The Apprentice 2014 - BBC1 Wednesday 9pm

[ZOK]

Makes no difference who is on whose team, the task is irrelevant.

[angel]

Makes no difference who is on whose team, the task is irrelevant.

The task is to implement their business plan, you couldnt be more wrong.

[ZOK]

He will have decided which one he's going with before the show is even filmed you plum! Get a clue, angel.

[angel]

You can post all the laughy smileys you like but what they do in the show influences his choices, he'll pick the one that can demonstrate how useful their idea will be via the task. A lot of the actual filming of it is standard tv faked (going into shops that have been pre-checked and so on) but no one tells Sugar what to do, and I have spoken with production staff briefly on this very topic. He hams it up for the cameras of course but he picks the one who demonstrates their worth, and this year theyre using the task for that. Im afraid you're completely wrong chum.

[Gabe]

To break it down, these are the reasons why, if you apply logic, Bianca will win:

BIANCA

1) Candidate - idea: Bianca has an idea that she is a good face for. People are not going to buy tights with Sir Alan's face on them. On the other hand, Bianca + Sir Alan is PR and branding gold.

2) Candidate - show: Once again, Bianca's face fits here. It's the show's tenth year, and non-white winners are suspiciously thin on the ground, so Bianca is a great PR win.

3) Business idea: Very strong. In spite of Geekette's thoughts above, hosiery isn't going anywhere fast. It's a product that you can sell to half the world's population, and the market is steadily increasing. Asia Pacific is the leading growth market, but even in the UK it's on the rise. Bianca has identified a gap in the market, and there is money to be made. Successful branding, PR and product quality / distribution are the defining factors here, which is strong potential for a Bianca / Sir Alan / BBC combo.

4) Problems highlighted by the show, and how you fix them: 'Bianca has no understanding of manufacturing'. Well, Sir Alan does, and I daresay he knows a few people who he can pick up the phone to if he feels that his own tights weaving chops aren't up to snuff.

Of course, logic rarely plays part in the proceedings here, so who knows!

I'm not sure Sir Alan is PR branding gold at all. I daresay he's seen as a bit of a relic these days.

I agree that her business idea is more a proper investment opportunity, though, and I also agree that Mark's plan doesn't really need him over any other city hot-shot. That said, sometimes you do have to wonder why a certain product doesn't exist - whilst there are those occasions it really is down to nobody thinking of it, I wonder if that's true is the hosiery-space. Still, it has immediate scope for growth, stockings would be a natural jump before expanding into the other stuff Bianca wanted to get in to.

Of course, the flip side to that is the overall market for hosiery is probably just as - if not more - crowded than Mark's plan, and with the only hook being that the shade will better match your skin-tone (and who knows how much actual demand there is for such a product), then it potentially makes Mark's plan look a bit safer.

I'd probably still take the punt on Bianca, though, because of potential to expand and grow as a fully-rounded business over time. I certainly don't think it's nailed-on, though.

[LyonJacques]

I'm not sure Sir Alan is PR branding gold at all. I daresay he's seen as a bit of a relic these days.

Sugartights!

[Wickedkitten]

Tights to match a darker skin tone may well be hard to come by (see note at bottom of page here) but it feels like a very niche market that already has some products in it. Approximately 3% of the UK population will have skin tones in this range, of which half are women, and not all of those will be adults. So lets be generous and say there is a potential market of 1% of the population; about half a million potential customers. Not all of whom will want to wear skin tone tights (they went right out of fashion over the last decade, although Google tells me that Kate Middleton has brought back some sales of American Tan), and if they do most will have an existing supplier. Tights are only worth at most a fiver a pair, so you'd have to turn over a large number of them to have a company with significant turnover, and I just can't see it being a big enough market in the UK, whilst in the USA and developing world there are no shortage of darker skin options already (and Sugar doesn't have as much reach anyway).

As to "psychopath" its a stupid word made to label people on the basis of very little evidence, but even the idea of "successful psychopaths" is controversial, and there is absolutely no evidence that this is necessary for success or that Mark shows any traits of the same.

Are you including Asian women in that 1%?

[ZOK]

I'm not sure Sir Alan is PR branding gold at all. I daresay he's seen as a bit of a relic these days.

I suppose that's why I said Bianca + Sir Alan, then. It's the combination of Bianca and the media attention that Sir Alan and The Apprentice bring that will make for the successful branding.

[ZOK]

Tights to match a darker skin tone may well be hard to come by (see note at bottom of page here) but it feels like a very niche market that already has some products in it. Approximately 3% of the UK population will have skin tones in this range, of which half are women, and not all of those will be adults. So lets be generous and say there is a potential market of 1% of the population; about half a million potential customers. Not all of whom will want to wear skin tone tights (they went right out of fashion over the last decade, although Google tells me that Kate Middleton has brought back some sales of American Tan), and if they do most will have an existing supplier. Tights are only worth at most a fiver a pair, so you'd have to turn over a large number of them to have a company with significant turnover, and I just can't see it being a big enough market in the UK, whilst in the USA and developing world there are no shortage of darker skin options already (and Sugar doesn't have as much reach anyway).

As to "psychopath" its a stupid word made to label people on the basis of very little evidence, but even the idea of "successful psychopaths" is controversial, and there is absolutely no evidence that this is necessary for success or that Mark shows any traits of the same.

You're making a fundamental mistake here, regardless of your back of a fag packet market reckonings. There is no reason why Bianca's brand would be restricted to only selling niche shades, if the brand becomes succesful.

[ZOK]

You can post all the laughy smileys you like but what they do in the show influences his choices, he'll pick the one that can demonstrate how useful their idea will be via the task. A lot of the actual filming of it is standard tv faked (going into shops that have been pre-checked and so on) but no one tells Sugar what to do, and I have spoken with production staff briefly on this very topic. He hams it up for the cameras of course but he picks the one who demonstrates their worth, and this year theyre using the task for that. Im afraid you're completely wrong chum.

angel, if you honesly believe that what you've written here somehow disproves my point, it explains a lot.

[FinalityJack]

Who has been the biggest arsehole this year (candidates only)?

I need some neutral opinions in order to award a prize in the a work sweepstake.

[SeanR]

Daniel.

[Mr Do 71]

WTF, no Pamela

[DC Lemon]

Where in the name of wank is Roisin?

[Wickedkitten]

I hope those tights are silk at that price point

[Majora]

It looks like Bianca is fucking this up to be honest.

[probeater]

Think the females lost by sending her team back, she could have done it via phone and saved a two hour journey. Typical Croydon attitude.

[Pekoe]

SEO company name where a website name already exists. Good research.

[SeanR]

It's *hurumph* marks *cough* pitch...

[Azrael]

Why didn't any of the fitties return? Mark picked pretty much all the clowns for his team.

[Kryptonian]

Loads of people haven't come back have they? I didn't realise so many were missing until I just looked it up.

[probeater]

Glad at the end result

[spork]

Poor Zok.

Sorry angel. I accept your wager. If Bianca wins, you must kill yourself. If Mark wins, I will kill myself.

[Azrael]

Wasn't expecting that tbh.

[JohnnyNolan]

Mark had the stronger final and on that deserved the win. Bianca has what sounds like a good idea, but her plan shifted constantly.

[Gotters]

Bianca had an idea, she didn't really have a plan.

She kept saying things like 'I know this industry' but she doesn't, she knows that she's gone to the shops looking for a product that is hard to find. doesn't mean you know how to develop it, get it to market and sell it profitable. If that was the case I'd be the worlds top authority on looking for chips that don't make you fat.

Mark on the other hand had a credible plan in a sector requiring lower startup costs, zero inventory & in a business he already does well in and understands. Plus he was totally consistent - she started the final task (in a business she claims to know well) pitching a high end product that is costlier than anything else on the market, and by the end of it was lobbing in the idea (made up on the hoof as she could see direction in the boardroom) that she'd make some cheaper ones too.

I found her very dull and impersonal too (that interviewer nailed it) - she is one of these new breed that are coming thru now and are a product of years of politcal correctness training & upbringing, I think anodyne is the best word for them, they are scared to show personality or originality and can be a solid, but dull bunch.

I'm sure Sugar would rather have gone with the Sarf London girl over the Aussie but don't think he had much choice looking at their proposals.

[JohnnyNolan]

Bianca was a disaster zone. As soon as the price was over a tenner, she had lost it.

Looking back over the tasks she had nowhere near the business brain of Mark, and I found her really blank and impersonal. If you'd have asked me before the interview round, or early in the series, I'd have guessed Roisin and Mark would be the finalists. In the end, I felt like Bianca's business plan wasn't so much better than Roisin's.

Nah, her plan was a million times better than Roisins. As much as I like Roisin her plan was only ever going to work if it was backed by one of the massive food manufacturers with millions to throw at creating a new brand to push on the public. It also stumbled on the fact that low calorie ready meals aren't exactly a new concept and might be hard to sell on a public that has been sold this concept for decades now. Roisin would have walked it in the old Apprentice format of the best contestant winning, but for all her skills her business plan was bonkers.

Bianca can across as intelligent and fairly calm, but the major flaw in her plan was that she was marketing her idea to herself. She did have the flaw of always thinking she was right and ignoring advise/feedback, but that's pretty standard for these type of people. She wanted to sell to the luxury market, with a product that suited mass market. I'd be shocked if someone in the tights industry isn't looking into this now. It's like when the make-up industry who ignored that all women weren't white until a decade or so ago suddenly noticed there's millions of other women they could sell too!

Mark is a good salesman. You could see him selling his company enough to make a profit. A safe but seriously dull investment.

[marcus]

As much as I like the interviews, the whole business plan aspect does a great job of rendering the preceding weeks as near obsolete. Fully expected Roisin to be in the final having sailed through the tasks, yet its all pointless because her plan was not up to scratch which could of been determined from the outset and saved weeks of bother. Sanjays business plan was wonderful though, that whole interview segment was TV gold.

[JohnnyNolan]

You would think the business plans would be vetted to see who actually gets in, but then that wouldn't make good TV. That said I'd kill for everyone at the interviews to do a Sanjay and have a business plan that's a couple of sheets of A4 paper which are half covered in doddles!

[Eighthours]

Solomon not Sanjay, you massive racists.