First time I've seen Ruth on Tv since that Channel five (what's) "The big idea", fiasco. It was quite a good show. She came across as a natural and fairly creative, though the show did concentrate on selling, which is her undoubted area of expertise. Still, very enjoyable. So tell me, where is Michelle Dewberry again...?

I thought it wasn't bad at all but then I like this sort of business troubleshooting programme generally and I though Ruth should have won The Apprentice last year. Good to see her doing so well, she seemed really happy. One thing about Ruth is that even though she is kinda bossy and just about manages to stay on the right side of the confidence/arrogance line, she does seem to be a person that other people warm to and it was clear that she did inspire that sales team.

I saw and heard Ruth at a conference, I was not impressed even though I admired her general competence last year.

She did not tailor her talk to the audience (keen A level students) but boasted about her lack of qualifications and education, gave some boring standard cr@p about how to succeed in selling.

No one asked her questions at the end, they did not care. I would have asked a question to save (her) face but she was so full of herself, I lacked the empathy.

I have heard other speakers at these conferences, from "against the odds entrepreneurs", and they have magnetised the student audience, keen to know how they coped with not being able to read, no money or backers etc.

That was exactly why Alan Sugar didn't make her the apprentice. She believes she has nothing to learn & is the finished product. Exactly the opposite to an apprentice!!.

MB

Perhaps she just wasn't used to conference speaking - it tends to be a skill that improves with experience so maybe she just hadn't done much formal public speaking. I find it strange that nobody had any questions to ask her at the end though. Surely her Apprentice experience would have been enough of an interesting topic to inspire a question - or were questions to be confined to a specific topic?

You don't think, then, that a TV company approached her after she failed to secure the apprentice job, and offered her this chance to make a TV programme centred around the talent she showed in The Apprentice - selling?
Obviously, as I don't know Ruth, I can't say for sure, but my impression of her was that she very much wanted to be the apprentice, respected AS and saw working for AS as a good career opportunity. As with most reality TV shows now, other career opportunities come off the back of it and Ruth has been offered the chance to do this based on the selling strengths she revealed in the show (as opposed to being dim - Jade Goody; or bitchy - Grace Whateverhernameis; or blonde - Chantelle Houghton).

I certainly don't blame Ruth for grabbing the opportunity.
IMO, she won that final task, performed consistently well in the show and she deserved to be The Apprentice - and I believe she would have used the chance wisely. I wish her well in her TV career - it's Siralan's loss.

I thought Badger or bust was good, however (I'm sure other people will have thought this) it is a blatant rip off of BBC3's Ferocious Mr Fix It.

As I have said in another thread an apprentice is a person who works for another in order to learn .

I think that this is key. If Alan Sugar is really looking for a true apprentice it will be about inherent talent, potential to develop longer term etc. etc. either down a specific route or more likely across a broad spectrum of roles. Not someone who has necessarily performed the 'best' in a few tasks & is seen as being good at a 'specific' skill.

Ruth fell clearly into the latter category. She demonstrated that she was extremely good at sales. I just don't think many people actually understand what an 'apprentice' is.

Can understand why he opted for Michelle as she was far more raw & had he thought more inherent talent to be developed in an apprentice role. She completely messed it up not because she doesn't have the skills but because of 'other' issues . But it doesn't change at all the fact that Ruth was not not right for the apprentice & would have wanted to be 'in charge' not 'learning'.

MB

Excellent post May Blossom. I was one of those who didn't rate Michelle at all but for all the reasons in your post I understood why SAS took her over the Badge.

I guess we'll just have to agree to differ on this one MB.
I certainly understand what the word 'apprentice' means. I agree that Michelle was more raw, and believe Ruth had certain already-proven strengths (sales) as well as other areas that - like Michelle - could have been developed. I never got the impression that she thought she knew it all already and reckon she would have developed her other skills in the job. Of course, we'll never know that for sure.

I do believe she'd earned the chance to try, though.

I think May Blossom said it, she just believes she knows it all and does not have to do what 'professional' speakers do, i.e. they tailor their talks to the audience. She was well briefed (I know the organisers) but ignored it. I call that ignorance, not good business. She was paid, it was not a charity gig.

My students did not find her inspiring or interesting, so she did not like school? They left school for college/6th form, so did not like school, but they still saw the advantage of education, qualifications and learning. Ruth did not. I had used The Apprentice as a regular topic for discussion during the series, so they knew the story.

Questioning was open, it got a bit desperate in the end, but still no response - they did not care enough. She had not connected.