Shazia is hung out to dry in boardroom spindry

Who’d have thought that women couldn’t wash and iron? Since when were tips given for appalling customer service? And which BBC producer decided to run with one of the biggest travesties in Apprentice history?

I got the distinct impression that there was someone in the production team shouting into Sir Alan’s earpiece “No! Don’t fire the interesting people! Fire the boring woman! Think of the ratings!”

Still, onwards and upwards. Next week the teams have to organise the launch of a major airport terminal. And here is our summary of the programme.

Week Two of The Apprentice, and the cream of Britain’s mangement potential are given the complex task of…well, washing some soiled hotel bedsheets and ironing some shirts and boxer shorts.

The Task - setting up a laundry, selling laundry services
Aim: to maximise profits

What was provided (apart from the chaffeur driven cars, Blackberrys etc etc)
- Industrial laundry available until 2.00.a.m
- Opportunity to pitch to win laundry contracts from trade customers

What happened?

The Boys:

- Benefited from ex-Army man Simon Smith - who had a good understanding of what is involved in running a laundry and managed the logistics superbly
- Took the initiative and grabbed all the ironing equipment in the house (increased capacity)
- Did some market research on competitor pricing so that they had a good idea of what existing laundry operators charge (vital in the trade pitch)
- Strong project management by Raef
- Focused on high utlisation of production capacity - got to the laundry early and kept the production line flowing; the job was done with time to spare!
- Find a profitable niche segment - washing bedding - higher price in the domestic market £20

The Girls:

- Project Manager Jenny - hour spent on a sales lecture & things went worse from there; a truly dreadful project manager
- No idea about pricing & no effort to research the market
- Lost control of quality - garments went missing, and the team were fined £50

For example - the first trade pitch

- 1,000 pieces of laundry from a hotel: normal price £200
- Girls offered £5,000
- Boys won the contract for £200, though they might have been able to negotiate for slightly more. That one deal was enough to win the competition

Next pitch laid on by Sir Alan - Fishmongers job - normal price £60

- Girls pitch £10 - and win a loss-making contract
- Boys pitch 50 & decline to go lower (smart move)

What this task was all about

- Sensible pricing - a reasonable rate for the work involved
- Maximising production capacity - the laundry shut by 2.00 a.m which restricted the available capacity if the cleaning was started late
- Operations - strong organisation & teamwork - hot and sweaty work
- Quality control - keeping control of the cleaning quality and ensuring that the right garments were returned to the right customer

What went wrong

- Ridiculous pricing by the girls - £5 to launder a pillowcase - you can buy them new for less
- Asking for tips - blagging (some would say this was extortion)
- No need to think about value added - e.g. a 24 hour hotline for a service that only lasted 16 hours
- Losing customer garments - a disaster for customer service