I think you're just being provocative with this thread. You're being far too reasonable when people (me) challenge you very abruptly (apologies for that by the way, I'm a little bit drunk).

It's nice to see though. People are far too defensive .

It is a bit weird but you never know what you're gonna find with this exotic things from a country like that. It could have been mahogany blossom, or it could have been some burning oil to give the rooms of the hotel a special and exclusive smell, thats what it would have come to my mind. I mean, if I am in Dubai, and a guy tells me that ood is a perfume, and I read mahogany wood next to it, I would find it strange, but I would also find it plausible.

people here really grasping at straws to try and say that he might have been correct about the perfume , especially when the product he should have been buying met all the criteria listed not just a few tenuous links about some fragrances using types of wood

the reference to mahogany was a clear giveaway that the perfume was wrong but despite having that inconsistency pointed out to him he just brushed it aside adamant that he knew better

sort of the way he handled the whole task tbh

the little incident when he allowed the door the shut in the face of the two girls when going back into the boardroom was telling I thought

It wasn't just they couldn't find it, they couldn't even pronounce it.

And let's not forget one team thinking a cloche (clock? cloak? clo-chey?) might be a garden shed and Nigella seeds being astroturf (and that had an Asian who knew exactly what they were when given a different name for them).

There was also the taxi driver's bible, which I think is called a 'blue book' or something similar.

Half the fun is in watching the teams trying to work out what this year's obscure item is. The similarity between the two ouds was confusing and ambiguous - and Zee's error actually quite understandable in that context, although the wording of the spec should have given him a clue.

But then that's also part of what it means to work in business: if you are trying to source a duck and you know of something that looks like a duck, you don't just assume it *is* a duck - you invest a little time in confirming whether your assumption is actually correct. Zee assumed he knew - an error, but not a crime - but not taking into account the feedback from his team who were talking to perfumiers and getting blank responses *was* a fatal error. Again, that's true in business. You often start with incomplete information and form an opinion. But when you get new info that contradicts that initial opinion, only a fool (or a genius) ploughs on regardless. Zee wasn't a genius.

Thats very true, but when you claim you do know everything, even to the point of telling someone "put the map away. I know this place like the back of my hand" you are opening yourself up to a downfall. He didn't even have the slightest grasp of the language after stating he lived there for 2 years and does a lot of business there.

Quite, the other team went down the same route, but it was the perfumery shop assistant that actually set them on the right path. (Cynical me says he may have actually been a plant for the teams to discover the correct info, but hey-ho).

So Zee failed in having blinkers on, but also failed by not having a team at the mall, which in fairness seemed the more likely to have people that spoke English and could understand numpties looking for ouds.

He said he knew everything about Dubai, do you remember? He was SO SURE oud meant only one thing. Surely that would suggest at least he THOUGHT he knew everything? So whoever sets himself up as a know-all would fall, BADLY.

as slouchingthatch said above the cardinal sin in any sort of business/project management role is making assumptions , it is something we got drummed into us all the time that if there is the slightest doubt about something then double check it

despite a couple of fairly big clues that his assumption about it being perfume was wrong he refused to even accept the possibility he might be wrong and whilst he might think that makes him look strong , in reality its the opposite, you cant afford that level of arrogance. the best people I ever worked with were the ones who were never afraid to admit they might have made a mistake and check before it was too late.

Exactly that. I often wonder whether some of the people the candidates 'randomly' meet are actually less than random. You know, the awkward shopkeeper who plays a ukulele while the team are trying to sell to them, that sort of thing.

When they announced the task, I have to say my first thought was to send one team to each location for exactly the reasons you state: use the mall as an easier source of information, not just as a buying location. Then target which items you're going to buy in the souks.

Also, they were obviously told they could go to the Dubai Mall but not any of the others in the city. (Wikipedia lists 69!) I assume you would need filming permits from each mall in advance - public places don't just allow anyone to go around with a camera crew following them - so it's not like you can just pitch up anywhere and run around in that way that only Apprentices can.

It did look like the maps had pre-ringed places on them, so Zee's knowledge was even less useful. While the Souk's are great for getting a bargain, lack of product knowledge, lack of language skills and probably lack of quality would in the end make the Souks very hard to navigate for the candidates.

It appeared that the Souk they went to was full of "tourist tat" and the Mall would be a better place to source quality items, that weren't aimed at tourists.

Interesting - I hadn't spotted that.

I'm not sure that product quality was an issue, mind you. Obviously in the real world the Waldorf-Astoria would expect products of a certain quality, but there's nothing in the task rules that say you have to buy real Coca-Cola or Tesco's own-brand, if you see what I mean. It's not as if the hotel was actually going to use any of the products the candidates sourced (especially the little flag!) - they're just there to serve as a visible client for the task. As long as the products meet spec in terms of size, quantity, weight, description, whatever, a shoddy product doesn't get fined.

maybe if sub team helped instead of hindered their project manager they would have realised what it was like other team did.

Probably, but Zee hardly helped - every time they called him back to say they no one knew what they were talking about and whether it might be something else, he categorically told them they were wrong. Alex even pointed out that the perfume was spelled 'oudh' (although it's a phonetic translation and it is also spelled 'oud', apparently), but Zee simply refused to accept that he might be wrong.

Making the initial error was unfortunate - he was made to look a buffoon for it, but it was easily done. Not listening to new information suggesting he was wrong was arrogant, though.

@ Slouchingthatch, I can't remember exactly but in one part the map is laid down, so I presume at the beginning somewhere, you can see an area ringed by the sea

Thanks! I was probably looking away and scribbling notes for my blog at the time. (That's my excuse, anyway.)

Not until I Googled it but it appears perfectly normal to use mahogany in perfume -
http://www.fragrantica.com/notes/Mahogany-43.html

Why? Do you know every instrument that exists in the UK?

he wasnt fired for the oud, he was fired because he was a chauvinist and took back two people who werent responsible for the failure of the task over two people that were. Thats why he was fired so stop this petty mahogany comes in a standard size shit, its laughable.

I disagree. Why Zee was fired is one thing. But that's not the main reason why his team lost the task, which is the real point.

The discount Jordan achieved on the oud was £150 (and therefore value of the fine for Zee's team). Evolve's winning margin: £88. One high value product and one big discount had a disproportionate impact on the outcome of the task.

Why didn't Zee's team buy the oud? You could argue that it was just plain bad luck - there's actually a degree of merit in that - but it was also because they spent all day being told by Zee that it had to be perfume. The other team had no idea what it was, which ultimately made it easier for them to find out what it really was as they weren't diverted by a wild goose chase.

I've already answered this in the post above yours.

one did NOTHING

the other sulked and disobeyed the PL and generally sabotaged the whole thing, did she get a good price for anything either? she also let neil buy wrong product

if you think they were both blameless i think its quite patronising to them

That's actually exactly the same error. In gardening, a cloche *is* a miniature greenhouse-like object.

I'm assuming they're only allowed to use the smartphones for calls to other team mambers and nothing else. Hence the fact that they don't go straight onto Google!

Yeah and Zee had NOTHING to do with that..........no, sir