One of the down sides of not having a dedicated blog to the Apprentice is that having these posts intermingled within all the other posts makes it hard to find all of the other Apprentice posts. But I’ve been thinking a lot about it and decided to try using an include file to easily link to all of the posts. It worked out really well. Here are all of the Apprentice 4 links to date:
Alright, on to tonight’s episode.
Inc.com does a good job at analyzing these episodes. Here’s Fresh Inc. Episode 3. He doesn’t feel Jen W should have gotten fired. He makes some good points. I also believe that Jen W was the worst player in this case.
They’re spending extra time on reviewing the board room from last week. It did have a lot of interest.
Rebecca really gives Toral a lot of credit. I don’t know why Rebecca gives her such weight. Toral is now in a very weak position because she has been given a free ride from the loyalty of Rebecca. People hate free loaders. And right now that’s what Toral is.
This week they are meeting at the Trump Ice Cream Parlor. Trump is with executives from Dairy Queen.
They are in week four of the 13 week show.
The executives from Dairy Queen are: Michael Keller, chief brand Officer at DQ and Eric Nisson(sp?) VP of Product and Brand Marketing. Trump tells us that Blizzards are their biggest sellers and bring in $750 million annually.
The teams are making costumes to represent Blizzards.
Felisha takes on the project manager position for the women. Toral weakly offers to take the position. Rebecca really feels the pressure of the decision she made in the past board room. If Toral messes up now, it’s going to make things look really bad for Rebecca.
Toral is weak and Rebecca was blinded of that for some reason. I think she sees it now and it’s too late.
Clay is going to be the project manager for the men. He is a major dictator. He really seems to be over compensating.
Toral is trying to be a factor of value here. She looks bad.
Toral and Rebecca have been isolated from the four other women.
Mark is going to dress up for the men in a female costume.
The women are creating a character named Zip. They ask Toral to be the character and she turns it down. The four women are moving further away from Toral. And Rebecca is stranded with Toral. Rebecca is going to have to fight a major battle because of her unconditional attachment to Toral. It seems maybe Toral took a play from the current White House Administration. She tied herself to the end to a plan and now is going to pay the price for doing that.
Tonight’s Lesson: “Maximize Potential” A good leader has to be able to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of who they are working with. “Get the best people and watch them.”
George comments that the men are working really well together. It appears that they are getting along really well. They are having fun and that is showing in their results.
The women are really trying to push Toral into being the mascot. She says it will embarrass her family. The strategy of the four women is excellent. They are cornering Toral and going to set her up beautifully if they fail. And Rebecca is just praying they will let her go because she is tied to a sinking ship.
Toral refuses and Rebecca is still trying to stand up for Toral. It’s so insane.
Clay is a tyrant. He is unraveling all of his team’s work.
I’m amazed that these people get so far as to be on the TV show. Is this really the best of the best for tomorrow’s managers? In one sense, I kind of think they may be. They are the people who have interest to be involved at this level of corporate America. It takes a certain kind of person… a bit of a psychopath. To find someone who has the fight, determination and will to get to that level and to also be savvy with relationships is a rare bird.
Back at Excel (men). Mark tries on the Genie outfit. He wanted to be the Genie.
Capital Edge gives the mascot to Kristi. Toral thinks that Kristi looks like a fool. They have Jen M giving the presentation. Having a beauty queen do the presentation is powerful. The executives mention that teenagers are a core audience. They wonder if Zip will speak to them. Zip also has no DQ logos, which the executives question.
Excel comes in. Jenny the Blizzard Genie is presented. The executives are smiling.
My bet is on the men. Zip is bland.
The executives feel that Zip caters too much to kids and doesn’t focus on DQ.
Jenny the Genie wins.
Toral is in major trouble. She didn’t enthusiastically offer to be project manager. And she refused to be the mascot.
Clay gets exempted from next week… although, it was reluctantly.
Toral positions herself as bright and effective. Rebecca believes it. But it’s all an illusion. She is all marketing with no substance. This speaks poorly on Rebecca’s judgment. It’s too bad because I think Rebecca is smart. But she’s a bad judge of character. That’s a complete deal breaker as a leader. No one will respect you if you respect people that deserve no respect.
Toral and Rebecca should both go… they both eventually will.
Toral now says she has personal and spiritual beliefs that didn’t allow her to be the mascot. Toral is making this a religious thing. It’s mildly clever. But no one is going to believe it.
Excel is at the Mets. James gets to hit a little. He played baseball in college.
Jen M. doesn’t believe Toral lost this for them. Jen M. is asking who came up with the branding idea.
Toral is happy that her team lost. “Let these individuals self implode.” She calls them stupid. She is broken on so many levels. She doesn’t respect people. She over estimates her worth. While she might not be responsible for the poor brand. It’s simply because she recused herself from all authority. You can’t be allowed to move through The Apprentice simply by dodging tasks. I can’t say how much of a wreck this person is. What kind of company will hire a person like that after seeing her in such detail on TV?
The women go into the boardroom.
Alicia is asked by Trump why the women are losing. The women are asked why they didn’t have any DQ logos on the mascot. They don’t have any answer.
Toral is asked why they lost. Toral jumps in and immediately slams her team. Her team says she was non-existent. Toral says Felisha should be fired. Toral says she couldn’t wear the suit because it would damage her career. She is doing more damage to her career by talking than wearing a mascot suit ever would. Trump points out that he wore a chicken suit on Saturday Night Live. Ultimately Toral is again putting herself in a bad corner. She’s saying that wearing a chicken suit makes you look dumb. Therefore Trump looked dumb. She is killing herself.
Toral now says this was a religious thing. She never said anything of the sort.
Rebecca is asked if she is still a fan of Toral. Rebecca points out that the night before the task Toral said she would take a leadership role. Rebecca feels she should have done so.
Toral makes statements and changes statements. Even Rebecca is moving away from Toral.
Rebecca is now asked who she would fire. Rebecca says she is bothered that Toral didn’t make a stronger push to be the team leader. Rebecca points out that she intentionally became team leader when she broke her ankle so as not to look like dead weight on the team. Very smart. Also smart is that Rebecca is allowing herself to be a little flexible at this point.
Toral accepts that she should have been the project manager.
It is pointed out that a person who doesn’t contribute cannot be part of the victory or the loss. An excellent point.
Toral tries to win points with Trump by referencing his book where he says that you must consider the source. Toral then says, “Who’s the source here really.” She wrinkles her nose while saying it. She is trying to make a connection with Trump in a way as to say, “these other people really are very weak.” He’s going to hate that. He’s starting to get upset. He points out the George and Carolyn are not happy with her performance either. Again Toral is trying to make other people look stupid and in doing so is indirectly saying Trump is stupid. That’s what happens when you slam the competition.
Trump points out that if Toral were project manager she wouldn’t have to put up with being run by incompetent people.
Trump asks Rebecca once again who she would fire. She admits the team doesn’t work with Toral on it. She says she would fire Toral however it is very hard for her.
Trump is disappointed in this team. Trump says Toral is fired because she is totally ineffective. There is no second round in the boardroom tonight.
Trump is very confident in this move. As well he should be. While she is clearly smart, she has no ability with people.
Toral says she takes her personal dignity very seriously. She says that she wouldn’t even talk to some of these people. She is cold, unkind and has no people skills.