A FUN DAY OUT IN BUDAPEST?
As the next week of The Apprentice was aired in the UK on the BBC, the task was to travel to Budapest and set up a ‘day out experience’ for tourists and the team which made the most profit would win. Simple right? Frankly I wouldn’t want to do it. It’s much harder than it looks.
The project managers on this task were Maura (not that she had any choice as Lord Sugar told her she had to do it after her absymal performance on the previous task). On the other team it was a brief spat between Paul Midha and Rachel Woodford with the lady winning the day.
Maura and her team opted for a wine tasting experience and they wangled a deal with the vineyard owner for just over 400 Euro which was around 20 euro a head for a maximum of 16 participants — however Paul tried to secure the deal at eight euro a head. He fell into a trap which Lord Sugar has warned about before during this series — beware being offering a deal so low that you are insulting your host. Your host might actually tell you to get lost and you lose any negotiating position. That did not happen but it flagged up an ‘arrogance’ bordering on disrespect. I’m glad to see that this series as it’s not always fair to try to fleece small business owners in the rush to always make a buck. It can be unethical. This is a new vibe this series.
The other team led by Rachel opted for a Danube boat trip and she brought out her flair for negotiating and used her ‘resting bitch face’ to make it clear that she was serious in that endeavour. The rest of her team kept quiet and didn’t interfere — and it worked. She secured that trip for 350 euro. Already she was ahead.
Then came the editing of the experience which, from the off, made it seem that mouthy but lacklustre Maura was on to a loser. The experience looked less — both teams were struggling to sell tickets to their event at over 100 euro each and both had to come down on their unrealistic pricing. With the to-ing and fro-ing it was not quite clear who had the most people, paying the higher prices. Some paid as little as 35 euro for their place and a few others just over 105 euro. The danger of that, of course, is that on these tasks, all participants have the option of asking for a refund. If you were at an event — however great — and you found out your colleague was there having paid 50 euro less than you — would you ask for a refund? I would.
The energy on the boat trip seemed so high with Tre performing and keeping the energy up. The wine trip was different. Maura has asked some of her team to go off and cram details and facts about the wine — and then at the eleventh hour imposed herself on the tour team and ditched the competent Flo — who knew all of the detail. Flo and Raj were tasked with preparing a wine-tasting master class for the end of the day.
As the participants on the wine experience, traipsed around the vineyard and were shown how wine was stored, one did as ‘when do we get to taste the wine?’ and Maura came up with some excuse that it would all happen at the end. It was also clear that she didn’t know the answers to many questions and she tried her best to fluff her way through it. A few cringy moments. Things didn’t bode well.
Then came the masterclass on the wine day where Flo and Raj seemed to argue their way through it. It appeared that Raj was constantly interrupting Flo but I didn’t rush to judgment as it wasn’t clear what the agreement between them had been. Was it that they should both take a turn and Flo just couldn’t help but take over? Given that we saw those moments in the edited version, did the guests even notice if they were having a good time generally? Who knows?
There are always unknowns here — how much of an upsell of products would there be after the event? This episode did not spend any time on how the teams negotiated with local vendors around sales of goods at the end like wine, sweet treats or charging for taking photographs or asking for tips. It was clear the teams did all of this — but the takings were unclear.
As the candidates entered the boardroom, for me it seemed that Maura’s team had flatlined and she would be shown the door. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Both teams made a profit and both teams had no refunds at all imposed on them. However one made a profit of a few hundred and Maura’s team cleared over £1,000. Boom!
Rachel’s face at the loss of this task was a picture indeed — chewing wasps didn’t even cover it. She looked fit to explode. Yet even Lord Sugar said it was not her fault. She’d negotiated a stunning low price for their Danube boat trip, and still they’d failed. The problem for them was poor selling — the only person who really had any degree of success was Phil, the pie man, and even he reminded the two people he secured that they could get their money back.
Rachel brought her sub team leader who was responsible for selling — Foluso and Virdi Singh Mazaria back into the boardroom and it was crystal clear that Rachel would not be going today. Foluso was a wet weekend on this task, complacent because she’d sold well previously but in an environment where the leads were warm to hot. Cold-selling on the street is another skill altogether — and she doesn’t have it.
Given that Virdi has been on the losing team for every task, it was no surprise that he was fired. Throughout this process, Virdi, for me, has been irritating and annoying as he ‘bigged’ up his talents and yet seemed to be weak at every turn. He’d not endeared himself to me.
However what didn’t come across in the series, but did come across in this episode, was that Lord Sugar and his fellow candidates all loved him and felt that his loss would be sorely missed. This kind of dynamic can often be left on the cutting room floor in making a tv programme. Again that is a new vibe this series — these hints that personality is something that’s rounded and filming for days — to create a programme of just under an hour — cannot possibly show things in the round.
Who knows what next week’s challenge will unearth?
