Cruise Ship

Lessons from BBC TV’s “The Apprentice” – Series 16. 1. Cruise Ship

The Apprentice is back on our screens for a 16th series. But is there still anything we can get out of it beyond the pure cringing enjoyment of witnessing the hapless candidates’ antics?

Episode One launches with the familiar kick-off format of boys’ and girls’ teams pitched against each other – this time to brand a cruise offering. The instructions are very clear: produce a brand identity, promotional video and a social media sting to sell your proposition, and present this to industry insiders who will help His Lordship decide who will win. And, of course, somebody on the losing team will get fired.

But did you spot that there were four elements to produce? brand ID, video, social media and the pitch? If you missed the fourth then you’re in company, good or otherwise, with the two teams, neither of which prepared for the pitch (and, boy, did it ever show!)

And I think that remains Point 1: Understand the nature of the task, and the nature of this task was to produce four elements of a campaign.

Neither team’s proposition nor deliverables were very good, but the girls won by default with the boys producing a truly dreadful brand ID. And there’s Point 2: common sense. Watch out for Lord Sugar mentioning this at some point, I predict, over the coming weeks. The girls’ brand was also poor and set a low bar to beat but somehow the boys managed to undershoot.

In the end the girls’ elements (just about) all held together around the theme of an appeal to a particular demographic with a particular offer (“bouji”). Just about. Fortunately they could depend on the boys handing it to them with an utterly disjointed set of deliverables. Once again, understanding the nature of the task, which, here, means understanding that a campaign needs to hold together around the same proposition, identity and elements. I don’t know, maybe you can win this task by executing one element superbly – maybe – but I don’t think so: you have to produce a campaign, like you were told.

With candidates like this you have to wonder if they’ve actually even ever watched The Apprentice. I mean, if you had, you might have learned some of these things. Do your homework is going to be Point 3.

There’s a Point 4 to make as well. It’s one that is at once very clear and simple, but is also one of the biggest puzzles. Point 4 is your idea matters far less than your execution. It’s actually a little bit hard to separate the idea from the execution sometimes. And having a better idea than your opponents is always a potential springboard to victory – but I contend it will still always come down to execution in the end. But what we see is a lot of time and angst spent wrangling over which idea should be adopted. We always see this – in every show – throughout every show, and hence why I find it a puzzling one.

Of course the idea matters, but as long as you develop and execute almost whatever idea better than the other team (pace Point 2, Common Sense), then, well, you will win. Bouji Cruise or Wellness Cruise – it doesn’t matter: The team with the better execution will win whichever they’re given. In ‘real life’ the situation is more subtle (or perhaps more brutal), but here on The Apprentice it’s going to be about putting out the best show because none of these businesses are real – until we get to the final show and the eventual winner of the investment.

The firing in this first episode was odd. I don’t recall Lord Sugar asking his usual question of who was the cause of the failure of this task? Instead he opted to sack on a different basis. Otherwise I think someone else might have been taking the taxi home.

So, yes, there is still a lot to learn from play, and from reflection. The big puzzle remains how to handle that moment when everyone wants to fight over the idea, each capping whatever has been suggested with their own, different idea, and nobody listening to each other? What should the project manager do? What I find I tend to do (whether PM or not) is to sense which people and which ideas are more likely to be supported or adopted (as well as which ones I think pass the common sense test). I move in in support and sway others, especially the PM, towards something feasible. Because it matters more to choose an idea and get on with planning the execution more than it matters to fight over which idea. I mean broadly. The very best idea in a pure sense may not be a winner in the sense of garnering the most support. On the other hand, we have all seen in life where darned stupid ideas seem to get lots of support. The art is to support an idea that is feasible in the sense of possessing the best mix of potential and clout. It might be the second best idea in a pure sense, but a winner in the sense of how others view it and are likely to get on board with it.

What else can you do in that moment when everyone is competing for their idea to become the choice? Sometimes just be clear: “Your idea is equally good, probably, but I have to choose just one and this time it’s going to be a different one – can you get behind it, please?” Sometimes maybe make a new idea from elements of the others. It feels there’s a lot more to be said about this because these tasks are always marked by in-fighting in the teams and no PM seems to know how to handle it well. This episode was no exception.

The final point, Point 5, from this episode at least, is a sort of corollary to Point 4 (your idea matters far less than your execution) and it is: Plan your execution together as a team. We don’t really see this in The Apprentice. More commonly what we see, and enjoy, is the friction between the two sub-teams each approaching the task with different understandings. But wouldn’t it be great, one time at least, to see it done well? In the cruise branding situation the two sub-teams needed to go out with some common understandings of the elements of the proposition: the feel, the look, the language – the basics of the actual proposition. The girls had just enough common understanding to win, the boys had just enough lack of co-ordination (and lack of common sense) to let them.