroom. You can go through all the series and see the people who are aggressive in the boardroom make it to the later stages of the competition.
Paula didn't look even close to having a breakdown ... she's one of the few people who can leave the show with her head held high and her conscience intact.
Of course Paula should have gone. She made a huge blunder with the costings and then claimed she couldn't be responsible for costings because she's only a HR manager.
Unless the position SAS is recruiting for is a HR Manager, what use is she?
As for Ben, sure he's a twerp, and he probably should have gone last week (although the person who was fired dug his own grave in the boardroom imo), but I fail to see how he could be responsible for the failure since he wasn't even involved in the fatal decision.
I don't know whether SAS keeps in people who he thinks are entertaining, or whether he keeps them in because he thinks they have potential, but many people on this forum would like him to get rid of the nasty ones, and keep the nice likeable ones. That isn't how business works.
I don't know whether SAS keeps in people who he thinks are entertaining, or whether he keeps them in because he thinks they have potential, but many people on this forum would like him to get rid of the nasty ones, and keep the nice likeable ones. That isn't how business works.
I agree. It's becoming a bit predictable this programme. While Noorul's team was the poorer of the two I knew in the end they would win because the producers seem to play them down big time and like to add a twist at the boardroom stage. And they want the loudmouthed/baddies/stronger ones to stay on because they make the ratings. I don't think Sir Alan really has a say all on his own. Well that's my view. Wanted Ben to go!
I bet you anything - the trailer whereby SAS is talking about "If you ever speak like that to me again, don't bother coming back" - I bet that's to Ben. I cannot WAIT for that moment.
Of course Paula should have gone. She made a huge blunder with the costings and then claimed she couldn't be responsible for costings because she's only a HR manager.
Unless the position SAS is recruiting for is a HR Manager, what use is she?
That simply is not the way business works (apart from one man bands).
The whole point of business is to recognise people's strengths and use those strengths to the best effect.
Paula did this perfectly.
She asked two people who were eminently well qualified to keep tabs on costings (the financial side always involves double checks) and one of those people completely failed to perform that assigned task.
Anyone can make a mistake so it would be unfair to fire Yasmina. Paula correctly factored in a double check but Ben failed to carry it out.
Paula's only fault was to trust Ben and not ask him explicitly if he had checked the figures. However, in the light of Sugar's comments in previous programmes she could be forgiven for expecting someone who works with finance for a living to understand the importance of that task.
I bet you anything - the trailer whereby SAS is talking about "If you ever speak like that to me again, don't bother coming back" - I bet that's to Ben. I cannot WAIT for that moment.
How yawntastically predictable was Paula's dismal, she was intelligent, warm, moral and funny - the very qualitites that guaranteed her early downfall because in the eyes of the production team all us viewers want to watch are mindless twerps like Ben - (who the hell thinks that braces are cool).
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Totally agree. Paula clearly has a great deal of the qualities that get you hired in the real business world. Of course, this isn't the real business world, its a huge comedy game show.
I disagree I cheered because finally he made a right decision. Ben totally humiliated and owned Paula in the boardroom and she nearly had a breakdown. It was her fault the fragrances mixed up and therefore the prices rocketed.
Ben only humiliated himself. Especially with his totally irrelevant "scholarship to Sandhurst" comment. I thought he had talked himself into getting fired when he said that.
Of course Paula should have gone. She made a huge blunder with the costings and then claimed she couldn't be responsible for costings because she's only a HR manager.
Unless the position SAS is recruiting for is a HR Manager, what use is she?
As for Ben, sure he's a twerp, and he probably should have gone last week (although the person who was fired dug his own grave in the boardroom imo), but I fail to see how he could be responsible for the failure since he wasn't even involved in the fatal decision.
I don't know whether SAS keeps in people who he thinks are entertaining, or whether he keeps them in because he thinks they have potential, but many people on this forum would like him to get rid of the nasty ones, and keep the nice likeable ones. That isn't how business works.
But if the team leader should be solely responsible for everything, what is the point in having a team to delegate to? Paula played up to her strengths, and delegated her weaker point to two people who should have been an expert in the costings field. Her only mistake was still then getting involved in costings.
Personally I think SAS or whoever is pulling the strings wants him to keep the bigger personalities in, because they make better tv. I knew that Paula would go, because she is nice girl, who didn't annoy anyone. Ben is an up-himself ***, and therefore makes for better tv.
I co-direct a small business. And yes, you are quite right - you can't only employ people just because they are nice. But if someone like Ben wanted to come and work at our place, he would not have a chance - he is disruptive, alienates people and is only interested in what he himself can get out of anything.
Tough choice for SAS. Paula was unlucky but for once I didn't think Ben deserved to go and Yasmina had shown promise in earlier tasks so out of the three, Paula as project manager was on balance probably the right decision but I did like her.
personally i think it was the right decision. although for slightly different reasons.
they had it drummed into them that cost was the most important factor in the task.
the fact they mixed up teh sums so badly to me is irrelevant. the fact they had their ingrediants clearly costed with a massive range from cheap as chips through to hugely expensive in terms of the oils should have immediately lit a big warning light to the PM that that should be their area of focus. Anyone who came back with a £5 figure then should have had warning signals going off in their head, otherwise they wouldn't have been warned about costs at all. Missing this and in fact being gleeful about the cheapness is the entire reason why Paula should have gone. A project managers role is to understand the task at hand and know what is necessary to complete the task. They were given idiot notes to help them and even then she got so carried away with the creativity she lost complete sight of the actual goals.
Also she had cruised through under the radar for all the previous weeks so had nothing to fall back on whereas at least the other two had contributed week in week out.
That simply is not the way business works (apart from one man bands).
The whole point of business is to recognise people's strengths and use those strengths to the best effect.
Paula did this perfectly.
She asked two people who were eminently well qualified to keep tabs on costings (the financial side always involves double checks) and one of those people completely failed to perform that assigned task.
Anyone can make a mistake so it would be unfair to fire Yasmina. Paula correctly factored in a double check but Ben failed to carry it out.
Yes she asked two other people to do the finances...then she jumped and did them herself, with Yasmina. She left Ben to do the mixing. So she was correct in allocating the task to two people, but then she jumped in herself to do the tasks, which was her fatal mistake.
Another point, which seems to have been overlooked. The mistake was not the costings. The mistake was getting sandelwood and cedarwood mixed up. If that mixup didnt occur, then the costing would have worked out ok. The first major mistake was getting the oild mixed up. This was down to Yasmina and Paula....Ben was nowhere near them when the chose the oils.
Also she had cruised through under the radar for all the previous weeks so had nothing to fall back on whereas at least the other two had contributed week in week out.
Yeah, last week Ben contributed one of the most useless pieces of product design I have ever seen, while trotting around flexing his flabby muscles as if he were Mr Universe.
With that track record of success behind him, how could Alan Sugar possibly consider firing him?
Comments
Ben is awful, but to be fair to him, Paula delegated the finances to him and Yasmina, but then totally took over (we see the clip of her holding the pen and doing sums) - with Yasmina....leaving Ben to hold the mixing spoon.
She really should have delegated properly and left them to it.
I thought the other team did very well. The product looked nice and they all did well at selling the project and I thought Paula was a good project manager. She motivated people, delegated well and the whole team looked like they were having fun. Yasmina should take most of the blame for such a stupid mistake with costing. Ben should have been more pro-active in helping with the costs. I think Ben should have gone. I think Yasmina is quite good apart from that one stupid mistake.
I still think the wrong team won. The problem with the show is that is focused so much on the short-term. Given more time the losing team could have corrected costs and had repeat custom. The winning team misled customers, with a poor team leader and still made a profit.
Paula shouldn't have just left Ben and Yasmina to it as Paula and Yasmina worked together to find a nice smelling fragrance that Ben admitted that he wasn't brilliant at. So Paula should have been there, Ben should have just played a more active role in costing.
While I agree with you that she came across well in "Your Fired" programme, I also think she came across as competent and likable in the main programme. I know that it's a business programme rather than a popularity contest, but Alan Sugar rarely gives of any of the likable characters any slack when it comes to mistakes ... while odious turds like Sophoclese and Ben get countles let offs.
It's a real shame she has gone ... her group handled the task excellently in so many ways, but one absolutely MASSIVE cockup cost them dearly.
In contrast, Noorul's team seemed to lurch from one disaster to another under his complete lack of management. It's quite staggering that his team managed to make a profit and save his skin. I'm sure his days are numbered.
Shouldn't Ben have stepped in though? He was supposed to be in charge of finances.
That was his role and she was perfectly correct in saying he did nothing to fulfil it.
Not sure why people find Ben vile, he is a bit of an idiot, that thinks too highly of himself. But to say he is vile is way too strong. He like all the other candidates, think too highly of themselves, they are all up their own backsides.
He come out and gought his corner in the boardroom, some which yasmina didnt do at all. Only heard about 5 words from her, when only three of them were inthe boardroom.
Paula isnt the angel people make her out to be...when Nick mentioned the pricing mistake, she was the first to pipe up, to blame Yamsina and Ben.
Hear Hear.
Paula had delegated the matter of costing to both Yasmina and Ben so she should have stayed clear away rather than allow herself to get involved and allow Ben to carry on with the mixing of the product which he was quite happy to do (that let him off the hook later in the boardroom IMO).
He said there was no way he was going to 'carry the can' for something he wasn't involved in.
Paula was wrong in that regard but her product was still very good, well sourced, looked attractive and with a good name.
If she hadn't got involved in the costings, I think Sir Alan would have fired Ben or possibly even Yasmina. It's a shame she made the mistake of getting involved which led to her downfall. I would have liked her to have stayed.
Ben didn't humiliate Paula ... he shouted her down (as he does with everyone in the boardroom) and made a tit of himself ... if anyone was humiliated by the experience it was Ben himself.
Paula didn't look even close to having a breakdown ... she's one of the few people who can leave the show with her head held high and her dignity intact.
Now shut up before I "bite your teeth out".
Humiliating someone in the boardroom by behaving like a thug is not a barometer for measuring business acumen.
Remaining composed and showing integrity, as Paula did, make you far more employable in the real world.
In the last series Shazi was fired for doing somthing that her PM explicitly agreed to. siralun made a big point of the fact that a PM has to be able to rely on people doing what they've been told (completely ignoring that in that case that is exactly what the firee did).
Now, he has ignored the fact that a PM, sensibly aware of an area of weakness, delegated a task to two other people (thus ensuring that there were two well qualified to perform the task - one to undertake it and one to do the all important cross check). Absolutely perfect team leadership.
One person and one person alone failed out of those three and it was Ben.
But now siralun has changed his priorities entirely and ignores the fact that Ben did not do what was asked of him and lost them the task.
Actually you will find that Paula was close to a breakdown.
I dont think Ben shouted Paula down, however he was aggressive....which I guess you have to be in the boardroom. You can go through all the series and see the people who are aggressive in the boardroom make it to the later stages of the competition.
I would agree with this.
You are contradicting yourself.
Unless the position SAS is recruiting for is a HR Manager, what use is she?
As for Ben, sure he's a twerp, and he probably should have gone last week (although the person who was fired dug his own grave in the boardroom imo), but I fail to see how he could be responsible for the failure since he wasn't even involved in the fatal decision.
I don't know whether SAS keeps in people who he thinks are entertaining, or whether he keeps them in because he thinks they have potential, but many people on this forum would like him to get rid of the nasty ones, and keep the nice likeable ones. That isn't how business works.
That simply is not the way business works (apart from one man bands).
The whole point of business is to recognise people's strengths and use those strengths to the best effect.
Paula did this perfectly.
She asked two people who were eminently well qualified to keep tabs on costings (the financial side always involves double checks) and one of those people completely failed to perform that assigned task.
Anyone can make a mistake so it would be unfair to fire Yasmina. Paula correctly factored in a double check but Ben failed to carry it out.
Paula's only fault was to trust Ben and not ask him explicitly if he had checked the figures. However, in the light of Sugar's comments in previous programmes she could be forgiven for expecting someone who works with finance for a living to understand the importance of that task.
We can but hope!
Totally agree. Paula clearly has a great deal of the qualities that get you hired in the real business world. Of course, this isn't the real business world, its a huge comedy game show.
Ben only humiliated himself. Especially with his totally irrelevant "scholarship to Sandhurst" comment. I thought he had talked himself into getting fired when he said that.
But if the team leader should be solely responsible for everything, what is the point in having a team to delegate to? Paula played up to her strengths, and delegated her weaker point to two people who should have been an expert in the costings field. Her only mistake was still then getting involved in costings.
Personally I think SAS or whoever is pulling the strings wants him to keep the bigger personalities in, because they make better tv. I knew that Paula would go, because she is nice girl, who didn't annoy anyone. Ben is an up-himself ***, and therefore makes for better tv.
I co-direct a small business. And yes, you are quite right - you can't only employ people just because they are nice. But if someone like Ben wanted to come and work at our place, he would not have a chance - he is disruptive, alienates people and is only interested in what he himself can get out of anything.
a cut and paste error...I agreed with the second half of his/her sentence...
they had it drummed into them that cost was the most important factor in the task.
the fact they mixed up teh sums so badly to me is irrelevant. the fact they had their ingrediants clearly costed with a massive range from cheap as chips through to hugely expensive in terms of the oils should have immediately lit a big warning light to the PM that that should be their area of focus. Anyone who came back with a £5 figure then should have had warning signals going off in their head, otherwise they wouldn't have been warned about costs at all. Missing this and in fact being gleeful about the cheapness is the entire reason why Paula should have gone. A project managers role is to understand the task at hand and know what is necessary to complete the task. They were given idiot notes to help them and even then she got so carried away with the creativity she lost complete sight of the actual goals.
Also she had cruised through under the radar for all the previous weeks so had nothing to fall back on whereas at least the other two had contributed week in week out.
Yes she asked two other people to do the finances...then she jumped and did them herself, with Yasmina. She left Ben to do the mixing. So she was correct in allocating the task to two people, but then she jumped in herself to do the tasks, which was her fatal mistake.
Another point, which seems to have been overlooked. The mistake was not the costings. The mistake was getting sandelwood and cedarwood mixed up. If that mixup didnt occur, then the costing would have worked out ok. The first major mistake was getting the oild mixed up. This was down to Yasmina and Paula....Ben was nowhere near them when the chose the oils.
Yeah, last week Ben contributed one of the most useless pieces of product design I have ever seen, while trotting around flexing his flabby muscles as if he were Mr Universe.
With that track record of success behind him, how could Alan Sugar possibly consider firing him?