This is the forst series of the apprentice ive watched from the start, but ive watched bits and pieces of other series.

The one thing that annoys me about the format is the prize. Since alan sugar is putting 250k into a business run by the contestants, surely he must have an idea at the start about which business would be the best?

Hes not going to put money into a business he doesnt think will make money even if that contestant is the strongest. So what is the point of doing the traditional apprentice challenges (which were relevant to being an apprentice) when that has nothing to do with the business?

Francesca for example hasnt really done much this season yet has managed to get to the final five. Whats to say her business proposal is better than anyone elses? So alan sugar would keep finding excuses to fire other people purely because her business is the strongest?

If the prize revolves around money for their business, surely only when they are pm they can be assessed to see if they cope with the pressure etc? Being good at designing box chairs is irrelevant if your business idea is to do with budget holidays.

I could understand in the early seasons alan sugar was looking for someone who would work well for him, so needed a good seller, designer, skivvy etc but now the prize has changed, shouldnt the tasks be different too?

I agree that the format is flawed, but so it was last format to be honest. The tasks are of very little relevance for the job role that was awarded so little wonder why hardly any winner was of any value for Sugar after the program.

But yeah, now it is even more flawed but I would say that it shows more flexibility now. He is not hiding the fact that he is taking an interest in their business proposal whereas in the first edition which Tom won, they made it look like he did not have a clue about their businesses when it was bluntly obvious that Tom won on the basis of his creative mind rather than his efficiency during the tasks.

You're right in that the format of the tasks is now less aligned with the nature of the prize. But what the process does at least reveal is how the candidates work as individuals. Sugar will look for the best idea, but he will also want to ensure that the person he selects as his business partner is someone he would want to work with. Do they have the energy, drive and resourcefulness that all good entrepreneurs have? Are they someone who will stand on their own two feet or will they need a lot of hand-holding? And will they listen to advice and input, or will they be pig-headed and do their own thing? From the way candidates behave in the tasks, Sugar can at least learn a lot about their behaviour, although to a large degree how they perform technically in the tasks doesn't necessarily matter.

Whilst I agree that all of this is true, I still think that the change in format has been detrimental to the show.

I much preferred it when there was a job at stake and so the candidate was chosen purely on ability and the attributes you have mentioned above.

I think Tom P the inventor wouldn't have even been close to being the best candidate and winning if the original format had still been used.

Remember too that the sixteen candidates at the start of the series have been whittled down from tens of thousands of applicants, which also means tens of thousands of rejected business plans.

I'm not sure how much LAS knows of the the business plans. Last night he seemed to have no idea of the Guys business plans. Perhaps he's told the plans in general, chooses those which may interest him, but is not told whose plan it as. This would stop him favouring people for their plans, and allow them to be judged on the tasks.

Agreed on all counts. The format makes no sense as it is now. What if the strongest candidate throughout had a business plan for tramp fighting or becoming the lowest price contractor for the putting down of unwanted puppies?

In Series 7 he presumably didn't know anything about them, as at least two people in the final had completely useless business plans. In Series 8 he specifically said in the opening boardroom that he had already got rid of any business plans he wasn't interested in. This series for the first time, they have talked openly about the plans in advance of the final, so he must at least know the basic info.

I'm sure I've seen somewhere that the change to business partner was made halfway through series 7. So that might explain why some of the plans were that bad.