The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Weekly Performance Review, Episode 5 – Marketing Buzz

Pre-Boardroom, Surya talked over the hedge to Derek, resulting in Boardroom backup from Aimee. He sure got his help. In the Boardroom, had Aimee not been covering Surya’s back, he likely would have been going home. I applaud the game play.

Surya’s oral skills in the Boardroom seemed pretty strong. Buoyed by Aimee’s support, he ran over Aaron convincingly.

Now, I think Aaron was right in that I also see Surya as a fine theoretician who doesn’t perform as well when it comes down to actually implementing decisions. A bigger concern would be that although Trump is still in his corner, his team was very ready to throw him under the bus. Maybe next week he should volunteer as PM and hope his direction can win the day. I think it’s looking gloomy for Surya and his rating is UNSATISFACTORY.

Aaron: Aaron got off to a bad start this week, admitting to his team that he was uncomfortable sitting at Trump’s right and afraid to interrupt him. In the game, do not show such weakness to your competition.

Further, this theme was replayed ad nauseum all night long. It was actually my intention to tell you how many times Trump reminded Aaron that he didn’t speak in the last Boardroom, but they came so fast and furious, I couldn’t do it. Counting all the rapid-fire attacks in this Boardroom, I’d guess it was about eight. Any time Trump says something negative about you that often, you know your game is almost over.

There was quite a litany of shortcomings. Sean correctly pointed out the lack of signage, a big problem in this low-traffic area where it was necessary to attract the attention of passersby. Resource allocation was again weak, as no one seemed to understand their role. The ineffective bulk sales team ought to have been recalled sooner. Further, Aaron should never have said aloud, “I hate sales.” That’s demoralizing for his team to hear. All these things combined to spell a total disaster.

Aaron should not have felt a need to get specific instruction regarding Trump’s expectations of his henchmen in the Boardroom. This is season six and there’s been dozens of previous examples, plus in this season, on two occasions already Aaron has personally witnessed the phenomena.

As the Boardroom started, Trump said he’d rather joke about Tim and Nicole instead of listen to Aaron talk about the task. Ouch. The writing was on the wall.

One thing we saw on Yahoo was that Aaron said there was a general brainstorming session to generate marketing ideas between himself, Surya, and James. At that point, Sean placed responsibility for marketing decisions squarely on Aaron’s shoulders. If, as Surya said (and Nicole agreed), Aaron did not relinquish control of those marketing tasks, then he definitely lied in the Boardroom. Unforgivable.

I wonder why he brought Nicole back to the second Boardroom. He should have been assertive and insisted only Surya need accompany him. It was a chance to be decisive, but the opportunity was lost.

Aaron has what I think is a unique distinction in the game. Aaron was essentially fired for acts performed in a previous episode and not his horrible performance as PM. For the latter reason, Aaron gets an UNACCEPTABLE rating from me.

In Conclusion:

Did Trump make the right decision? Well, I hate to see the PM always blamed in this game, but I think Trump is getting tired of the teams ganging up on an outsider and dictating how his game will play out. Tough call, but I cannot disagree with how things turned out.

Here’s a tidbit I meant to include in my last article. Recently, the production company for The Apprentice announced that they are looking at other cities in which to base future versions of the show. Some might consider this a spoiler, so to see which three cities received consideration, drag your cursor between the brackets. Don't do that if you prefer not to know. [ Trump says the television executives are talking about Miami, Las Vegas, and Chicago as possible candidate sites for the show! ]

I’ve had some interesting correspondence in this last week. One reader named Matt has put forth some interesting ideas. The first was about the way the teams were picked. For the most part, Frank picked emotional idea-generators who aren’t big on structure, while Heidi picked the organized, confident but generally non-threatening types. Reader Matt’s second thought was about how amusing it would have been if Marisa had jumped in after Heidi fake-volunteered to change teams and said, “Mr. Trump, it appears Heidi will be the one changing teams.” Also, Matt suggested that although some simple math showed bulk sales probably weren’t required to win the task last episode, they did set up the kind of big win that impresses Trump.

I can add, the webisode showed that more planning went into the idea of doing bulk sales than Tim suddenly getting a burst of inspiration in the store and bolting for the van.

That’s all for this episode. Please feel free to let me know what your thoughts are at the address below. I hope you like the new format that also incorporates Yahoo-based information. I know I do! Watch for RNO’s recap of it all, coming soon!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Apprentice articles:

Brian lives in Toronto. He spent a couple of decades working in middle management at The Prudential, primarily hiding behind the coffee machines in generally unsuccessful attempts to avoid his pointy-haired bosses. He can be reached at uncle_bto@rogers.com and would be willing to correspond regarding your opinions of all things Apprentice-oriented.

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