Apprentice Week 03: They Should have Hired Play Cole (or at least screened better)

Tonight's assignment on The Apprentice was to stage a retreat for Chevy dealers to introduce them to the new Tahoes. If it's still on your TiVo and you don't want to know what happened, you can turn away now.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
--
-


Okay. Trump fired Theresa tonight because she failed the final test of a losing project manager. She didn't bring the right person into the boardroom. She broad Lenny and Tarek. She complained that Lenny was too independent and screwed up the generator issue. She took Tarek in because of the nasty golf course he built, and she already smelled the blood in water when Carolyn , who runs Trump's golf businesses, criticized him for it.

But Trump felt Charmaine should have been brought in. She hired and paid the offensive comedian. She hired the models to talk about the Tahoe, but didn't get them trained. Since Theresa didn't bring Charmaine back to the boardroom, Trump fired Theresa.

Overall, it wasn't a terribly exciting episode, but there are some lessons to be learned.

First, keep your cool in business. Theresa let her anger at Lenny and Tarek get the better of her. She was so upset with them, she didn't see Trump and Carolyn turn against Charmaine. In fact, Theresa was so focused on Lenny and Tarek, she didn't seem to notice Charmaine's failures.

Second, as Trump said in his "business lesson" segment, have a plan B. Theresa was stubborn and didn't have one.

Third, again, don't interrupt and argue with Trump. Trump was trying to be funny suggesting that since Lenny is a funny guy, he should have been the comic rather than the outsider. Theresa kept arguing this point, and rather unconvincingly. Let Trump rant about silly things like that. Arguing with him on the little things like this will not help you.

Fourth, who is the insurance carrier for this show? They had sales people climbing a rock wall, (planning to) shoot skeet, and racing golf carts. They must have given their underwriter a heart attack.

Fifth, screen your talent. Know who you are hiring. It seams Charmaine either didn't hear a sample of the comedian's work, or lay down the ground rules very quickly. The comedian certainly Wasn't appropriate for this type of event. Charmaine should have known this. If she at least had laid down some rules in the begin with, maybe she could have withheld some of the fee. ***Warning Waring Warning ** Shameless plug ahead*** She should have just hired Play Cole. Play Cole can keep it clean, unlike the comic bits the editors chose to show.

I have some other thoughts after watching this episode.

There has either been some very clever editing, or Andrea really has no place in the hard nosed business world Trump works in. When Brent walked in the door, and they saw he didn't get fired last week, lots of folks were disappointed (I of course was not one of them). Andrea, however, ran away, locked herself in the bathroom and cried. Now, Brent may not be easy to get along with, but if that's how she deals with him, she is gonna be in big trouble down the road because it is going to be a lot tougher than selling stickers in California.

In many organization, Lenny would have earned a quick trip to HR. Two member of his team had to sit out the competition today because they were observing a Jewish holiday. Lenny criticized them and called for them to be fired because he claimed they took the easy way out. Lenny is also Jewish, and chose to compete, so he saw no reason why they shouldn't. Trump defended them however, saying simply, "That's life." Of course, George Ross was also not working due to the holiday. At that point Lenny should have gotten the hint and stopped.

Carolyn and Donald went after Tarek in the boardroom for the horrible putting green. Tarak failed to mention, however, that he tried to order actual turf to have a much better set up, but in early clips, it appears Andre shut him down.

Andrea frequently shot down Tarak's approach and ideas, despite putting him in charge of the creative development process.

NBC is really pushing the shows closer together. Years ago, TV stations scrunched the credits off to the side to make room for more promos. This week, however, as Deal or No Deal was ending and starting to roll credits, they actuallly begin The Apprentice underneath the credits. That way they can reserve more time for ads.

The most brilliant campaign this season is Excedrin. They run a contest where they ask viewers to choose the biggest pain of the week on The Apprentice. How can you choose just one?

When did a retreat become a few hours in a city park?

Keep your cool.
Have a backup plan.
Screen your performers.