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October 15, 2004
The Apprentice
The Apprentice -- Week 6
Posted by Nadine Heintz at 2:22 PM
I'm really glad that the women FINALLY won a challenge last night. I must admit that I was skeptical at first, especially when Maria started bragging about her home ec minor. I'm not desparaging home ec classes in general. But I didn't realize you could minor in that in college! What are the classes like? At any rate, Maria did a great job in last night's episode. Her instinct to hire the lower-priced, industry-savvy designer proved correct. And I liked the way she handled Elizabeth: get her away from the group, but make her feel important.
That proved to be a wise move, considering that Elizabeth started overanalyzing almost immediately when she balked on hiring the more reasonably-priced designer. Boy, was she wrong. Those low prices turned out to be the main reason for the Apex victory. Thankfully, Maria took control, made the decision she felt good about, and sent Elizabeth away for the rest of the day. That ALMOST makes up for her ridiculous behavior in the previous episodes. But the jury's still out on Maria. As for Elizabeth, I predict that she'll be fired within the next two episodes.
Unlike Maria, John was awful last night. Kelly was right when he said he acted more like the PM than John did. First of all, Kelly blew me away when he started sketching outfits. An army guy who also designs clothes? Is there anything he can't do? Raj really disappointed me last night...I was definitely having a Sam flashback when he kept annoying Ilsa. He really lost it. Thank goodness Kelly stepped in and told him to get a grip, as John looked on sheepishly from afar. I hope Raj goes back to his old ways next week.
Well, John was pretty nervy to bring Andy and Kevin into the boardroom with him. Okay, so Kevin did screw up royally by jacking up the prices on the clothes, but Wes was right there with him. And, as the Donald pointed out, John should have helped out with the crucial task of pricing the items rather than hanging out with the models. Come on, John! Plus, I don't understand why people keep using Andy's age as a reason for firing him. John is only a year older, after all! That said, Andy didn't do much last night, or any other night. I don't really understand why the Donald seems convinced that Andy is so great. I just don't see it. If anyone else can shed some light on that situation, please do.
Despite bad performances from several of the men, John was the clear choice for last night. He had no control over the team. The one decision he did make (to hire Ilsa) turned out to be wrong. I liked her designs, but they were too couture for the challenge. But I don't blame Ilsa for this one...she told the guys what she would charge, and they doubled everything. It's not your fault, Ilsa!
Next week should be interesting. It looks like the Donald will be pulling the old switcheroo. And just when the women are hitting their stride. Oh well. I guess that's how it goes. Hmmm...I'd sure like to see Kelly put Elizabeth in her place. And maybe the women will help bring Andy out of his shell. A romance between fashionistas Raj and Maria? Only time will tell.
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Well, Maria was my classmate in college and yes, they do have a Home Economics major. A lot of colleges do. Most folk think HomeEc is a cop-out major, but many graduate and do a lot of interior design type work, etc.
Pretty cool...
Did anyone else notice the rack on Half-Pint at the party?
Did not see the rack. Jennifer's tit almost fell out of the pink top. WOW She has been low key just like Andy in some ways. She did well on the Home Shopping Episode, thats it.
Andy can't get fired this early without good reason. That would insult Harvard royally. A grad student from Harvard was fired because if lack of experience and never was tested on his abilities. Again I haven't seen Jennifer step up to the plate either.
Elizabeth has to go.
Maria is totally hot but not Trump quality.
Stacy, well she should stick to law, she is great at that.
Who will be the final two? I think Kelly and Jennifer.
Trump gave a slow pitch for the ladies to hit out of the park. The guys had no experience in design, fashion, or fashion pricing. Maybe it was the editing but, the choosing of the designer by the guys before getting the buyer's critique was a mistake. John's lack of ownership over the pricing may have been deadly... maybe not. The guys clearly were out of their element on this task. John might have finessed his way out of being fired by bringing in true culprits or distractors, e.g. Raj or both pricing agents.
They only had 2 P's to deal with Product and Pricing and they were lacking in both. Hopefully a more equitable task next week.
I think the other women are intimidated by Elizabeth and Stacy. I think they only "overanalyze" by comparison to the likes of Maria and Ivana. They are doing the grunt work that covers the team's collective ass and allows the others to appear to be contributing while actually doing very little. It will be interesting when the Stacy and Elizabeth are project managers if the others will be as strong with the behind-the-scenes stuff. My guess is no. Elizabeth is a bit too emotional, but I think Stacy is savvy enough that she won't allow herself to get fired because of other people's failings. I expect Stacy and Kelly to make the finals, with Elizabeth and Raj as darkhorses.
Wes was the one who deserved to be fired. John made a fatal error by deciding not to bring him into the board room. Did you see when he went over the price spreadsheet and said "Let's raise that one by x hundred dollars. And let's raise that one too." The designs that the mens' team came up with were actually good (I noticed that they showed one of the buyers swooning over a couple of their outfits), but again the pricing issue came up to bite them in the butt. I think it goes to show that as a PM on this show, you must be aware of all details of the things that you're delegating. I'm thinking of last season's episode when Bill seemed to be over the top while checking on details during the golf tournament. Contrary to what we thought, his obsessive attention to detail made the difference in who won. As a project manager, the element that you're not paying attention to could come back to bite you in the butt.
Omit, I agree with your "obsessive attention to detail" comment. That was the point I tried to make in my earlier post. Stacy and Elizabeth have been criticized by the others for being so focused on details, but I think that is part of what makes a good manager and leader.
I also agree Wes should have been fired and I think he would have been if John had brought him in. John deserved to be fired for not doing so. On the other hand, Kevin also was involved in the pricing decisions and was not fired. He dodged a bullet and escaped only because John's mistake was bigger.
I finally got to see what I wanted, one team priced high and the other low. Low prices won by a mile. Interesting. Sam Walton must've been onto something.
Maria deserves MVP this week. Who knew she'd be a great leader? She chose a great designer - who also deserves a lot of credit. Darren kept the train on the tracks. Maria properly diagnosed and dealt with a key problem on the team - Elizabeth's penchant to overanalyze. The women were hitting on all cylinders. They picked a great designer that knew the market and let him do his thing. They minimized unneccessary tasks like mingling with the models. Finallly, they gleamed valuable knowledge from the buyers and used it to their advantage.
Kevin nailed it. Mosaic lost in the first two hours. The men were bafoons. They second guessed Ilsa on her designs and prices. They frittered away too much precious time playing with the models. They didn't take advantage of their meetings with the buyers.
John didn't recognize what was going on around him. He let Kelly do the heavy lifting. A lot of people said John was excellent and worked hard, but footage to support those claims sure didn't make it to air. Kelly gave John very bad advice to not take both Kevin and Wes into the BR. Although Raj was helpless during the task, his advice to John afterwards was much better. Too bad John didn't listen.
Why doesn't anyone take 3 people into the BR?? Trump's just as surprised about this. Is it for fear that 3 people will gang up on the PM? I thought I was going to get an answer when Trump expressed dismay, but the editors cut it.
Kelly has been filling a vacuum left wide open by the last two PM's on Mosaic. He's being pegged as a favorite. Could be. That'd carroborate the evidence from the online betting anomolies a few weeks ago. There's just something about him that seems off. Maybe it's just that he's the most Type A personality on the show. He definitely likes to get his way.
I don't really have anything to say, I just like to see my post.
Rajfan: Why doesn't anyone take 3 people into the BR?? The fewer people you bring, the fewer people there are to argue against you.
I must be missing something, because the guys designs were ugly as hell, except for maybe one. I don't think this was a pricing only error. Clearly, the buyers have to weigh the designs with the price. Only attractive designs coupled with low prices will beat out ugly designs with high prices at such a high difference. The women had classy material with tasteful designs, the men had hidious outfits; only one was ogled at.
John was the obvoius choice for firing. I don't think the pricing hurt the men as much as the poor designs and lack of leadership. Donny can't fire two people, and what a moron for only bringing in two people, DT already showed he does the unpredicatble.
Oh yeah, I saw that rack on half pint... I saw it one before on a scene in the suite.
I still say it will be down to Kelly and Jennifer.
I found a site last week with extra footage videos. I watched the men convince the girls to get rid of Pamela. I hear those board rooms can go five hours and we only see ten minutes.
I realize that most of the men didn't play dress up or wear skirts and blouses as kids, like the women probably did, but neither did they grow up knowing much about electric grills. A few weeks ago they took a product that they probably never have seen or used before and sold it, and made more money than the women...who many of probably never have cleaned with a sponge before. My point is that the men didn't need to know JACK about fashion or design, all they had to do was the same thing the women had to do....let the design do his/her job. Sure Kelly did a great job of designing some of the outfits, but if either team had just locked the designer in a room for a few hours and let him/her design and price the clothes, then the teams could have focused on pricing and whatever else would have been necessary. The men made a huge mistake when pricing things for 2 times what the designer suggested. They should have taken the price suggestion from the designer and barely changed it from there. BOTH teams had a qualified designer who could have designed and priced all on their own. Plus, who cares what material they pick out. In the end the men helped Ilsa pick out crappy looking material, she could have picked all that out on her own and in 1/2 the time. The women had it made since their designer appeared to be willing to help out. The men...the men...hey, at least they got to see the models up close and personal.
My vote is for Kelly...he doesn't cry when things don't go his way and he seems to be focused on getting things done in a timely manner. Having sat in a 5 hour meeting recently discussing wether or not there should be one or two spaces after the period in the end of a sentence, i can appreciate Kelly's determination to just get the job done and get one with it.
Well i guess that's all for now...at least it all makes sense in my head.
I agree this was a slow pitch aimed to be knocked out of the park for the women, but the men didn't do a very good job even considering the advantage the women started with. John was no manager at all so he was responsible. Not only did they have pricing issues, but they had trouble getting designs done on time and did not have properly done cutsheets (or whatever they are called).
The women made one fortunate move chosing their designer, which paid off in droves as he knew all the proper steps to take for success. This one reminded me of the artist challenge last season.
Raj definitely lost points this time, though perhaps he felt he was being dressed up for a firing by being assigned the cutsheets when he knew nothing (nor did anyone else) about how to do them.
Will this move Maria up in the lineup? Tough to say, but I am not yet impressed. It will be very interesting to say the least to see the groups commingled next episode and see how the dynamics change.
"In the end the men helped Ilsa pick out crappy looking material, "
Our theory on this was that was one of the unspoken rules of the challenge and not that the men had to pick out materials that would make Carolyn cry laughing. I can't see the guys saying to the designer, "No, I'll choose the materials" unless they absolutely had to.
I think the challenge had rules to the effect that the team had to make the creative decisions such as materials, which items, and pricing with only a little input from the designers. I am sure that the designers are "prepared" in advance for what they can and cannot do to keep the playing field level.
Dave, you may very well be right, too bad we don't hear all the rules first. Last season there was at least one episode that i thought the PM should have fired one of the other players and then dealt with Donald if he brought it up. It would have shown initiative and determination to complete the job if they had done so. It was probably Omarosa that needed to be fired, but i can't remember. Oh yeah, i think it was in the last episode when she flat out lied to Kwame and he KNEW IT. If he had just fired her then he would have shown great leadership, but who knows if he could fire her or not. So, i guess we'll never really know why they don't do all the things that we think are obvious.
Please get rid of that crazy Stacy girl
I have to say, I'm not as hooked into the individuals players as I was in the first series, where I picked Bill in the first two weeks based on the fact that he was the most normal. After all DT is not going to hire someone who's brilliant, but insane or brilliant one day and crying the next. Raj is way too "interesting" for big business. Look to the person who's keeping out of the controversy and plugging away in the background, that's who'll get hired.
To add to Mike's 5 hour two spaces or one meeting. Anyone who formally learned how to type, was taught that two spaces are required after a period (which is why people fight about this all the time). A typewriter moves across the page in equal increments. This can cause the period to look like it's evenly spaced between the two sentences, confusing the reader. So, an extra space is added to make a clearer visual break. In every other instance, i.e. every computer font or printed font we use, a typeface designer has already set those spaces for maximum legibility. The period is programmed to fall very close to the last letter it follows. So, no adjustment is needed. Adding one causes an unsightly visual break that disrupts the meaning.
As I'm a big fan of the 5 hour meeting, I apologize for weighing in on this, but the designer in me couldn't help it.
As far as Omarosa getting fired. I believe when Kwame was asked why he didn't fire her, he said that he didn't know that he could.
I do think the editing this season is much more manipulative, making it harder to get any real sense of who's doing a good job and who's not.
This is very interesting post. Friends of mine do a similar thing via email. First I'll state my opinion than my confusion:
Opinion- Maria played the role of David Ortiz (Red Sox) hitting a home run just when the team needed it the most. She showed outstanding leadership qualities both as a decision maker, a communicator, with the just the right amount of lazaire faire (sp). This Maria is the not same one we saw in the beginning of the season. The old Maria will return. (FIRED)
Half pint- she was supporting a surprising nice pair. But she will be eventually fired. She doesn't really bring anything to the table except that occasionally she overcompensates for her inferiority complex...(FIRED)
Jennifer- Now she was looking fine... during the fashion show. Based on her CV, I'd expect her to go far. BUT she needs to take a PM role and show us if she has anything to offer under that pretty blond head of hers.
Elizabeth- A good PM analyzes everything and has full knowledge of what’s going on regarding all aspects of the task. Lizzy's overanalyzing makes her vulnerable because she often will loose site of the big picture. (FIRED)
Ivana- she has no worth and deserved to be fired weeks ago. She needs to go to the new Fox's OBNOX. Boss show an pelted with several paintballs. (FIRED!!!)
Sandy- no overall value either. (FIRED)
Guys:
John- was their any doubt. AS PM, he failed miserably. Not a leader, not inspirational, not accountable. He possessed none qualities to be a PM whatsoever. I don't know why Trump lauded his skills before he fired him. Easy decision
Raj- I am rooting for him but sometimes he just make it hard to do so. Prior to this episode, he was a valuable team member with definite leadership qualities. He can inspire, make tough decisions, place people in their most suitable role and I believe he is accountable (unlike any of the woman). But he did compromise the efforts of his teammates several times this episode. I'll ignore this transgression and focus on his overall performance. I mean how much can you fault a guy who has the nads to ask out Anna K. when presented with an opportunity.
Kelly- Will absolutely be a finalists. But he occasionally is short tempered.
Wes- Dead end. (Fired)
Chris- too crude but showed good judgment when he ran the restaurant. Potential is there. Need to see more.
Kevin- Will also be a finalist. He has his head on straight, and has all the makings of an effective and successful leader. his backup plan when Andy's idea hit a wall for the Crest toothpaste episode shows how agile, creative, and efficient he is as a leader.
Andy- Jury's still out. I was impressed by his knowledge of the sweepstakes industry by suggesting a $$$$$ give away to try the toothpaste. Inexperienced true. But not truly tested yet. But I don't think he is the child prodigy/whiz kid that Trump is hoping for. (FIRED)
My expectation....Jennifer, Raj, Kelly, Kevin as finalists.
I do still miss the previous gang. There was something less childish, more natural about them. These guys have great CVs but none are truly entrepreneurs taking a risk, and a small business idea and making mega cash out of it. Too many lawyers.
Oh well... onto the next round...
Reginald, I appreciate your response and understand it. But, my well-disguised point was that bringing in 2 rather than 3 is bad game theory and hasn't paid off well for the last 3 PMs. It may be an indication to DT to focus more on the PM in the BR because:
1) Either the PM exhibits poor decision-making by accepting a higher risk scenario or
2) The PM fears getting ganged-up on, which means the PM probably knows they did a lousy job.
Chas, Both teams had only one good design as near as I could tell. Pricing was the biggest factor-not the only factor-but the biggest. Even the lady's designer said that "you want to be the least expensive line at a fancy department store." Which makes sense. That way, women don't have to drop a lot of dough to say they bought something at Saks.
DrAshish, Love your summary and mostly agree with it. I do think Raj is too eccentric for DT's tastes. But, he's still the most interesting to watch that doesn't suck. I'm sure that'll factor into his stint on the show.
Rajfan- I never said that I agreed with the tactic of bringing two scapegoats vs. three. I'm just saying that's what's going through the mind of those PM's who choose the tactic.
And now that you've made me think about it, I suppose it's also possible that the PM thinks that there is one candidate to make the case against more easily than against another, and he wants to be sure he isn't outnumbered by too much.
Take a look at the memo to John that this site wrote him:
The Apprentice Rules
It's right on the mark!
Take a look at the memo to John that this site wrote him:
The Apprentice Rules
It's right on the mark!
Take a look at the memo to John that this site wrote him:
The Apprentice Rules
It's right on the mark!
I just went back and looked at the videos again. I suppose the men did have some OK looking designs. Seeing it all again they didn't look so bad but the resolution on the video is not as good as my TV at home... because I remeber some of the material looking real hideous. So maybe price played a larger role than I first thought. the women had a more conservative design, I think. But there had to be more than price issues; they won by 3X!
It was worth seeing Jen lean over again.
I can't believe what a clown Roj is. I saw those extra videos with him hitting on EVERY single model there...thats why DT said "he drove the models crazy". This guy has no class, no sense of business etiquette, and I can't wait for this jerk to get fired. What a clown, he even hit on Ann K. knowing full well she had a boyfriend, what an ass...He reminds me of Fezz on "That 70's show." Never trust him around my family, let alone at a business function; can you imagine trying to explain to a lost customer why he hit on the guys daughter? What a bozo...
Regarding periods at the end of sentences: In high school typing class, I was taught to skip two spaces after a period. But, for journalists, one space is the rule. I guess it cuts down on printing costs since we can fit more onto a page. I'm not sure what the rules are for other professions, though. I'd be interested to find out.
I think the other women are intimidated by Elizabeth and Stacy. I think they only "overanalyze" by comparison to the likes of Maria and Ivana. They are doing the grunt work that covers the team's collective ass and allows the others to appear to be contributing while actually doing very little. It will be interesting when the Stacy and Elizabeth are project managers if the others will be as strong with the behind-the-scenes stuff. My guess is no. Elizabeth is a bit too emotional, but I think Stacy is savvy enough that she won't allow herself to get fired because of other people's failings. I expect Stacy and Kelly to make the finals, with Elizabeth and Raj as darkhorses.
Nadine, well in DreamWeaver (Web designing software) it puts in only 1 space unless you force it to go to 2, but that takes 3 extra keystrokes. I prefer 1 space....and as little capitalization as possible. it's amazing that i capitalized that last sentence.
So i saw a headline that The Apprentice 3 is being filmed right now. Cool. of course, i still think that the first year was the best. i remember there being more entrepreneurs (did i spell that right?) in the first one. this year there's just lawyers and whatever, last year was interesting to hear about the businesses they left behind to be on the show. good stuff.
only a day and a 1/2 before the next episode.
Its being filmed NOW...? THats interesting... if anyones around New York, just look for a bunch of people with cameras around them....... :)
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