Columbus - I would be vague and say he was European. I thought he was Spanish, tbh. I do know he introduced peppers to Europe and that China is currently the largest potato-producing country in the world, though.
El - I guessed, but not knew, that it was 'the'
Bryon and Shakespeare - I would correct Tom on this.
Byron as a vegetarian - I would confirm he was.
William Drake - I would correct Tom on this
Caracas - I hadn't heard of this city so I didn't know it was the capital city of Venezuela.

William Drake, I'd forgotten about him!!!!

There's a lot of pedantry (and nothing wrong with that ) in evidence in this thread. However, ignoring the finer points of Columbus's true nationality and who actually should be credited with introducing the potato to Britain, what strikes me is the arrogance/assumption of these so-called creme de la creme of British business when it comes to making these decisions.

Leaving aside those lesser known details of origin, there are certain things that many people know aren't fact (e.g. that Columbus was British and he brought the potato to the British nation). It's not that these eejits know so little (and I feel justified in calling them eejits because they have very little common sense either) but that they have the temerity to confidently flaunt that no-knowledge as assured wisdom without any (or at least much) apprehension. It's not their ignorance that annoys me so much but that they seem to think it's fine to display it without a care. I'd rather adhere to the motto my dad gave me - Better to keep one's mouth shut and let everyone think you're stupid than open it and let everyone know.

London's a country you know. I heard someone say that on the News a few weeks back. You'd think people would know, that there's more to the UK than London!

I thought when Jim got his sums completely wrong in front of all of those people we would get a shot of a tumble weed slowly drifting past. That was just as astonishing as their lack of general knowledge.

In real life they'd have checked their facts with the internet or reference books. It seems like a non-issue to me.

The ignorance of susan is more astounding. she is so gullible and easily led she is a liability.

Its a mistake quite a few people would make under pressure.
It seems daft but I can understand it. Last night a few people said to me that they thought CC was British or Spanish. They arent people i would call ignorant

I was more shocked that they didn't just Google him, two minute job and they wouldn't have ended up looking stoopid.

...brought back the bicycle genius

My husband was asking about the internet thing last night.. are they maybe not allowed to look things up?

I thought Columbus was Portugese... has anyone confirmed where he was from?

He was born in Genoa, Italy. However, he was financed by the Spanish monarchs.

They don't have internet access - no wikipedia for them!

Before last night's episode, I had expected Natasha to go out, leaving Tom, Helen, Jim and Susan (in that order) to contest the final.

Having now realised how little the remaining four know about the world they live in - well, I knew Susan asked dumb questions, but hadn't appreciated that the others were equally dumb - there is only one course of action open to Lord Sid, and that's to fire the whole bleedin' lot of them!

I wouldn't invest 250p, never mind £250k in any of these four. I haven't seen such staggering ignorance outside of the window-licking contestants on Dale Winton's In It To Win It Saturday night Lottery show.

Tom invents things, he doesn't lecture on historical figures. When he came up with it he did so in a questioning way. Helen didn't seem sure.

I repeat the point I was trying to get over in the other thread....

This task wasn't about getting your branding factually correct in 48 hours, it was about putting together an efficient and profitable fast food restaurant together. Focusing on it just shows people don't understand the basic attributes that the task designed to bring out.

Helen and Tom showed exactly the skills required and being sought after. The other team, not immune from their own mistakes, should not be judged on that, but their inability to understand the concept of 'fast' food, efficient systems, pricing and margins, etc, etc , or a workable business plan. The lack of business plan vastly over shadowed any minor gaps they may posses between them on historical or geographical knowledge, and rightly so because this is a BUSINESS program. Its hardly real life and is more entertainment than a proper job/investment project as we know it, but it is NOT about remembering who brought potatoes back from America, and their nationality.

For the record, I knew he wasn't British, but I couldn't have told you his nationality. I was, however, berating Jims team for their lack of, well, almost everything required to win the task.

Let me ask you all this, in any job interview any of you have ever been through, at what point did you have to sit a basic history test? History teachers please don't reply, clearly.

Trouble is I can't imagine Lord Sugar doing any better on general knowledge than this lot. Clearly making a pound or two in business is irrelevant to one's general knowledge.

Don't people look before posting threads, a quick search perhaps?

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1503736










I can understand the confusion. Londoners think they are the only built up area in the UK and no life exists elsewhere.

This is just the latest example of contestant ignorance in The Apprentice or any other reality TV.

I think the crux of the issue is that these people are so self-absorbed that if the topic (i.e. Columbus) is not about them or their image then it's not important and therefore not worth knowing.

Rename the genre from Reality TV to Narcisists' TV?

As I have posted elsewhere, I've been up the corporate ladder (ooh Missus) when I was their age but the prospect of looking into a camera and coming out with all the stuff they spew out makes me laugh.

I'd tell myself to 'get out of here' pretty quickly.

I even read all the stuff that I've put on my Linkedin Page with my eyes half shut as each time I go back to check the page and see what I've written, I cringe a bit and edit the entries again.

If I keep going with this process, I'll end up with name, age, done a bit, bye

Some of the things I have said in interviews and meetings, in hindsight, are truly cringeworthy. But if the dog wants a biscuit, you give him the bloody biscuit!

I don't think that knowing your general knowledge facts is necessarily as indicative of buisness skills and intelligence as some people are making out.
Some of these facts might seem obvious if you happened to have known them from a long time, such as if you happened to need them for school.
To an extent the people with better memories will know more - but there's millions of these sorts of facts and chances are you don't all sorts of things others would consider basic unless you spend a lot of time expanding your general knowledge.
The Edits are far keener to pick out the bits candidates get wrong as it makes better TV

For me I knew full well Francis Drake was called Francis Drake because the Spannish Armada happened to be one of our termly topics back when I was 11.

I'd learnt that Walter Raleigh had bought Potatos back from the Americas. We had a rhyming history of Britain poster up in our kitchen when I was a kid and that was included on it.

I knew Byron wasn't around at the same time as Shakespeare. Though if Newstead Abbey (which is associated with Byron) wasn't in Nottinghamshire I'm not sure if I'd have known whern he was around.

I know Caracas is the capital of Venezuela but probably only learnt that in the last couple of years.

I couldn't remember if Columbus was Italian working for the Spannish or Spannish working for the Italians. Knew he wasn't British though.

I have no idea if Byron was vegetarian or not, I'd guess not as there weren't many around back then.

I didn't know what El meant having never studied Spannish.

I'm in complete agreement, half of the time LS sounds like an idiot when he's talking, but he knows what business is.

I'm not sure why so much stock is being put in knowing where Columbus is from. It's fairly typical of elements in our ed system though, GCSE's were essentially general knowledge exams where the students who could remember facts did well.

It matters where branding is concerned. I don't think anyone would be impressed if a brand new fast food shop appears with a logo of a Zulu tribe member with "Caribbean Fast Food Lane" written beneath.

This a good point as many major and minor ones use cultural references or all sorts, shapes and sizes either as the core of the campaign or at the periphery.

But these ideas are likely to come from the minds/knowledge/experience of the creative teams involved and are likely to be checked both by them and by the account handling teams before being presented to the clients.

Things like the Caracas issue would never have been proposed to a client unless it had been checked and they had a rationale for proposing it.

Equally, any agency worth it's salt would never have included Columbus in a 100% British campaign.

In the Apprentice, they don't seem to have the time or resources/support staff/mangement supervision to check such stuff before they hit the button on producing materials.

The raw idea comes up, they like it, they go for it.

Simples.

But that process is ripe for clangers to take place.

(Billy Drake - wasn't he a 1960's pop star? No, that was Billy Fury)


PS One of my early bosses used to say, 'Check it, check it again and when you are sure you've checked it, check it once more'.

I take your point, but I think that the majority of people would not even notice the mistake

... but if they weren't 100% sure about Columbus, why didn't they pick any other British figure? Could they seriously not think of anybody?? That, to me, shows more stupidity than not knowing where Columbus was from.