The Apprentice 3, Episode 14: Teed Off

The two arrive in the boardroom. Trump asks Tana how Alex did. She says he was just okay, but not great, and not a great seller. Alex says that the trouble with Tana as a leaders was that they didn’t focus on their objective and that she was terrible at delegating. For example, no one was in charge of marketing. George asks, with only two people, just how much delegating she should have had to do. Alex says that he did signs and flyers, and that the reason they lost was because they sold t-shirts, not art. I’d say that was a huge part of the problem. Tana says that it honestly never occurred to them to contact the artist’s collectors.

Tana thinks that the T-shirt was great, and says that by adding the beads, they were able to sell them at a higher price point. She is confident that the beads made a difference, and adds that if they’d sold just 20 more shirts, they would have won. Carolyn says that they spent too much time on design, not enough on marketing.

Alex says that he told Tana they needed a marketing plan, but that she just wanted to focus on design. Tana argues that she knew Alex had done marketing in previous tasks, so she thought he knew what he was doing. Trump asks who was in charge of marketing. Tana says Alex was, but Alex says no one was. He sends them to the lobby so he can talk to George and Carolyn. As they walk through the door, Tana says quietly that they didn’t like her beads.

George says he thinks Alex showed more fired. Carolyn says that Tana is great at sales and is a very nice person. Why do I think that wasn’t exactly a compliment? Carolyn adds that she can’t see Tana running one of Trump’s companies.

Tana and Alex return. Tana explains that the other team won because they emailed the artist’s fans. Trump asks her why she’s not defending herself, and she says very clearly and simply that she blames Alex, because he was in charge of marketing.

Alex then tells them about their field trip to Staten Island for the Beadazzler. As you might imagine, Trump, George, and Carolyn think Tana is nuts for going that far for beads. Tana tries to explain, fairly weakly, why it was so important to get these particular beads. Carolyn asks if they ever stopped to think that this was a diversion, not important? It’s five little beads. Tana maintains that they made a difference.

So, why didn’t they market to the customers like Magna did? Tana says that the idea “just never hit our brains.” She thinks she and Alex are equally at fault, and Alex agrees. Trump tells Tana that working for him is not about putting beads on shirts – can she handle it? Tana says she’s not intimidated by anyone, and that she’s started an array of successful businesses. She may be nice, but she’s a fighter.

Then, Tana does some fighting by saying that she has a better record than Alex does. As a matter of fact, one of the times she won as project manager, it was against Alex. That’s true – it was in the American Eagle challenge, for those of you keeping score. Trump asks Alex about his record. Alex says he’s won twice, lost once as project manager. Trump says no, Alex has lost as project manger twice. He’s right - Alex lost the American Eagle challenge and the Staples challenge. Trump can’t believe Alex can’t remember his own record. Alex says that after five consecutive losses – and I missed the rest because I cannot believe he was so dumb as to bring up the fact that he’s lost five times in a row. He then goes on about some football team that Trump bought, and I lost interest.

Trump says that Tana had no trouble remembering her own record. Alex hasn’t won, Trump adds, since the graffiti task eight weeks ago. Trump says that Tana was terrible in this task, but that she has a good record. Plus, Tana came up with most of the ideas and did most of the selling while Alex seemed to sit back and wait for her to fail. Because of that, Alex is fired.

This wasn’t an easy firing, and I really thought Tana was in trouble. She made some really huge mistakes in this task. Not thinking to use the artist’s fans was a huge misfire, but Alex was equally responsible. And Tana’s field trip to Staten Island for rhinestones was a huge waste of time. As Trump pointed out, surely they could have found beads that would work somewhere in Manhattan. However, Alex talked about wanting a marketing plan, but he didn’t actually come up with any ideas. But even more importantly, Tana has a solid track record, whereas Alex has been pretty shaky lately. You can review the track records of all of the final four candidates right here in my final four article. It probably would have helped Alex!

In his cab ride home, Alex says that he realizes now that the win/loss record is important to Trump, though it’s not important to him. He adds that he can’t wait to go home and get to work, because now he has a ton of business ideas. He feels “released” and is ready to get started.

Next week, the final three candidates go through interviews, and in the first half hour, the final two will be determined. Go, Tana!

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. She can be reached with any comments at betsywasser@gmail.com

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