Toothbrush

Lessons from BBC TV’s “The Apprentice” – Series 16. 2. Toothbrush

BBC TV’s The Apprentice is back on our screens for a 16th series, and we’ve made it to Episode Two. The teams are still boys vs. girls – and it’s about to get even more infantile.

“What do we think this task is all about”? one of the girls asks. But she hasn’t apprehended the key point, understand the nature of the task, no, she’s just wondering what it will be. Shame, because it’s an even better question once you know the task. And it’s this: Create a new electric toothbrush for 6-8 year olds and an app to encourage them to use it well. But keep listening, because the challenge also includes pitching to buyers, so there are three, not two deliverables: toothbrush, app and pitch. Don’t miss that last one.

One of the key problems with these tasks that separate the teams into two sub-teams is the lack of co-ordination between them. As ever, we’re not shown the teams getting enough common understanding of the core proposition and the boundaries, and, hence, divergence is odds-on.

“Is it too baby-ish?” one of the girls wonders as the product emerges (and it is). “Absolutely not, I have a 5-year old and they’d love it” another assures her. Erm .. but is appealing to a 5-year old really hitting the 6-8 year old market?

Whilst on the boy’s team the charge to make it unisex of at least have the option to select a gender is thrown out almost as soon as it’s said. Apparently it’s too hard, and they should go for the male demographic, one of the lads tells us repeatedly. Surprising in 2022?

Another thing we never see in these product development tasks is any point at which someone puts on ‘black hat’ and identifies shortcomings and problems with the idea. But we did get a product test with some real kids this time, and they got straight to the problems far quicker than the hopeful candidates.

It doesn’t look good. It’s babyish. The app is boring. Now, why couldn’t they see what the kids got right away? I bet His Lordship would. And no doubt the buyers too, because it was getting orders that mattered. Something we need to have understood and focused on from the start.

For the record, the girls sold 11,000 toothbrushes, the boys, none. A demonstration of “a win with the pitch”, I think. Their product looked better, albeit babyish; their app was far from boring, albeit somewhat irrelevant; but their pitch was what shined through with the sheer force of credibility of the leader, Francesca, and her convincing (in the event) line that the product could be adapted to correct defects pointed out by the buyers. Always worth a try – and a demonstration that buyers put their faith in teams and brands as much as, if not more than, in products. People buy people, it’s sometimes said – and in this case, this was the win for the girls.

So what, or who, was the cause of the failure of the boys team? A tough one, since the girls beat them on three out of three points they were supposed to deliver: toothbrush, app and pitch.

Sadly, the truth was, any or all of the could have been sacked after that. It didn’t matter – because there wasn’t a winner amongst them. And this process is all about finding the winner.