Originally Posted by DavetheScot:
“I don't buy the stitch-up theory. Everyone liked the idea at first because it sounded good and their market research supported it. Once they realised that the nature of a chameleon didn't really fit the concept, the team rightly conceived that it was a bad idea. Unfortunately, Andrew wouldn't be persuaded to change course, and no-one was able to think of a good idea to replace it (even Chameleon was better than Brian!)...”
With respect, I disagree with the part in bold. I wrote in an earlier comment:
Originally Posted by hawk001:
“Just watched the bit where Andrew's team discusses ditching "Chameleon". Stephen suggests "Brian" as the product name! When the other three unanimously express surprise, he adds "Brian - the only friend you can count on"!
At that point Lucy threw "Chameleon" back into the mix on the basis that the focus group really liked it. Andrew immediately said "I definitely don't like Chameleon". Stephen said they can change the sense of "adapting"; Lucy backed him up strongly, saying "I think you can pitch it as in that you can adapt it to your own style" - which is what they went with and were heavily criticised for.
Navdeep to her credit was 100% against using "Chameleon". Andrew quite reasonably said that Navdeep was criticising the idea without coming up with a workable alternative.
I don't share other people's opinion that Lucy's great. She could justifiably be held accountable for the failure of this task.
And it was Lucy who thought that the rear of the chameleon's head was a quiff!”
You say "...Andrew wouldn't be persuaded to change course...". Actually, once the contradiction was pointed out (chameleons are known for blending in, not standing out), Andrew was strongly against using "Chameleon". It was Stephen and Lucy who persuaded him to change his mind.
Navdeep was, at that stage (after Andrew had been persuaded to change his mind), still strongly against it so credit to her for that (so I understand those who say she should not have been fired. The other side of the coin is that Navdeep didn't, in what we saw, raise this in the boardroom).
What I didn't say in my earlier comment was that Navdeep went further than standing her ground against using Chameleon. She predicted that if they used it they would be open to criticism in the pitch.
So there is an argument that Lucy was culpable enough to be brought back into the boardroom instead of Navdeep.
However my point is that it is untrue that "...Andrew wouldn't be persuaded to change course...". Lucy and Stephen were to blame, and Andrew was in the firing line for being PM and going along with Lucy & Stephen.