Friday, 17 November 2017

The Apprentice 2017: Week 6 - "Bruges Tour"


The Rude Awakening & The Briefing:

·         5am, Liz answers the phone; going to the docks in Southampton, pack an overnight bag and cars will be 30 mins. (+50 to Liz)

·         Michaela, Sarah Jayne and Anisa play Scarf Wars (Anisa loses 40 points, Michaela loses 30, and Sarah Jayne loses 20)

·         Sarah/Saj/Harrison switch to Graphene, Anisa/Sarah Jayne/Jade switch to Vitality

·         Points for this section: +50 Liz, -20 Sarah Jayne, -30 Michaela, -40 Anisa



The Planning:

·         Sarah Jayne puts herself forward immediately, Charles volunteers but Andrew backs Sarah Jayne and the rest follow. Jade/Andrew/Michaela on sales team. (Sarah Jayne gains 40 points, and Charles 20)

·         Liz/Saj/Joanna/Harrison on tour, Liz as PM. Liz wants to go for a modern tour (Harrison has some misgivings) (Liz gets 40 for PM – can only assume she volunteered as nothing from LAS to say must be PM)

·         Sarah Jayne goes for a history tour, Andrew points out they need to be up on their facts and Sarah Jayne reckons Anisa will be good for the talking

·         Liz goes for a Segway tour, and chocolate tasting. She teaches them Flemish for ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ (+15 for those language skills)

·         Sarah Jayne goes for horse and tram, and beer tasting (backs Andrew on that, he reckons it will be an easy sell) (Andrew gains 20 points for his idea being taken forward)

·         Liz decides to go for small manageable chunks for each person so that they can make a tapestry (huh?). She wants all 4 people on the tour

·         Anisa on tour, Charles on logistics (he takes his time and Anisa tells him to stop fannying about, Sarah Jayne is a bit worried about Anisa snapping but tells her that once they’ve worked out the logistics, they can help her on the facts) (Charles loses 15 points for Anisa’s outburst)

·         James starts selling tickets, 2 for £100 (Claude is impressed with his patter, but he’s not talking about modern Bruges it’s all Segway) (0 points for James as Claude both praised and critiqued him)

·         Andrew sells tickets for £87.50 each, sells it on the basis of the beer (Karren calls it a risky strategy). Anisa is ‘pissed off’ as she’s told them that she’s not good on facts, ‘we’ll help you’ but she’s not getting help.

·         Liz isn’t too happy that she can’t reach James via phone, but puts a positive spin that they must be doing well selling.

·         Andrew has sold 10 tickets, average of £82,50 each. Sarah Jayne decides to swap Andrew over to the other ST for the beer tasting, with herself moving to the sales team

·         James informs Liz that all of the tickets are sold – 14 for £50 each and last 2 for £40 each. Sarah’s worried that only a small portion of the tour is on Segway as that’s what they’ve sold it to the customers on, but James reckons they can manage expectations.

·         Points for this section: +55 Liz, +40 Sarah Jayne, +20 Andrew, +5 Charles



The Main Event:

·         Liz is worried about time, whilst Andrew starts off his tour with a bit of banter and a joke with the megaphone.

·         James/Sarah/Joanna go to negotiate price for the chocolate tasting, Liz gets her happy campers to say hello to the Square in Flemish

·         Charles gets his team lost, Andrew smooths it over but Charles reckons he’s got it.

·         Sarah Jayne/Jade/Michaela on beer tasting. 60 euros for 10 people, Sarah Jayne brings it down to 50, Michaela wants to get some samples and bottles too, and manages to get the lot for 95 euros. Michaela reckons Sarah Jayne isn’t confident in making decisions by herself (-15 for Sarah Jayne)

·         James leads on chocolate, wants to get a % of the sales and scores 5% (Claude praises Joanna for clinching that deal and criticises James in the process) (Joanna gains 30 and James loses 30)

·         Liz concerned on time again, Claude describes her as being meticulous but sucking the fun out of it all. (again 0 points as both praise and criticism)

·         Charles and Anisa are still lost, Karren calls it ‘stupid beyond belief’ that they haven’t realised the entrance will be inside the building. Anisa tries to give some facts but she thinks she’s messed up and is reading them from a notebook (-30 to both Charles and Anisa for Karren’s remark, Anisa loses a further 30 – 15 for messing up the facts and another 15 for reading them from a notebook; she’s no Lauren Riley)

·         Harrison gives a talk at the Market Square, but is essentially BSing, Claude says the tour group are disappointed and wouldn’t be surprised if they ask for refunds

·         Andrew asks Charles where they are, Charles tries to make out that they’ve done it on purpose (not lost but couldn’t find where they were looking for), gets help from one of the group

·         Liz brings her team out for a quick talk, wants to get the punters out by quarter past, Claude says Liz is denying herself the opportunity of getting more profit by being too keen to head to the next area. (-30 for Liz)

·         James/Joanna/Sarah get some souvenirs to bring back on the ship, Michaela/SJ/Jade buy some cheap keyrings

·         Andrew leads the beer tasting and makes a cheap joke about Charles leading them an extra 5000 steps (Karren reckons Andrew hasn’t got enough beer to fulfil his promise of a skinful) (-30 for Andrew)

·         ‘To infinity and beyond’ oh god Liz. Claude on a Segway is something, but they only got 10-15 mins on them.

·         Anisa does some more reading facts off a notebook and getting confused, Charles tries to save her a bit, Karren says ‘if you’re giving out information, we can’t hear it at the back’); Karren says really bad prepared, lack of direction, facts were scant, will be complaints (-30 for Charles and Anisa again)

·         All over at 5pm: Vitality – keyrings for £6, Graphene – wash bags, Bruges bags. Liz tells people to turn to the right and pat the person in front of them on the back. Sarah Jayne asks her team not to turn on her, reckons she’s done it to the best of her ability.

·         Points for this section: +30 Joanna, -15 Sarah Jayne, -30 Liz/James/Andrew, -60 Charles, -90 Anisa



The Initial Boardroom:

·         Vitality – Sarah Jayne thought needed to step up after comments from last boardroom, Charles always the bridesmaid and never the bride as he puts himself forward every week and never PM, Sarah Jayne explains their decisions well, 9.50 per person at the beer place, 50 keyrings for 100 euros; Anisa praised having Andrew on board (Karren describes his banter as laddish), 30 min walking tour took 3 hours (+15 for Andrew from Anisa’s praise but he loses 30 for Karren’s remark)

·         Graphene – Liz thought the idea for chocolate was a group decision but LAS reckons Harrison had the idea and encourages him to take credit (Harrison seemed to be confused himself), Liz’s reign of terror, James and Sarah thought the Segway tour was going to be 60-90 mins, James admits didn’t want to talk to the planning team, Sarah’s idea for the 5% margin, spent 210 euros for 22 items. Liz gets asked if she sells wreaths in her florist shop (she does and a lot apparently). (Harrison and Sarah gain 30 points each, James loses 30 for admitting going AWOL with the other ST)

·         Graphene: spend £180.54, tickets/souvenir sales £1139.60, refunds of £156 = £803.06

·         Vitality: spend £107.64, £993 tickets/souvenir sales, refunds of £165 = £660.36

·         Treat is going punting in Cambridge: Saj asks what Liz knows about management (a dozen people over 3 businesses, Liz reckons she's proven that she's not a joke)

·         Losers Café: Sarah Jayne reckons all did a good job, Andrew blames Charles for the tour (Charles reckons the souvenirs lost it), Anisa told that her having an encyclopedia to learn is not an excuse (Andrew) and she blames Sarah Jayne (Charles and Anisa lose 15 each from Andrew’s criticism, and Sarah Jayne loses 15 for Anisa blaming her)

·         Points for this section: +30 Harrison/Sarah, -15 Andrew/Anisa/Charles/Sarah Jayne, -30 James


The Losing Boardroom:

·         It was boring – were sold a pup, down to the beer. Charles implies sales team to blame (commentating after the horse has bolted according to LAS and Andrew reckons it’s a running theme). LAS praises other team for commission on sales, wonders why they didn’t do it (Michaela says had no choice given how the tour was sold). Andrew seems to think Anisa should have trained herself (she and Charles disagree). Anisa feels set up to fail (is Anisa short for anaesthetist). Andrew asked about his laddish behaviour – he says just trying to make light of a bad situation. Andrew criticises Anisa and Charles for getting lost, they say ‘well you were too busy mocking us’. Sarah Jayne brings back Andrew and Charles. (Charles loses 30 for LAS’ remark, and he and Anisa lose another 15 for Andrew’s criticism; Andrew and Charles lose 60 points each for being brought back)

·         -15 Anisa, -60 Andrew, -105 Charles


The Final 3 Boardroom:

·         Sarah Jayne: ‘oblivious of mistakes’ (LAS) ‘did right thing to go to souvenirs but bought the wrong ones’ (Karren)

·         Andrew: ‘lacks professional approach and acts like uni student’ (Karren) ‘sold the most’ (Claude)

·         Charles: ‘bull in a china shop’ (LAS) ‘skilled at hindsight’ (Karren)

·         LAS says will take into account performance over the last 6 weeks

·         Andrew – you had one job and you got us lost (to Charles), Charles blames Andrew. Sarah Jayne says overpromising the beer – Andrew says never said numbers. Whole thing was an embarrassing situation

·         Sarah Jayne – appointed herself PM as wanted to prove herself and hasn’t, Charles – ‘Mr Hindsight’ but what did he do right?, Andrew – already spoken to about attitude. Thinks won’t ever be a business partner and has boxed himself into a corner. Wonders what Sarah Jayne does – moved self over to convenient place, has been there for last 6 weeks and Sarah Jayne is therefore fired. Charles told to stop being a commentator and told to go back to the house. Andrew says will go in with a more professional attitude – ‘last chance is an understatement’ but gets told to go back.

·         Sarah Jayne doesn’t believe down to her, says Charles should have gone. Anisa says Andrew got a roasting but Charles should go (Michaela agrees), but Harrison reckons Charles will deffo be back (Michaela – ‘you haven’t worked with him’). Liz seemed happy to see Andrew!





Roll Call and Points Tallies:

Eternal Uni Student: Andrew (-85)

Get out the Violins: Anisa (-160)

Moving Wallpaper part 1: Bushra (0)

We’ll Get Lost Together: Charles (-175)

Lots of praise, Literally: Harrison (+30)

Was she actually there?: Jade (0)

Doing him down……: James (-60)

……to prop her up: Joanna (+30)

Reigning with Terror: Liz (+75)

Does she have a positive mode?: Michaela (-30)

Moving Wallpaper part 2: Sajan (0)

Hermione Granger: Sarah (+30)

A Firing of Convenience: Sarah Jayne (-10)



Points Rankings:

1.   Liz (+75)

=2. Harrison/Joanna/Sarah (+30)

=5. Bushra/Jade/Sajan (0)

8. Sarah Jayne (-10)

9. Michaela (-30)

10. James (-60)

11. Andrew (-85)

12. Anisa (-160)

13. Charles (-175)

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