Sorry I have a really bad memory and literally can't remember who said what, I think George was for it because he's a vegetarian like myself but when Mitchell disregarded it he tried to compromise. I do remember you saying that we should go with it fully though if we were going to, or else people would question it.

That is correct that I did phone Steve, and couldn't get through. I think Shadi posted the layouts in the end. If I remember correctly, Stacey volunteered to do it but didn't understand how? Correct me if I'm wrong there, I was trying to get hold of Steve.

Of course now you say it it seems obvious that we should have just posted the final bits, but at the time I think everyone was panicking - which was my fault, I should have kept everyone calmer and made more of a decision about what we were going to do, and I hold my hands up to that. I think I kept everyone under control most of the time, but admittedly on that occasion it just didn't occur to me.

That would explain why my phone had a voicemail come in...I was busy helping out with the furniture after the carpet was put in place in my room, I was also panicking about the internet connection myself.

You seem to have had a lot of excuses today, Zak.


As your advisor/follower, and this goes out to the whole team not just Zak, my biggest concern was when after THREE days (Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday) there hadn't been any kind of delegation aside from the menu & the layout/design stuff for Steve.

There was not a single mention of the pitch and even the promotional elements were being backdoored by the 'importance' of the menu. Because of this, I do feel like the end product was hindered significantly.

Lord Alan urged at the start in the brief that it was primarily a CREATIVITY task, and as he has said in here already, the entire thing just seemed so... generic and basic. There was no proper 'theme' to the restaurant, because although 'ethical goods' is an aspect, I wouldn't say it covers a 'theme'.

I said that I was willing to upload the pics but I couldn't find them above in the chat, and also I didn't know which design we were actually using because there had been about three posted and discussed previously.

Stacey and Shadi volunteered to find it and reupload it, and Shadi did just that.

Honestly, there was zero preparation going into the pitch and everything was rushed, I was sat in absolute disbelief this afternoon at 3pm when the first signs of the pitch started to fall into place, an hour before the time you were meant to post the pitch!!

Zak was completely right with this in my opinion:

[17:00:44] Zak McCready.: I posted my bit at 4:31pm
[17:00:46] Zak McCready.: how has it taken
[17:00:48] Zak McCready.: a full half hour?

Do you feel that with greater preparation, or even a mention of pitch delegation on the Saturday or Sunday that it would've come across better as people would've been able to work without having to rush?

At the end of the day, I was having a day of bad timing and bad luck, there was nothing I could've done to have made it better.

Maybe I got my priorities slightly wrong. I felt that with the best theme in the world, if the recipes were badly designed this would be a failed project. You can't run a restaurant that serves food that is only standard, I wanted us to be top-quality. And of course, with this particular theme, the menu was even more important, because many of the ingredients needed to be considered with regards to sourcing. But I take your point - I focussed the project too much on the menu, and not enough on the restaurant itself.

Steve, the task ran from Friday night.

However, that being said, I was very impressed with your designs and how quickly you managed to complete them and it was some of the only work that was completed prior to Sunday night/this afternoon, so well done for that!

Apologies for the gap in my posting, I've been having internet connection troubles.

Anyway, I think this boardroom has gone on for enough time already so I'm going to hurry things up, George can you please tell me the two people you wish to bring back to the boardroom and why?

Saturday - no, because I think most people were busy on that day, so we couldn't get that much done.

Sunday - possibly. For me at the start, I thought menu over the weekend, promotional activities on Sunday, prepare the pitch on Monday. I don't think we did that badly with the pitch, if I'm honest. It was mentioned earlier that a lot of thought had clearly been put into it, and I think the indication was that it had possibly been better than the other team's. I think that the rush was due mainly to the issues with Steve's connection. I don't hold that against Steve as it wasn't his fault, but at the end of the day, we started just before half past four, we had ample time to present everything, and then suddenly towards the end there were huge technical issues involving Steve's contribution, which did throw us. I think had that not happened, we wouldn't have looked anywhere near so disorganised actually.

Certainly, Lord Sugar.

This is a very difficult decision and I have constantly changed my mind on this, but the two people who I am going to bring back to the boardroom are Mitch and Stacey.

Thank you George, the rest of you may now leave the boardroom.

Lmao great idea bringing back the person who if you'd actually listened to; then you probably wouldn't even be in this mess right now.

Thank you.

And even though this feels like it should be a boardroom of only two people, best of luck to all three.

Thank you so much, George.

You are right, had it not been for my technical issues, we would've been more prepared. However the worst of my problems is over now, so I'm gonna try and do even better for the next task.

Thank you George.

I'm here for the minute

Sure. I'll start with Mitch. I felt that throughout the task, Mitch contributed the least out of everyone. He was quite active on the first night, but after that his contributions faded quite a lot. He prepared the extras, which was probably the least significant part of the menu, and I'm struggling to think of what else he actually did. He wasn't there for the pitch or for quite a lot of the discussion across all of the days. I have talked to him about this, and I know that he does have reasons for this, but ultimately I don't think that people's reasons are very relevant. At the end of the day, he contributed less than the rest of the team members. Also, he was one of the main reasons for me not going for all-vegetarian, as he was very adamant against that idea.

Stacey was a difficult one, and I was honestly toying between her and Zak right up until you asked me the question, because Zak was quite heavily criticised and it turned out that had I gone with what Stacey wanted on the first night, we may have done better. However, I feel that over the task, Zak contributed a bit more than Stacey and was a little bit more active. Stacey did the puddings and Zak did the starters, but I think that overall Zak had more ideas than Stacey did. I think that Steve, Zak and Shadi all contributed enough to the task to avoid being brought back and I don't feel that Stacey did by comparison, even though I will accept the fact that she made a point on the first night that I probably would have done better to listen to. Also, it didn't cost us the task, but there were a few things that Stacey said to Mitch which I felt were quite undermining, and I didn't think were very appropriate and possibly brought the team spirit down a little bit.

I will also say that there is another team member who has expressed concerns to me about these two, but I would rather not say who that is.

Okay, I'd like all three of you (including Mitchell if you're still here) to tell me what exactly you contributed to this task and why I shouldn't fire you?

I'm not surprised that I've been brought back since I wasn't the most active.

However on Friday, I made it perfectly clear that I was against the ethical ideas, so much that I gave the almost exact comments that you gave for us losing the task, but George made it perfectly clear that they'd already decided.

The boardroom is no place for secrets.

I have had a busy weekend and some legal issues arise over the weekend that couldn't be avoided, however I believe that every bit of work I gave in was of a high standard, my responsibility was 'Extras' and I made sure that all my work fit in to the theme provided to me.

I came up with the dessert recipe/ingredients and prices, also offered to help out Mitchell with his extras list pricings which I did do then to discover that George that changed some of them and contradicted himself by putting them even LOWER that I did in the beginning. I also offered to upload the pictures which George couldn't upload himself (god knows why) and didn't even have them saved (being PM you should probably do simple things like that). I don't think I should be fired because I clearly had the best idea but it wasn't approved of by everybody else, so maybe in future they should all listen to me more.