The Apprentice 4 Episode 11 – To Lead Or Not To Lead

The final four contestants must create a promotional video for one of the world’s largest software companies.

So we’re down to:
* 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
* Alla, 31, a self-made multi-millionaire
* Felisha, 29, earned a B.S. in Aviation Human Factors and Systems from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Adam got canned for spending too much money on carriages. I missed last week because I ate too much turkey on Thanksgiving and I ended up getting up at 5:00am to go shopping at BestBuy. I think even though I missed last week’s advertisements, Trump would have approved of my ditching, for the greater cause of getting up first thing to shop at a previous week’s sponsor.

I’m not sorry to see Adam go. He simply was too young. The final four are pretty interesting. He was the least likely of the five to stick around.

I predict it to go down this way for the rest of the weeks:
Felisha
Rebecca
Alla and
Randal wins

I will say this about The Apprentice, I feel like they adhere to kicking out the person who most deserving person. I’ve been watching America’s Next Top Model and they seem to sometimes randomly kick people off. That makes for some interesting twists. But on the other hand, I hate to see non-deserving people get kicked off.

Sure enough, in the recap of last week, Carolyn thinks Felisha is in the bottom two with Adam.

Alla wanted Felisha to come back because she thinks she’s a stronger player. Maybe a little stronger. But Felisha is shocked and kicked in the teeth by the board room. It will be interesting to see if she can mentally recover.

Randal asks what people had to give up to come here. Alla is missing the 10th month of her child’s life. Randal is missing a month of his first year of marriage. Randal sounds very strong and secure with his position in the group.

The two teams meet at the NASDAQ MarketSite with 2 Microsoft executives: Janis and Dustin. Bill is standing in for George. Microsoft has a value of almost $300 Billion.

They are going to market Microsoft Live Meeting

They will make a 60 second video about the product.

Felisha will be the PM for Capital Edge… she feels she has a lot to prove. Rebecca becomes the PM for Excel for the same reason.

Microsoft as a sponsor is interesting to me in that they even feel the need to do this. They are pushing LiveMeeting… why? Are they afraid of Google Talk.

Felisha is struggling as project manager because Alla is so strong. Alla is pushing out in front of her constantly. Felisha is more concerned about being a star PM than making sure they win the task. That’s a guaranteed way to lose and make my prediction come true of Felisha going home. I can’t even really imagine how Rebecca and Randal could possibly lose. They are so in tune. If Rebecca weren’t such a poor judge of character, I would think she could be as strong as Randal.

Excel is at Microsoft planning their shoot. You can see Rebecca discussing her ideas with Randal. He is listening and understanding. They are great team mates. Their actor is no good. Randal stands in and does a great job… he has a lot of intensity and character.

Capital Edge is bickering. Felisha is insecure and can’t make decisions, as Alla says. Felisha thinks Alla is taking over the task. Felsha is tying Alla’s hands. She is holding back her strongest player. As a leader, you MUST realize when someone is stronger than you and let them go. Letting a stronger person lead is being a good leader. Holding them back shows your incompetence. By demanding that you always have complete control, especially when it is to the detriment of your objectives is childish, immature and, unfortunately, the norm in everyday business.

Capital Edge is editing their video. Felisha realizes that she must let Alla go. She realizes that this must be done in order to win. Alla is in control of the editing. It appears they are turning things around.

At Excel, they are now editing. Randal and Rebecca are staring in their own video. Carolyn seems receptive that they are acting in their own video. Carolyn likes the video because it tells a story. Carolyn has really hit on something there. Rebecca is concerned that Carolyn asked how long it took for them to edit their video. She wonders if Carolyn is saying something with that question. The “story” idea is crucial and foreshadowing. People remember stories. They don’t remember facts and figures. You can tell that the Capital Edge video is going to be all facts and no story. They will lose.

Today’s lesson: “Family”
Trump says family is very important. He says the people who are happiest are the ones that have a good family support system.

Rebecca hops in and leads the meeting. Being so confident with that broken foot really says something.

The executives see Excel’s video. It looks fun. Their response is, “interesting.”

C.E. Felisha and Alla come in, both wearing red tops and white pants. What’s that about? Felisha is wearing a scarf for a belt… she looks too good. They want to integrate emotion into this, as their goal. The executive again says, “interesting.” This commercial looks like a late night infomercial. It had a cheap look to it.

Janis, the executive, liked the story. Then they start in on Capital Edge’s video. They said they had a strong call to action. But they didn’t like all of the text.

Alla and Felisha look mentally beat.

Alla and Felisha are talking. Felisha is crying and says she has been to hell and back in her life. Alla does not relate to people who are negative. Alla doesn’t think Felisha is as strong a player. I agree.

Rebecca and Randal are going out on a cruise. They are met with their loved ones: Randal’s wife and Rebecca’s boyfriend, Matt. That kind of emotional recharge will give them an even stronger leg up. Alla is going to come off of a loss and will have to work harder than Rebecca and Randal to get to where they are emotionally. I feel she will be able to do it. She has a really strong perspective.

Here’s a real LiveMeeting commercial. It’s all positive. There is no pain in the commercial. It’s all positive. It’s all about feeling good.

Felisha and Randal are talking about how hard it will be to go into the boardroom with a friend. Felisha likes Alla. She says many good things about her. Alla is out to kill her. She says that if Felisha fights, she will destroy her. Trump will definitely like that mentality.

Trump say, “I know you hate to lose, Alla.” Bill said that Alla was difficult. Trump wants to know if Alla is difficult overall or just with Felisha. Alla points out that Felisha was holding her back. Carolyn says their was no leadership here. Trump says that Alla is difficult to manage. Alla was the director of the video and therefore was responsible for that. They ask who cut up the video and made it so choppy with too much text. Felisha says that Alla wanted all of that text. Oh oh. Alla is steamrolling Felisha. Felisha is crying. Trump says Felisha is not strong enough for New York. He says Alla definitely is. But Trump also fires Alla because she is difficult to manage and she directed a failure.

Bill says Felisha can’t lead and Alla can’t be lead.

Trump goes back to tell Randal and Rebecca that they are the final two.

My prediction is already wrong. It’s Randal and Rebecca.