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Lessons from The Apprentice - part eight

by Tom Maddocks on 01/07/2011 15:07:00 in CorpComms Online | share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet

Zoe's cookie crumbles

About the author:

Tom Maddocks

Tom Maddocks is course director for Media Training Associates

Lessons from The Apprentice - part eight

On The Apprentice it was the night when geek-but-chic inventor Tom finally thought his luck was in. 'By the end of tomorrow we're going to be lovers!' the beauteous Melody cooed in his ear, as they snuggled up in the back of the car on the way back from that romantic location, the biscuit factory in Swansea.

Sadly she was referring not to her own romantic inclinations, but to one of the worst ideas the programme has ever featured. The task was to create and brand a new type of premium biscuit (their Team Logic effort was a weird half-chocolate half-digestive hybrid), then pitch it to three of the big supermarket chains.

Melody however, a self-proclaimed communications expert, thought it would be a great idea to do a role-play together at the pitch to demonstrate the product. It turned out to be a sort of squirm-inducing live-acted TV commercial - to suggest the supermarket professionals were bemused would be an understatement.

Never do this sort of thing at a pitch in the name of 'being creative' - it is much more likely to come over as cheesy rather than chocolatey. What made it worse was that the pair didn't even announce what they were doing - they just started talking to each other like a mad suburban couple with a biscuit fetish. Had they explained what they were going to do and why, they might (just) have got away with it - when giving a presentation it's always best to flag up what you're going to cover and how you're going to play it, so everyone in the audience knows what to expect.

Otherwise, it was crunch time for those that don't listen. Logic team leader, flat-voice Zoe, managed to fall out with all of her colleagues - having looked grim-faced for practically the entire programme, it was remarkable to see on You're Fired afterwards that she was actually capable of smiling. In that situation she came over as a completely different person - and not just because of an ill-advised lopsided new hairdo. The smile was delightful and made us warm to her much more.

Zoe is one of those people who lets it really show when she is stressed - she tends to get into fights with everyone else and rub everybody up the wrong way. She even had a stand-up row with Susan in the Asda car park over major changes to the presentation just before going in to do the pitch there. Highly unprofessional and de-motivating for her team - her future career is likely to be much easier if she can show more of her sunny side and learn to keep calm under pressure. In the end, it was Zoe who got fired - her team scored zero in terms of orders, with a less-than premium product out of tune with its packaging and with no idea of its target market. Zoe's stressed leadership style had left little time for clarity of thought and effective team communication.

Finally, it was Jedi Jim who once again managed to surprise. The dark side of the force, so dominant in previous episodes, was mysteriously absent. Handing out Team Venture's winning kids-treat samples in front of a focus group of mums and tots, he was the personification of Irish charm. That really took the biscuit.

www.mediatrainingassociates.co.uk

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