The Apprentice 5 Weekly Performance Review, The Finale

Pepi: Pepi was in charge of all the signage. No one gets credit for good signs, but if there are ever errors in this area, it’s a big, big problem. Advantage, Gold Rush.

However, Pepi’s performance with Lenny in the locker room was a joke. Noting that there were different amounts of equipment in each locker yet doing nothing about it, including not following up on his observation, that’s just irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

It’s definitely a NEEDS IMPROVEMENT rating for Pepi.

Roxanne: After the meeting with Lys, Roxanne called it “your worst nightmare,” and added, “I was embarrassed to be sitting there.” However, she was never seen contributing! If you aren’t helping, you’re hurting.

We are told Roxanne was in charge of setting up the silent auction, but when there were no bids it was Pepi who was dispatched to drum up business. Why not Roxanne?

On the plus side, Roxanne also did a good job of making sure bids were acknowledged at the car auction.

However, almost all season long, Roxanne has been getting NO RATING or ratings based on insignificant actions. Here we are again.

Synergy

Focus this week was primarily on Sean and not so much on his team of Tammy, Andrea, and Tarek. Again referring to the Yahoo clips, we saw all three aides working very hard to create a successful event.

Tammy: Tammy’s main contribution seemed to be finding the missing music disk that was sitting on the table right in front of Sean. NO RATING.

Andrea: First off, I’m glad Andrea’s medical issues were not critical. I hope she gets a full, proper check-up, though.

Her dedication at getting back to the team quickly and not wanting to dwell on her personal issues when there was important work to be done speaks volumes.

Clearly not an area of her expertise, Andrea presented the car to be auctioned off. Maybe Tarek should have filled that role. Although she is weaker at face-to-face marketing, I thought she was certainly adequate in this task.

More than any other eliminated contestant, Andrea has benefited the most from her participation in these final episodes, because she showed all her earlier positive characteristics and added that she can work as a productive member of a team. Her rating is VERY GOOD.

Tarek: Tarek was given the task of setting up the SLS reception, and he performed it without much direction. That’s OK, competent people can run a basic reception without being micro-managed. It was apparent that he worked well with the sponsor and their message was well represented.

Tarek also gets a VERY GOOD rating.

Sean: One of the first things we saw Sean do this episode was to correct an oversight from last week and meet with the sponsor. Good move. In this meeting Sean made a couple of suggestions involving the WWF mascot (a panda), and when he sensed they were not being well received, he had the good sense not to push for them.

I’m not sure how WWF feels about this and I suspect they never knew until the show aired. It’s not up to Pontiac to dictate use of the WWF mascot! Just having their “panda” on stage waving and clapping doesn’t seem so vile, and I suspect had Sean pressed harder, this point could have been won.

Although I gave kudos to Tarek above for running a good reception, George was right to say that Sean ought to have been checking with him more often. Sean needed to briefly have his face in front of the SLS sponsor to assure them that all was going according to his plan.

I commented on this above, but Sean knew that it was a key point to meet Trump when he arrived, and he did so. Advantage, Sean.

The Pontiac rep felt they did not have sufficient signage, and told George and Andrea. Now, I did see the name “Pontiac” in great big letters behind the car on display, but if he felt they were under-represented, that’s the opinion that matters.

The pre-show party, auction, and concert all seemed to run very smoothly. Also, they were able to auction their cars off for more money than did Gold Rush.

In the boardroom Sean was firm but professional. He focused on his own positives. After so many over-emotional rants this season, it was a pleasure to see that basic communication skills have not been completely forgotten.

Bottom line – Trump got it right and Sean’s rating has to be… APPRENTICE!

Brian lives in Toronto, where he can be reached at uncle_bto@rogers.com. He spent a couple of decades working in middle management at The Prudential, primarily hiding behind the coffee machine to avoid his pointy-haired bosses. He’d like to hear your opinions and promises to respond to all serious email!

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