I disagree with your overall opinions on James, meglos, as you'll probably find out. A fun series, with quite a few disagreements with Sir Alan, mainly featuring Ben who I couldn't stand. Here are mine:
Week 1
Who was fired? Anita
Who should have been fired? Mona/Anita
Why? I was torn this week because all three genuinely had legitimate reasons to go. Debra made the error in the car showroom and didn’t lead the sub-team particularly well, Mona wasn’t a great PM as she didn’t delegate and failed to recognise that there needed to be a budget and Anita didn’t show anything whilst moaning and pouting in the corner. For the firing, I would probably have let Debra stay for doing a decent job apart from the car showroom and for doing well in the boardroom. I’m honestly not sure what to say out of Mona and Anita. Mona should have gone on the task basis for not delegating or overseeing how much the stock was costing them, but in that situation, I think I’d have let her stay for showing more of a spark than Anita in the first task.
Week 2
Who was fired? Rocky
Who should have been fired? Rocky
Why? Not that you would have known it from the ridiculous boardroom where literally nothing about the task was discussed, but Rocky was 100% responsible for the failure of the task. He let Philip rough-ride him all the way through, he ran with a stupid Olympic theme just because it was thought of by one of his mates, he came up with stupid ideas of costumes, he brought almost literally none of his supposed catering experience to the table and, worst of all, he spent over £800 overall, not considering where it all went to. I suppose Majid deserved some stick for coming up with the terrible Olympic theme and Philip, in particular deserved criticism for losing the early lunch pitch and acting unprofessionally in front of the client, but task-wise Rocky was 100% culpable. In addition, he stupidly indulged the idiotic boy’s club mentality and brought in two outsiders, one of which (Howard) did arguably the best job of the boys on the team. Rocky fully deserved his firing.
Week 3
Who was fired? Majid
Who should have been fired? Ben
Why? I don’t have a huge problem with Majid being fired, as I really disliked him on a personal level, he did try to make the Home Multi-Tone incorporate more than one idea and he had showed almost literally nothing in the three weeks. However, Ben ran in the task, determined to put his stamp on the task and didn’t care about anything his PM was telling him at all or entertaining anyone else’s ideas. To suggest that Ben had the one and only idea and there was no chance of another idea cropping up is a frankly untrue version of events. James did everything in the task right, apart from overseeing the production of the product and I thought he did a good job. He was largely honest, decisive and managed the team very well, setting out clear briefs at each stage of the project. Ben clearly ignored James’s concise instructions that the product should be simple, ignored any other ideas, blatantly lied in the boardroom and refused to accept any sort of responsibility, so for those reasons, he really did deserve to go.
Week 4
Who was fired? Paula
Who should have been fired? Ben
Why? Whilst I do accept that he wasn’t categorically involved with making the huge mix-up which resulted in the only reason for the failure of the task, by not checking Paula and Yasmina’s work and by sitting back and not doing the job that he had been assigned (which by the way had nothing to do with his insistence that he needed to step back because soap was girly) Ben was looking for an exit strategy and as partially in charge of costs, he partially needed to take responsibility. Paula was a brilliant PM apart from the Sandalwood error – she motivated the team well, made quick decisions, bounced back well from the error and was chiefly responsible for the team’s terrific product. For those reasons, as well as her admitting fault, I would have probably kept her on. It was Yasmina’s worst task so far, but she’s been one of the top performers so far and, she also admitted fault so she deserved to stay. Considering Ben also tanked the task the previous week, has shown nothing much so far, he was a raging knob in the boardroom and, worst of all, he ran a mile from responsibility but tried to constantly take credit meant I would have definitely fired him.
Week 5
Who was fired? Kimberly
Who should have been fired? Kimberly and Philip
Why? For a start, Kim seemed like a lovely person, but she fully merited her firing this week. She rolled with an unworkable idea and, though Philip forced it through and was horrible to everyone this week, Kim facilitated his idea at every stage and chose to ally with him in the boardroom, which was idiotic. In addition, she was responsible for the crap advert and, the absolutely dire box which only had a front panel on it. I know that the last three tasks have been landslides, but this week was the worst losing effort so far in my view and, for that, I would also probably have fired Philip for forcing his idea through, being aggressive on task, condescending and rude throughout the task and for being pretty aggressive in the boardroom. I don’t know why Lorraine was in firing contention considering she was right all task and it’s not as if she delayed the team significantly. At the end of the day, the end product was terrible all the way through and this was nearly entirely due to Kim and Philip and they deserved to go for that.
Week 6
Who was fired? Noorul
Who should have been fired? Ben
Why? You know what? Ben was so laughably bad in that (admittedly difficult) task and tanked the task so badly that I actually would have fired him to prove that bringing in a human shield (Noorul) doesn’t always save you from a firing. Ben destroyed any chance Empire had by making three key mistakes in the first half hour of the task. Firstly, he failed to read the brief properly so he didn’t understand that the task was about valuation and not about selling. Secondly, he took seven items in an obvious bravado move clearly designed to make him look good and finally, he abandoned his valuation strategy in favour of the worst possible strategy (Sell at any place) after visiting one place which, ultimately cost them the task. In addition to having no leadership at all during the task, he brought in the two people because he knew that Sir Alan was dying to fire one and the other one had just had a row with Nick. I would have fired Ben to prove that these types of boardroom tactics shouldn’t work. Debra actually gained my respect for calling Nick out on his bullshit and, as for Noorul, I think I’d have actually kept him on given it was his best task, he was pretty good in the boardroom and, above all, to tell Ben that he’s worse than Noorul.
Week 7
Who was fired? Philip
Who should have been fired? Philip
Why? Three people sold absolute zero on this task. Yes, Lorraine wasn’t great and Yasmina got a bit of a lucky escape, but as they sold, only the three candidates with zero sales should have been considered for the firing. Of the three, I think Ben has shown the least, but he did get an excellent lead for Lorraine and so he probably did deserve to survive the boardroom this week. I didn’t like Kate trying to defend what was blatantly, a day off but since she has been arguably the strongest candidate so far and she (eventually) admitted her mistakes meant that I think she did deserve to stay. Philip, on the other hand, continued to be a complete and utter dick to Lorraine, saw feedback on listening to Lorraine as an excuse to do nothing, went AWOL in the boardroom and was the person you’d expect to sell the most when he sold nothing. In addition, factor in the fact that his only positive week so far was the Bodyrocka and I think he fully deserved his firing.
Week 8
Who was fired? Mona
Who should have been fired? Debra
Why? Oh, it was a narrow one this week for me and I felt that whoever out of Mona and Debra survived was pretty lucky this week. As far as Mona goes, it was thanks to her that the whole gay theme was diluted and it was evident that she wasn’t keen to get involved once the team had decided to roll with the gay idea. With Debra, her poor time management and organisation pretty well cost Empire the task this week, considering the posters looked atrocious and the leaflet was blatantly unfinished. Also, Debra and Mona were the two people working on the leaflet and therefore, the two people that were responsible for the poor, unfinished content. However, Debra was PM and she should have realised that Mona’s dilution was costing them the task and put her foot down. Not only that, but as PM, she should have been ultimately responsible for the leaflet and the fact that she refused to take on Howard’s (correct) ideas meant that I would have narrowly fired her, albeit with regret.
Week 9
Who was fired? Ben
Who should have been fired? Ben
Why? Considering he should have been fired on each of his three previous boardroom appearances, it is no surprise that I’ve put him down as deserving to be fired on this one, but he was also awful on task as well. He and Debra were the main people who advocated going for the Rocking Horse, which was the main reason behind the task failure, both he and Debra refused to name a back-up product and they both sold nothing at the end of the day. Debra made almost all of the same mistakes as Ben in this task and was more forceful, however, at least she nearly sold the rocking horse and was generally better at selling the products, whilst Ben didn’t come close to making a sale and once again refused to take responsibility. Combine this with the fact that he’s clearly the weakest left, he had reason to be fired on each of his previous boardroom appearances and it was the second sales task in a row that he sold nothing and it was 100% the right decision to fire him.
Week 10
Who was fired? Howard
Who should have been fired? Howard
Why? Difficult one this week and I felt that neither Howard nor Lorraine would win, but I had to give the edge to Lorraine who had shown more genuine sparks of business throughout the entire process, whilst Howard had eased through the entire competition never taking any risks and this completely summed him up on this task. Whilst Lorraine was advocating to go for a highly-expensive but hugely-impressive toy dinosaur, Howard overruled her to try and play it safe. In addition, Howard was clearly the best on TV, but instead allowed Kate the solo slot, when he should have been doing it. Kate’s poor performance on TV was a contributing factor in the defeat and had she been with Lorraine, it could have upped their sales just enough to win. As a losing PM and the fact that the main reasons behind the defeat were his, I felt it was Howard’s time to go.
Week 11
Who was fired? James, Lorraine and Debra
Who should have been fired? Lorraine, Debra and James (In that Order)
Why? The final two are by far the best two in the entire process, so I have no qualms at all with the finalists. However, I do think that the other three should have been fired in a different order. I liked Lorraine, but she quite simply wasn’t in the league of Kate or Yasmina and though she has good business instincts, I think she performed poorly in the interviews and deserved to go. Debra had been up and down throughout the entire process; at times she was very good, but at others, she was utterly appalling and was arguably lucky to avoid getting fired. I don’t think her entire process performance meant that she deserved that final 3 spot or emotional firing and I don’t think she’d have worked in any of Sir Alan’s companies. She would have been my second firing. James had admittedly been poor in the interviews, but he was a decent candidate and I think he was among the best three candidates in the process since Week 3. He led really well both times he was PM (Just unlucky), he was a decent salesman and his general business acumen was surprisingly decent. Yes, he bombed in the interviews, but I felt he deserved a place in the final 3, so he would have been my last firing. Kate and Yasmina have smoked everyone else with their performances in the competition, so they clearly should have been the final 2.
Week 12
Who was hired? Yasmina
Who should have been hired? Yasmina
Why? In reality, no one really outperformed the other on the final task and really, it had to be based on overall performance because of this. At the end of the day, Yasmina blew everyone else away with her brilliant performances throughout the competition and she was one of the most intelligent and pragmatic candidates the show has ever had. From all three of her PM wins to strong selling throughout to being one of the few that actually understood the task in Week 6 to just being a generally excellent, business-savvy candidates, she has stood out all the way through the process and thoroughly deserves the win. Kate is undeniably an outstanding candidate, but she does have her flaws, including a robotic like personality and being someone who couldn’t take criticism, not to mention the fact that she was a major factor in defeats in Weeks 7 and 10 and I think that overall, she was less impressive than Yasmina who had the balls to lead three times in comparison to Kate’s one. It’s a close run thing, but Yasmina is definitely my choice and the first time I agree with Sir Alan in five years!