Author Topic: The Apprentice  (Read 178 times)

biglouis

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The Apprentice
« on: Dec 11, 2019, 05:36:06 PM »
Every year I enjoy this program and the (often) hopeless competitors with considerable amusement.

They are, as my grandma would say, all fur coat and no knickers (a Liverpool expression meaning all show).

Even Lord Sugar appears to have forgotten a fundamental thing about business which is that 95% of the action goes on behind the scenes.


If you are marketing any kind of good or service then it has to be sourced, researched, branded and prepared before you can sell it.  The best sales people in the world will have a hard time trying to generate a profit and persuading customers to enter if Tesco etc has no goods on the shelves. Someone has to pack, price etc the stock and stick it on the shelves.

However on this loony show the people who are in the kitchen/back room preparing and pricing the stock or planning the service are regularly accused of "hiding" and "not contributing".  So when Lord Sugar says "I havn't seen much of you" in the task he may well be talking to someone who has been doing essential back room/back office work.  And without that work the "glib and gobby" salespeople could not show off or be noticed.

Furthermore none of the people who have been accused of "hiding" have ever held their own in the boardroom and argued back strongly to this effect.

Yet some of them claim to be running a business.  ??? ??? ???
Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools.