Originally Posted by Jocko Homo:
“He's very charismatic I think, rather than likeable (he could be smarmy and smug quite a bit of the time) which makes him a good sales person and pitching. He also seemed to be the ideas man at the beginning (with the Cuuli) but he lost a lot of shine with his naff Skiing idea in the DVD's task.
He was the male version of Liz but less articulate and slightly less intelligent (and less good), but when it comes down to it they were both only really great at sales and not much else.”
As opposed to Chris whose only really strong point apart from sales is the, very questionable , innovative contract in tours week and, perhaps. his sustained energy.
Jaimie's, later, supposed, negativity was somewhat countered by Chris's previous constantly changing purpose revealed at interview. On the creativity front, take away the credit for the tour negotiation, and Chris is the one labelled early on as uncreative. Both are amiable . Both could be seen as smarmy depending on how you take to Chris's accent. Jaimie's skiing idea wasn't, arguably, as bad as Chris's role in Germanator and, as you say, the beach idea was the best anyone had. Both could sell, but Jaimie did it without creating the nonsense stories Chris did. Jaimie was much less dull at presenting. Chris's other strengths were in his degree education and accent, but Jaimie clearly led in experience of doing anything. If there is another difference its questionable if its real - like the interview focus on Jaimie's negativity or the supposedly noteworthy contract negotiation that may never have been.
I thought there was a pretty good argument for either Jaimie or even Joanna with her rawness over Chris. I also thought that was the vibe of the interviewers too - until it was contradicted by Nick and Karen's support for Chris and the relative use of words like "negative" for Jaimie, and "creative", for Chris, framed Lord Sugar's choice.
I haven't yet seen any argument that Chris or Stella displayed more basic business sense than Liz (or even Joanna) Chris has the tour week inspiration against his name which may be crucial , but only again if you believe the actual contract didn't reveal something else. Stella missed the point worse than anyone in the key buying and negotiation task - which did best test raw business sense. Liz actually spotted Stella's big potential mistake there before she made it and put in place a mechanism to prevent it - which Stella seems then to have ignored. Liz also spots whats wrong in the video task and organises the right alternative solution when she's not even team leader, makes the right pricing decision straightaway when she has a sales problem in the fashion task and gets the supply side of the equation right in both the sausages and bread tasks. Even in sales, its not that she is good - its that she consistently outsells her competition. Even on accounting, Stella has no advantage - Liz was also complimented on her numerical skills in week one and didn't then make Stella's later key maths errors .
I can't actually think of one really good idea, presentation or sale that Stella can claim. She spotted (obvious) issues with Stuart but made a pricing error in week 4. She ignored Joanna's market research in week 8, but may have made the best choice. In weeks 1 and 6, she was paired with Liz for anything positive and in week two ,when she donned the bikini, so did Liz. Sellingwise she was often paired with Joanna and Laura, who were generally stronger. She's also performed worse than people who went before her on several key tests. Laura spotted the truffles sourcing error as soon as Stella made it, but was ignored, Jaimie got 6 times as many tips and had the strongest strategy in the buying task, when she had weakest. Joanna sold more, spotted at least as many issues, and had more creative ideas - in so far as anyone had ideas. Stella can lead - but then so can Liz, Jaimie and Chris - sometimes with even happier troops as a result.
I just don't see a very compelling positive case there for Chris or Stella over anyone else in the last 6 , but Stuart . Removing Liz is now an admitted mistake and she stacks up well against either. Joanna only fails on inexperience and education wheras she might go forward on drive, learning ability and better business sense. Jaimie over Chris depends on Chris, making what may be a mistake, being seen as brilliant, ignoring their experience and rewarding Chris's more obvious energy while ignoring his past drift.
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