Why I Fired Them The Apprentice

This is not about a job any more.

I'm the investor and you have got to make me some money.

-'Confident...'

-I would call myself the blonde assassin

because I let people underestimate me just so I can blow them out of the water.

-'..determined...'

-They call me the master puppeteer

because I have a habit of pulling people's strings and getting them to do what I want.

'..looking for investment...'

I've got a product for Lord Sugar that we can take international.

I believe it's going to be huge and I mean business.

'..16 hopefuls headed for London.

'They came to battle for a quarter of a million pounds

'to kick-start a business.

'To get it, they had to impress Britain's toughest investor, Lord Sugar.'

I'm not looking for a friend. If I want a friend, I get a dog.

Shameful. You let the numbers out of your sight.

You didn't know what your margins were. Sickening, that is, to me. Sickening.

I put you into a piddly little business

and you made a complete mess of the figures. I don't know what you were thinking.

'Each week he set a business-based task.'

-I feel physically sick.

-I'm liking that, mate!

Bellissimo! Come across and get this unbelievable deal!

-'Tough from the start.'

-Go, go, go!

You don't have to teach me how to suck eggs. I'm in a rush.

'It kept getting tougher.'

-Oh, my God.

-It's the same thing happening again. We have an opinion and you don't like it.

It's pissing me off. Why are the other team still here?

'And someone always got the blame.'

You're fired. You're fired. This is my boardroom,

and by the way, this is my money. You're fired.

'Tonight, Why I Fired Them - the boss explains.'

'Week one.

'For the candidates, a first chance to shine.'

You look like you're sweating over there.

-You're not nervous, are you?

-No, not at all.

-You sure?

-Yeah.

'And an early piece of advice from Lord Sugar.'

Let me give you a warning. Don't try and hide.

I'm not looking for Lord Lucan. I'm looking for somebody who's going to put themselves forward and show me

that they have got the aggression, the nous and the business acumen

to be my partner.

I get to know these people over the course of 12 weeks

and I invest in them as much as the idea.

'The first task sounded simple.

'Print onto blank products to add value.'

-I think the teddy's quite a good idea.

-I quite like the teddy bear.

'But first, teams needed leaders.'

-I would like to put myself up as project manager.

-I wouldn't mind doing it.

'Quick to take the risk, Gabrielle.'

I'm an architect. I also, erm, have literally just opened up my new print and design store.

-Wow.

-All right, we'll go with you.

Gabrielle put herself forward and quite rightly so,

cos I've always preached that the project manager should be somebody

who's actually familiar with the particular task in hand.

-'On the boys' team...'

-Is there anyone that wants to be the project manager?

'..a lack of volunteers.'

Anyone screaming out?

I don't want to be project manager because I'd be best used selling, on the stall. That's where I'll shine.

Guys, this is shocking. I know typically...

-We're going in to win.

-I think we can win the task

so is anybody at this stage willing to put themselves forward?

I'll put myself forward if nobody wants to do it.

I don't really want to do the first week's task, but I will do it.

-Congratulations. Top man.

-Nice one.

'When it came to design, the girls had style...'

-Aw. I actually quite like it.

-I think it's lovely.

-It looks like it's drawn by kids for kids.

-Aw!

-Hi, how are you?

-'But they fell down on the figures.'

We we're slightly unsure exactly what we could buy.

Do you want to do 80 T-shirts or 90 T-shirt and 30 bibs?

-We're literally with the designer right now.

-So what would you like us to do?

-Erm...

-We're just going to have to make a decision, then.

Yeah, that's fine. I'm in agreement with that. Let's go with that.

No-one owned the numbers.

They were all too focused on jockeying for position

and basically arguing about Gabrielle not being a great leader.

I think Gabrielle is just losing control.

She's an architect. She can draw. That's it.

'And Gabrielle wasn't the only girl under scrutiny.'

-Where is she?

-Katie. Katie?

I'm just getting really annoyed, cos we are doing everything.

The feedback from Nick was that they couldn't, quite rightly, see what Katie was doing.

If you're waiting, can you start packing?

I'm not waiting. I'm putting this stuff in. It takes as long as it takes.

That kind of message coming through to me was a bit like a red rag to a bull, really,

because I don't want those type of people in the process.

'On sales day, the boys scored a win.'

Can I show you this teddy bear that we're selling today?

-'Charging top prices...'

-It's, er, £15.

-'..for tourist tat.'

Would you like to take Jack home? Can you see Jack in Paris on the Champs-Elysees?

From a quality point of view,

the wrong product won this task. I mean, it was horrible.

-Put it in!

-We'll sell it to a gullible tourist.

-Yeah. Nice doing business with you.

It was poorly produced in some cases.

What can we do with that?

-They had to refund money.

-These have marks on. They all have imperfections.

-It's so unprofessional.

-I do apologise.

'Armed with baby clothes, the girls zeroed in on London Zoo.'

I'll handle this one.

'And it was the hard sell from risk analyst Bilyana.'

-Hello! How's your day going?

-Good, thank you.

Can I interest you in some products that have been made? Our own design. We're selling them today.

I got myself from a communist block of flats in Bulgaria

to the top of a skyscraper in the heart of the financial city of London.

I'm shrewd, adaptable

and I have that raw business potential.

Could I interest you in our organic cotton hand-pressed T-shirts?

'But Bilyana's pushy style annoyed her new teammates.'

I keep spotting a family and then she runs up and does it.

No, that's not fair. We're taking it in turns.

She needs to cop onto herself.

Bilyana had this way of alienating people.

She did so, for example,

when she led them off on the wild goose chase around Primrose Hill.

I don't know where I'm going here, so where are we going?

Bilyana, where are we going from here?

I know this area quite well so I already have a couple of shops in mind.

-You know the shops. Are they posh?

-Yes, that's why I said...

-OK, we'll go on your local knowledge.

We're not near any shops. Do you really think there's shops down here?

-I know where the shops are, I'm sure.

-All right.

-OK, let's run.

'Bilyana walked the girls straight into the boardroom.'

I really do know the area quite well and I promise you,

I took them to the closest available shop.

-The closest available shops to Regent Park Zoo is just down the road in Camden Town, surely.

-Yes.

No, Camden Town is further. It's further from London Zoo, Lord Sugar.

-But anyhow...

-I drive past it every day. Anyway...

-Yes, exactly, anyway.

'Isolated, Bilyana found herself fighting for survival.'

This is a two-bob outing, this thing.

Go and buy a bit of stuff, print your name on it

and flog it to people in the street.

-That's what really annoyed me...

-It's not a takeover of Goldman Sachs.

This is simple stuff, right?

I completely agree. I think it was a no-brainer.

Gabrielle failed to take time-critical decisions.

I was very much in control. I never had an argument with anybody.

I made sure everyone that was under my eye worked to the very maximum.

They worked to the best, the worked till there was blood, sweat and tears...

Gabrielle looks like a bit of a flustery person.

She gets a bit carried away with herself sometimes, I'm afraid.

But she's a good girl, you know.

She came across as a genuine, sincere girl who wanted to get the job done.

'Also called to account, research and development manager Katie.'

OK, Katie, what did you do?

I thought you were sort of missing, really.

I just struggled to get a word in edgeways a lot

and, for me, I've put my professionalism probably above putting my neck on the line,

because I'm not going to shout over people in order to simply get my voice heard.

It's just not what I want to do.

The person leaving today may feel that they haven't had enough time to show themselves, but that's tough.

That's what this process is about.

And I did say at my introduction that I don't want anybody to hide.

-And on that basis...

-If you give me just one chance to be a project manager...

-No, I'm sorry.

-Gabrielle had it and she failed.

Bilyana done herself in. She really done herself in.

But if you give me the opportunity...

-I don't wish to hear any more.

-I'm a solid project manager.

-I'm not listening.

For a clever person, she should've shut her mouth.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

She's got herself to blame and I hope that she learns from this experience.

-You don't do yourself any favours.

-I'll show you.

I'm telling you what the situation is whether you like it or not.

Bilyana, you are fired.

That's a shame, but thank you for the opportunity.

I'll tell you what, Bilyana did me the biggest favour in the world because she buried herself.

I owe her a drink, to be honest.

'Week two. Next from Lord Sugar...'

-Rubber gloves, OK, with scourers on the fingertips.

-'..design a household gadget.'

-I'd rather just buy a sponge, to be honest.

-Thanks for that.

-We have the Eco Press.

-That is a product. Is that a product?

A very simple task.

I wanted to see the people's creativity here.

We have a bit of dilemma here.

Are you OK? Do you have ideas that you want to add?

I'm thinking, I'm thinking. I'm trying to, like... I'm thinking.

Does anybody have any specific ideas?

-'Short on inspiration...'

-Hmm.

-It's here!

-'..the girls came up with a bath-time splash guard for kids.'

-This is perfect! Oh, I love it!

-It's exactly what I pictured.

They ended up with that piece of rubbish which was a lump of plastic

which was a toy at best.

I'll be perfectly frank, the minute I saw that product, I knew they were dead in the bath water. Dead.

I mean, absolute garbage, that product was.

-CLAPPING

-You know what's ironic? There's water all over the floor.

'Stuck with the splash guard, next task for the girls, sell it to the trade.'

From 0 to 20,000 units, it's £9.01.

All we need to do is get them to make orders

and impress them with the product and the pitch. That is it.

Do you know what, they can do the figures. Tell them to do the figures.

These retailers are open for good ideas, particularly for gadgets.

Of course it's difficult to get an audience with them,

but if you've got the determination, you fight your way in.

Your product does the talking, that's the thing.

-It's quite light, as well.

-'Pitching their piece of plastic

'and going for big numbers, project manager Jane.'

Ideally, if you were to order a million units, then you will sell them.

This particular customer's an online seller.

There's no way they're going to take in millions of anything.

They take in the first batch, they stick it up on their website

and they see whether people want to buy it or not. If they buy it, they buy some more.

I think a million units is a big commitment.

What could you do if we were to go lower than that?

If you were to order 500,000 units,

it is a margin of 225 percent.

Where are the brains? She went down in my estimation immediately there and then,

not understanding the marketplace.

'And when they got down to details, it went from bad to worse.'

Just in terms of the numbers you quote, and particularly the gross margin numbers,

are you sure about the gross margin you've quoted us?

Well, it doesn't quite add up, the numbers.

I'll just refer you over to our financial team.

Completely and utterly lost the plot.

-Do you know when you said...

-The costings.

Mentioning a million units, you should've seen their face.

That's a nine-million-pound order.

-I don't want to be laughed at.

-You think you're going to go in the boardroom with nine million pounds?

'Facing the firing line were youngest candidate Maria,

'Jane and Jenna.'

Basic business principles went right down the drain on this thing.

'Jane's poor pitch got picked apart.'

You let the numbers out of your sight.

And also, the product basically sucks as far as I'm concerned. It's not a good product.

I've put you into a piddly little business

and you've let it go, you've screwed it up.

'Backed against the wall, Jane and Jenna turned on Maria.'

If you're going on who to be fired on contribution to the task, I would have to say Maria.

On the first day, she was very... You know, just didn't really want to be involved,

was falling asleep in the car, and it wasn't...

No, Maria, that was the reality of it.

That is rubbish, cos if you had said to me, "I want you to do the figures" I would've gone, "Fine".

-Oh, actually, Maria, we did. In the car...

-Oh, my God!

No, Maria, when you were giving out in the car, we said,

"Please, will you do the figures?" Would you do them? No.

-You are ridiculous.

-"I'm not good at figures."

Maria was good when it came to talking and rowing and arguing.

That's not what the process was about.

What I've sat listening to here is diabolical.

Trust me, if you put me in charge of just one project,

I guarantee you I will impress you, and if not, I will gladly walk out that door.

It was an absolute gut feeling here.

If Jane and Jenna were clueless,

then I'm afraid she was more than clueless and that's why she had to go.

Maria, you're fired.

Thank you.

'Mariah's mauling meant a stay of execution for Jenna and Jane.'

They were allowed to stay because I couldn't believe they are that bad.

I am not at all happy.

Why did you get this wrong?

Give me a credible reason why you should stay here.

I started a business from nothing and I've made a very successful company.

I take them on face value that they're not lying in their CVs

of what they've got and what they've achieved

and I put it down to they had a bad day out

and let them come through and gave them another chance.

-'After two catastrophic weeks for the girls...'

-Morning.

'..Lord Sugar shuffled the pack.'

Duane and Nick, go and join Stirling,

and Katie, you come over here and join Phoenix and the boys.

-OK, Katie, I'd like to officially welcome you to Team Phoenix.

-Why, thank you.

We do things a bit differently here, like winning.

-This is Tom, Azhar.

-Thanks for being such winners.

I'd like to put myself up for project manager.

'But Katie's confidence wasn't shared by the boys.'

I'd happily take a second project in the sub-team for you

and take charge of that, to give you a bit of structure.

-It is very, very complicated. There's a lot to take on board.

-Yeah, all right. Very complicated.

-No, I'm saying it in a positive way.

-I think I'd do a really good job.

'The task - produce, brand, bottle and sell

'a new type of condiment.'

Sugar, white wine vinegar, onion and water, please.

-It's making my eyes water.

-'In the other team's kitchen...'

-Oh, my God.

-'..Duane's chutney proved too hot to handle.'

-Even though...

-HE COUGHS

HE COUGHS

'Under Ricky's supervision, the boys just cooked up problems.'

-Ricky!

-Yeah?

-There's something wrong with it.

There's something missing. The consistency's all wrong.

It's not boiling right. It's boiling like an omelette.

'Their production process was flawed.'

Agh! Too much wastage. There's too much wastage from the product.

We're getting about 20 percent coming back to us.

But the fact was, they got lumbered with a small quantity...

We've lost one fifth of our product.

'But I think that Katie turned out to be a reasonable project manager.'

Because we've got limited product, the plan is to sell very expensive at market.

She'd assessed the situation that we have a problem here.

We haven't produced many but we've spent the money.

-It's £3.99 or three for £10.

-I'll go for your offer.

Ah, fantastic!

The only way to win, then, is to increase the price

and make the margin big to have half a chance of winning.

So I think credit to her there.

If we need to clear these out, what price are you comfortable to go down to?

Erm, well, the absolute lowest would be £1.99.

'Told to claw back costs when selling to trade, Michael.'

At the end of the day, all we've got to do is sell 80 bottles,

so it should be plain sailing for our end.

I really would want to pay not much more than about £1.95.

'I think he got offered something like five pence less and he refused.'

Yeah, we definitely couldn't do it for £1.95.

If you're a business person and you're there in front of somebody

and they're prepared to buy,

you should say, "Yeah, OK, deal."

It's different, of course, if someone offers you half the price of what you've been told to sell for.

But you should have a little bit of a tolerance there.

We're left with 23 bottles.

-What? Left?

-We sold everything!

Really? Wicked. How did you do that?

'On judgement day, it boiled down to excuses.'

It was very hard going in to a trade customer

trying to sell at the prices we were given. They just didn't want to buy at them prices.

Here's a man who's in the kitchen business.

He should have some understanding of the trade, how to deal with the trade and he clearly didn't.

You under-delivered. You sold rubbish figures.

I'd be embarrassed with those figures that you sold.

I'm not the best salesman in the world.

I can sell, but it's not my best sort of, er, skill.

I'll ask you a very simple, straightforward,

good old East End question. Do you think you're out of your depth here

-in this process with these people?

-Not at all.

He wasn't managerial,

he wasn't the type of person to grab the bull by the horns and stick up for himself a little bit.

You've been a passenger the whole way through this. You've sat on the fence.

I think you guys underestimate me.

-'He made a final claim for clemency...'

-I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

I just think there's a lot of people here who are highly educated. That's all well and good.

No, no, don't run that... Don't run that past me.

-'..but his plea fell on deaf ears.'

-That don't bother me at all.

I don't care where you come from, I don't care whether you got a 2.1 at Oxford or Cambridge

or whether you're just a streetwise person. That doesn't bother me at all.

I think at this stage of the process you've got to eliminate people

who you don't think have got it in them to be my business partner

and I didn't think he had it in him to be my business partner.

Michael, you're fired.

OK. Thank you for the opportunity, Lord Sugar.

-'Week four.'

-How you doing, mate? You well?

-You all right?

-Morning.

'It was junk shops and car boot sales...'

-GLASS SMASHES

-'..as both teams looked for cast-offs.'

I found some great stuff in the skip.

'..to fix up and flog in London's trendy East End.'

-I'll pay you £1 for it, but I can't pay more.

-You can have it for £1

as long as you promise you'll go away.

This was to test the people's ability to see whether they signed on to it, yeah?

-In terms of the colouring of it...

-That's perfect.

-I think it's quite a nice piece.

'Running his team, fine wine investor Tom

'went for quality over quantity.'

Just cleaning. I think this is worth £7.

I just don't like it. I really don't like it.

He made sure they selected the right kind of product.

I'm happy with the stuff we've bought, but I don't think we've got enough.

There were times when other people were saying to him, "No, let's buy a bit more"

but he didn't. He held the purse strings, literally,

and said, "No, I'm only spending my money on the right things."

-OK. What about that chest in the window.

-The trunk?

-Yeah.

'Leading the other team, bridal shop owner Laura

'set off on a shopping spree.'

-The pieces we're interested in, two suitcases at the top here.

-The two top ones.

The camel stool, the side tables, the trunk and this retro table.

-I like that suitcase.

-The chair and the glass table which would match the tall one here.

-Yeah.

Can we take them? And the four stool plus one.

The broken table in the back, as well.

-And the broken table.

-OK.

-There's 100, mate.

The complete opposite to Tom's team. Tom bought about 50 items.

We've bought a hell of a lot of stuff.

She went out and bought everything in sight, like 200 items. It was panic.

-Can we take what we like?

-Is it possible that we can strip the curtains?

-Can we rip some of this carpet up?

-Some of this stuff I can't imagine buying personally.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained. It was free.

Like the expression - don't look a gift horse in the eye.

-Could we have some leaves coming in, like a path?

-Of leaves?

-Yeah.

'And Laura's less-than-selective approach showed in her shop.'

It didn't look quality. It looked like they'd gone from one junk yard into another junk yard

-120?

-I've got no clue in this.

I don't buy this shit.

'On sales day, Tom's minimalist store

'racked up maximum returns.'

Vintage hole punch for £40. OK?

Tom's team made a profit of over £1,000.

And it just goes to show, you don't need any great big business plans

and merchant bankers and investment bankers.

That's what this is all about.

Do you want to sit down in it? What if we did a deal on it for you? Are you sure?

'For food manufacturer Jane, it was the losing team for a third time

'and another bad day.'

Hi. How are you? Do you want to have a look in our pop-up vintage store?

We're literally only here for today. Really funky stuff.

There's lots of different sales techniques going on here

but Jane's I find the most uncomfortable.

-Do you want to have a quick look?

-She's very pushy,

she's very aggressive with the customers and they don't like it.

It's not a hugely easy sale for any item so you've got to sell hard.

They're actually lampshades from the 1970s.

-I'll have a look around and get back to you.

-OK.

You have to be quite pushy and really try to convince them.

-What about a chair?

-No!

'In the boardroom, despite running her own company...'

Jane, you're the businesswoman here and you sold 10 quid's worth of stuff.

'..poor sales on the task left Jane lost for words.'

-I... You know...

-Right.

I really want this and I fought extremely hard.

The credentials look good on paper

but she never demonstrated in the four weeks to me that she was there

that she could actually apply any of it.

I'm quite a serious person. I'm not a market trader.

I haven't done that before. I am more comfortable in the business-to-business environment.

I thought, "No, sorry, you had your chance."

She wasn't going to hack it with me.

-Jane, you're fired.

-OK. Thank you anyway.

'Next to disappoint the boss was drinks entrepreneur Duane Bryan.'

I am a winner. I'm a fighter. I don't give up easy.

I have what it takes to go the distance in business. To be the best, you have to beat the best.

I came up with this task

to come up with some innovative fitness regime and present it to fitness clubs.

And where's the money? I'll tell you where the money is.

You are going to go and try and license your new fitness trend

to some of the country's leading health club chains.

'For project manager Ricky, the task played to his strengths.'

Is there a unique move to Thai kickboxing? Cos we don't want it to look like boxercise.

Outside of work, I am a professional wrestler. They call me The Fitness.

I've been heavyweight champion of the wrestling world. I'll be champion of the business world.

Jab. Jab.

You'll always witness the fitness with Ricky Martin.

'But Ricky left the video directing to Duane.'

HE LAUGHS

Three, four. But you're just wanting to show...

Show it as it would be delivered in the class.

-Which would be me facing them.

-Yeah. OK. Thank you. Yeah.

'Instead of creating a hit, the team created friction.'

I disagree, but that doesn't mean...

As I say, one person leads it, I'm happy to go with it.

I feel like everything's being questioned and it's making it increasingly difficult.

I don't feel like we're working together, if I'm honest.

That was so stressful for me, guys. It was really, really difficult.

There was a disagreement at every single stage.

It's the same thing happening again. We have an opinion and you just don't like it!

-No, no, no, stop that.

-It is!

Duane, listen, people have got an opinion and you have to listen.

'When Ricky stepped up to sell his routine,

'Duane's video lacked punch.'

Beat battle. Fight to the music.

You say this product is unique.

Have you had a look at what else is out there?

We did look at a number of classes, things like boxercise.

It's different to boxercise with the dance element.

Looking at the quick demo, it looks very similar.

What you needed to do here was to innovate something that had not been seen before

and Duane kind of messed it up.

He made it into some samey type of thing.

He didn't actually put across the novelty, the newness of it.

'In the boardroom, director Duane got his chance to view the competition.

Welcome to The Groove Train. The dance floor entrance.

Working the shoulders, back and hamstrings.

The other team came up with a retro 80s idea

and there was nothing really else on the market like it.

The hula hoop. Working the core abdominal area.

The funky squat. Let's work those hamstrings!

The Groove Train. Working that core abdominal area.

-Can I ask you a question?

-Yes.

-When you compare your video

to Phoenix's video, don't you think your video looks a bit dull?

I also think the other one looks very cheesy and it wouldn't attract me.

I'd be much more inclined, personally, to go to the one that we presented.

I think you're missing the point. It might have been a bit cheesy

-and that's why they bought it.

-Yeah.

The fact is that on this particular task, the video was it.

'Then Duane missed his chance to pass the buck.'

Lord Sugar, this is risky, but Laura shouldn't be here.

And because he took everything on his own shoulders,

as nice a fella as he is,

there was no-one else that was culpable for the failure of the task.

Duane, I personally believe that the video

was the main cause of the failure of this task.

Therefore, Duane, you're fired.

Thank you, Lord Sugar. Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Nick.

Take care.

'Week six began with a surprise.'

-Guys!

-'When the boss popped round.'

-Hello.

Hi!

So your next task is all about setting up a mobile restaurant.

Now, this is quality food.

I don't want any junk served up here.

'Taking charge of the losing team, fruit and veg man Adam.'

It's street selling. I'm perfect.

My favourite street food is probably something quick and easy.

Probably a burger.

I don't think we should go too over the top with this, keep it simple.

'Plans in place, it was off to sell in Scotland.'

I keep coming back to pasta really, guys.

'On board, Adam talked the team through his choices.'

I mean, it's cheap, you can slop it out on trays like school dinners.

All this talk about food's made me hungry. I hope the trolley dolly will be round soon.

'But before they could sell, it was mass-produce meatballs.'

We've got this stuff down to 47p a portion using local ingredients.

-How come you got it down so cheap?

-Best in the business. Let's go. Let's crack on.

Adam, he's a greengrocer, he's a market trader,

and I think the problem that he had on this task was, he didn't adapt.

He didn't realise that we need to deal with a quality product here

and he went for the cheap angle.

-Each one of them, for me, that's £2. £2 coins.

-£2 coins on there, mate.

'In charge of finding a spot for Adam's mobile kitchen,

'Katie championed a football pitch.'

If we don't get football tomorrow, we've lost. You'd be a fool not to go for football.

I just think you can sell anything when you've got that many people walking past.

-'But on match day...'

-Come and get your meatballs now, guys!

-'..their pricey pasta...'

-£5.99.

-'..proved a flop with the fans.'

Meatballs and pasta now. Come and try some here.

Pre-match meatballs now, boys.

Get yourself something to eat before the match.

-'Calling in, Katie pushed for bigger profits.'

-Hello?

Just a quick one, mate. Katie believes you should be going at a much higher price. £7.99.

I'll stop you there. There's cafes round here doing full brekkies for £2.99.

On the bus, everybody!

'With sales stalling, Katie's next tactic was to target tourists.'

Right, hello, everybody. My name's Katie.

Before I get started, I've got to ask, what food do you think I might be bringing to you?

-Pizza.

-No, actually, you need to think outside the pizza box on this one.

It's actually meatballs.

-Can I tempt you with any meatballs?

-No? OK.

It was quite obvious that Adam and Katie were culpable for the failure of the task.

Right, I see this as two problems here. One is you can't sell,

and two, you've just done this cheap, cheap, cheap thing

thinking that you were going to make a load of money.

I've had some pictures shown to me of these meatballs,

and I've got to tell you, I've seen things like that at the zoo in the elephant pen on the floor.

Even though on the face of it, as the project manager,

people might think Adam's responsible,

Katie came up with some ridiculous ideas.

Katie, you chose the football ground.

-I go to football games. It's £6 a burger.

-£6 a burger? Where do you go, Chelsea?

You're not getting it, are you? Katie, you're fired.

'I forgave Adam...'

-You've got away with it on the borderline here, OK?

-I understand.

..because he's a hard-working good salesman.

and he wants to learn by his mistakes.

I felt that he should remain in the process.

-Off to the house, see you on the next task.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

'After Edinburgh, Essex and a wholesale warehouse.'

Now this is one of my favourite tasks.

I gave them £150 each, loads of stuff to choose from.

Vibrating novelty toys.

And I gave them a van. That's it.

It replicates how I started my business.

This is the tan. Shall we give it a little go? It's certainly instant.

-Essex do love tans.

-Being in beauty, I'll be great at selling this.

'With just one day to trade...'

We've got some domestic items to sell to you. Excuse the feedback.

'..the teams set about sweet-talking the locals.'

-Have you got a bad back, Stephen?

-Unbelievable, Ricky.

-So your back is hurting?

-Killing me.

-I've got a cure for that.

Shout out a number. Not your phone numbers, girls. A price.

Some hair clippers or some beard trimmers? No?

I've got the extractable, extendable, blue supermop.

-You must have a friend that has a beard.

-No.

During the course of the business day, it's important to keep an eye on your stocks

and see what is selling.

It's very natural. Selling these at £10 each or two for £16.

-There you go, madam. Thanks very much.

-Cheers.

And that's what I call "smell what sells". You keep your eyes on what's going.

-What are your thoughts on tan?

-As much money as we can straight into tan.

They want that tan as soon as they can.

'A runaway hit for Jade's team, toy insects.'

£3 each or three for £8.

Jade bought these little bugs and they're getting a massive margin for them.

-How much are they?

-They are £3 or they're three for £8. Great. OK.

What I'm smelling right now is bugs. They're going like hot cakes.

We're buying them at 60p each

and selling them for between £2 and £3.

To me, I would've said,

"Wow, this margin is brilliant, and people are buying so many of them,

"I'm going to throw all my effort into these.

"Go back to the warehouse and buy as many bugs as you can get." She didn't do that.

Just to let you know what we've got, we've got 21 MP3 players...

'Project manager Jade bought a bit of everything.'

Ten of the fake tan. Ten of the hot water bottles. And 15 chargers.

I think it's good to have a few different things,

cos if they don't like insects, you can sell them the other things.

'But teammate Azhar was after just one thing.'

So just run through me the strategy again.

From a strategy perspective... That's a risky strategy.

I just wanted to find out the strategy... What's our strategy?

How many times does he want the strategy?

Without strategy, you're running blind into the dark.

He's so annoying. Anyway...

I think, from a strategic perspective, my views were slightly overheard.

'Even in the boardroom, he failed to make his point.'

Azhar just kept butting in on the phone to speak about strategy

but no solutions.

-I gave you the solution.

-You've got a big long sentence you say...

-I said to you...

-"Let's see how it goes," that was your answer to every question.

On all of the tasks, strategy is very important.

But if he can't communicate properly with his team

then he's not going to be able to communicate with me.

At the end of the day, it's about being able to communicate with people,

being able to present yourself in a good way, being able to get on with people around you,

which is really important in any business aspect

and I think that's traits I have which I don't think that you do.

'Jade, I think she spoke up quite well for herself.'

-I tried coming up with so many solutions, I got to the end of my tether.

-What were your solutions?

-I was just saying, "What is our strategy?"

-They came after everything.

'Azhar, nice enough fella, but who wants to go into business

'with someone that no-one wants to listen to? Certainly not me.'

-Azhar, you're fired.

-Thank you very much, Lord Sugar.

'Next, from the art of selling on the streets to selling street art.'

That guy up there, his teeth are coming out.

What they had to do here was to come completely out of their comfort zone.

I think we are looking quite corporate. I don't mind. It's professional.

-I think we should take off our ties.

-Run that past Gabi, yeah.

-Pure?

-I am the artist known as Pure Evil, yeah.

-Evil?

-How you doing?

'First the teams had to compete for the best works to sell.'

I love this. I really love this.

Now, this is a very, very difficult science

because this is not a kind of bang your hands on the table, hard-nosed, commercial transaction.

'Leading the losing team, urban art enthusiast Tom.'

Myself, I'm a big fan of obviously Space Invader from France. I think it's absolutely excellent.

So when you went to California, who did you take your inspiration from?

Cos obviously you have people like Shepard Fairey over on the west coast with his Andre the Giant

and Obey, that's become huge, absolutely mammoth.

Here's a classic example of trying to be a bit too clever.

Tom may have had a little limited knowledge of art

but he tried to put across to this fella that he was an expert.

-Hello, is that Pure Evil?

-"Yes, it is."

'But Tom's top choice had been put off by his boasting.'

I'm just giving you a call just to see what your thoughts are on exhibiting with us.

"Well, I think I'm going to go with Stirling."

I'm not happy at all. At the end of the day, having expertise, knowledge, rapport with people

obviously counts for nothing, which doesn't make any sense to me.

I actually think he's mental for going with them.

This is my latest piece I'm very proud of. Horror!

'Plan B for Tom's team - go big.'

Cor, look at that!

-'When Tom lost Pure Evil and he went for giant-size pieces of art...'

-Yeah.

'..they were also quite expensive, so there was a risk there.'

It creates quite a striking impact

-and you've got a nice space behind your office desk.

-Yeah.

Not a bad idea to take the risk on high-value,

but a bad idea to mix it with giant-size,

cos you're really narrowing down the opportunities of who you're going to sell it to.

-Which one do you want, sweetheart?

-The bottom one.

'While seasoned salesman Adam racked up returns...'

-Do you want one of those?

-Yes, please.

-'..the art of selling turned out to be a struggle for Laura.'

If you need anything or think you want to go ahead with a purchase,

-I'll be in the area, just grab me again, OK?

-Thank you very much.

I'll let you have a wee think about it.

-'In complete contrast to Adam, there's Laura.'

-How are you doing?

She's got her own wedding dress business,

one where you have to understand what the customer's requirement is,

one where you have to mould yourself to get in the deal.

-How are you getting on here? Enjoying it?

-Er, yes. Thank you.

-Good. Good.

-Well, she didn't sell much on this task at all.

-Erm...

It's very different sales. We have a chat, test the water,

let them have a look around. Before you know it, Adam's on them.

You're going to get me shot, you lot. I've agreed it.

-65?

-Yeah.

-Good man!

-Deal. Thank you. Cheers.

'In the boardroom, Tom's high-risk strategy

'got him into deep trouble.'

If we sell one of his items for £8,000 or £10,000, that's the aim of our evening,

to sell one of those pieces, and if we do, we'll more than likely win.

-You took a gamble. I think you said you rolled the dice on it.

-I did.

'But Laura's low sales looked bad.'

You only sold £750 worth.

I can't really pinpoint what went wrong. All I can say is...

-Maybe you're just not a good salesperson.

-I would honestly like to say that is the wrong judgement.

The fact she claims to be a great salesperson

led me to believe that she did nothing good on this task at all.

It would be an absolute travesty if I was to go home today.

You are a great talker.

I tell you what, if there was a prize for taking...

-And I don't know whether it's talking too late.

-Well, I hope not.

You know, you run out of excuses in the end

when you can't do what you claim you're best at doing.

I'm not totally convince that you should remain in the process

so, Laura, you're fired.

Take care.

Tom stayed because I like the fact that he likes to have a gamble

and go for it sometimes.

I think he learnt on this occasion, when you're having a gamble,

make sure that you're not making the bet too hard for yourself.

'The following week, keen to redeem himself,

'Tom became project manager.'

'On this particular task, what I wanted them to do

'was to generate interest on behalf of the English sparkling wine producers.'

Little mouthful, swish it round.

'Tom's team took in the spirit of the product.'

HE LAUGHS

We've really got to grips with the English wine sparkling... Sorry.

We've really got to grips with English wine sparking...

HE LAUGHS

What else can we say when we're discussing English sparkling wine?

'Ricky took in the message.'

-Really the emphasis is on quality, quality, quality.

-Yep.

-That is the key.

'And the rest of his team took liberties with the language.'

-Grandeur is the bottle name.

-One of Stephen's few contributions

was the word grandeur

as a generic name of English sparkling wines.

It's a French word.

'On the video shoot...'

-"Grand-drerr," is that how you pronounce it?

-Grandeur.

'..Ricky's quality message got lost in translation.'

You're going to be like, "What is this?

"This is not my English sparkling wine I ordered!" Like in disgust.

Ricky put Jenna in charge of directing the video.

And action.

'What she produced was total rubbish.'

Urgh! What is this?

Darling, this isn't the English sparkling wine that I ordered!

It was diabolical. Absolutely diabolical.

-Darling! Darling! Get him!

-OK! Waiter!

Do exactly the same thing, but clink the glasses to each other.

Stephen, he's quite an intelligent person,

and he was standing there watching this ridiculous video being made.

-Less fizz and more sparkle!

-ALL: Cheers!

-Great. That's good, that.

-I'm happy with that.

'To judge the campaign,

'Lord Sugar called in experts from the world of wine.'

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name's Ricky Martin

and our vision is to ultimately make people aware that English sparkling wine is a quality product.

We want that message to be crystal clear to people.

To be fair to Ricky, he was doing great until he pressed the button and played the video.

What I'd like to do is just take you onto our homepage

and there'll be a 30-second video.

So I'll let you have a look at that and then I'll start talking again.

-Urgh! That's horrible!

-No, no.

This isn't the English sparkling wine I ordered! Darling!

She obviously needs English sparkling wine , oozing luxury with every pour.

'They couldn't believe it. They could not believe it at all.'

Do you think you could go and find a champagne website

which would portray itself in that way?

'The movie was a flop.

'Its director and her assistant were forced to face the boss.'

This video was going to be either love it or hate it.

I took risk in business. I'm a risk-taker. I took it and I made a mistake.

I know you're out there to try and impress me

and I also know I might remind you of Sid James,

but I didn't tell you to make a Carry On Boozing movie.

I was expecting Kenneth Williams to pop in and say,

"Ooh, maitre d'! Where's my Grandeur gone? Someone's nicked my Grandeur!"

I mean, it is a total... I don't know what you were thinking!

'Under fire, Stephen ducked and dived.'

Lord Sugar, I'm guessing, in terms of the process here,

we have people who actually have an input and make decisions,

OK, you've maybe had a bad day at the office, you've made a mistake,

and then you have people who don't make any decisions at all and have no input.

'Stephen showed me a side of him which I was starting to dislike.

'He came across as a little bit slippery.'

He was quite good at pointing out that it wasn't his fault, it was someone else's.

-In terms of that...

-Who made no decisions, then?

Well, for me, very simply, in terms of the task, I think Gabrielle,

I mean, she's sitting here now quite quiet, but Gabrielle for me is,

in our team, from a contribution point of view, it's lacking.

I started to wonder whether he's an honourable fellow

in the sense of the way he tries to deflect the responsibility away from himself.

'But Jenna just got the tone completely and utterly wrong.'

You didn't realise that this was a high-quality product

and you should not have been making a humorous video in the beginning.

Jenna, I'm sending you home. You're fired.

Thank you, Lord Sugar.

'And just as I was about to also let Stephen go,

'he kind of leapt across the table...'

All I can say to you, if I was project manager again,

-I would definitely deliver another victory and...

-Definitely?

-I would definitely deliver another victory.

You've thrown the gauntlet down. You are the project manager next

and I expect you to win.

'The next morning, an early start.'

I'm so positive today. I'm so motivated. I can't wait to get out.

'It was Stephen's last chance.'

I was on the edge of a cliff, one foot over the edge,

pulled back in, so I'm going to give 110 percent.

'The task - find and negotiate cut-price offers

'for a daily deals website.'

It's very simple, this task. It's about negotiation and persuasion, fundamentally.

We're going to win this. How much we're going to win it by is all I'm thinking about.

'Ricky had a rough start.'

-So you wouldn't be able to do any discount whatsoever?

-Not even ten percent.

OK. Just wanting to clarify that crystal clear...

The product we use is a power whitening system.

'While Stephen went for a multi-deal strategy.'

So you've got your deluxe option with the homecare kit,

then we could perhaps have a deal without the homecare kit, so you've got two options.

-Is that something that sounds quite good?

-Absolutely.

'It's not a bad idea on the face of it.'

One particular company might have offered three or four different packages.

Not a bad idea at all.

What the bad idea was was that the stuff that they found had all been done, all been seen.

Oh, Jesus, that's horrible!

-That feels...

-It's tickly.

-Oh, my God.

-SHE LAUGHS

-Gabrielle really pushed for the fish pedicure.

-That is very popular at the moment.

But the CEO of the website was really clear that they only want luxury experiences.

-Thank you very much, Ben.

-It didn't surprise me one moment

that the website turned round and said, "No, thanks, we've seen all that before."

Stephen and Gabrielle, they went off the rails.

I'm feeling a bit of pressure, I've got to be honest.

Bloody hell.

'In the boardroom, a crushing defeat.'

The winning team came in with £14,000 worth of business

compared to Stephen's £7,000,

so it wasn't just a little loss, it was a big, big loss.

The dentist and the fish thing - did you not understand

the need for something special on this website?

I've never been to a fish spa in my life.

'Again, under pressure, Stephen tried to shift the blame.'

Gabrielle very much gave the advice that it would be a good seller.

-He was so indecisive, chopping and changing.

-Just focus on yourself...

-No, no, can you let me finish, please?

-Of course, but think about you.

-Yes, can you let me finish?

-Stop being so condescending, let her speak.

-In every task, I do try and adapt myself to the person I'm dealing with.

-Yeah, OK.

'Gabrielle is a very bubbly person.'

I just get the feeling that she had reached...

..hit the wall in the process, as far as I was concerned.

Gabrielle, as nice a person as you are,

it is with regret that you are fired.

Well, I'd like to thank you very much for the opportunity,

and well done, boys, and thank you very much.

'For a moment, Stephen looked safe.'

You asked me for the chance to be the project manager, I gave you the chance.

You told me you were going to win, you didn't win.

You lost. You're also fired.

'That left five to fight for a place in the final.'

This was the penultimate task

and so this was a bit of a sink-or-swim situation.

The pressure was on and they had to get it right.

Your task is to create an affordable luxury product range.

-Adam, you're going to be project manager of Phoenix.

-Fantastic. Thank you.

-OK?

-Good luck. Off you go.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

Good task. Exciting. A lot to it.

Name, identity, logo, packaging. Any ideas?

I have a lot of admiration for Adam in the way that he's grown throughout the course of the process.

So I put him in charge because he's a good salesman,

but was he an all-round good business manager?

I want to go down the road, I think, of chocolates, white chocolates

with a nice fold-up box with a ribbon on.

'Sold on selling sweets, Jade headed up production.'

It's like heaven!

I always wanted to have a sweet shop. I think every little girl who was slightly podgy did. Mm!

'And Adam brainstormed brand names.'

-Obviously, it's chocolate. So Chocolike?

-Yep.

Quite clever. Chocoloco.

Erm, Lovely Chocolate. ChocStop.

It's important for us to remember we are creating a luxury brand.

The things I've written down - CoCoCo. CoCoCho. ChoChoCho.

-It sounds like a train.

-It is a bit, but it's like a chocolate train.

-At the moment...

-We could call it Chocolate Bar.

As in chocolate bar and chocolate bar, do you know what I mean?

The bar, the fact that we could have the counter in the style of a bar,

you could personalise the chocolate, again, like a bar, and order it at the bar, a chocolate bar.

'Next job for the two boys, the chance to get a taste of their chosen market.'

-That's beautiful.

-What kind of chocolates do you do? What flavours?

We do a ginger, a lavender, a mint.

Adam and Nick had a wonderful opportunity to meet a businessman

who's created a fantastic bespoke shop

to help them put together their business model.

What have they spent their time doing here? Tasting chocolate.

'Called Sweet Thing, their shop was a hit.'

Welcome to Sweet Thing, giving you a full chocolate flavour,

hopefully the most chocolaty chocolates you've ever tried.

'When I first saw their shop, I thought to myself, "Ooh, wow, this looks interesting."

Colourful, lots of products.

Superficially, it looked quite good.

'But on the business front, it was a bit "suck it and see".

What have you decided on your recommended retail price?

-£2.99, it's tripling your money. What do you think, Nick?

-£4.99.

-Would you pay £4.99 for them?

-Maybe you're right, maybe £2.99 is nearer.

So what is the pricing strategy as it stands now?

That is selling for, at the moment,

-you're thinking £2.99 or £4.99?

-Exactly.

'On the other team...'

It's going to be too fruity for a masculine product.

'..a men's grooming range from Ricky and Tom.'

So you've got the shaving cream, the after balm and the moisturiser at the end.

Just to let you know, we do have a grooming experience for you this afternoon if you'd like to try it.

-And it will be me who'll be giving you the experience, so you're in safe hands.

-Excellent.

Relax. I'm really glad you popped along.

These two fellas, Ricky and Tom, were quite dabber chaps

and I got the feeling they were quite into it themselves.

-Is that too hard or is that nice and soft?

-No, that's fine.

'After two days perfecting brands,

'teams had to present them to retail experts...'

-Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

-'..and to Lord Sugar.'

Modern Gentleman is a concept which is going to target traditional grooming visions and values

and bring that to the modern man.

'Ricky and Tom really had thought up their plan.'

The UK's market is 862 million right now and growing.

So it actually worked, it actually had legs.

What we'd like to do is take this outside the UK, and starting within Europe

gives us the advantage, because the export links are extremely good. Please feel free to ask questions.

'Next to face the experts, Adam.'

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for giving us the time

to introduce our brand, Sweet Thing.

Regretfully, Adam didn't put up a very good pitch.

What we tried to achieve is affordable luxury.

-HE CLEARS THROAT

-Ideal for Christmas,

birthdays, Easter and Valentine's Day,

-which we think will be our busy periods.

-HE CLEARS THROAT

Our target market, hopefully, it will appeal to absolutely everyone,

whether that's coming back from the office or just for a girly night in

or whatever you fancy, to be honest.

When you looked into his eyes, you saw a man who I think himself realised

that he'd kind of reached the end of a great journey.

Adam, I've got to tell you that you have impressed me

in the manner in which you have thrown yourself into everything head-first.

However, there are other areas I have to consider,

the shrewdness, the awareness,

the getting the plot,

and that's maybe where you're a little bit lacking.

He himself might have realised in the end that it was time for him to go.

I think, all in all,

on this very, very difficult decision I've got to make,

erm...

..I'm going to have to say that, Adam...

-..you're fired.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

-I wish you all the best for the future, Adam, and I hope you do well.

-Thank you.

-And keep in touch.

-If you ever need a salesman, you know where I am.

-OK.

Thanks very much. Well done. Well done, lad.

Right, I'm down to my final four now.

I've seen these people throughout the past 11 weeks

and they've all got different qualities.

Ricky is a great salesperson, a great presenter.

Tom - smart, seems to have ideas.

He's shown some great work in the past. Another good contender.

Nick - a technical man.

Big on the web where he deployed his expertise throughout the course of the process.

And then there's Jade. She can sell, she's creative.

Very quick, very fast-thinking.

So I've got four very, very good candidates to go forward to the final

where I will be delving much deeper into their business plan ideas

and to see which of the four is going to be my business partner.

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