The Apprentice (Week Three) - The Man Who Can’t Say Loser...Loses

Not a classic episode of The Apprentice this week, but as usual there was some great business studies material in there, alongside the vomit-looking chicken curry and half-baked pizzas.

“How was Ian as a leader?” asks Sir Alan Sugar. The silence goes on for many seconds, but for Ian must have felt like forever.

“Don’t all speak at once, boys” says Ian. They continue not to. At that moment the die is cast. Ian’s fate is sealed. Done like a kipper, or a slightly warmed ciabatta (which apparently sell like “hot cakes”).

For Ian’s failure was essentially a failure of his leadership skills. He looked hopeless out of his depth, he had no grasp of the essentials of the task. In such a situation, its not enough to demand that “everyone gives 110%”. Success is about focusing on the way to make money in a restaurant - serve great tasting food using cheap ingredients.

If you’ve watched Ramsey’s Kitchen nightmares, then you know that the trick would have been to:

- Choose a very small number (3) of easy to cook starters, main courses & puddings
- Price each dish at between 3-4 times cost of the ingredients
- Buy local ingredients from local suppliers (not Tesco)
- Get the food preparation done in good time
- Make a killing (sorry, even higher margin) on the extras (booze etc)

Still, I think it was the right decision. Here’s a quick summary:

The Task - Transform a local pub by offering a food service - 24 hours to create a themed pub experience
Winner - team making the most profit (girls)

Result:
Boys: sales of £844; profit of £301
Girls: sales of £795; profit of £604

Key mistakes made:

- Failure to create a simple, easy-to-make menu (product) and to identify the ingredient quantities (raw material costs)
- Over spend on marketing (boys overspend of £272 was actually the difference in profit between the two teams)
- Poor production quality - bland food, food sold in short quantities, food that was simply unedible