The Apprentice: Los Angeles Weekly Performance Review, Episode 11

The Task:
This week was another odd task: to design a piece of advertising that would be distributed with the Sunday L.A. Times to promote mouthwash. The task winner was decided by the subjective opinions of the sponsor executives, never a favorite method of mine. Worse still, there were no special twists to the task, which is only worthy of note because we’re so close to the end for such a straightforward task.

And at the end of the article, please take a minute or three and complete my brief opinion survey! Results will be tabulated until Sunday and reported in the next article.

Team Kinetic:
All week I was wondering how Kristine and Erica would feel if Nicole convinced Trump to send Tim to their team. As if they would want to have all that distraction going on all around them! Fortunately for both them and us, it did not come to pass.

One of the strongest advantages of Kinetic’s brochure was its non-standard shape. Alas, whoever suggested that the shape of their brochure mirror the shape of the product is unknown to us. Too bad, it would increase their rating.

Heidi: Heidi stepped up to be the first applicant to become PM for a second time. I commend her excellent timing, as this was a great game-play move. With only a couple of weeks to go before the teams are dissolved, she can strengthen her record and remind Trump why he admired her so greatly back when the game first started.

This week all the Kinetic women were models in the photo-shoot. That was great for their egos I’m sure, but Heidi ought to have stayed behind the scenes, keeping an eye on things. By deploying all resources on one task, had they fallen behind it would put other tasks at risk.

Heidi noted that they might get some flak for having only young female models for what is a universal product. I give her credit for figuring that out on her own, but when they won the task they luckily never had to defend themselves on this one.

I can credit Heidi for not responding to Nicole’s inquiry about brochure shape too quickly. That led to a winning component of their solution

Heidi also gave a reasonably good oral presentation, which left a positive impression on the sponsors. The web clips show the first couple of test runs were pretty sad, but she brought it together in the end.

In Arrow’s Boardroom, Heidi did a good job of turning the heat on the boys. She even cued Trump into delivering one of his idiotic “the philosophy of losing” rants on them. Well done, again.

After hiding in the weeds for a few weeks Heidi was a major player this week, so I’ll assign her a well-deserved EXCELLENT rating. Her briefly tarnished star shines brightly once again!

Kristine: I don’t have anything specific for Kristine this week, though her contributions and efforts seemed to mirror the others. Therefore, Kristine’s rating is SATISFACTORY.

Nicole: I don’t have much to say about Nicole either this week, as the continuing saga of her social life dominated her screen time.

When pressed for input on the ridiculous Showmance, Nicole’s mom quietly advised her, “You know what? Just worry about the tasks right now.” Ha! I applaud Nicole for seeking such intelligent council, but doubt her ability to act upon it.

Nicole still gets her UNACCEPTABLE rating. No way is she going to be the Apprentice. But her mom gets an EXCELLENT rating! There’s no controlling DNA (yet), but it’s too bad some of those “common sense” genes couldn’t have found their way to Nicole.

Arrow Corp.:
I didn’t think Team Arrow did as badly as the reactions indicated. For example, Trump called it, “A piece of crap,” and, “One of the worst jobs I’ve ever seen.” I can’t explain why so many saw that group picture under a heading of, “Morning Breath Affects Everyone,” and insisted the people were yawning. Also, it tied directly into the last picture, where the group is happy to be together. However, there is also no doubt in my mind that Kinetic’s product was better. ”Fix” that picture somehow so it’s clear beyond discussion, they still lose.

One other thing I noticed was that in stark contrast to Angela’s tearful goodbye from Kinetic last week, the rest of Arrow Corp had already turned the corner to go back to camp before Tim came out to meet his taxicab. I wonder if, for all his skills, Tim will be invited back to take part in the final task? I’m guessing he will be excused from that task.

Frank: After a couple of good efforts, Frank didn’t do so hot this week. But there were still some good moments. One was when, probably paraphrasing or quoting Trump, in front of the team Frank said to Tim, “They are our enemy. Crush them!” That’s an opinion Ivanka backed up in the Boardroom. Probably Frank’s finest moment was his inspired hiring of a diversified cast. At this point in the show, I thought Frank was sailing along nicely.

Where Frank did fall down was by not taking full control of the filming, and in not offering more exacting instructions to their subjects. As the one who hired them he knew they were quite inexperienced and would need specific, detailed direction.

I think the others were pretty desperate to criticize Frank over suggesting that the “yawning” picture didn’t convey what they wanted it to. It turned out he was right, and was named as one of the primary reasons for their loss. Better to spend the time getting the concept executed right than worrying about trivialities like color choices.

It’s a fine line between a passionate reaction and an overly emotional one, and Frank crosses that line too often. This week, Frank’s emotional overreaction to being told it was too late to be resolving the basic problem was immature, including his subsequent ignoring of Stefani. Mind you, in his reaction to having Tim belittle his season-long contributions as “helpful errands” Frank showed more control than I might have. His image rose when both Stefani and James came staunchly to his defense over that point.

Frank gets a SATISFACTORY rating this week, however, if he lasts long enough to face the interviewers, I think he’s in big trouble.

James: James didn’t show us much this week. He let Tim run with his flawed approach when perhaps it ought to have been challenged or overruled.

The timeline seems a little odd this week. At 7:40, Frank was denied the opportunity to shoot additional photos, and next thing we find out 12 hours later is that they worked all night and no one has really slept. Questions must be asked: Did it take them all night to compose their product? Was Tim that over-focused on details such as the color of an arrow? Was James monitoring time and tasks, or were they just flying by the seat of their pants again? We’ll never know, but I suspect James lost control of this project to Tim.

James really seemed freaked out when Frank expressed doubt about how clearly their photo shoot expressed their message. It seems to me that a few weeks back, James was the one accused of revisiting the concept at the eleventh hour, so maybe that’s why he was a little touchy about it?

Pre-Boardroom, the sponsors gave positive feedback about James to The Donald, and that never hurts. Then in the Boardroom, James defending his position well enough that Trump wasn’t even considering him to be fired. James’ rating is therefore SATISFACTORY.

Despite his self-professed marketing skills, I’m not seeing a ton of innovation from James. With Tim’s elimination following on the heels of banishing Nicole, James has really put himself on the spot for creative thinking next week. Should they fail to win, he may find himself in an indefensible position in the Boardroom.

Stefani: Stefani performed solidly once again. One positive thing she did was to try and calm Frank down when his attempts to change the project at the eleventh hour were rebuffed. As aside, her silently stunned reaction to Frank walking away was amusing – I don’t think people often ignore Stefani so completely.

Stefani’s presentation was very polished once again. She got a positive review from the sponsor, plus Boardroom support from her teammates. Praise from every corner!

Stefani made sure Tim knew she was the one who remembered to bring him clothes for the presentation. A Yahoo clip showed James brought that up at length in the Boardroom, and he even named her as Arrow’s most valuable team member.

Also on a Yahoo Boardroom clip, Trump commented that he never heard her speak until last week, and says, “I was amazed.” Whatever… but, since Trump is the one doing the hiring, Stefani needs to impress him and not just James. It’s probably too late now, but increasing her presence in front of The Donald would be my suggestion to Stefani. I fear she’s played UTR too late into the game.

So, mixing in all those factors, Stefani gets a GOOD rating. Next week, we should finally get to see Stefani lead the team. We’ll find out if she has the leadership skills that have proved so rare this season or, like Kristine and Frank before her, will she be more effective as a minion?

Tim: Again Tim started the episode in a tough spot, after learning how he got trashed in a Boardroom he didn’t even attend. In the unpleasant discussions that ensured, his loyalty was brought into question and although I may applaud his truthfulness, he never said the words his teammates needed to hear from him. I think James exaggerated the “distraction” factor this generated in the Boardroom, but I believe the team was beginning to have significant doubts about Tim.

Tim’s response was to get a little defensive and a little desperate, ramming a fair but failing concept down his teammates throats. Spending all night editing is unforgivable too. And really, excluding those pesky nightmares, who ever shows up to work wearing their PJs? At least they didn’t have feet in them, or a trap door in the back. Dress for success, not for naptime!

When Tim commented, stuttering, that he couldn’t finish a sentence in the Boardroom, he needed to use his vocal skills and his quick wits to take control of that situation. That’s not easy to do, but I thought Tim was one who could pull it off.

I actually don’t have much else to say about Tim, because I’ve been ranting about his unprofessionalism over the Showmance for several weeks now.

By the time the Boardroom was underway, Tim had acquired the twin labels of “disloyal” and “disruptive.” Tim’s rating must be UNACCEPTABLE.

Several readers have written to say that Tim is one of two great idea men this season (Derek’s the other, but over fewer episodes), and I completely agree. However, even as late as in his post-elimination interview on Yahoo, after first alluding that Nicole may have been a distraction, he then denies that it was a factor. It was.

In Conclusion:
Lat week, when I said it was “the WORST episode ever,” several of you write in to remind me of what you felt were even bigger messes. Gosh, thanks for the memories! This week was a big improvement. I think we got all the confirmation we need that Heidi will be the winner.

Did Trump make the right decision? I’m not sure. Why did James get extra credit for PM-ing well for a couple of weeks, yet Tim was trashed for a rare substandard concept over a whole season of good ideas?

Lastly, here’s a link to my survey It’s just for fun and won’t take you long to complete, so why not give it a try?

That’s all for this week, so please feel free to let me know what your thoughts are at the eAddress below. Next week – survey results!

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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