I suppose it was £25,000 maximum. She doesn't need it all in one go, and she made not need the whole sum ever. But it's always there if she does need it.

Great points. I tend to go with your thoughts. Sugar is a shrewd business man. It doesn't seem credible to think he doesn't have a clear idea what the business plans are *before* the very first episode is filmed. I'm guessing he has a strong idea which candidate or candidates he would like to have at the end of the 'process'. It's been proven, anyway. Tom Whatshisface, the inventor, was the worst winner ever based on the stats. Sugar kept him in the show week in week out even though he was back in the boardroom/on the losing side on many occasions.

I think that in Series 7, he didn't know the business plans. It was obvious when the final came, and the only business plan that he was at all interested in was Susan's - and at that time, he didn't think she was experienced enough. So he had to go with the person, and not the business plan, that he thought would be able to deliver the best prospects, and they changed the business plan later. I think that was what made it clear that it was a flawed format, and since then, he has known all the business plans, and only let people who had plans that he had some level of interest in through to the final sixteen.

I agree - the whole point of the apprentice for me, when it first launched, was the candidates had to impress every week to ensure they stay in the process.

Now he knows their business plans, it's pretty obvious he will keep in who he wants, rather than firing the worst on that particular task. Wish they brought the old system back, forget the business plans.

Unless they renamed it - The Partner.

He did want to rename it, but the BBC wouldn't let him.

He can't have known them in Series 7 though; if he had, he wouldn't have had three business plans that he had no interest in in the final.

He blatantly knows about the business plans - referred to them in this series didn't he?

Like I said, for me it goes against the whole point of the programme - it should be based on the performance of that week (and considering past performances). Not on the business plan. So why mention the business plans in the boardroom?

Yes, that's what I'm saying. I don't think he knew about them in Series 7, which was the first series that they had the business plans, and he ended up with four plans, three of which he had no interest in and the other one with a person who wasn't experienced enough and was too naive at that time. Since then, he has known about them, and he's been open about that in the boardroom.

[quote=dubest;66945257]These are not really businesses and dont have to have an 'offline' presence.

Google is mainly a search engine, Facebook a 'social' site. eBay an auction house.
The only one is really Amazon. They started with books, the idea being you looked in the bookshop for what you wanted and then bought it cheaper from them. This has resulted in closing down all (or nearly all) the bookshops. So they used other bookshops as their offline presence.
There are not many products like books where one can do this.
In the US an online food distributor went bust because they had no shop.
A shop also gives 'legality' to a net site.


So who is laughing all the way to the bank I know its not me.

I don't get why if it's all staged, all the business plans (that we know of so far) are so uninspiring. It should be possible to find enough people with interesting ideas for say half the candidates and then their behaviour in the tests would be important as well. It's one thing to have a great plan, it's another thing to be able to carry it out. You wouldn't want to go into business with a dishonest or lazy person, however good their idea. People can look great on paper or in interview and then be quite different in practise. I don't think the tasks have no meaning now.

This year it feels to me like people were picked for who would make a great reality show, and Sugar getting a realistic business out of it was not as important.

I must totally agree with you. I gather these people, the men especially, like they already dream of swanning in the Bahamas that LS will just 'throw' his money away. These men have never had their own business as far as I can see and dont even seem to be employed at the moment.
Once they get hold of some 'big' money they think they can do anything as if that is all that is stopping them. They look at which company is making money at the moment and will decide to copy them. Well with capital why not. It must be easy. And its not my loss anyway.

I would have called their business plans something different to 'uninspiring'. That is really an understatement for what they are.

These men are just dreamers. Why everyone here seems to think they are any good beats me. Almost every task has borne this out. If the BBC wants to get its ratings back it had better take notice. Or is it really intent on scuppering this show and doing all it can to 'stop' it. I cant think of any other reason.

I remember in a previous series when LS or Sir Alan has he then was, had to choose between the four of them. He said youre all good. Will he ever say that again.

Do you think a woman will win this series then?

Depends what you mean by realistic. If he just wants a good return on his money it doesn't have to be a major project - just to produce a decent return. 10% of 250k is not that demanding. . If he wants a lot more he may have to treat it as something to try and invest more in if it starts to work. He's going to be very lucky to offer something that makes a lot of money for that size of investment. Tom had a nail file ready to go that wouldn't cost a bomb to develop or make. Ricky provides a service and was in the field already. Susan was the one who they thought would require a lot more money - when her figures looked good enough she seems to have become attractive too.

He only has to keep one decent proposal to the end. The issue may be is why he gets rid of so many people with existing, seemingly good, ongoing businesses early on and keeps in the bigger charcters. He ends up not having the small shop keepers or ones with what seem to be growing service businesses. and a choice between the non-existant, the absurd, the unacceptable, the untried, and the winner.

withdrawn

dubest - the spoilers stay on the spoiler thread. Please don't even hint at them anywhere else. You're getting close here. Come on, it's not a difficult idea and I'm sure you don't want to spoil it for anyone who doesn't want to know.

I agree with many of the points made in this thread.

I 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 success in the tasks and not on the business plan.

Just my opinion but I think the business plans have far too much impact, and more than the producers would ever admit. This ruins some of the tasks and boardrooms for me.

Bring back the £100K job and ditch the partnership idea I say!

They weren't chosen just on relative merit though. They were sometimes chosen on how important the chance was to them,whether they needed help making a change at that stage, and whether they were more apprentices than the finished article Most fittted the job their year - in the sense that they had the right experience and characteristics for the job on offer, and wouldn't be doing something below their capability that would bore them to death. Some years only one of the two finalists actually fitted the needs of the job, or the runner didn't fit the customers.

He may not have any jobs to offer - hence the change. The only way around it would be to pick someone for someone elses job - which Andrew Lloyd Webber did for assorted producers. Even there, though, the person offering the job gets a say which wouldn't fit the format.