In common with about 7 million others, I am afraid that I am hooked on the Apprentice (Wednesday nights on BBC1). For those of you who have never seen it or read anything about it, this is a programme where Sir Alan Sugar sets a variety of tasks for 16 aspiring “apprentices” who are competing with each other for a job with Sir Alan Sugar’s organisation and a 6-figure salary. Each week, as the series progresses, one of the contestants gets fired.
Apparently, the original 16 hopefuls had been hand picked from thousands of applicants based on their stellar business experiences. Who did the picking is in itself a mystery to me as these 16 have so far turned out to be some of the most incompetent individuals that I have come across. I suspect that they were chosen as much for their television appeal as for their business experience – let’s face it this is a television reality show.
In the most recent episode, split into two teams, they had to pitch and sell a portrait photography service at Bluewater shopping centre. The team who raised the most money were the winners and some one was then fired from the other team.
Apart from the general level of incompetency, a number of other factors came out of the programme which I feel have a bearing on all businesses.
First of these relates to my ongoing “beef” with most business lack of any measurement systems. The team that lost looked genuinely surprised when the results were announced. They had made a loss on the day in that they took less money than their costs. This was despite them being confident that they had at least broken even. I find it almost incomprehensible that any business, or business activity, carried on by a group of individuals, can get it so wrong. Whilst you might not know the exact amount of any profit or loss you have made as a result of a particular activity, surely you would know whether you made a profit or not and if you don’t, you should.
The other main problem that affected both teams was their inability to deliver the product. They both had their unique offering relating to the portrait photography, but both teams were unable to deliver the portraits they had taken because of either technical or process problems. Process is so important in every business. It doesn’t matter if it’s the way a telephone call is answered or how an order travels through an organisation, there has to be a proper and laid down system otherwise things just fall apart. So many businesses fail because of their lack of attention to detail yet it is so easy to tackle these issues.
I suppose the final thing that struck me in the programme is a complete lack of man-management skills on display. Both teams were characterised by their back-biting, lack of proper leadership and internal bickering. Teams are so important to a business whether they be just 2 people or a larger group. The combined talents of a cohesive group can be far greater than the individual components. People skills – motivation, leadership and the like are critical even in the smallest of business.
So, no. I don’t rely on The Apprentice for business education, but it is still good entertainment.