She's definitely been pipped to the post here. An established food manufacturer, Nah Foods, have launched a range of konjac ready meals which are to be stocked at Ocado, Holland & Barrett and even Superdrug from early 2015.

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/ambi...372842.article

Wasn't someone on Dragons Den with this idea?

And if it was so blatantly a non-starter, why have Roisin on the show?

A god awful business plan which showed a total lack of business sense and a stunning naivety. Roisen is good upper management material perhaps but not a business owner. Not yet anyway.

Agree with this. She is a great member of a team, certainly not an entrepreneur. Solomon was a better entrepreneur than her.

If she had applied whilst in the old format, i,e. got a job, she would have won.

Her spot on the show was a complete waste.

Further confirms my thinking that the whole process should be flipped on it's head.

First two shows, contestants present their business plans to Sir Alan, give him a chance to do a little bit of research - not to the level the interviewers go, but simple stuff like he could have googled Konjac and seen there was competitors, instantly knows it's a non-starter - it has multiple benefits to the current system:

- We get to see each candidate individually for at least a couple of minutes might actually learn the names of candidates before the get fired in the first few weeks (2 opening episodes, 10 per show, 3 minutes each, plenty time for the usual pointless padding they like to use on the show)

- We don't get our hopes up over a candidate throughout the process, only to discover they have a crap idea

- Sir Alan will have a better idea of what he needs to see from individual candidates ie the issue that failed the task may not be an issue in the candidates business going forward, whereas someone else on the team made an error that would fundamentally destroy their business plan if it happened after SAS had invested.

- The candidates that survive the initial presentation can get some feedback and a chance to be prepared for better interviews, ie Solomon might have got through on his idea but also told to improve the contents of his business plan.

Mainly noone goes through the process unaware they have zero chance of getting an investment.

^^Good idea, but to be fair shouldn't the producers be doing this anyway, while choosing the candidates, just goes to show its the candidate and not the BP which gets you on the show. And it's very annoying that as the process proceeds we actually get less of an interview on YF because they have to share with up to 2 others.

For a highly qualified accountant, I wouldn't let her do my weekly shop! she's demonstrated throughout this process that she lacks any real business/financial ability. She makes a great accountant, where all she needs to do is add up figures etc, but when it comes to applying those figures to a business world, she severally lacks.

Very naive. It is also puzzling that second month she's ran out of cash.

Ironic it is, that during the whole process she has been very very efficient and professional, yet the two times that she has flopped has been related to Accountancy . First task in, project manager, and she gets margins horribily wrong. Business plan, no cash -flow.

I really dont get it, cant understand how someone with a management position at EY can screw up the most basic accounting tasks. I think it reveals that she is a very reliable person when it comes to follow a plan and a structure (auditing companys' books), but when it comes to do it herself or creating it herself, it is a different story.

She reminds me of Helen in the first season of the new format. Very effective, very organized... yet when it came to the business plan she changed it last minute and was total shambles.

Completely agree on above post, the format needs an upsidedown turn. It makes more sense. Ideally it should follow Dragons' Den structure, where investors first asses their business plans, and then the people in order to find out if they are investable, and if the partnernship relationship would work.

I very disappointed with all the final BP's. They were garbage, actually only Soloman's had any spark.

Mark's very boring, going to take quite a bit to get going, it's alright working for a company already established in the market, but going alone will eat that £250k in about 3 months if not sooner.

Daniel's good idea, but will never work, for many reasons.

Bianca's again good idea, but will never work, it's going to need more than £250K to make it happen

Roisins, not a good idea, too limited a market and again would need more than £250K to get going.

Soloman's was an interesting idea, pity he screwed up the BP. But it was unfair, most people know BP's are only a guideline and you can adjust figures/sales to suit. Claude pulled him apart for no BP, but Roisins was as bad, and she knew what she was doing.

While I'm not keen on Roisin's idea, I think she can pull it off after some serious tweaking.

I don't want the current format changed. It's fine as it is. If you don't like it, why not propose a format you do like to one of TV companies? There's nothing to stop you from doing this.

Anyone who has ever tasted konjac rice, pasta or noodles would know that it would never make the mass market. It has an absolutely horrible texture and zero nutritional value. Very easy to get sick of. I can't see it being big outside of extreme health circles. And even they would be split between the faddy dieters and those who wanted something with any nutritional value whatsoever.

Maybe because we're not producers of TV shows and don't wish to be.

I know we can apply for the apprentice and our BP will be a new apprentice style show. I like the format, but as entertainment not a business development show. I said in another post The Apprentice has about as much to do with business as Top Gear has to do with cars. But I still watch it as I enjoy it.

I'm Sugar called it Kojak at one point. Poor Roison's face when that fella pulled out a Dukan box with her magic ingredient in. If it's anything like some healthy noodles I had once then the taste is only for your die-hard dieter.

BIB - Sounds like a confusing term, tweaking is small number of minor changes. You cant have serious tweaking, I think you mean a re-write or something close to it.

You don't have to be a producer to create a TV proposal, actually, but I strongly agree The Apprentice is just light entertainment, which is why I'm fine with its current format.


I was thinking 'numerous small changes', but I didn't realise tweaking means a small number of changes. In that case, I stand corrected. Thanks for the heads up.

and they are £5.95 for a single meal! can't see that flying off the shelves

You seem to know about this. Can you supply any examples of a member of the public sending a proposal to a TV company out of the blue and getting it made? Thought not.

TBF Takae by some of his other posts, does seem to have some TV insider knowledge, so I withheld calling him out on it.

But would still like an answer to your question, if he does have some knowledge.

God yes, they taste horrendous!

She's all 'tits and teeth'. which is why she was on in the first place.

Off my head: Simon Broadley with (I think) Everything Must Go! for Hotmedia and Andrew Paul or Paulson with Your Face or Mine? for Talkback.

There's loads more of those who succeed in getting some production companies interested in their proposals, but it stops there after a couple of months. Usually because those companies fail to interest a broadcaster to give them the money to develop those proposals. Or fail to win a commission once it's developed. This scenario is way a lot more common than the one for those above.

Regardless, I still stand by what I said - you don't have to be a producer to create a TV proposal.

Whoever seeks money to develop it - and once developed, a commission - from a broadcaster is a producer in form of a production company.

A person who comes up with only a proposal is usually credited as creator, deviser, associate producer (usual translation: default a fee for a stake), researcher or less commonly, writer.

You can be a member of the public, researcher, nurse, cook, police officer, cleaner, published author or whatever when you create a proposal. During the early 1990s, I was a trainee VT editor when a fellow trainee editor and I devised a format for a film-themed quiz show. Unfortunately, we didn't know that as trainees, whatever we devise on site will belong to the company. They basically took over once we gave them a working draft of our proposal. Lesson learnt, but we were when it failed to take off (they developed it in a direction we'd avoid like hell). Anyroad.

There's quite a few companies - especially the established ones - that won't even look at unsolicited proposals, but there's some that will. It's a matter of guessing which will be willing to consider your proposal. This does mean you may have to contact almost every company in the white book until you find the one that's hungry and ambitious (and usually new) enough to give it a try.

Glad you said it

I've no idea why TF she's been so popular on here?

She's very average to me, bordering on absolutely crap in some instances, and no way was LS EVER going to work with her.

She's too timid and lacks balls.

I love Roisin but girl she shouldn't even be on the show at all. She should have kept working her job as the accountant.

I'm sure that out of all the contestants Roisin will have the most joboffers. Maybe even from foodcompanies who want to launch their take on this healthy diet food.

I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to make a success out of this after all.

I'm on a very low carb diet and I tried Konjac. There's nothing you can do to it that would disguise the stuff enough to make it palatable. 'Tasteless' doesn't go far enough - it has negative flavour not just none. And the texture is vile.

I bought 4 packs when the noodles were on special offer in Holland and Barrett. I've got 2 packs left. I'd rather live the rest of my life without noodles or pasta than repeat the experience.

That would make terribly dull TV. Two episodes presenting some very poor business plans would put you off watching the rest of the series. Dragons Den can manage it because of the drama that goes along with it.

There's no need to change the format of the show. Do people really "get their hopes up" on candidates? Roisin isn't the first to impress in tasks but have no clue about creating a business plan.