The Apprentice 2008 (Week 1) - In Cod We Trust

A fantastic opening to series 4 of The Apprentice had the 16 hopefuls dumped immediately into the smelly, cut-throat world of a fish market. Did the contestants look out of plaice? Will the competition prove a bream come true? And will we see the losers carping about how things could have been much, much batter?

True to form, Sir Alan Sugar pitched the 16 contestants on The Apprentice straight into a classic trading challenge.

The Task

- Each team (Boys versus Girls) was given a stock of fresh fish valued at £600 (based on wholesale prices).
- They had one day in which to sell the stock
- Each team could choose a pitch from one of four alternative trading locations around West/North London (they could choose to trade from more than one if they wished).
- The team making the highest sales would win

The Result:

Boys - sales of £632.69, making a profit of £32.69 (5.5% gross profit margin)
Girls - sales of £753.98, making a profit of £753.98 (25.6% margin)

To put those sales in perspective, it was mentioned that fresh fish generally sells for a mark-up of around 30% on wholesale cost price.

The Basics of the Task

- Identify a suitable sales pitch (location): the girls team got to Islington first and picked up a location that traditionally outperforms the boys’ pitch by a factor of 5:1. They were almost bound to win!
- Identify the stock they had been given - a case of matching the right fish to the guide provided, or perhaps by comparing with the stock on display at other fishmongers in the market
- Identify a sensible pricing basis for each kind of fish - based on weight
- Price the stock competitively
- Barter with customers to maximise the achieved price per sale

Key mistakes

- Delays in getting the team organised and reaching the sales location - this ultimately put the boys team at a great disadvantage
- Failure to identify the stock being sold (how can you use a market price, if you don’t know what you are selling?)
- Failure to price stock based on weight
- Selling stock below cost (wholesale) - the pricing errors led to the boys selling whole lobsters for around £5 when the market price was nearer £20-25
- Firesale of surplus stock at well below cost

The Business Studies concepts in this episode

Lots that students might have picked up, including:

- Importance of location
- Product identification
- Pricing strategies - there were some good examples of competitor pricing - i.e basing price on what the market expects
- Stock management
...and, as always…
- Leadership styles!