The company/clinics will have professional indemnity insurance and many doctors are also covered by the MDU, so LS shouldn't figure in any compensation claims.

I'm surprised that the general feeling seems to be Luisa is definitely going to win. I would be very surprised if Leah doesn't win.

Either way it seems impossible to call. Tom and Ricky were clear winners in my opinion, I can´t possibly tell who will come out on top this time.

Luisa reckoned they weren't very good at delivering the goods in a timely way. Presumably this is something she experienced as a customer. However, I don't really understand why she should be any better at the logistics than the existing suppliers. Even if she can manage it, there seems to be nothing stopping the existing suppliers getting their act together when they see they have a bit of competition. It seems to be an area where economies of scale apply, and with only £250k Luisa won't be big enough.


He had to raise them to dismiss them. Pretty much everyone watching would have been aware of the risks anyway. Leah, in particular, needed to be given an opportunity to explain that she wouldn't be unethical. Given the demand exists, it's arguably better that Leah does the business than someone less qualified and/or less ethical.

Really? That's interesting, when it was down to the last four I thought Nick was most likely to win, with Jade a close second.

Simple answer is that she is too small to be taken seriously. Someone with one shop is borderline between needing to use a wholesaler, or a just a cash & carry.

She is not "baker" she is making ONE product - cupcakes.
A wholesaler has to supply bakery customers making hundreds of different products every day from sausage rolls to fruit cakes and iced buns.
They make one delivery per week to each town, as their depots cover huge areas.

It is very likely she has had bad experiences with the existing suppliers, as she is too small to be given any kind of preferential treatment - which for Luisa (I can imagine) would not go down very well !!

What she is saying is that these national companies do not have exactly what she wants, when she wants it, for her one shop. If you run out of something before your next delivery is due - that is your fault - not the wholesaler who refuses to send a van out with £5 of glitter on it.

I don't know if this is relevant, but I remember watching "You are Hired" when Tom Pellerou won and explaining how he had been considering going into beauty business for a while, which was why the nail file was so attractive and why he had decided to invest in the girl who had a stall in Greenwich Market or Covent Garden or somewhere, selling beauty products that she made herself. That he hoped that with those two investments he could start easing his way.

Now, with this I'm not saying he's definitely going for Leah since Louisa's business would appear "safer" (although I don't think so after what Steve9214 posted in another thread), however I also think she can't be discounted just yet.



Steve9214, are you saying that her business plan is a logistics business and not baking business as such?. Interesting, I would had thought that for logistics you needed a different background and a thorough understanding of timetables and schedules.

He can't dismiss them though. The general issue is that this is a waste of a good doctor. The more she is in day to day charge of the business to avoid the other problems , the less she will be doing for the NHS. There's nothing wrong with it, and doctors make money doing all sorts of things in private practice, but this time its Lord Sugar taking a doctor away to make him money. He can't either say that everything will work without any problems, He can't practically or legally guarantee something won't go wrong , or some disturbed person won't get treatment - so he can't say that its safe. His problem isn't being sued, its the question wheher he wants to be seen encouraging people to think that they need to be better looking, and the question whether he wants to be linked to anything that goes wrong. Lord Sugar's firm persuaded my daughter to get her face done or Lord Sugar ruined my face stories are the risk.

Thats not what they concluded on the programme though for Luisa's plan. One interviewer questioned it , but it was written up as a viable project looking at a real gap in the market. Question is if you are right, and if its held up in an even closer look since.

The big hidden issue is what is he after. If he wants a good return on 250k, Leah offers it. Its just socially, morally , politically and legally something that he would be unwise to touch for that return. Its a one doctor operation with a finite size and costs. Luisa looks as if she might need more than 250K, but might pull in even more - if her proposal is still holding up. Does he want to spend more than 250k to get less return per pound, but more overall? You cant tell from past winners. We don't know, but Tom had a cheap product that added lots of value and presumably enjoys largescale sales. Not sure there is a project on offer that might bring in returns like that. Ricky I would imagine is on a lesser scale? Is he looking for a major investment opportunity, or just a very big return on his 250k, or a winner to end the series - with who won't lose all his money?

If Luisa becomes a supplier to small businesses then she will have the same problems. Delivery schedules, costs involved etc. The more a customer spends the cheaper and easier they will get their delivery. Big contracts will get the same products a lot cheaper and more frequently than small ones. I have seen most products that are required for cup cakes for sale in big suppliers brochures, with more buying power they would get you other products to secure your business.

Do we actually know what she is proposing?
Are the producers a bit confused maybe ?

Lots of footage of her making cupcakes in the trailers, which is not what being a bakery wholesaler is about.
Bakery wholesaling would be lots of samples of glitter and paper cases sacks of mix etc.

Hardly good TV !!

Or is she proposing setting up making cupcakes as a wholesale bakery - she mentioned suppliers - but then I heard or have seen the words - "Wholesale bakery" which means a large bakery making lots of cakes.

I have seen nothing in the Industry press about any presentations for "invited experts" so either they are keeping it secret before the final programme - or they asked the wrong people to judge.

I agree thats odd. Is it the cupcake, or the mixer replacement service or the ingredient supply she is offering. The preentation that goes wrong could be a big problem, or a massive success depending on the answer. The interview show was confusing too, because one thought she should stick to cakes and thought her idea was half baked, but the others and Lord Sugar then described it as being a good viable plan for a new market and no issues were raised.

There's an issue with Leah's plan unsolved too. Its one thing if its private practice on her own time, on top of her medical role. But if she's supervising the new business to avoid mistakes , and doing the cleaning, how can she continue her medical career? And if she's going to combine the two, why was he raising the issue of Luisa sharing her time with her existing businesses?

In the past, pre- series 8 with this final format, the 2 finalists have had something common to present - a building or chocolates etc. The external judges were a finite set of people with related expertise. This time it may even be different audiences being aimed at - one retail or manufacturing, and one the consumer? Who would you get - bakers and doctors, PR men who know about beauty and baking, or online delivery experts, or people who eat cakes or feel ugly?

I think the interview show was edited to explain the final decisions, so Jordan's bluff, Francesca's figures and Neil's 'Yes I can' were focussed on. While we got key bits of Leah and Luisa's interviews I don't think we saw anything that would explain Luisa's line about she'd rather give birth than do them again and I do wonder if both had a rougher time than was shown - who knows. I think the consequence of this is that both plans are a bit unclear still, though presumably that's because the final will give us much more detail about both.

I will admit that I am totally confused as to what either of them are offering that isn't already easily available. Is Leah's cheaper than the other filler treatments available? Luisa's I don't understand.

Thanks very much Steve9214 for your comments, they're really interesting.

Good point.


Maybe there is a gap there, then, for someone who sits between wholesalers and small shops and takes the small shops seriously. She wouldn't have her own fleet of vans but would use the postal service, couriers etc. She wouldn't carry as much stock as a wholesaler or work at such a large scale, but would carry enough not to run out and would buy in sufficient quantities to get a discount. You wrote, "she is..." but did you mean, "she was...", past tense, back when she was a single cup-cake shop? If her new business is supplying scores of them she'll be big enough for wholesalers to take seriously.

It still sounds precarious, though. She's liable to be squeezed out by the cash & carry at one end, and wholesalers at the other. Perhaps the wholesalers are constitutionally unable to be interested in the small shops that would be her customers. It seems like she's depending on getting a good enough price from wholesalers that she can mark up a profit and yet still compete with cash and carry. She's a middle-man, likely to be seen by both sides as an inefficiency to be eliminated.


I didn't see it like that. Leah had clearly decided what she wanted to do, and it wasn't work directly for the NHS. She's no worse in that regard than a doctor working for BUPA.


As Coffee n cake says, it seems he's been thinking of getting into the beauty business for a while. It doesn't have to be a negative thing.


It's a risk, but I don't think that rules it out, if the profits are commensurate.

The business model is very much about selling equipment/supplies to the trade, not actual cupcakes. This is explored further in the final to lift some of the confusion but I can't really say any more without getting spoilery.

Anyone who has ever worked in logistics will tell you that it's easy to solve the out-of-stock issue - you simply raise your stock levels. But this involves tying cash up in inventory which may shift very slowly. In any logistics operation, typically you will aim to achieve close to 100% availability on popular, fast-moving lines, but will accept closer to 90% on lines which sell infrequently/in small volumes. It's a balancing act between service and cost. I'm not entirely sure Luisa understands the cost involved in raising stock availability levels - she might do, but we have yet to see any evidence one way or the other.

Of course, the problem is that this is a very boring explanation for the viewer to understand! So no doubt Sugar will highlight other reasons why her idea is a good one (if she wins) or why he has overriding concerns about the business model (if she doesn't)

Your concern about whether £250k is enough seems valid. She wants to create a new brand, but as a supplier to trade customers she will also presumably need a warehouse, stock to fill it and staff to move it about. Not a cheap undertaking, and in terms of profitability wholesaling is generally all about low profit margins but high volume. Typically in any supply chain there are only two players who corner most of the margin - the final reseller/retailer and the original manufacturer - because that's where the most value is added.

Spot on. The final does clarify things considerably.

Do I read your post correctly (between the lines). Since you already know the outcome.

Is it that secretive and will it spoil the final if we find out in advance exactly what the two are offering especially Louisa.

I'm not entirely sure Luisa understands the cost involved in raising stock availability levels - she might do, but we have yet to see any evidence one way or the other.

So that means on youre hired she didnt convince you. You say we have yet to see. Do you mean you really expect to see it either working with LS or without him.
I doubt unlike the others she will go ahead without him.

Nope, absolutely not. There is nothing concrete to read between the lines. I'm deliberately withholding information that will be revealed in the final which would enable people to read between the lines.

The point I've expanded on in detail above about some of the real world issues Luisa might face in setting up her business is not referenced in any way in the final, nor was it brought up on You're Hired - indeed Brangdon makes essentially the same point a few posts earlier, I've just expanded on it.

The reality is that The Apprentice is not about examining the inner workings of business. Anyone with any logistics experience whatsoever could explain the relationship between stock availability and inventory levels/cost, but it's way too dull and would take too long to explain as part of an entertainment show.

You can rest assured that, as he always does, Sugar provides a fair explanation of why the winner wins and the runner-up doesn't, but what's important to bear in mind is that he only provides headlines that make sense to the casual viewer. The business reality runs much deeper and, frankly, isn't that interesting, even to people who work in business like me!

To clarify, at the point we have all seen (interviews plus Final Five plus How I Fired Them), the stock cost issue is a real world problem, and we have not yet seen - either in interviews or boardrooms - anyone directly raise that as a concern which might undermine her business model. Therefore we have not seen Luisa provide a response to that question. And so it's impossible to tell whether she understands the potential issue. We have no evidence either way, nor am I making any assumptions about whether she has considered the issue herself. She hasn't been asked, so we don't know if she can answer.

EDIT: That answer like something Sir Humphrey Appleby or Bernard Woolley would say in Yes Prime Minister, doesn't it?

I may be in the minority but Steve and Brangdon's posts about Louisa's business plan are more of interest to me than just saying there is a gap in the market even if she would at last tell me what it was. I am much more interested in how you are going to plug it than what the gap is. If Louisa cant bring herself to explain this then I tend to agree with you that she doesnt know how. So she tells LS there is a gap in the market which is most likely true or as Steve has put she finds out that suppliers dont want to supply HER, and expects LS to help her find out how to plug it. I suppose her business plan doesnt contain this DULL information either.

The most important part in business is the DULL information. Just because its DULL doesnt mean its not important. And if she doesnt understand it then one just cannot invest with her.

I really can't see LS wanting to go into the cosmetic surgery business, totally outside his comfort zone, however the margins are good. Leah said that on a £300 treatment the cost was £149.00 so that's a really good profit.

It's a tough call, I would said Luisa has won but can't completely write off Leah just yet.

As someone who spends most of his life wading in data, I completely agree with your last point. As with many things, the devil is inthe detail. All I'm saying is that the important things don't necessarily make for good TV, and that's the balance the producers have to strike.

I'm extremely reluctant to interpret the fact that we haven't seen Luisa explaining the detail of her proposal as evidence that she (a) can't explain it or (b) can't be bothered to explain it. I imagine she probably has done at some stage, but it would be stultifyingly dull to watch. Who wants to watch a five-minute discussion about Logistics 101?!?

Remember, they had to compress 20 interviews (5 candidates times 4 interviewers) plus the boardroom into one hour. As has been said elsewhere, that episode was all about broad brush strokes for all five candidates. (And the Rubik's cube, of course.) Even Leah's machine-gun rattling off of her cost breakdown wasn't about giving us detail - merely that a big part of what makes her credible is her intellectual ability and her capability to master details.

I imagine that most of us can explain what we do in a couple of snappy soundbites that make us sound interesting, but if we had to explain the detail of what we do people would fall asleep ...

We can infer Luisa gave the details to Mike, because we were shown him complaining that she should have put what she'd told him into the business plan. Probably Claude too, since that is why he is there. Lord Sugar was for decades a manufacturer and distributor so will know about stock and logistics, so he might have asked as well.

Alan wouldn't invest.

If you don't mind me saying his name is Lord Sugar.

Well he does say his mates and family still call him Alan and quite rightly so. I have to say that I would call him Alan too, i wouldnt bow down to titles - I would probably be fired in week 1 though