Most of that I agree with, but I think most people have the problem with the winner was pretty poor through most of the tasks.

Under the old format he would have been long gone

But it isn't the old format is it? It's the new one - and that's been pretty clear since the start of the series.

I see where you are coming from (and I also found the ending a big strange when essentially none of the four presented business plans were accepted), but saying the winner this year would have failed a completely different previous format is a nonsensical argument to me.

I think its also debatable that Tom was poor through most of the tasks - he had many good ideas that were shouted down, for example his (and only his) concern about the placement of the beauty salon on the 3rd floor, and wanting to go for the backpack booster seat against the wishes of the rest of his team.

He wasn't a good candidate for the OLD series, but he wasn't in the OLD series.

Agreed - the programme is heavily edited. But my comment was intended to refer to how Tom is perceived as 'lacking balls' by the likes of us keyboard warriors - based on how he was shown during the series - not any of the other candidates.

Well thought-out post.

I think in a good company in real life, the quiet people with the good ideas are always respected and heard (as I'd like to think they are in my firm). People like Tom and Susan just get swallowed up on TA though by all the aggressive/mouthy/unintelligent candidates that just want to dismiss people as fast as they can. It's probably quite a shock for people like Tom and Susan, and if other candidates had followed their good (but shouted down) ideas throughout the series things could have turned out much better for their respective teams.

That's why I think the 'Tom didnt win many tasks' argument is flawed, when his team basically lied to him to stop him going for the backpack booster seat. Even the best people can only perform as well as the people they are teamed with.

I thought Felicity et al's instant and aggressive put-down of Tom's important point about the beauty salon being three floors up was embarrassing. I do worry that young people watching think business is done in Melody/Natasha etc fashion rather than respectfully putting clever ideas across.

Ahhh Kate

It still makes me laugh whenever I see her on Ch5 because in my eyes she was the clear winner of her series from like 3 weeks in, and the only thing they could criticise her for was that they thought she may be too robotic...now she's a tv presenter and was the only presenter to make it from the debut till the final episode of Live From Studio Five without getting fired.


Bit off topic there, so I'll add that I also think she's right here. I said as well when I saw Tom get hired that it showed that all the previous weeks were pointless.

She's basically saying the same as many posters here have. The format's changed and not everyone likes it.

(Personally, I miss the previous contestants coming back to help the finalists. Always interesting to see who they picked!)

I'd actually say Susan did a bit better in this regard than Tom. She was always in command when she was PM, and she often volunteered for that role. Tom never volunteered, only did it once when he was made to, and then allowed Melody to dictate to him (it's not his fault she lied to him, but it is his fault that he let her away with refusing to share out the appointments).

I do kind of agree with her, the prize was different and the final was different, so what exactly was the point in all the other tasks?

Seemed very muddled up over all, if it was to be completely different, it should have been, instead of a tacked on ending that made the right person getting the investment, seem genuinely unfair, only won 3 times v only lost once shouldn't have even been a contest, but because they only bothered to update the end of the process, it makes the whole thing look stupid.

I can't say I've been too keen on the new format either. Rather than the final four only having their business plans picked apart I think all of them should have been put through this and in the very first episodes.

Had they done that at the start then I believe Tom would have still made it through to the final. Helen and Jim I doubt would have done so, unless business plans of the others were as flawed as theirs too.

I wish they'd kept the final task.

Maybe instead of the interview stage being the final they could have eliminted 2 and then the last 2 would have a couple of weeks and past candidates to help them to come up with a presentation of their business plan?

That way they could work on the feedback given so Helen come up with a better idea or Susan tone down the figures a bit.

It would have been better for the winner's business as well since the last show spent most of an hour saying how terrible all the candidates were and their plans. Not a very good advertisement if they then want the public to give them money!

An excellent post, sums it up for me.

Would he though? He was only brought back a handful of times and I can't think of a single candidate who was fired over him who was 'robbed' to save Tom.

Er, she got a job on a C5 show, which failed and only stayed on the new version, because Denise van Outen was shocked at what a **** Dirty Desmond is and puleld out.

Successful??

Agree with MrMacavity and Dave the Scot. Only to say I think Tom did the right thing with Melody for himself and in the format, He asked her clearly to share, she declined, if she would share and she declined.

Obviously in real life he would be the manager and there wouldn't even be a question. I actually liked his approach and I guess LA knows what happened isn't realistic, as it were.

Even within the format, he can tell rather than ask.

Its not only that he was poor in the tasks , its that the ways he was poor were there from one end of the process to the other, and the faults were relevant to his ability to run a business. Its not that we were off the track seeing problems either - Lord Sugar noted the same issues, as did the interviewers and the past reference they read out.

its true that he got many points right, but he also got many wrong, surrendered his position often when right and couldn't even follow his own analysis when he was PM. On the other hand, he was perfectly capable of adding unwanted elements to other people's concept (as with the cheap biscuits) Thats all pretty fundamental in a show where many people usually go without displaying consistent weaknesses - either because they make one mistake, are unlucky or are accused of doing nothing. Its also true that a lot of other people, who went, also got many things right - but still went for their mistakes. You could argue that could be outweighed by a stellar performance - but there wasn't one.

That leaves the argument that the person with the best business plan ought to win regardless. But no one had a good businss plan, and both Tom's suggested product and plan were binned by Lord Sugar on sight. Which leaves Tom winning with his pre show invention and anything else he may have. None of these were seen on the show at all - not in the tasks , not in the interviews and not in the his business plan. Its a victory nailed by inventing a nail file years before the competition starts.

Its also a problem that they can't easily solve . Tom and Susan's advantage isn't only that they have set up a business and proved their idea - its that their CVs reveal that and what they have on offer, on day one - months before anyone else puts their new idea on the table. Its going to be very hard for anyone else to present such a detailed proposal with any evidence it will work, and very difficult for lord Sugar to forget that he saw something he can make money with in one or two CVs, on day one.

I agree with you 100%. What gives her the right to criticise Tom. I think the only reason she went onto the Apprentice in the first place was to get a job in television.

She also managed to get herself a boyfriend as well that idiot Pantsman Phil.

Did not rate her much in the show anyway very overrated.

Thinks of herself as a celebrity now she is mixing with all these tv types now.

I didn't rate Kate. Her comments demonstrate that she thinks it's a competition where people score points and the one with the most points wins.
It's not. For a start, helen didn't win all those tasks, she was on the winning team. Tom didn't loose all those tasks, he was on the loosing team. A straightforward points system wouldn't work because of that.
I'm not surprised Kate liked helen. Both seem rather spoiled and to have inflated opinions about their own talents.

Agreed. Also, Susan did sometimes argue her case and then she did get listened to. She was more assertive than Tom.


I don't follow. The tasks rarely have anything to do with the eventual job. You might as well ask about the point of selling fish or making chocolates. Generally the people fired earlier in the process were less deserving to win, either version of The Apprentice.


That he changed his mind when presented with compelling market research is surely a good trait. Candidates have been lambasted in the past for forging ahead with plans that the focus group had said wouldn't work. Tom is driven by data and evidence. He wasn't to know how poor Melody's figures were.


I think that's unfair too. So far as we know, no-one told him the biscuits should be high-end. Zoe and Susan didn't realise £3 was a high-end price during their initial evening discussions; they only discovered that the next day. Perhaps he should have asked, but really the fault is with Zoe for not telling him.


His team's performance on the fast food task was impressive, so it depends on how much of that you attribute to Helen.

Lord Alan told them all in the initial brief what the sale price was to be. So if Tom thought they were to be 'cheap' he wasn't listening, thought the biscuits would be sold by the sackload or really is the scatterbrain professor type who knows little of the real world

Knowing Lord Sugar's price doesn't say whether they are high end. Both Zoe and Susan seemed surprised when they found that £3 was expensive for biscuits. If they didn't know, surely we can excuse Tom not knowing?

Interesting idea. I don't think I have ever seen a TV series that revolve around an attempts to realise a business plan from its concept to its launch.

I think it would be more fun to have it this way:

Week 1 - 6: the old format, to give everyone a chance to see how each other gets on.
Week 7: survivors present their business plans & the interviews
Week 8 - 11: two apprentices of the winning entries get to choose from surviving apprentices as their teams to work on branding, marketing, the launch and sales
Week 12: ? Experts dissecting both to see its successes and flaws?

Let's be fair - so does Tom. Throughout the series, he repeatedly regarded himself as a genius.

Kate was very good... but what has she done with it? Become a media whore.

Well of course robot Kate would want Robot Helen to win