Oooh, I've just watched last night's show and I'm hopping mad. Alex's only failure was that, after a sustained browbeating from Myles, he decided the guy's rubbish Deadly Dinners idea might have legs, seeing as he's the one with kids. Alas, the only thing it proved was that, whoever does the food shop in Myles's house, it ain't Myles.

I thought Alex was the most mature, authentic and interesting person in the show. Yes, his enthusiasm got the better of him sometimes. But that's better than being dead behind the eyes while waffling cliches about passion.Don't give a stuff what happens now. The others come across as identikit salesmen who'd sell their own grans for a 'win'. Disappointed that's what LAS wants.

Myles wasn't very likeable last night, for the first time really.

It's already been said by several people on these boards, but LAS should not know what the contestant's business plan is until at least after the interviews as it influences his decision in the BR.

it's Alex's fault for being weak, same for Jason when he allowed himself to be bullied by Luisa
so both had to be fired to be fair

I think Alex was fired due to his business plan alone.

Myles was responsible for the product so he should have went.

FWIW I thought Alex's original idea was really good. As a parent I can see it capturing children's interest.

I think that he has at least some level of interest in all of them at the start. It's been that way since Series 8 after the problems with Helen's and Jim's business plans in Series 7.

Like last night for example, it wasn't the fact that he wanted a law business that Lord Sugar objected to, it was the fact that Alex knew nothing about the law. I think that was something that Lord Sugar didn't realise until then.

Totally agree, OP.

I'm sorry, I get that Alex is liked on these boards (probably quite justified) but that simply isn't true.

As PM, he had the power to go with what he chose to do and he had the power to go with his own convictions. He had been bigging up his PM skills for weeks and he simply didn't perform when push came to shove as PM. He could have avoided the problems on the packaging and he could have done more than stay in the background whilst Myles led the show and the other three team members led the pitches.

I personally think he was a poor PM and I was very disappointed with his leadership, tbh. He was one of my favorites before yesterday and Myles (marginally) probably did deserve to be fired, but he simply wasn't a good PM.

Alex made mistakes but I thought Myles was far more useless than he was yesterday.

As Sugar would certainly have seen Alex's CV I think it is obvious he already knew Alex didn't have any legal training. Alex wasn't proposing to give legal advice himself so he doesn't need legal training. He actually seemed more concerned about him jumping from one idea to another, but I don't thnk that's a problem either if you move for the right reasons (bad idea + not making money => try something else).

But if he keeps changing what he's doing because its a bad idea that's not making money, then why should Lord Sugar think that his latest idea will be any more successful.

Myles should have definitely been fired last night but I get the impression Sugah likes his business plan more hence getting rid of Alex.

Same with Leah, she must have a good business plan unless she is being kept on as eye candy.

My ass! That miserable cow's face is the exact opposite of eye candy to me!

LOL. I was being sarcastic. She was referred to as eye candy a few weeks ago.

She does look nice when she smiles though.

If he was just moving on because he was bored then that's a good point. As we don't know why he's moved on from his memorial/plaque business it's hard to say. I think his legal services idea had a chance and at least it shows originality.

What world do you live in???

LAS is plowing £250,000 into a business, the whole point of the program is to start a business with LAS. At the start its establishing who has the personal attributes to manage a business, who can sell, who's creative etc... But when it gets closer to the crunch time of course he has to consider the candidates business plans. The business plans are much more important than the tasks.

Yes Miles did an awful job last task, but he had a very good track record before this, and in the Boardroom he put his hands up and accepted his faults (thinking he was going to be fired), there was no pushing the blame or playing silly games, so I think he was more than fair.

Alex showed an inability to manage, huge hesitation and deliberation when it came to decision making, and that was reflected with his business plan as he had so many different business ideas before.

Remember this is £250,000 a huge amount of money. LAS needs to make sure he invests it in the right person with the right idea.

In previous series people in this forum have suggested he was really firing people on the basis of their plans, not task performance, even though their plans weren't talked about until the final, and it was generally assumed he wasn't supposed to know. At least in this series he's been openly doing so to make it clear he does know what they have proposed. It's now clearly part of the contest and the same for everyone, so perfectly fair.

You think so?

It is very very from a fortune nowadays and wouldn't even buy a semi around here.............never mind be a credible amount to invest in a sensible business proposition.

Back in the day a million was a lot of money..........not now.

I don't think he knew what they were in Series 7, as in the final two of the candidates - arguably three - had really bad business plans. In Series 8, while they didn't talk about them before the final, he said in the opening boardroom that he'd looked over all of them and had already got rid of anything he didn't like.

Why do people like Alex so much? He was the weakest candidate by far, aside from the odd showings of character and creative spark, he was really young, hasn't really preformed on any of the tasks like Leah/Jordan/Luisa/Neil have. Alex did nothing this task, everyone else's was doing the pitches/cooking/branding. Alex's mistake this task was not realizing Myles's idea was not the 'wrong' one because Jordan managed to get an order of 1000!

I think the reason that Myles stayed was because he made a risk...and showed some level of creative thought. And he has sold on most tasks. And he works very well with people. Alex has showed a very limited amount of all of this...

I didn't warm to Alex immediately. I thought he was just another bumptious bigmouth. But as the show went on, he came up with great ideas. The 'Ponty Ping' character, as a way of gently introducing children in the mass market to food from around the world. The foldo chair, that LAS said was the best product they'd ever had on The Apprentice. Why do people not give him any credit? I don't see Luisa or Leah or Myles or the other one having the imagination or humility to think about what people might actually want, and deliver it. They're more about manipulating people and situations to get their own way.

Just as importantly, Alex threw himself into other people's ideas, even when he had reservations about them, and thought about how to make them work. You wouldn't catch any of the others doing that.

Finally, Alex showed grace under pressure in the boardroom, standing up for himself and making fair and rational points without resorting to spitefulness. Of all the others, I suppose Myles is the most statesmanlike and housetrained. But Alex was a true original.

That is such a lovely perceptive post.
Alex will hopefully do well in his future.

I don't think even the contestants knew in series 7. My impression, which might be wrong, is that the prize changed after contestants had applied and possibly even during the series itself, so that the business plans were knocked up at the last minute -- Helen had two; Jim had none but wanted to start a charity; Susan's promised the moon on a stick; Tom's seemed impractical (although might have worked imo).

Perhaps somewhere there is an interview with one of the contestants that will throw more light on this.

Thanks DD! I wish him well too.

They didn't change the prize halfway through the series; they'd have never been allowed to get away with that. They must have known what they were applying for when they applied.

I distinctly remember Jim saying he came up with his idea three weeks before the process started.