its been a weekly thing for a while now but with james gone it'll be the beebs main source of entertainment. my question, who do you think is the better candidate?

has to be mark right? (see what i did there?!)

Honestly, I don't see how this can even be a debate.

Daniel has consistently overpromised, underdelivered and generally been a poor salesman (the worst of many examples being his efforts in the wearable tech task). His one positive point is a win as PM, which happened largely in spite of him rather than because of him. Yes, he's a trier - but so what? Sugar is looking for competence, not just effort.

Mark has consistently shown himself to be an excellent salesman (although, honestly, I think Solomon may be better). He negotiated a good deal at Blenheim Palace, he pitches well, he sold very well on the board games task and, in a different type of selling environment here, he closed deals on the hot tubs. Yep, the bulk deal at the end was fortunate, but he had already closed two sales. He's ruthless, yes, and was sneaky here - but I suspect Sugar sees the qualities of someone who is competitive and driven to win, so it's not all bad.

He also doesn't get into petty arguments in front of potential customers - unlike Daniel.

I don't think Mark will win - I think his general business acumen is questionable - but he has demonstrated some key strengths (selling, negotiating, pitching), none of which Daniel has proven.

In terms of The Apprentice Mark is far and away the better of the two.

I have posted before that I am far from a fan of Mark, as I feel he would look for the main chance and the first thing that went wrong he would be more bothered about laying the blame on others than trying to fix things. But saying that, in sales he is way ahead of Daniel, and does at least think a little about winning the task, Daniel's answer to not getting his way was whining and arguing with Felipe.....

I used to really like Mark - last 2/3 weeks though I've gone really off him - very big headed and opinionated and frankly rude at times....but having said that....he is still the 'best' male candidate - I just don't like him anymore, not a nice person.

They need a sitcom, each episode they have to do some business related task that they will surely screw up and so the latter half of each episode is just them trying to pin the blame on the other

Marks a nob, but he is a better candidate than Daniel I think. I do feel sorry for Daniel because Mark is behaving like a **** towards him though.

But what about Daniel's behaviour to everyone else? Constantly trying to big himself up as the best at everything - and constantly falling flat on his face? Arguing with Felipe in front of potential customers? Mark's no angel, for sure, but I'd rather work with him that Daniel. Only one of them ever delivers.

I know he bigs himself up, and he did himself no favours arguing like that and should have just voiced his disappointment and left it at that. But I can understand his frustration, especially towards mark who slimed his way to selling the hot tubs and manipulated Felipe. They should have let him have a go even for a short while. Maybe during a break for lunch or something.

Was that the biggest ever sale by one person 27k, or do I remember 1 other selling more?

Daniel is weak by almost any measure:

# Sales - has failed to sell even in early weeks when crap contestants managed it

# Creative thinking - his board game questions and drink branding were crassly bad. Both of these failures lost both tasks. He also managed to piss off his tour customers with a dismally thought-out lunch.

# Pitching - dissed his own product (the jumper) and couldn't answer questions on the hoof; almost lost yesterday's products after overly aggressive, smarmy pitches to the vendors (this would have lost them the task)

# Emotional IQ - has no self-awareness (eg delusional about his abilities, can't hear how narcissistic he sounds), no awareness of others (eg poor sales style, can't read other people), and poor emotional self control (eg his day long tantrum yesterday)

# Unprofessional - arguing with Felipe yesterday in full view of customers, arguing with Mark early in the series in full view of external parties

I don't have any sympathy for Daniel on this front. When you have consistently promised the world and delivered nothing over several tasks, why should you be given another chance which could jeopardise the task? Felipe made his decision that it should be Mark and Katie on the hot tubs. Pandering to Daniel just to keep him quiet would have been weak project management. You give people assigned jobs - they're expected to do them. This isn't a school playground where everybody gets to take a turn.

I can understand him wanting a chance to shine, particularly with a shark like Mark on the team who'd nobble him for "not doing anything" if they ended up in the boardroom, (see Lauren for what happens with Mark when you don't push to be more prominent) but he at least knew that Katie and Mark were selling effectively, which boded well for the team.

It's a measure of Daniel's arrogance that he believed he could do better than Mark despite 8 weeks of evidence to the contrary. But yes, an hour on the stand probably wouldn't have hurt the team. Any longer and I genuinely believe he'd jeopardise the task.

Felipe was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Mark isn't just his best salesman but much more dangerous than Daniel (which he later proved with his "too nice" comment). He HAD to choose Mark, for his own sake and for the win. But Felipe then had to fend off Daniel's incessant tantrum and claims that he was gutless and manipulated. Good on him for doing what was best.

It's hard to say. Both teams knew that one sale of the big-ticket items could have made all the difference, and there's no knowing when that sale could have come along. I would have had no confidence in Daniel whatsoever.

Personally, I think that once a PM has made his decision, that should be it. This is business. You assign people to tasks based on what you think will deliver the best result, and that's that. (There are many things I'd like to try at work, but I'm mature enough to leave salespeople to do the selling, technical people to do the clever stuff and just focus on what I do best.) Giving someone a turn just because they're a whiny pain in the backside would have been weak leadership. Well done Felipe for not just caving in to Daniel.

What I staggering is when Katie pointed out to him on the phone that she had a couple of leads coming back, to which he replied "it didn't matter who dealt with them"!.

What delusional planet does he come from if he doesn't know that you always try to keep the same seller for returning leads?.

BIB. Spot on.

Marvellous post!

May I also add:

#Lack of personal responsibility and all-round lousy attitude: messes up on a few ocassions and fails to take reponsibility for his mistakes and poor decision-making. Sulks like a baby and moans like a wounded animal.

You could say that Daniel was in denial eh.........

While I have to agree that Mark was the best for this task, Aussie selling hot tubs has got to be a bonus straight away. But I don't like the way Mark got the job, and I think Felipe was weak in the fact he allowed himself to be "won over", but is to nice a guy to stand up for himself, and then to weak to manage Daniel and just seemed to constantly argue all day.

What I do find funny is people saying Felipe was spot on putting the best guy for the job on task, but the other week when Daniel did the same thing when PM it was somehow Mark that won the task etc. Even though I pointed out it was the PM who allowed those people to do what they were good at.

Indeed.

Katie has a very personable and warm approach when it comes to sales and customer service. Daniel is just awful. And he is awful because selling is one of his weakest skills, a skill anyone watching The Apprentice all these years are three of the primary abilities Lord Sugar looks for; the other two being keeping costs down and making a profit.

So not only is Daniel feeling the pressure to 'prove' himself (also read 'big up himself in the board' if he proves himself successful); he also rather desperate with it, both of which only compounds and emphasises all the other worst aspects of his already fragile character (see Scarlet O'Hara's post). There is no shame in Danile admitting that he isn't good at or falls short at a particularly skill; what is shameful is acting like he is above all that, behaving that he is better than he really is.

Oh, that's another thing he isn't particular good at: being a team player. Narks me off that.

Lol!

TBH, for different reasons, I dislike both of them.

Everything must be wonderful on planet Daniel, but in the real world, he comes over as a toddler with no self awareness. Mark is just a big headed-and as we saw last night-a cheat. That wide smile and devil-may-care attitude will get him so far, but his cheating last night will put off people who might be in a position to advance his career. (Yes, I realise it might be attractive to some employers!!)

I'm convinced that some candidates forget they are in a televised programme which will be seen by, not only the public, but prospective employers. Do candidates REALLY think they are being clever?

I look at it like this, Mark was shady but he could easily have let Daniel go and maybe fail at selling hot tubs, and spent all day making himself look good to Felipe so as not to be brought in to the boardroom. I think Mark took a riskier move by going himself, he would either cover himself in glory or fail miserably and probably be sent home. He may not be the world's nicest person, but I think he's astute and a very credible candidate.

Daniel threw his toys out of the pram, the team got the tubs by James messing up more than his pitch, and the guy was impressed by Katie.

Felipe went up in my estimation, he was a good team leader IMO, he could've tried to cover himself in glory by going to the hot tubs, but sent his best sales people there, and I loved how he kept calm and basically told Daniel that he had more faith in Mark's sales skills, I think he spoke what most of us were thinking at that point.

Yes, absolutely that. What so many people seem to want to condemn as Mark practising the Dark Arts (true to a certain extent) was also him putting his neck on the line. He took a big risk, backing his own confidence in his sales ability, and it paid off. But if it had gone wrong, well ...

I still don't see Felipe as a particularly strong leader, I have to say. I know he was trying to be diplomatic with Daniel, but he should have shut him down earlier than he did. And his naivete forgetting to negotiate discount levels at product selection was a mistake (one which Mark was also partly responsible for not picking up on). He's what I call an 'accommodator' who tries to reach consensus and find the best balance for people - but this situation called for a more direct form of leadership with Daniel to stop him whingeing and focus on the job at hand.

I don't think Felipe is a strong candidate, just he impressed me more this week than any other, he was at rock bottom for me before that, so him going up or going home was the only two options.

I agree though, he should've been more upfront with Daniel, but I don't think Daniel would've been listening anyway.

that is brilliant. i would watch that for at least a few weeks

No-one will deny that Mark has delivered impressive sales in the series, but his overall manner, his way of doing things, that won't sit well with Sugar, he needs to be able to trust his business partner, I don't think he could trust Mark...he could trust Daniel.

I just want to see Daniel win out from a personal point of view, he isn't likable, but he is a target for some, and I'd to see him out-survive all his detractors before being inevitably fired himself.