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This week's assignment:
The fourth season of "The Apprentice" began in typical
fashion; 18 hand-picked candidates, selected as the result of nationwide
auditions, convened at Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey. After
Donald Trump arrived in his corporate helicopter, he divided the candidates
by gender into two companies. Eventually, the two groups selected company
names, Excel for the males and Capital Edge for the females.
The initial task required each company to develop a new fitness class for a
Bally Total Fitness Center in New York City. The team generating the most
revenue from recruiting new students for its class would be the winner of
the task. As always, the winning team would be rewarded, and the losing team
would face Mr. Trump in the boardroom, where someone would be fired.
In the boardroom
There was a new twist introduced this season which will
provide some additional excitement throughout the season. In the past, it
has been customary for the week's winning project manager to get automatic
protection from being fired in the next week's episode. This season, such
protection will only be granted if the winning team votes to give it to its
project manager.
As it turned out, Excel generated $11 more in sales revenue
than Capital Edge and won the task. Markus was not given immunity by his
team. In the boardroom, Kristi was given the option of bringing two of her
colleagues to the firing session, but she chose to bring only one, Melissa,
who had been roundly criticized for not being a team player. Mr. Trump
concluded that Melissa was a negative force and fired her.
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Lessons Learned
Avoid asking, "Who, me?"
The project managers for the first task, selected by
their peers, were Markus for Excel and Kristi for Capital Edge. Of the
two, Kristi was considerably more willing to step up and lead the task.
She had an All-American athletic background from her college days and
seemed to be a natural for a task involving fitness. Markus was
initially reluctant to take on the mantle of project manager, even
though his teammates felt strongly that he should lead.
Given the dynamics of the show, Markus probably knew that there is a
certain amount of risk involved in being project manager in the first
task. Some of the successful candidates in the past, such as last
season's winner, deliberately stayed in the background during the first
few tasks to get a feel for the other candidates before stepping forward
to lead.
However, in the show, and in the real world of business, the situation
is different when someone is asked to assume a leadership position. In
those cases, it is often advisable to take the ball and run with it.
Because of Markus' initial hesitation to take charge when asked, he lost
the confidence of some of his teammates. He would have set a more
positive tone for the future if he had said something like, "I know it
can be tough to be the first project manager, but I am honored that you
have so much confidence in me. Let's do it."
The bottom line: When asked to lead, a response of,
"Can do," usually goes farther than "Who, me?"
Work with your colleagues, not against them:
Melissa's downfall was that she demonstrated she couldn't work
cooperatively with other people, especially women. During the task, she
was a constant complainer and criticized her team incessantly. In the
boardroom, she committed the mortal sin of admitting that she had
trouble working with other women, because they tended to be intimidated
by her beauty.
The bottom line: Again, as has been the case in
previous seasons of the show, past success as an independent
businessperson doesn't guarantee that a candidate will survive. Melissa
is a great entrepreneur when it comes to her real estate dealings, but
she's not a team player and paid the price for it. She should have spent
more time selling Capital Edge's fitness class instead of complaining.
As Kristi noted, if Melissa had been able to get one more person to come
to the class, the team would have won the task.
Cross-selling vs. new customer acquisition:
This task contrasted two different ways of tackling the assigned task.
Excel tried to get the current customers of the fitness center to sign
up for an additional class, thus increasing the usage rate of the
facility among current members. Capital Edge hit the streets to try to
bring new customers into the facility. Both tactics had about the same
degree of success, as the margin of difference was only $11.
The bottom line: At this stage of the season, each
team is at its greatest possible size with nine people. Given that there
is a limited amount of time to maximize sales, personnel might have been
deployed better so that one of the teams could have pursued both
strategies simultaneously.
The Endangered
species list
The following people are on this week's endangered
species list, based upon the likelihood that they will incur Trump's
wrath in the near future:
Markus (Excel): He's
lucky that his team won, because most of his teammates agreed that he
contributed little to the victory. In fact, his team voted against
giving him an exemption on the next task. He was hurt by hesitating when
he was asked to take on the project manager's role at the very
beginning. When he talks, he's like the Energizer bunny—he keeps going,
and going, and going, but he doesn't really say anything.
Kristi (Capital Edge):
Both Mr. Trump and his colleague Carolyn Kepcher were unimpressed with
Kristi's performance as project manager. Carolyn was particularly
displeased with the sexually suggestive promotional theme Kristi
developed for Capital Edge's fitness class. Fortunately for her, it only
took her teammates a short time to develop an intense dislike for
Melissa, whom they sought to jettison as soon as they had the chance. To
her credit, Kristi made an excellent move in the boardroom by bringing
only Melissa back for the firing session, when she could have brought in
an extra person as well. This tactic increased Kristi's chances of being
fired, but it may endear her to her teammates down the road.
Gold Stars:
There are no gold star recipients for this week's
episode. |
| The Report Card |
Excel:
- Effort --
- Performance --
- Creativity --
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"This isn't Kristi vs. Melissa. This is Melissa is incompetent and she
needs to be fired." |
Capital Edge:
- Effort --
- Performance --
- Creativity --
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