I think the big problem if Adam is assigned project manager again is that he MUST win. If he loses no matter whose fault it was he'll probably get sacked.
I say this because I doubt Sir Alan would allow him to be project manager twice and lose on both occasions.

That's what I thought at the time,...that Sophie was no more to blame than Adam, and Adam actually made additional mistakes as the project manager. I thiought that Adam was the one who deserved to be fired more. At the time anyway.

The key difference would probably be Sophie's philosophy of selling which she expressed in the boardroom to Sir Alan which saved Adam's skin. That must have sealed her own fate and Adam survived to fight another day.
Last edited by Alrightmate : 05-05-2007 at 00:30

LOL, I love the chinless chumps phrase, so apt.

Makosi's pants beat me to it re the selling sweaters on a satellite channel, he was a natural for tv. He is confident and charming with humour. I have only seen the Essex radio station HG show, I must series link it.

From what I can recall of the sweets task, he was undermined by:

1. Simon looking at animals instead of choosing a good site, per comment from voiceover, I think Natalie was with him.
2. Sophie and Natalie being useless at selling, he tried to help Natalie but she rejected his good advice, I thought he was good there, I would have sent her home for attitude alone.
3. His error in wearing the lion suit, as it was edited to show the 3 kids who cried. Some kids cry at anything.
4. Natalie getting the labels wrong, hours of lost sales.

Ghazal as PM did far worse in lack of goods to sell, but got lucky as her team were better.
Last edited by mazey : 05-05-2007 at 00:45

Adam was very bad as a leader and performer in that task and Sophie was a small part in its failure, compared with Adam's failures.

The problem was that Sophie ruled herself out, just as Ifti did when he couldn't even be bothered to get going. In business, you have to push yourself, turn up and blooming well work even if you don't particularly feel like it. Sophie said she didn't feel comfortable doing what business does: sell things above their value, which AS smartly pointed out, is exactly what retail does. Sophie had to overcome AS's suspicion of airy-fairy scientist / academic types, if she was to stand a chance of progressing; instead she confirmed any doubts and prejudice he may have had.

Their conversation in the boardroom contained one gem showing the clash between two cultures when he put some typically blunt comment or criticism to her and she replied 'That's an interesting idea', sounding exactly like a caricature of an impractical ivory-tower academic turning over some fascinating philosophical concept or proposition. Her fate was sealed because she didn't have the stomach for, or speak the language of business. Adam, on the other hand, is at least in the world of business and understands the lingo, even if he may not be very good on occasion in these artificial tests and tasks.

I do not agree about Adam as TL, Oulandy, it was one of the early tasks when they had had little time to "suss" each other out. It was quite reasonable for Adam to expect his team to work for success, not get distracted and negative.
He was calm and reasonable at the planning stage, organised without dictating, but he was let down, particularly by smartass Simon and Natalie.

It was cruel to let Sophie go for that task as she worked hardest on production, a good manager would have recognised that and given her a low profile role next day, perhaps. She did screw up on purchasing in the previous task? A physicist who cannot calculate.

No, he doesn't. Adam has already survived 3 visits to the boardroom. Last year Syed survived 4, and Ruth survived 4 and was a finalist. The year before, Paul survived 4 too. So Sir Alan clearly knows that people can be in the boardroom without being at fault.


I think you may be confusing it with The American Apprentice. In that show, Trump usually fires whoever the team tells him to fire. Which is usually the PM.


To give them a chance to explain and justify themselves. And to see how they deal with pressure and hostile questions.


Are you serious? Jo survived 3 visits to the boardroom, once as a losing PM when she performed terribly and probably should have been fired instead of Karen. When she was fired, it was after a terrible performance selling cars. Jo had one good week on the calender task and that was it.

Saira was in the boardroom 3 times, but 2 of those were as losing PM, not because someone else brought her in. And she was a finalist so you can hardly say Sir Alan was fooled by that one time.

Naomi also has that honour.

They are the only two so far this year. Last year Ben, Jo, Ansell, Syed, Ruth and Michelle all survived as losing PMs, with Ruth being a finalist and Michelle winning. The first season, Adele, Tim, Rachel, Paul, James all survived as losing PMs, and Saira survived it twice and was still a finalist. This year the proportion of fired PMs has been unusually high - it's not normally such a poisoned chalice.

7 of the 8 who reached the interview stage in the first two series survived failing as PM. (The exception is Paul last year, and Sir Alan later said he should have fired Paul instead of Miriam, which would have made it 8/8.) So, if this trend continues, Adam and Naomi are near-certs for the final four.

Having watched the replay of last weeks episode again I feel it's clear that:

- Lohit is a front runner and I will be shocked if he goes anytime soon
- Kristina is also a front runner. Finding that kitchen to cook the sausages was something that will not have been missed by Sir Alan. That will earn her lots of points.
- Adam sold to a people whom he doesn't speak their language. That again was impressive.

So those three are for me becoming favourites.

Yep I gotta agree with you.

Kristina finding a kitchen to cook the sausages when she barely speaks French was particularly impressive.

I think it will be a Lohit and Kristina final and Kristina will win (just).

However if the apprentice is anything like last years then Lohit will win because he is more mouldable and Kristina may come across as too determined.

Perhaps Alan has learnt the mistake of not choosing Ruth.

Having just watched the repeat, it annoyed me how Adam was brought back into the boardroom for spending money on that banner when far more money an time had been wasted on the "breeze block" cheese and the cooking contraption, not to mention leaving non-French speaking sellers on the stall and selling those sausages for the price they were purchased.

The attitude towards Adam is appauling, especially when he returned to the house - it amounts to bullying. I'm really concerned next week, if he's project manager, that his team members will sabotage his attempts to win.

Surely the mistakes you mention were down to Paul, and he was already in the boardroom. It makes sense to me for Adam to be next on the list.