I thought siralan's advisors (other than Nick and Margaret) were pretty hideous actually, especially the property developer guy who's siralan's friend and like to prove it by calling him just 'Alan' at every opportunity. It was SUCH a basic mistake not to have done their research too, didn't they watch the last series and realise there were interviews at the end?
Interesting that Paul suddenly lost all credibility, I'd quite liked him until the last episode and the Big Issue comments were unforgivable.
I think Ruth is the stronger candidate in business terms but she can't keep her temper and I think that makes her a liability. Michelle was completely useless as a project manager in the Topshop task and I think she should have been fired earlier for that tbh: she sat around drinking Champagne with people who didn't buy anything and wasted so much time! And she shouldn't get the job because of her hinted-at 'hard' upbringing. If I had to pick one of them to work for me it would be Ruth I think. She's a good salesperson, focussed, energetic, I would imagine hardworking and fun too. She just needs to mellow slightly and learn to keep her temper/cool imo.
That Guardian article is brilliant, I winced at the arsehole comment too, it's impossible not to visualise isn't it?
And of COURSE it's about who will make good telly rather than choosing the 15 out of 10,000 who have any business skills at all!