Two unlikeable people, could play a game of whos more in love with themselves and never get a winner. One candidate who is weak while the other is a strong candidate, quite obvious which is which. One who has no business acumen and business plan spells massive risk, while the other is business minded and has been successful in every business and business plan is simple and will get results.

I will eat my hat if Luisa does not win. The most one sided final making it boring. How on earth leah is even in the final is beyond me.

Not only that but Lord Sugar wouldntve hired any of these anyway if Cloughs business plan had been good which says something about the level of these candidates.

Not even going to watch the final. wish I hadn't even watched it in the first place.

It's going to be the best finale ever tbh, Leah and Luisa made this series as entertaining as it was, easily the best F2 in series history. If you're really concerned about candidates who love themselves (which hello, this is the Apprentice, self-promotion is kinda necessary), you should at least be happy that Neil was fired today.

As far as I'm concerned, two great candidates and two great characters, it's going to be awesome next week.

Just because you fancy the candidates does not make it the best final ever, you are clearly deluded. Rubbish comment to add to the rubbish interview round.

I don't fancy either of them, they've just been entertaining the whole way through. Couldn't be a better ending to this great series.

I cant agree with your appraisal of them. Successful in every business! What about Louisa Lingerie which we dont hear about. I am sure there could be many others. Her husband's business is also a failure which she may or may not have had a hand in.
I dont consider Leah 'weak' just not experienced. Not exactly the same thing. This massive risk you talk about can be insured against.
I would consider Leah's business plan a lot simpler, at least I even understand it. I doubt if anyone understands properly what Louisa's plan is (even herself). Who is she exactly going against, which competition? Dr Kipling someone said. It seems she will just 'muddle' through and find what the market or other bakers want. They all agreed there is a gap in the market but are not telling us exactly what it is, or dont perhaps know.

That what you say about LS is something I really cant understand. These girls all three of them have shown they can 'do' something in their life apart from just on tasks. Neil has so far to my knowledge done absolutely nothing and seems to be unemployed at the moment. How can LS just judge them on the tasks alone. Maybe tonight we will hear more about it. Neil seems never to have used his own money for anything and from his business plan seems quite free to use someone else's.

The only problem LS has with the girls is that maybe their business plans are 'too' big for them. I would agree they all are, Louisa making a new 'brand', I dont think she is up to it. I dont even know what exactly it is going to sell. Maybe on the next task we will find out. Is it a retail or wholesale brand.

Leah's plan although I am sure she has costed it to the last penny does involve people. People are always unpredictable and that is something one cannot 'cost' in advance. We have no idea how well she can manage them yet.

If I was LS I would have gone with Francesca and provided her with help. She wanted to do something she is already doing not something new and had the best and simplest plan. I blame Karren and Nick for not supporting her and I dont know yet why. Somewhere on the tasks she must have upset them. I do hope someone watching goes to her 'aid' and invests with her. I think she deserves it more than the others. She was put down terribly all along and still sailed through.

Two unlikeable candidates

A woman who bullied jason and anoth who is vain,conceited and made rolling eyes ibto an artform

Wont be watching next week

Neil was more conceited than all the other candidates combined and nobody seemed to have a problem with that

I think maybe the problem is that none of the candidates this year were very likeable, barring perhaps Jason, who was never going to win, and Francesca, who didn't seem to have the spark in her that appeals to LAS, Nick and Karren.
I'm convinced Luisa is the winner but I find it a bit sad that her behaviour will be rewarded; I just don't like people who will trample all over everyone else to get their way. I know to some it's seen as a strength, but I think it's just rude and self serving.

Agree with everything you've said Yvie -

Jason was the only likeable candidate. There were times when I did like Neil - and after his appearance on You've been Fired - I think he does come over as a nice guy. And Francesca was right with her comments on how Luisa played games.

I shall watch the final as it will be good to see the other candidates one more time but as for the winner - am I bovvered?

Can't see why people feel the need to write in a thread about whether he/she's going to watch the show in a forum ABOUT the show.

Don't watch, don't bother, many other forums for you to wax lyrical about. You can criticise the show and think "worst series evah" or whatever, but I couldn't care less if you are going to watch the final or not.

I think its going to be a good final... One candidate seems like the safe person with a risky business, whereas the other is a risky person with a safe business. I can't wait to see which one Lord Sugar chooses.

There are lots of people in business at the top of their game that aren't particularly likeable.

If anything it will make it a BETTER final if the focus is on business rather than personality.

I agree with PrincessTT... a safe person with a risky business against a risky person with a safe business. Arguably one of the closest finals we've had.

Both are fairly unlikeable characters and if asked to choose I would put Luisa as the worst.

Will be very interested to see which horror wins but as others have said, had Cloughie come up with a decent business plan it would have been his.

SAS can always hire him in another business in any case. Also look at Ruth Badger, a 'loser' who has a great career and is doing really well.

I shall be glued to the telly.

Spot on. And, in reality, it's not like there's a simple formula as to which is the 'better' idea. For some (probably more conservative) investors, Luisa would be the better bet. For others, the potential returns available from Leah's plan would outweigh the risks. There's not necessarily a right or a wrong decision here - it's a purely personal choice.

I agree- this is an observation I have shared! As I've said in other posts it isn't a level playing field on these forums. For some reason women tend to get a harder time.


Exactly!

Some might even go so far as to say that the nice, quiet, wouldn't say boo to a goose types (Jason anyone?) don't generally tend to become CEO's/ MD's etc

People may say that Luisa is bound to win (and personally I think that as well), but then I would have said that the final of Series 2 was very one-sided because Ruth was a dead cert. And then somehow, Michelle managed to get it. So it's not always as clear-cut as it seems.

Quite. For me, the reputation damage issue is a clincher, but like everyone else I'm just second-guessing what's n Sugar's head.

I imagine that Ruth would've won if the prize had been a business partnership. However the job in question was for some sort of environmental scheme if I recall correctly, which was far more suited to Michelle.

Luisa's plan might actually be the more profitable provided she can actually fill the gap she has identified in the market and become the Amazon of baking, but it might also be the more risky as she needs to make an expensive "land grab" to establish a near-monopoly before one of the established players wakes up.

Leah's empire, on the other hand, can grow one clinic at a time. Pay off the mortgage on that one, then open the next, and so on. Leah will be satisfying a number of purely local markets, not a single national one. Just as I can't go swimming over the web or by mail order, nor can I have a botox injection without physically being there.

Your comments in the beginning are not as obvious as you might think especially those of us who has been watching this.I don't like Leah's business plan but for you to say she was weak is an appalling lie.I watched from week one and she demonstrated she was a good sales person throughout and made good business decisions too.I did not like her attitude at the dubai task but that does not mean I discount her strengths.It's annoying to me when people make unfounded statements like yours just simply maybe because you don't like someone or haven't watched the programme properly.At least,learn to be unbiased in your statements when making comments about someone even someone you don't like Leah was not weak,there,I've got that off my chest

I think you could end up eating your words as well as your hat. For me It's should be of the best finals of all series, and certainly not one sided with 2 very different finalists with very differing skills and approaches. One is a loudmouth and a bully. The other is very intelligent and quietly gets on with it but took much longer to cross LS's radar By. the way .leah' is spelt with a capital 'L'..

Of course, it's hard to tell without knowing all the details but while I do think Luisa's plan might be quicker to scale initially, I would be stunned if Leah's isn't higher margin.

Luisa's slightly hazy (to me, I'm sure it's clear to her) plan seems to be to insert herself as a wholesaler of sorts - no wholesaler makes great margins, they rely on a high volume of stock turnover to generate the money. It also feels much more finite to me in terms of where she can take it - and, as you say, someone big will wake up sooner or later. (That's not a bad thing - as it gives her a potential exit to sell the business.)

Having worked for a large and well-known food retailer before, I can say for sure it's tough for (a) a relatively small business and (b) an intermediary to make the big money. Start-ups often get bought up or squashed pretty quickly, although I think Luisa is to be congratulated for identifying a clear gap in the market. I think her plan IS good, just nowhere near as exciting from the perspective of an external investor (which is a hat I wear in my day-to-day corporate life). Even so, exciting may not be what Sugar wants - I think he will veer towards 'safe' (insofar that any such investment can be safe) and Luisa will win.

I don't think Leah was particularly 'dislikable'. She had her moments but I'm sure most people, being filmed over three months, under stressful and highly pressurised circumstances, would have their off times which a good editor could make the most of.
I think it's quite close and either could win.

I wouldnt bank on it that its clear to her or to anybody else. I doubt it very much. But we will see in the final what it really is all about. Selling cup cakes is not the same as selling flour. Telling us all about it in advance (and the competition) is not a clever thing. By the time she gets round to it, the boat will have sailed and she will have missed it.
In every business there are always 'gaps'. But not usually enough to warrant making a whole new brand for them. So she will sell the regular things as well as what she perceives are gaps and hope all the customers which I suppose are bakers will come flocking to her since she has everything. As the new boy (or girl) on the block she will have a sustained opposition, meaning they will all gang together to stop her supplies. Unless she can outdo them all she wont get further. It will be very interesting to watch.
She did say I think on TV that she would go ahead with or without LS. We will have to see.