Apprentice - Learning something by selling Ice Cream

I was told to watch Apprentice to see how certain things work with Businesses, for all the theory that we can learn from schools, the best lessons come from Guest Leactures and case studies. I am no fan of reality TV because except for in the Amazing race, I see more drama than reality. As for the Apprentice, its not about learning business but its like a case study to see how people do things and how small things can affect the big picture. Its good to learn about teamwork and different characters, imagine when you are on big projects, it would be nice to have a camera to track what every single member does and to see what and how every member contributes and what effect they have on the achieving or failing to achieve the final goal. This is why I am beginning to like the Apprentice, I am sure certain part of it is being "structured" to add to the drama, but still I am sure there is something to take out of it

Last episode, am not sure of the episode number but it the one where the 2 teams were asked to conjure up a new ice-cream flavour and sell the ice-cream. They were attached to an ice-cream company Ciao Bello, the 2 teams were Mosaic (A guy called Kelly, with military experience was the Project Manager) and the other was Apex(A lady called Iwana, was voted in as PM). Mosaic could not come up with anything creative and as they were running out of time, they decided to mix Donuts with Vanilla and Choclate. Whereas at Apex, it was pure chaos, atleast that the camera view, it was like school children, anyway over time they came up with something called Red Velvet. Although the first team made a decision earlier, they had to go out and hunt for the doughnuts (About 200 of them) but Apex were lucky as Ciao Bello had all the stuff needed in house. So they did not lose out on time.

Next was the Marketing strategy i.e. Where to sell the ice-cream, Apex initially were targetting Restraurants but Mosaic were targetting Times Square. I think Times Square was a better option because selling in bulk can help to finish the stock faster, but selling directly to the public will remove the cost of the middlemen and increase the profit margin. The target afterall is to make the most money. The twist was that Apex eavesdropped on Mosaic and changed their strategy to do direct sales too, if not for, that Mosaic would have been a shoo-in. Mosaic were eager sellers, with a help of some creative thinking i.e. getting pretty women in to help them and calling their ice cream "Breakfast" ice-cream were steady. They still had a trump card because they promised part of thier sales to charity and used the charity pitch effectively. Apex were really chaotic, they parted ways by mistake and started late, although they tried to catch up by selling directly to restraurants.

At the end of the day, Mosaic actually made 250$ more, inspite of contributing a part of thier earning to charity. So Iwana's head was on the chopping board and she was given a choice to choose 2 or 3 ppl to accompany her to the board room to face Mr. Trump. Iwana choose, Stacie J, a loosecannon, who was not a team player, and 1 more girl, Jennifer. A guy on her team Bradford who cannot be queried Basically he got "cocky". Bradford gave up his exemption because he was so sure he did well and he wont be voted out.

Donald Trump sumed up why the four of them were in front of him: Ivana was a lousy leader, didn't have respect of team. Stacie J was hated by all. Jennifer really has got to keep her mouth shut because she opens it at the wrong time. Bradford made a stupid, impulsive decision. He fired Bradford. In business o­nce if you get too cocky and full of yourself you go downhill. Bradford was so happy about his part, the was just too confident and gave up his advantage unnecessarily. I believe that is what Trump was thinking. It was a strategic advantage which he gave up emotionally and emotions dont have any place in business, that was the lesson.