The Apprentice 4 Weekly Performance Review, Episode 5

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: You folks might be getting tired of reading this line, but… “Team Excel performed well again this week.” They identified what the major components of the project were and then delivered them all.

With the exception of Markus, again they were cohesive and supportive. Too bad this unit will be broken up next week, it’s a pleasure watching them succeed.

Adam, Clay, Mark: NO RATING for these guys this week.

Brian: Brian was correct to marginalize Markus. Too bad Jen didn’t do the same with Kristi. He was also correct to pull Markus aside and try to get some work out of him, but it was too late in the day to have any real benefit – they were already in cleanup mode!

Brian recovered his mispronunciation of the movie name well, and most importantly, didn’t repeat the error.

In his presentation, he got overwhelmed with the sound of his own voice. It wasn’t as bad as Jennifer’s presentation, but it didn’t come across as very polished, either.

Bottom line, there were enough positives for Brian this week to get a GOOD rating.

James: James has taken Kendra’s idea of remaining invisible to a new level. As the teams are reformed next week, I hope someone remembers to pick him. NO RATING

Josh: It has to be frustrating to see Markus slacking off, but Josh made a big mistake in timing when he walked up to Markus and Brian to dump on Markus for not helping sweep the floor. He should have sensed the conversation he walked in on ought not be interrupted. Also, the tone of his attack was emotional and not very professional. NEEDS IMPROVEMENT.

Markus: It seems Markus has a hearing problem… when he hears something he doesn’t want to, he pretends he didn’t hear it and just shuffles away.

His work ethic is SO embarrassing that I must assume he’s the victim of a tough edit. However, I must rate on what we’re shown, so I’ll call his work HIGHLY UNSATISFACTORY.

Capital Edge Look out Ulong, you have competition for the not-so-coveted “worst team” award. The float was not good, nor was Jenn’s presentation. Worse, internal bickering and bad planning caused them to divert energies into unproductive actions. Last week, I wrote a-plenty about the importance of showing the client’s logos, and Jenn was the only one who seemed to know that. Further, later in the boardroom it was specifically pointed out to the ladies that their branding was insufficient.

Yet, they refused to learn the lesson. Did they think Trump was kidding? Minimally, the movie name should also have been on both sides of the float.

Alla: Alla was one of the three who had to finish off the float. In the boardroom, she correctly identified that Jen did start out well, and that the presentation was terrible. I’ll repeat her rating of SATISFACTORY from last week.

Felisha: Felisha was another who worked feverishly at the end to complete the float. That was good.

However, Felisha made one major mistake. Although Jen’s phone call came at a bad time, Felisha just hung up on her. That act alone earns her a NEEDS IMPROVEMENT rating.

Marshawn: Marshawn was the first one to speak out against Kristi in the boardroom. She also had a good sounds bite, saying, “Negativity is Kryptonte.” That’s exactly where this team is failing!

Marshawn is clearly the best of this bad lot, and her rating is GOOD.

Randal: Poor Randal wasn’t too happy about changing teams. His new team is so messed up, even vaunted Randal couldn’t fix it in one week. In fact, he can’t actually define the problem yet.

Jen was close to defining the problem – too many of them don’t treat each other with the same level of respect they demand from each other. But the respect Randal has from both teams was obvious. I give him a rating of GOOD.

Rebecca: Rebecca was a little less visible this week, and for her, that’s probably good news. She seemed to be fitting in better, so this week I rate her as SATISFACTORY.