Mr Marcus McGowan MSc PgDip BA (Hons)

This Business Education Learning Blog is aimed primarily at Higher Business Management students/teachers and ICT students/teachers.

The aim of this blog is to provide you with interesting articles, news, trivia as well as resources or links to materials which will help in your course of study.

I am a Teacher of Business Education and I have written for Education Scotland and BBC Bitesize.

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Sunday 7 June 2009

Yasmina is the Apprentice 2009

Well don't say I told you so. Yasmina was declared the Apprentice tonight, after narrowly beating Kate into the runner-up position.

The final task was to create a new chocolate brand with the two finalists getting help from some of the other contestants.

Kate went for Choc D'Amour which had pretty naff packaging and her pricing was way out. However the product was tasty, her pitch was excellent and the idea of chocolates for him, for her, and to share, was innovative. And their video was quite good.

Yasmina went for Cocoa Electric and came up with some hideous flavours. Strawberry and Basil seemed to be the one that turned the most stomachs. However Yasmina got her packaging spot on, and her pricing was in the right ballpark. The product itself would probably not get many repeat sales, and her presentation was stilted to be kind.

When it came to Sir Alan's decision I knew he'd go for Yasmina. Why? Because Kate was such a fantastic and obvious winner it would make bad TV. The same happened the other week when Susan Boyle lost the final of Britain's Got Talent when we all know she was without question a unique talent that was the best there has ever been in the history of any Simon Cowell production.

It was too obvious.

It seems these days true talent is often being overlooked for the unpredictable option. That only works every so often, but if things go wrong then people will line up and say "Was that a good decision?".

Kate should have won.

Yasmina was solid, but lacked personality and came across quite dour. However she would probably follow Sir Alan's orders without question. She would manage, but would she lead? Is Yasmina capable of taking whatever he threw at her to the next level?

Kate on the other hand is bright, bubbly, self-controlled and sharp as a tack. Her communication and presentation skills are second to none. She held it together in interview (unlike Yasmina, thereby making a mockery of the whole process) and she also displayed excellent team working and sales skills. She also showed she has a creative side and displayed leadership for example telling Ben off that he had overstepped the decency line with his rude name for the chocs, or taking over from Kimberly in the advert shoot.

Kate was the all rounder and like Alex last year, the best candidate.

Oh well, will we ever hear from Yasmina again? Unlikely. But I am sure Kate has a bright future ahead of her and she will get over this setback, because at the end of the day if someone can't notice your talent then would you really want to work for them anyway?

And it brings to mind the best piece of advice I have ever been given, by Professor Brian Carlisle: "Never stay where you're not appreciated."

So good luck to Kate and Yasmina. But as so often is the case in this unfair and not always upfront world, the best 'man' did not win!

1 comment:

Mr Christopher said...

Totally agree! Kate should have won. Although the result was almost secondary to the biggest news of the night: God I'll miss you Marge...

http://edwinsraisin.blogspot.com/2009/06/apprentice-2009-finale-review.html

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