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This week's assignment:
At the ice cream
parlor in the Atrium of the Trump Tower, Mr. Trump assigned the corporations
the task of creating a new character for the Dairy Queen Blizzard brand.
Toral, criticized by Capital Edge for not stepping up in previous tasks,
made a half-hearted effort to lead but ultimately ceded the project manager
role to Felisha. Meanwhile, after last week's conflict with Randal, Clay
accepted the Excel PM job with the proviso that everyone must follow his
orders to the letter.
For their task, Capital Edge created a character called Zip, but decided not
to brand it prominently. Tension mounted as Toral refused to wear the plush
costume for the presentation. Excel meanwhile whipped up Ginny the Genie and
tricked her out with soft-serve hair and DQ bling. Dairy Queen execs felt
Excel clearly won the task, and Excel voted Clay an exemption from firing
next week. For their reward, Excel met the New York Mets' mascot and played
ball with the team. Conversely, Capital Edge met Trump and his associates in
the boardroom.
In the boardroom
Clay comes off the endangered list for now as he received a
unanimous vote of confidence from his Excel teammates at the end of the
task, and is exempt from being fired in week 5. Clay is fortunate that Excel
won the task, because his tyrannical "my way or the highway" approach to
managing the team did not win him any points as Mr. Congeniality. His
teammates would have quickly turned on him if the team had lost. Markus also
comes off the list, having stabilized his situation with two good weeks
after two bad ones.
The women's scant
branding of Zip drew heavy criticism. But Toral was clearly a bigger
problem, as even onetime pal Rebecca woefully turned against her. Trump,
never one to dillydally, fired Toral on the spot and saved everyone the
trouble of coming back to boardroom,
expressing his extreme disappointment that her performance did not measure
up to her lofty academic credentials and considerable intellect.
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Lessons Learned
Don't just say it, do it:
Toral was a complete disaster in this week's episode. In this episode
and previous ones, whenever she got the chance, she talked about how
smart and talented she was. Unfortunately for her, there was a big gap
between words and actions—she simply did not "walk the talk."
In last week's episode, Toral had performed poorly, but was saved
because her friend Rebecca defended her in the boardroom. At the
beginning of this week's episode, Toral's Capital Edge teammates warned
her that she had better step up to the plate and perform. Yet Toral did
not accept the challenge put before her by her team. She passed on the
clear opportunity she had to be the project manager and she later
refused to play the role of Zip during the team's presentation.
She made many excuses to justify not wearing the Zip costume. First, she
was "uncomfortable." Then, she said she did not want to embarrass her
family. Later, she said she had cultural reasons for not wearing it.
Finally, near the end of the episode, she asserted that she did not want
to put on the costume because of her religion. When Toral tried to tell
Trump that she had voiced religious objections all along, his
cross-examination and the protests of her colleagues convinced him that
she was being less than truthful.
The bottom line: Toral has been successful in a
variety of ways—she's well-educated and has made more money at age 29
than most people make in a lifetime. But on the show, she was arrogant
and uncooperative. She even lost the support of her friend Rebecca, who
felt that Toral had let her down by not taking the initiative to lead
the team. Toral may be smart and individually productive, but she has a
lot to learn about working with people.
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:
Kristi
(Capital Edge): Right now, in the wake of Toral being fired, she's the
only person on this week's endangered species list; she showed again
this week that she just doesn't have the polish to end up in Trump's
employ.
Gold Stars:
Mark gets a gold star
for having a positive attitude about having to change genders and dress
up as Ginny the Blizzard Genie.
And this week, Trump,
Carolyn Kepcher, and
George Ross ruled over one of the most
entertaining boardroom scenes ever. All three of them cut to the heart
of the issues at hand. Trump, in particular, saw through Toral's
deception and shut it down completely. The boardroom clearly belongs to
Mr. Trump. |
| The Report Card |
Excel:
- Effort --
- Performance --
- Creativity --
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"Toral was a non-factor from the
start." |
Capital Edge:
- Effort --
- Performance --
- Creativity --
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