Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Telly addicts

Da da da da da da da- THE APPRENTICE FINAL THREAD!

624 replies

BitOfFun · 17/07/2011 19:44

Come and grab a space on the sofa- but bring nibbles, wine or cake. And take a punt on the outcome while you sign in: I'm guessing Susie...

Smile
OP posts:
maighdlin · 17/07/2011 23:47

really glad tom won. had a google and this is another one of his previous inventions. a bpa free collapsing bottle for colic.

maighdlin · 17/07/2011 23:47

actually that website is a bit crap but you get the idea

TracyK · 18/07/2011 07:55

I'm surprised SA didn't get 3 of them to work together in the business. Tom to create, Helen to organise, Jim to sell. It wouldn't have cost him any more money 3 for the price of 1.

pommedechocolat · 18/07/2011 08:00

Helen and Jim's ideas were rubbish because there was no product. A service idea has to be absolutely amazing and be based around years of contacts and/or a product.
Product, product, product. I thought from the off they discounted themselves with their business plans so it was really Jim versus Susie because at least there was something there with them.
Agree with Nick in The Sunday Times - Susie in 5 years time could wipe the floor with all of them. 21 is very young.

braveandcrazy · 18/07/2011 08:47

Just read that Tom has got engaged Envy ! Hearts of middle aged women across the country are breaking as we speak...

catinthehat2 · 18/07/2011 09:37

Product, product, product. I thought from the off they discounted themselves with their business plans so it was really Jim Tom versus Susie because at least there was something there with them.

yes?

pommedechocolat · 18/07/2011 10:10

Yes, opps, sorry. Baby brain do as an excuse?

bigTillyMint · 18/07/2011 10:10

Just seen them on breakfast TV - I WAS in the gym - had a snurk when I saw Helen proudly championing Greggs sausage rolls. SHe obviously doesn't eat the products!

carriedababi · 18/07/2011 10:46

oh dear helens iea was lame and dull.

suprised alan sugar did make some quip that she would make a good wife

didn;t like the slashed skintight dress and hair extensions either

personally i wanted susie to win, as i really feel she deserves it the most ands really has something about her

i like tom and good to see a nice guy win for once, but i think he will fit around, andnot see anythiung through plus theres millions of back chairs out there, not as if it something unique an new

as for jim, good salesman, thats all really

bit of a dissapointing end really

housemum · 18/07/2011 13:29

Tom won because he is the sort of guy that might come up with the next Dyson-type revolution. Lord Sugar will have seen that he has the potential.

Helen was such a let down - couldn't believe her business idea. Shame, in previous years she would have been a winner I'm sure - reliable and workaholic, would probably have fitted into his business well.

But WTF was the "getting Britain back on its feet" about? With that opening line I was expecting training programmes, or some radical childcare plus education/skills/jobcentre plan - not a reminder service to make dentist appointments! That's a niche service for people with lots of money who can't be arsed to do it themselves, that's why there isn't a nationwide leader in that sector! For the rest of us it's a diary or an app on our phones.

rubyrubyruby · 18/07/2011 13:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MinnieBar · 18/07/2011 13:54

TracyK - that's what I said to DH last night, employ Tom for the ideas but employ Helen to manage him. Two-fer!

downtothesea · 18/07/2011 14:14

Did anyone else think it slightly odd that a graduate of a top Russell Group research university (Susan - UCL) defended her lack of knowledge on skincare product testing/approval by saying - 'I looked it up on the internet...' - makes you wonder what was in the stuff she was flogging on Greenwich market and what she was doing during the research methods part of her degree.

carriedababi · 18/07/2011 16:05

i might make my own natural skincare products and flog them down the market tooGrin

TracyK · 18/07/2011 16:14

For a grand a weekend - re bottle Lidl skin care and sell it for a fortune!!

Tom did say he chose his chair idea from 22 other ideas he had. I think SA just wanted Tom's brain and ideas - for £250k - he gets ALL his past, present and future inventions.

I'm sure there was a guy like Tom on Dragons Den....

MamaMary · 18/07/2011 19:11

Hello, just wanted to say - what a farce that Tom won. He failed most of the tasks and kept being brought back into the boardroom by the others. What was the point of the whole process? - they should just have looked at the CVs and business plans; no need for 12 tasks. In fact even Tom's business plan was rubbish - he was hired (or partnered) on the back of a previous invention, not the chair thing.

I actually like Tom, but he didn't deserve to win and in my view it made a nonsense of the whole process.

carriedababi · 18/07/2011 20:58

is that legal to do that, rebottle the lidl skincare?

quite right mamamary, helen kight aswell not bothered with the whole 12 tasks aswell, they could have looked at her idea at the start and said no go

tom should have been kicked out so many times it made a nonsense of the process!

fridascruffs · 18/07/2011 22:30

I'm not surprised Tom won because he'd been in the hotseat so often that Sugar had ample reason to fire him, and didn't. Personally I rated Tom because he made the right call a lot of the time, he just wasn't all bolshy about it amongst all the loudmouths. But if he had his own business, it would be his call, these tasks are not the real world really. However I think it WAS a bit of a swindle that Sugar wanted him for the nail file that's in Walmart- it did make it seem like no-one else really had a chance at all and they didn't know it. Helen shouldn't have won- yes she showed she could be incredibly organised, she can manage people etc, but to run a business you surely have to have something to sell. I thought she should've gone with starting a Mypy chain, that was a great idea, all ready made for her so she didn' have to be creative.
Susan was the only viable alternative but she will make millions on her own. Not a problem that Tom has handed over 50% of his past, present, future ideas to Sugar- he's proved he can't do it on his own, even with flashes of brilliance like getting to meet the Walmart buyer and convincing her. So all's well i reckon.

I still can't decide whether Jim is Darth Vader or if he was putting it on for the show.

downtothesea · 19/07/2011 07:17

TracyK - exactly what I thought - Lidl or Poundland, 99p shop? Re-bottle and sell on for a fiver. Perhaps that's why she wasn't concerned about product safety - a real manufacturer had already paid for the testing!
Her business plan must have been based on 4,500 other 'students' re-bottling cream in their bedsits every Friday night and whizzing it down the local market on Saturday.
Carriedababi - is it legal? Well, I'm sure Susan checked it out on the internet...
What's this about her teaching herself English too... she was in Australia from age 7 and the UK from 12, both English speaking countries with fairly good schools and quite capable of teaching a child English (she didn't think her teachers helped her at all?) - don't buy her story at all either.

midnightservant · 23/07/2011 22:35

But...but...but Helen's idea was not a concierge service was it? I think they got it all wrong, those experts, because they do not live in a world like that inhabited by most of Mumsnet. Her idea was not aimed at people who want to book the Ivy, but at those people whose posts I read who are trying to do it all with no time, like the solicitor folk who go back to work p/t with very little kids cos otherwise it would be the end of their career :(

They are more likely to want to book Pizza Hut or somewhere, and she doesn't need a contacts book because the clients would already have the contacts. Blimey, just to ring a utility co I set aside a morning, thank god don't have to work as well. With loads of disabled people being found fit for work, I think the franchising bit would work. Karen was the only one who seemed to have an inkling that Helen's idea was based on her great strength, organisation.

The dentist texts you - hah! Clearly that bloke doesn't have to organise dentist appointments for kids as well. And poor Jim, I bet we'd all think his salary was quite high, how many 90K or whatever jobs are there if you live in Northern Ireland, eh?

Disappointed that Lord S is focussing on the nail-file, not the chair, as well.

Really hope someone sees this and replies.

midnightservant · 23/07/2011 22:41

And I just wonder whether it's not Helen that's the workaholic, but the CEO to whom she's PA.

midnightservant · 23/07/2011 22:51

Nor was Helen's idea a reminder service, as I understood it - more like a virtual PA for single working parents or families where both partners work.

ImperialBlether · 24/07/2011 15:41

The thing is that Helen must have performed a kind of concierge duty as part of her PA role, but she didn't bring that in as useful experience. Alan Sugar said that that sort of job is all about contacts and she didn't say that she had the contacts via her job.

Rubbish idea though. And as for 'getting the nation on its feet again' - what the hell? I was expecting something really massive and then she said 'we'd phone the dentist's for you.'

But yes to the person who said Sugar should have employed Tom for the ideas and Helen to make them work. Bit of an insult that he didn't offer her a job, really, just said her employer should promote her.

midnightservant · 24/07/2011 17:49

See my comment about contacts in my first post above.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page