h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From the sounds of it, all that's keeping him in at the moment is a mixture of his CV being properly glowing (I'm guessing some personal recommendations in there?) and the fact that Rocky was too promising to spoil by crushing him in this particular grinder. They all seemed pretty impressed with him (S'ralan and his sidekicks I mean), I got the impression he was kicked out for his own good.

The girls imo shouldn't have won... The lads at least put a decent sandwich together instead of screwing up something as simple as a chicken wrap.

I cant, frankly, believe that they got away with cheating people. Those canapes were ridiculous, I could *actually* do a better job than that!

And 'Dont take me for a dumb blonde' is so far not proving anything different. "I've heard of Blinis" "They are grilled somehow" Do a little homework or tell your team leader you have no idea what you're talking about ffs!

It's too early. We've got loads of chiefs all pushing to the front and gobbing off whilst the (hopefully) smarter ones are just letting them get on with it and cock up big time.

Another thing that's affecting our perceptions is there's too many contestants to fit into a one hour slot. What we're getting is highly selective edited highlights.

Having said that, of the three that ended up in the boardroom the right one got fired. If only because he claims to have a sandwich business but still managed to screw this up so spectacularly.

That's certainly how it would appear, but it has to be said, the sandwiches were fine!

They did ok flogging them on the streets to be fair. But peanut butter & brown bread with nothing else?

I'd have thought they'd at least bung in some banana or jam. Or both.

Wednesday's show was the most excruciating thing I've seen on TV for a long time. Almost as good as Ricky Gervais. That scene in the boardroom when the one with too much lip gloss (Kate?) shows absolutely zero knowledge about food forced me to leave the room.

B

Luckily, I was adressing envelopes and sorting through three-year-old receipts at the time so I wasn't *stuck* to the telly. I was giggling though...

Need to put the annual qualification notice on the show:

WARNING THIS IS A REALITY TV PROGRAMME IT MAY CONTAIN OCCASIONAL SCENES OF MANAGEMENT THAT MAY OFFEND SOME VIEWERS

I think the lean mean sandwiches from the girls was a direct result of the previous week's debacle where they were done for spending too much.
So the early decision was to keep costs down.

Aside from that scene where she didn't know a canape from a canary I thought they did reasonably well and the group leader actually did manage to sgt. major them into action quite well too.

The quality of the ingredients was horrible, but fair enough, you want to save money. That's not an excuse for simply not providing what you claim to be selling.

I mean, the woman's supposed to run a restaurant, right?

I wouldn't eat there, following what I saw this week. Her food was awful. I mean, at the very least get a pastry cutter out and cut small discs from the pancakes instead of just wrapping them around stuff. If things look right, she's quite right, people wont tend to notice the taste so much. But when things are evidently wrong to start with?

I understand the low quality ingredients. But the low quality prep was unforgiveable.

Supposedly she does. And I'm not sure that the approach to low grade ingredients in the episode didn't reflect her approach to that business as well.


I'm also not clear on why neither group attempted to find out what the client wanted and expected and what they willing to pay for it. Then set about negotiating how they could provide them with it. After all every season these idiots try to use the word "bespoke".

Yes she's supposed to run a restaurant but you have to remember she wasn't trying to build a reputation - just win a task for this programme. Two very different things - and I think they did it well.

But the cost cutting was surely in response to the sacking in the first episode. Everything in context with the show remember. The first show was a loss for the girls and a sacking through spending too much...

that's not an excuse for sub-standard product, is it? Not putting fillings in your wraps etc. is just ridiculous.

And canapes the size of your hand are not going to go down well, no matter who you are. It would have been so simple to have refined them.

Like the boys last week pressure washing vehicles with doors/windows open, there were ome pretty basic lack-of-common-sense mistakes.

The poor boys though... I can see what happened, they got over-excited about it and were trying too hard to stand out. simple but good is better but I suspect they've all been brought up on a diet of 'glitz over reality' lifestyles (or believe in it now at least!)

In some ways it's hard to comment on the Apprentice for fear of being accused of 20/20 hindsight. Anybody can look at mistakes and giggle (and I'm *not* accusing anyone here of this) and people will make mistakes. As a sales manager, it beggars belief that time after time the teams screw up on the pitch. Last week one girl basically called the customer a liar (I would have told her to sling her hook there & then), this week one of the girls went in to the pitch without any understanding of the product and undermined the whole team with her facial expressions. The boys were no better. Their guy allowed himself to be walked all over by the customer.

Sales people get a bad rap (often deservedly so), but maybe this programme shows how crucial the role can be. It's so important that any team leader who doesn't take control and do it themselves deserves to fail imo.

Ooh, I dont know about that. Not all of them are chiefly sales people... I wouldn't say it's an automatic sacking offence to not take on the job themselves. I do, however, think that if they dont, they should have a damn good reason for delegating (i.e. "They assured me they wanted to do it and their background suggested they might be the best for the job. I asked them if they understood the product, they assured me they did")

I'm not so hot on sales, myself. However if I had to do it, I'd do a little background research on my product and prices etc and not rely on someone else to do it for me. Especially not when I know nothing about a product.

They boys' mis-selling last week was worse IMO when the contract was won on the basis of going against the one major absolute point that was not to be ignored (dont do the interiors!). That was stupid and could have gone far, far worse for them if the girls hadn't over-spent. Personally it was a bigger failing than an overspend. But then I'm not a big business magnate...

Has no-one ever taught these people to Keep It Simple, Stupid?

I'd forgotten about the boy's one last week

I just feel that it's the single point where things are most likely to go wrong, so to entrust it to someone who wants to see you fired is asking for trouble.

Hm, yes and no... They have to be smart enough not to be so obvious that they are spotted and sacked themselves.

I suspect 'dont take me for a dumb blonde' was relieved they didn't have to go back to the boardroom!

All ready? I'm voting for Ben tonight.

Frankly he deserved to go. The product was at fault, and he admitted to being responsible for the product.

Plus, he's a prick.

B

Would have liked to see Deborah get the chop.