The Apprentice 4 Weekly Performance Review, Episode 4

This series of articles primarily focuses on the business actions of each player on The Apprentice. Toward that end, I’ll be giving a capsulated performance review of each applicant.

Excel:

Team Excel performed well again this week. They communicated with each other well, freely exchanging original and winning ideas. Keep this up and Trump will be forced to shuffle the teams on you! I note that every member contributed in a positive way to the design of the character and/or the campaign, and I give each of them credit for that.

Since this was primarily an episode about the other team, there weren’t a lot of activities to rate… but here’s what I have for them.

Adam and Randal: These two guys developed the winning jingle. GOOD.

Brian and James: I think I see Brian and James in the group shots and in the rare confessional, and it seems they are contributing positively to results, but I just don’t have specifics for them… again. Playing baseball doesn’t count, unless they’re hiring for the company softball team. That’s sure not why I played! (Maybe you have to be better than I was?) NO RATING – guys, get some face time!

Clay: Team outcast Clay’s dictatorial style annoyed most of the team, notably but not limited to James, Randal, and Josh. Like Bobby Cox in Atlanta, his main talent seemed to be introducing just the right amount of pine tar into the gears to gum up a finely working machine. “Fear of losing” isn’t my favorite motivational speech, either.

At least he knew the importance of having a “DQ” symbol on the belt. His up-tempo presentation would have been a plus, except he had to read much of the script.

Frankly, from what little we saw of him I have no real idea why his team gave him an exemption for next week. However, I’ll accept their recommendation and give him a rating of GOOD.

Josh: Josh was low key as well this week, though he did express in a cameo how displeased everyone was with Clay as a leader. NO RATING.

Mark: In the ultimate definition of taking one for the team, Mark stepped up and agreed to be the model in the girl-genie suit. GOOD.

Markus: It seems Markus has learned that there’s times it’s best not to speak. This week, he held his tongue when it was just Clay that was attempting to shut him down. Good for Markus! Further, although it annoyed Clay, he knew it was important to schedule time to allow some planning for a meeting with an outside agent, and to not just show up unprepared. GOOD.

Capital Edge Wow, a train wreck again! There were so many internal problems with Toral, it became an unnecessary draw on the team’s energy, time and attention. It showed in their ill-planned and implemented scheme that featured a character with the lame name of “Zip” whose construction was clumsy and design would only appeal to young kids.

This whole series seems to be about product placements at times, what with all the branding associated with the challenges each week. The omission of the Dairy Queen logo was a fatal error – companies that spend millions on an advertising campaign like to see their logos prominently featured.

Since everyone was a part of at least one of those things, only one person gets a better rating than “SATISFACTORY.”

Alla: We didn’t see a lot of Alla this week, but she was in on the important discussions and key activities, even though the end results were not very good. Her questioning of Toral regarding should Alla feel silly if she wore the costume… spot on. I feel generous so I’ll give her a rating of SATISFACTORY.

Kristi: In the opening discussion about Toral, Kristi took a lead role in forcing Toral to admit she hasn’t been giving a full effort, and letting her know that this was unacceptable to the rest of the team.

She was also willing to take one for the team and wear the costume when Toral refused. I saw Trump on SNL in the chicken suit, and it wasn’t demeaning, it made him seem like more of a normal guy.

Kristi also took a lead role in berating Toral for not wearing the costume. However, saying “I’m so done with her, it’s over,” into a conference call is not any way to behave, so her overall rating is SATISFACTORY.

Felisha: Felisha is lucky this was Toral’s week to crash and burn or she’d have been the one going home. She made a lot of mistakes this week, including approving the omission of the logo and the iffy character/costume of “Zip.”

The weekly Trump lesson was “maximize potential,” and I think that’s Trump’s editors at work, trying to imply that Toral was untapped potential. Perhaps she was, but a higher power than that of a weekly PM was going to be needed to draw that potential out of Toral. I do not lessen Felisha’s rating for this reason.