There are TV shows I like, and there are TV shows I love. The Apprentice falls squarely in the second category.
I got hooked on The Apprentice during the second season after reading somewhere that some business schools started using it as teaching material to show business students the way business works.
At the time, I was working mostly in technology, and didn’t appreciate the business side of things very much. Then I started watching The Apprentice.
The more I watched it, the more I realized that the people competing for the job is not unlike the people I work with. They come in from different background, with their own strength and weaknesses. It’s refreshing to see people work together under a tight time-line, and try to outsmart each other.
The second season was great, I enjoyed it greatly. After it was over, I went out and bought the first season DVD, which I thought was as good as, if not better than the second season.
I got to see how people make good and bad decisions, how the lack of team cohesiveness is an indicator of success, how one person’s negative attitude can bring down the whole team, how people clashes because of their personality, how mis-communication is the root of a lot of these problem, and how a good leader behaves and handles things.
There is no one clear indicator of success, but a few that stood out are: good communication amongst team members, assigning goals and responsibilities according to people’s strength and preference, focus on the goal, individual loyalty to the team, the artful ways of resolving differences.
The show is not without its flaws. It’s too short, and because it’s for TV, it’s tend to be more sensationalistic than more down-to-earth. At the beginning of the second season, they started putting out these extended versions on Saturdays, which I found great. However, middle of the season, they stopped doing that. I guess it’s not making the numbers. Also, the show is focused on conflict and the problems during each task, which definitely entertains, but it’s important to also focus on what people do well and how they do them.
This year, Donald changed the ruled during the middle of the season by firing four people during one episode and two during last night’s episode. I thought these are quite dramatic measures which removed some potentially great candidates for the job.
Last night, both Brian and Marshawn got fired.
Now, I think Brian deserved it, it’s his decision to leave late for the important meeting that ultimately resulted in the team’s failure to meet client’s expectation. I’m not so sure about Marshawn. Her mistake was that she saw the tasks is going down the drain, and try to save her own behind by refusing to do the presentation. If I were her though, I would’ve tried extra hard on making a good presentation. You can not stay safe by shying away from challenges, instead, you need to face up the challenge, and do the best you can. If that’s not enough to get you hired, then fine, but at least you tried and you should be content with the result. But when you shy away from a task that is assigned to you, and you gladly accepted, you need to take up the challenge and deliver. In the worst case scenario, you will fail along with the rest of the team. However, if your team lose yet you did a phenomenal job, people will see that and decide it’s not your fault that the task failed, and you’ll look much better than the people who did not do so well.
I think Clay will be gone within couple of episode just because he doesn’t work well with the team. I think Randal will ultimately win this year’s contest. He’s smart, diligent, works well with people, communicate well, and has a high EQ. Alla may be the one to compete against Randal in the final tasks. The others will be gone during the interview process (by the executives).
This season, they didn’t have colorful characters like Sam or Raj. So far, this season is much better than season 3, which was a total disaster.
I hope you get to enjoy it as much as I do, may you can leave me a comment on who you think will win this year.
