WHICH POD DO YOU FANCY? THE STAR OR THE BEEPURE?

WHEN WILL THE CANDIDATES LEARN TO WORK WITH POTENTIAL CLIENTS AND NOT AGAINST THEM?

It was the seventh episode of the UK’s BBC TV series The Apprentice last night and it was a classic! A classic exercise in how to do things the wrong way — and it’s one of the reasons I love the series. I think it educates entrepreneurs in what ‘not’ to do.

This week’s task was to design a driverless vehicle — a pod — to sell to potential clients who were looking for an innovative way to move people around their large sites with sustainability and convenience in mind. An interesting challenge indeed.

I think though we should all bear in mind that the artificial scenario created by the team behind the Apprentice creates a pressure that wouldn’t exist in the real world. It’s a relentless series of potted challenges, like the world’s longest job interview, which many of us would struggle with even those of us who are more experienced in business. This is the entertainment factor of course.

Having said that this challenge did show up, yet again, the way in which behaviour is so important in business. Knowing when to behave in a certain way, knowing when to act and when not to act, when to ask questions, when to take a moment to think and MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL WHEN TO LISTEN.

For this challenge, the two project managers were Sophie Wilding and Akeem Bundu-Kamara. Sophie’s team were on a…