Interviews

Lessons from BBC TV’s “The Apprentice” – Series 16. 11. Interviews

Interviews. Although episode 11 in series 16 of BBC TV’s The Apprentice could just as well be called ‘business plans’ because both are on trial here: candidates’ experience and their proposals for Lord Sugar’s £250k investment. And both appear to fall short, in the case of all four remaining candidates. So who will be left, and why?

As ever – we’re into 16 series of this stuff, after all – nobody seems to have learned anything. For instance:

Know your figures. Income, expenditure, cash flow, units sold, margin, so on.

Know the market. Did you know your brand new product already existed and bombed in the market? (protein-alcoholic drinks). Did you know you can buy your own custom design in the high street? (Pyjamas).

Do something you know about. Did you ever work in beverages? (No I always worked in hotels).

We see all these errors and we know why each candidate should now be fired.

We enjoy the interviews because they cut through the BS to the facts. Vague CV claims are tested. Business knowledge gaps are exposed. It’s savage – undoubtedly too savage (and unnecessarily too savage too, I think) for real-life in all but the most, shall we say, robust of work place cultures. I don’t think what we see here is a good example of what should happen in the mainstream. And yet it’s probably what these candidates need before the finalists are selected for the last contest. It shows them the gap they must fill in order to win.

So, all have failed in some way, and yet two must remain for the final. And herein lies the answer to the question: Why ‘Interviews’ rather than ‘Business plans’, since both are tested? It is because, I think, His Lordship knows that most of what is in the business plans he can correct or change, but what he can hardly change in the short term is the person. It’s that old adage that investors invest in people and that is surely why it is ‘Interviews’ rather than ‘Business plans’, because it is an investable person that is being selected, not just a business plan.