Here's what I don't understand about The Apprentice...

[Tilllly]

Do they really get called at 4am?
And have 20 minutes to get ready?

Cos they seem very well groomed for 20 mins

I don't think they are allowed calculators.

Oh please tell us who!

It is truly terrible... but I love it!!

Yes, but why?!! They’re everywhere. They use computers, latest graphic design software, cameras for shooting videos, phones for calling up shops/suppliers. Just seems silly they can’t have a calculator when doing costings. Everyone would use a calculator at work when doing costings like that.

What I don't ever understand is why no one even looks at the business plans until near the end. So then there's the big disappointment when the really good candidate has no idea at all about what 'profit' or 'turnover' even means...and their plan is something feeble like expanding their cheese business...

Best quote ever!!!

I think it's telling how sugar gives zero shits about repeat business in the tasks. Just sell as many as possible and stitch up the customer if needs be.

A business ethics task would actually be good rather than the same task (design something, make it, sell it) every week

Joe - the james bond of business - said on
instagram the other day that they do get 20 minutes to be ready but once ready it takes another hour to get them all mic’d up and sorted for the task to start so it’s usually about 1 hour 30 before they leave for the cars.

Of course they don't get ready in twenty minutes

It would take all the women a lot longer than that to get four inches of makeup caked over their faces

I watch this with dd9 and she doesn't even believe they only have 20 mins 😂

And why do they all dress like it’s 2007?

Why do they do market research after having made a product?

And this is why I no longer watch it. All the contestants just seem carbon copies of each other. You never get 6, middle aged, mid sized, mums on there do you? Just young and fake (fillers/lashes/nails/teeth etc). Same tasks every year, It’s just getting boring now. I’m really surprised it’s still going tbh

I agree about the lack of tech usage for totally normal things, it's so outdated. If I am researching and then sourcing something, I use the internet and then Google maps to find the place that sells it, like most normal people. Alan Sugar is such a business dinosaur and this ridiculous ban just highlights that.

This winds me up so much.

Yes. This.

I understand this is a made-for-tv entertainment format, but surely these very stupid details should be sorted.

What’s worse is when the market research is used as an argument later in the show - as if the participants had had an chance to act on it after!

Do they choose their own clothes? I wonder if they're "styled"?

This winds me up every year. they’ve been told it’s shit and now they have to pretend it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
Surely after the market research they need to go back to the drawing board and change things to show you can adjust your business to changing environments.

Same. Each year I watch a couple of episodes and then give up because it's been the same for over a decade, same tasks and everything.

I don't understand this either....or suggest 2 ideas and ask which is better!

One bloke was doing press ups when they were getting ready....surely if you only have 20 min thee not time for that sort of showboating thing?

Also the tasks are deliberately short to trip them up and set them up to fail, or look stupid although some might have a head start in this area In real life a designer/creator of a cartoon would allow themselves time to give characters hands and feet!!

And Alan Sugar’s bullying routine in the boardroom just sounds and looks tired and dated now.

Every year I hope they'll have changed the format, and every year they don't.
I don't know why I watch it - the whole thing is ridiculous - but I do.

It's the showing of the hand of the person who answers the phone when Siralan asks for the candidate to be admitted to the board room that gets to me.

The graphic designer working on the Faye and Femi cartoon did a proper job on that team this week.

I imagine it wasn’t the first time they’d worked with incompetent, indecisive clients but I bet they would normally deliver a slightly more refined end product

I expect the brief is “do only what they tell you to do, don’t make helpful suggestions, try not to laugh…….”

Its the shopping/ treasure hunt task this week, always a favourite, when you realise six “clever” people can barely read and have really poor general knowledge, and can’t get themselves from a to b even in a chauffeur driven car . I would make them take public transport if I was Lord S. Though Karen and Tim could have cars, I am not really mean.

I also love it when they beat the supplier down by 20p and high five themselves on the way out, only to discover the other team found the same item in a discount store on the reduced shelf.

fun fact :my DD was driving along the A406 one day and got all excited because she realised she was driving behind AMS 001. Six degrees of separation or what?

Very bored of this programme now. It’s repetitive and predictable.

It’s never really recovered from the loss of Margaret.