The Apprentice 4 Episode 1 – Season Premiere

I can’t 100% guarantee that I’ll be able to write this every week. But I thought it might be fun to try. I’m interested in giving a recap of the episode and my thoughts on the topics.

While I’ve enjoyed this show since its beginning, I have a theory that it doesn’t bring out the best leadership qualities that seem more “win/win”. There is little empowerment, inspiration… just general good leadership. That being said, I do appreciate the business dilemmas in which these people find themselves. So let’s see what happens this year.

Here’s a quick rundown of all the people:

• Adam, 22, graduated at the age of 20 in the top of his class from Georgia State University
• Alla, 31, a self-made multi-millionaire
• Brian, 23, Director of Business Development for The True Type Printing Company
• Chris, 27, is a former NFL player for the New Orleans Saints, Tennessee Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Clay, 28, originally from the small town of Stephenville, Texas
• Felisha, 29, earned a B.S. in Aviation Human Factors and Systems from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
• James, 27, is in the top three percent of sales for Cingular Wireless and is a Cingular Summit award winner.
• Jennifer Murphy, 26, was Miss Oregon USA and a top ten finalist at Miss USA 2004
• Jennifer W, 31, received a B.A. in public relations and political science from Murray State University
• Josh, 30, a successful entrepreneur and self-made multi-millionaire by the age of 24
• Kristi, 24, top sales executive for Gold Creek Golf Club
• Mark, 35, graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in finance and completed his M.B.A. from Bellarmine University
• Markus, 41, grew up splitting his time between Chicago and Sarasota, Fla.
• Marshawn, 26, is CEO of Communications Counts!, a national professional development and public speaking consulting agency
• Melissa, 30, was a star softball and soccer athlete for much of her youth.
• Randal, 34, is the founder, president and CEO of his fifth venture “BCT Partners,” a multi-million dollar management, technology and policy consulting firm
• Rebecca, 23, was named “One of 20 Teens Who Will Change the World” by Teen People magazine in February 2000
• Toral, 29, currently a Vice President in the Capital Markets group of a major investment bank in New York City

Here’s more details on the cast:
NBC.com > The Apprentice 4 > Candidates

They start by featuring Jennifer M. who has worked her way up in the corporate world.

Marshawn has been a criminal defense attorney at Georgetown.

Clay is openly gay.

Markus, an inventor, feels that he is a kindred spirit with Mr. Trump.

This episode starts at Trump International Golf Club, Bedminster: Trump Bedminster, New Jersey

George and Carolyn are back this year.

The teams are divided men versus women.

This time your team must vote for you, as project manager, in order to be exempt from getting voted out.

This week they are focus on Bally Total Fitness – Your Total Fitness Resource. The first task is to create a new total fitness class for Bally’s.

They are now adding a race to find Trump’s helicopter which is somewhere on the golf course. The first team to find the chopper will get to take it back to the city which will give them extra time.

This makes for fun TV but it makes for unrealistic team dynamics. The men, of course, won. I guess I don’t really know of how they could set up an interesting show that fostered teamwork and working together. I do wonder if this might really be how Trump’s company is run. Is he pitting all of his people against each other? It’s possible. I’m sure he’s not the only CEO to do that. It just seems limiting to me.

“Can’t we all just get along?” That’s interesting that he brings that up, being that is my concern about the show.

Markus becomes the project manager for the men.

Kristi volunteers to be the project manager.

The women look to be starting out pretty aggressively against each other. Melissa, who is Hispanic, is pretty intense.

Josh feels that Markus is confused and frazzled. Markus asks if there should be something he should be doing better. They spin it as being week. And really in this kind of sprint task, it might not be a good question. However, I like this idea of that. That kind of self-questioning can be amazing in the right scenario… Just not in the middle of a major battle. Your team wants confidence.

Randal’s grandmother died in what sounded like a terrible suffocating moment in an assisted living facility. Her breathing tube fell out and she couldn’t get it back in.

The women created a class called “Triple Threat”. They are targeting people in the street.

The men are marketing to people in Bally’s. “Rush 1/2 Hour Class,” is what they created.

Team Excel is the men’s team.

Capitol Edge is the women’s team.

Melissa is talking negatively to Carolyn about the team. Melissa says, “women always hate me.” That’s a terrible sign. You can just see her hanging around for several episodes so we can all hate her.

The women’s class is $20. Marshawn feels very confident on winning this one.

My guess is that the men “should” win this because of superior marketing.

The women won $516.

The men won $527. So they won the project by a hair. The winning team is going to the Friars Club.

Markus is not exempt next week. Randal stays behind to talk with Mr. Trump. Randal wants to stay on. Trump is going to fly Randal to Philadelphia for the funeral. That’s awesome.

The men had lunch with Trump. Markus is a big talker. Trump say, “People don’t really change.” That’s an interesting opinion.

The women feel they lost because of marketing. I agree. Carolyn feels that the marketing didn’t cater to women.

The women are targeting Melissa. She might be gone right now. They say Melissa does not listen, she caused a lot of drama and negativity. Kristi brings back one person instead of two. That’s a risk that Trump might not like. She has increased the odds of getting herself fired. They might keep Melissa on just for her drama. Kristi clearly messed up the marketing. And while she’s cute, she’s not exciting. Oh it’s a toss up. Let’s see what happens…

Carolyn feels that Melissa is disruptive but Kristi’s marketing is poor. George feels strongly about Melissa’s disruptiveness.

Melissa says she doesn’t work well with women. That’s a major flaw. She’s in trouble. She creates a hostile environment. Trump says that Melissa can’t get along with women so she’s fired. But Trump said that Kristi should not be proud of herself. It’s interesting that he didn’t bring up the fact that Kristi only brought one person back. That was bad strategy. Trump said he felt he had no choice because Melissa said she couldn’t work with women. I imagine they’re sorry to see her go. But what are you going to do. She’s a mess.

Melissa feels that “maybe she’s too independent for her own good.” At least she’s positive about herself.

I’m glad to see that they made a strong case for teamwork in this episode. The show, by its nature, does not make that particularly easy.

It looks like Markus might be the target next week. The show is spinning him poorly.