Originally Posted by walterwhite:
“I disagree with virtually everything you have posted there.”
“I disagree with virtually everything you have posted there.”
Me too,I thought Joe was a great choice, I could not stand Vana. Joe is far more SASs type.
Joseph was clearly selected to win beforehand
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I think Joseph needs to spend a few more years learning every aspect of the plumbing trade and that means going on site and doing the jobs personally from time to time even though he has won the £250,000.
If he becomes motivated by only making money and not concentrating on building up customer satisfaction he will be dealing with comebacks and complaints of unsatisfactory workmanship from customers such as the people who post on DS.
If he becomes motivated by only making money and not concentrating on building up customer satisfaction he will be dealing with comebacks and complaints of unsatisfactory workmanship from customers such as the people who post on DS.
Originally Posted by Haruhi:
“His business plan was a shambles that kept being edited to make it less ridiculous
He failed as PM
He was invisible on many tasks
His adverting campaign and pitch weren't just inferior to Vanas but bad too”
“His business plan was a shambles that kept being edited to make it less ridiculous
He failed as PM
He was invisible on many tasks
His adverting campaign and pitch weren't just inferior to Vanas but bad too”
May be the wrong question. Either he knew he was going to end with 5 dud proposals whoever got there, and settled on Joseph - as the best story, and dullest, safest, destination for the contracted money, early. Or it got down to the survivors , found there was nothing , and he picked Joe for the same reasons.
The big question is why he can't get any decent proposals. And the answer seems to be they don't vet enough for that, the money on offer is too little, his dislike of risk is too high, his list of things he won't invest in is too long, his expectations of returns are too high, and no one who turns up can think of anything he wants.
Originally Posted by Philip Wales:
“^^ I think he's going to go down the app route himself, once he's grown a bit”
“^^ I think he's going to go down the app route himself, once he's grown a bit”
Can't see it. He was throwing national around as a claim for his plumbing network. But that would require, literall,y the app to throw someone up in Sunderland and Salisbury when needed. . He's not going to expand there with 250k - which would have to pay for the app , and just a few more white vans, advertising and plumbers. The app is going to end up telling you the nearest honest Joe plumber is 500 miles away.
And if it did get big, how on earth does he met Lord Sugar's requirement for quality control - my plumber had to send his man back today as my repalced valve stuck again - Joe isn't going to be able to do that sort of follow up for plumbers at different ends of the country.
Originally Posted by thenetworkbabe:
“May be the wrong question. Either he knew he was going to end with 5 dud proposals whoever got there, and settled on Joseph - as the best story, and dullest, safest, destination for the contracted money, early. Or it got down to the survivors , found there was nothing , and he picked Joe for the same reasons.
The big question is why he can't get any decent proposals. And the answer seems to be they don't vet enough for that, the money on offer is too little, his dislike of risk is too high, his list of things he won't invest in is too long, his expectations of returns are too high, and no one who turns up can think of anything he wants.”
“May be the wrong question. Either he knew he was going to end with 5 dud proposals whoever got there, and settled on Joseph - as the best story, and dullest, safest, destination for the contracted money, early. Or it got down to the survivors , found there was nothing , and he picked Joe for the same reasons.
The big question is why he can't get any decent proposals. And the answer seems to be they don't vet enough for that, the money on offer is too little, his dislike of risk is too high, his list of things he won't invest in is too long, his expectations of returns are too high, and no one who turns up can think of anything he wants.”
For the candidates, £250,000 for half the company is a very good deal and better than they'd get on Dragons Den.
One reason might be that Lord Sugar is looking for ideas, and the trouble with ideas is they have not been tested which is why so many crash and burn at the interview stage. If the candidates had already started their firms or built a prototype product, they'd be more likely to turn to Dragons Den or their bank manager for funding.
This means The Apprentice is dominated (especially after extensive "tweaking" at the interview stage) by candidates looking either to expand their current small businesses, or to do for themselves whatever it is they have spent the last few years doing in the corporate world.
Now to be fair, this is what Lord Sugar says he is looking for -- candidates with ideas in a field where they have some experience -- but I'm not sure it makes for scintillating television.
It might be that a new round is needed near the end where the last 2 or 3 candidates are given a budget of (say) £50,000 each and a few weeks to produce a prototype. Lord Sugar says he is a products man but this might be the only way he gets products, aside from accidents like Tom in series 7 who had a commercially viable nail file hidden away in his back story (but not in his business plan). (At risk of undermining my own argument, I should mention that Lord Sugar also later invested in Susan's skin care range.)
Originally Posted by Philip Wales:
“They should combine Dragon's Den and the Apprentice”
“They should combine Dragon's Den and the Apprentice”
The dragons den is pretty much just the apprentice slapped into a 5 minute pitch.
Vana's plan failed in that it was basically not doable with LS's 250k to be giving him even a penny of profit and while it may make billions if not trillions it won't catch fire with LS's 250k
Joseph on the other hand will be steadily churning out profit and i'm sure with LS's contacts in the property market he'll always be busy fixing something once he gets his gassafe certs a bit more filled out.
Originally Posted by Maxatoria:
“The dragons den is pretty much just the apprentice slapped into a 5 minute pitch.
Vana's plan failed in that it was basically not doable with LS's 250k to be giving him even a penny of profit and while it may make billions if not trillions it won't catch fire with LS's 250k
Joseph on the other hand will be steadily churning out profit and i'm sure with LS's contacts in the property market he'll always be busy fixing something once he gets his gassafe certs a bit more filled out.”
“The dragons den is pretty much just the apprentice slapped into a 5 minute pitch.
Vana's plan failed in that it was basically not doable with LS's 250k to be giving him even a penny of profit and while it may make billions if not trillions it won't catch fire with LS's 250k
Joseph on the other hand will be steadily churning out profit and i'm sure with LS's contacts in the property market he'll always be busy fixing something once he gets his gassafe certs a bit more filled out.”
Also remember the previous winners, Mark and Ricky are servicing clients with sales and recruitment services.
All of those clients have offices and buildings.
All buildings have plumbing.
At first they will need to give Joseph contacts nearer to Peterborough, but Ricky deals in scientific recruitment. Cambridge science park is a huge business enterprise with loads of specialist technology businesses.
Labs would need specialist plumbing services which is expensive, a lot of computers use water cooling for their hardware etc etc.
Leah made the comment about him doing the plumbing for her new branch in Essex. If she opened up in Cambridge or Peterborough they could cross-promote.
Lord Sugar is not daft.
Originally Posted by thenetworkbabe:
“Can't see it. He was throwing national around as a claim for his plumbing network. But that would require, literall,y the app to throw someone up in Sunderland and Salisbury when needed. . He's not going to expand there with 250k - which would have to pay for the app , and just a few more white vans, advertising and plumbers. The app is going to end up telling you the nearest honest Joe plumber is 500 miles away.
And if it did get big, how on earth does he met Lord Sugar's requirement for quality control - my plumber had to send his man back today as my repalced valve stuck again - Joe isn't going to be able to do that sort of follow up for plumbers at different ends of the country.”
“Can't see it. He was throwing national around as a claim for his plumbing network. But that would require, literall,y the app to throw someone up in Sunderland and Salisbury when needed. . He's not going to expand there with 250k - which would have to pay for the app , and just a few more white vans, advertising and plumbers. The app is going to end up telling you the nearest honest Joe plumber is 500 miles away.
And if it did get big, how on earth does he met Lord Sugar's requirement for quality control - my plumber had to send his man back today as my repalced valve stuck again - Joe isn't going to be able to do that sort of follow up for plumbers at different ends of the country.”
Joe wouldn't have to, in a business the size that is planned he would have people below him who would sort things like that out.
Originally Posted by Haruhi:
“His business plan was a shambles that kept being edited to make it less ridiculous
He failed as PM
He was invisible on many tasks
His adverting campaign and pitch weren't just inferior to Vanas but bad too”
“His business plan was a shambles that kept being edited to make it less ridiculous
He failed as PM
He was invisible on many tasks
His adverting campaign and pitch weren't just inferior to Vanas but bad too”
Joseph proved himself to be an extremely worthy winner and will be one of Lord Sugar's best apprentices ever. I doubt anyone would have anticipated him winning earlier on in the competition but he proved himself.
The business plans of all candidates were ruthlessly dissected, it's always the way.
I don't understand why anyone would want to take any of the shine off the success of the winner.
How that can be said i have no idea 2 endings are filmed and they decide hours before which one has won
Originally Posted by walterwhite:
“I think Vana was extremely lucky not to go in week 3 personally.”
“I think Vana was extremely lucky not to go in week 3 personally.”
Totally agree. Keeping Vana and firing Jenny (for what exactly?) was Lord Sugar's most inexplicable move of the series for me.
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