Apprentice Watch – Week 1

1^st Episode. The usual posturing by the candidates making sure they get their voices heard. No drama over team names this year thank God. Always feel sorry for the guy and girl who get pushed into being the first project manager as there is so much on the line.

The task of the 2 teams in this first episode was to sell some boxes of fish worth £600 at a market. You couldn’t get anything easier than this. Both teams pretty much cocked up the task but the girls came out better than the boys bringing home a profit of £152 v the boys £32.32.

While the girls went home to their posh converted factory/home, the boys pondered their future. The project manager for this task for the boys was Alex Wotherspoon (one to watch I’d say) and he eventually decides to bring two toffee nosed knobends back into the boardroom with him for Sugar to decide who gets fired.

Toffee nosed knob end number 1 was Raef Bjayou who said “one” quite a lot and likes to touch his face. He has a BA (Hons) in Politics and History from the University of Exeter. His interests include antiquarian book collecting and cognac. Soon to be most hated man in Britain ? Anyone?

Bigger toffee nosed knob end number 2 was Nicholas de Lacy-Brown a 23 year old “Barrister, Artist and Property Developer” who added the “de Lacy” moniker to his own name because he thought it sounded sophisticated. I had him marked from half way in as most likely to be the first casualty and I was right !

Classic Sugar quote on firing Nicholas

“You were devastated when you got a B in your French GCSE’s, you’ll be even more devastated now when you get a big F. You’re fired.”

Bye bye, Grima Wormtongue…

Not a whole ton of camera time for the Irish girl Jennifer Maguire but she seems like a go getter. Accent was a bit hard to place though. Somewhere in the Irish Bermuda triangle of Dalkey/Shankill/Bordering onto Bray, London and the Isle of Man, or maybe just call it TV3 Expose Girl for the moment.

Important business lesson from this episode :

Determine the cost price of your product and decide on a margin BEFORE you start selling. Ok.