Episode 7 Performance Reviews
The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Episode 7 Performance Reviews by Brian Towers -- 03/08/2007 Kinetic lost two people after the Lexus task, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everybody on Arrow was doing a great job. Surya, for example, has been given credit for two weeks running – yet he seemed to spend more time at the whiteboard than working with his team. How did everybody perform this week? What a strange episode of The Apprentice: Los Angeles this was! Or was it a tryout episode of a new series called Randal Pinkett’s Boardroom? Firstly, neither team seemed to be doing very well on their task. Secondly, the duo that were fooling around were commended for it. Next, I saw large budgets resulting in balloons, and that was praised. Then we had a barely-explicable firing of one contestant, and the rest never made it to a second Boardroom. To try and make some sense out of all this hullabaloo, its time for “Performance Reviews” of the remaining applicants! The Task: This week’s task was to promote a new model of Lexus (“LS 460”) to a select group of their customers and score higher on satisfaction surveys completed by the attendees. For what I think is the first time this season, we learned how much of a budget each team had – $50,000. From what we saw, I shudder to think how either team used those funds. One thing I learned from the web material was that there was very limited space to drive the cars. However, Arrow was able to work within that constriction, whereas Kinetic assumed the space was insufficient and responded with their goofy go-carts. Team Arrow: The episode opened with the other three male team members all taking shots at Surya in his absence, who they see as riding their efforts to success. I can say two things about that: (1) I agree; and (2) welcome to the world of business. The trio of James, Frank, and Stefani did yeoman’s work this week. With Tim and Nicole on an extended date and Surya in love with the planning process yet never accomplishing tasks, the trio was essentially working alone. When I look at what Arrow did, I’m not really sure why they scored so high. Actually driving the cars had to help, and the setup looked pretty snazzy. We know this team is pretty personable in one-on-one contact. But when car batteries ran down and they couldn’t show off the car’s features, this left people standing around with nothing to do. I have to assume that not every vehicle suffered battery failure. Still, how did they score a near-perfect 96? Frank: Frank has proved himself to be a far better worker bee than a leader. Teamed with the efficient Stefani, he was in charge of event planning and that’s what won them the task. So, big kudos for Frank and he gets a GOOD rating this week. James: James took over the “ride” part of the event, which was where the attendees got to ride in the car. They actually had three separate stations set up to show smoothness of ride, its self-parking ability, and to hint at acceleration. I applaud his imaginative use of the space. Web clips indicate that it went very well. On the reward, when Snoop said “The sky’s the limit,” and James fawned, “I love that line,” he needed to be wary. James ought to know that only The Donald’s a$$ need be kissed! All right, I guess that’s not such a serious thing and digging deep, I can certainly find it in my heart to overlook it. So it’s a VERY GOOD week for James. Stefani: Stefani took on event planning tasks, along with Frank, and we saw her ordering food (shrimp and pastries) and, on the web clips, beautiful flowers. I’m sure there were a hundred other things, too, and to me, it looked like a first-class setup in all areas. Stefani went one step farther – she also made the oral presentation. We’ve seen Stefani make oral presentations before and it seems to be a forte of hers. This time was no exception, and as one who has no such skills, I am impressed. Taking all this into consideration, an EXCELLENT rating is the only appropriate one. Nicole and Tim: The two of them worked well initially, brainstorming ideas and planning a solution while Surya was busy amusing himself at the whiteboard. Nicole even came up with the theme ,“Bringing Luxury To A New Level.” However, the “Showmance-lite” came into play again in this episode and resources and time were diverted when they ought to have been spent on the task. Even James noted, “Their relationship is making them soft.” I feel I must continue to rate them both as NEEDS IMPROVEMENT. As Hattie McDaniel said in Gone With The Wind, “It jes’ ain’t fittin'... it ain’t fittin’.” Surya: Again, Surya over-managed his project. I think he’s been sniffing too many of those whiteboard markers! However, one thing I saw on the web clips was that Randal took a ton of notes and said that’s what Trump taught him to do. Hmm, does Surya have secret inside info here? Despite all his planning, Surya still managed to find himself managing a project where he didn’t really know what was going on. That, my friends, is a gigantic problem. Assign tasks, but monitor progress – I think I could type that every week! Fortunately, Surya was still able to force himself to accept Trump’s kudos in the Boardroom when the victory was announced. On the reward, despite claiming to be a big fan, Surya refused to get into the spirit of things and hung back. Maybe he got confused; maybe he thought he was going to meet Charles Shultz’s Snoopy dog? Even on the webisode (which showed more of the recording session), the other five were participating fully, yet the only time I saw Surya he was trying to get farther away from the action. Consider this an excellent team-building opportunity, lost. In the Kinetic Boardroom, even Trump commented that Surya was not contributing much. Okay, maybe Randal didn’t make that easy, but this is a critical time for Surya to make an impression on Trump and again, it went a-wanting. For Surya it’s a UNSATISFACTORY rating. Except for accepting praise and writing on a whiteboard, I find it difficult to list a single positive skill in his arsenal. Team Kinetic: Before this task was even assigned, Kinetic was in a defensive posture and Derek was ready to cut out more of the “riff-raff.” If Kinetic put the effort into the tasks that they did into blame avoidance, they could take over the game. Kinetic had a pretty good score – 84 – so these Lexus customers must be a pretty generous lot! In fact, that mark doesn’t square up with the negative-only remarks Randal read out. In the Boardroom, Jenn said their setup was luxurious, yet Randal called the presentation “sparse.” That’s a world of difference, and I really think Kinetic missed the whole picture. According to Randal, there was just one couch, two TVs, three signs, and a bar. There was no mention of food. Toss in a go-cart track and it’s woefully underwhelming. Possibly excepting the sale of honey, we rarely see anything innovative or energetic from Kinetic. In her exit interviews Aimee said all the “idea people” were gone from Kinetic, and although I took it as sour grapes at the time, I’m beginning to believe her now. Angela: Angela was lucky this week not to be fired. Primarily, she was put in charge of marketing, yet in a three-hour period could not generate a single idea. Unsatisfactory! Then her indecisiveness regarding graphics design led to a critical deadline being missed, and substandard signage resulted. That’s bad time management. Even when the part-delivery of signs was made, she seemed confused by what had occurred. Did Derek sandbag her on this by refusing to offer his opinion? Yes, but Angela didn’t confront him. Unsatisfactory! Even forewarned by Jenn, Angela stated her case poorly in the Boardroom. Her oral presentation skills and even her preparation need work. Unsatisfactory! Morally right or wrong, as a game play move, once Derek was gone she ought to have dumped more responsibility for the problems on his absent shoulders. He deserved much of the blame anyway. As the team left the Boardroom, Trump put her on warning, and although Frank has survived a similar fate so far, that’s never a good sign. Surely that signifies her “Olympic Brownie Points” are used up by now? I’m sure it will be no surprise when I give Angela an UNSATISFACTORY rating. Had it been up to me, she’d have ended this episode in a cab as well. Heidi and Muna: I’m rating these two together this week because they were paired in all their tasks and performed similarly. I was getting a little worried when the Lexus guy was showing them the vehicle. Heidi said they were both detail-oriented, and it seemed like they were making too much of this task. Taking the time to review the mysteries of the gearshift and identifying hi-tech materials such as… wood? However, they were later given credit for knowing their material well, so as long as meaningful time was not lost from other tasks, I’ll have to assume this was indeed time well spent. Most importantly, both the Lexus execs and Randal gave them kudos for their performance on the task. Even though Trump hinted to Heidi in the Boardroom that her own “Brownie Points” were dwindling, both ladies receive a GOOD rating. Kristine: The team had a lot of trouble generating ideas this week. The one I thought that may best have indicated the “magic” of the new Lexus was Kristine’s idea of hiring a magician. However, with that big budget and a large crowd to entertain, why not hire half a dozen of them? I’ve been to events where these guys are present and despite the lame trick we saw on camera, they usually command their share of attention. Kristine was also the first to point out that go-carts detract from the luxurious image of Lexus that they wanted portrayed. Not making one’s opinion known has been a problem on this team, so I was happy to see this. The web clips tell us that Kristine hired models and controlled the budget. Certainly we are not aware of shortcomings in either area. I’d have liked to see more of what she did, but Kristine’s rating is unquestionably GOOD for this episode. Derek: Derek started out just like he’s been in the last couple of episodes – playing the game more actively than accomplishing the tasks. He was a ringleader in the group’s unsupportive sniping of departed boss Aimee, and after Jenn stepped up as PM, informed us he was going to send her home as well. His teamwork skills must be brought into question. Derek gets minor credit for quickly admitting his idea of go-carts was a bad idea, but not putting that idea out there in the first place would have been a whole lot better. I did like Derek’s suggestion of getting a tarot card reader, but it seemed to be ignored by the group. Do any of you remember Candida from Branson’s Quest a couple of years ago? She generated so many ideas that good ones got lost in the mire. For an upscale Lexus event, the go-cart suggestion is “mire.” While working with Angela, he steadfastly refused to give an opinion. In my world, when a task leader asks me for an opinion, I can only say “I dunno” so many times. Further, he knew the 9 PM deadline was being missed but made no attempts to save the situation. In fact, he pointedly complained to Jenn later on to try and distance himself from the situation. Derek saw his opportunity, that he could undermine Jenn by holding back in supporting Angela. However, that is not a behavior rewarded here. At this point I’d usually be set to rate Derek as UNACCEPTABLE and move on. But then we got to the strangest, wackiest Boardroom I can remember. Derek made a weak self-deprecating joke about “white trash” and immediately took it back. The Donald responded by losing control of himself and firing Derek immediately. Ridiculous! Why, even the ever-loquacious Randal was afraid to say anything! Let’s just call it the dumbest firing to date. I could allow Derek bonus points for the appropriateness of his no-backward-glance exit, but remembering his withholding of key information last week, it cannot raise him out of the UNACCEPTABLE range. Jenn: Trump had Jenn in his crosshairs after the last Boardroom, so it was in her best interests to step up and be the PM. It was probably a bad time in the game to become a PM though. The chances of winning all the remaining events is slim, so at some point you’re going to be back in the Boardroom with a target on your forehead. Initially, Jenn did a lot of things right. Organizing the team into functional units was one good idea. However, in the Boardroom both Derek and Muna were unable to say who performed a pertinent task, so there must have been gaps in either the planning or its communication. Putting Angela in charge of marketing was a bad move and it backfired. Perhaps Jenn confused “Winter Olympics” with “Wharton Business School”? At any rate, Jenn made even bigger mistakes when it came time to bail Angela out. First of all, why did it take three hours to discover Angela’s coming up empty? Secondly, being the sole person to promote Derek’s bad idea of setting up a go-cart track to impress they buyers of a car that costs over $100 G’s ought to have set off alarms. As much as taking even more time to come up with a better idea was going to hurt the team, pursuing the idea they did had a very predictable result. I have no idea why Jenn thought she could just wing it for her oral presentation. What resulted was obviously unprepared and unprofessional. Even worse, in a web clip of the Boardroom, Muna pointed out that per Lexus’s directions, Jenn used incorrect terminology several times. All other things aside, despite what Jenn said in the Boardroom, this alone was enough to cost her team the victory. In the Boardroom, Jenn painted a very confused picture. She simply cannot say, “I thought that everyone did such good on this team… it was incredible, I was really proud of us,” and then respond to the next question with, “We had some issues with a lot of things.” Trump saw that contradiction in a moment, and knew it was a lame attempt to protect weaknesses. As the Boardroom wound down, Jenn ought to have attacked Angela much more forcefully and stopped blaming things on Derek. Other than herself and the already-departed Derek, there was no one else likely to be fired. Her suggestion that Derek’s firing be the only firing this week… WOW, did that not go over with The Donald?! I think after that thudding moment, Jenn saw her departure as inevitable. The rating must be UNACCEPTABLE for Jenn. We’ve seen worse jobs, but I’m remembering her possibly selective memory from last week and I can’t go any higher. But at least Jenn’s team respected her. And after all that vitriol, wasn’t a group hug what they all needed to make things all better? Sheesh. I’m done! In Conclusion: Did Trump make the right decision? I understand his need to get rid of a given number of people over a smaller number of weeks, but last week’s transgressions were worse and the move ought to have been made then. This firing was just the expression of The Donald’s bad mood and not one of his finest moments.
The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Episode 7 Performance Reviews by Brian Towers -- 03/08/2007 Kinetic lost two people after the Lexus task, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everybody on Arrow was doing a great job. Surya, for example, has been given credit for two weeks running – yet he seemed to spend more time at the whiteboard than working with his team. How did everybody perform this week? What a strange episode of The Apprentice: Los Angeles this was! Or was it a tryout episode of a new series called Randal Pinkett’s Boardroom? Firstly, neither team seemed to be doing very well on their task. Secondly, the duo that were fooling around were commended for it. Next, I saw large budgets resulting in balloons, and that was praised. Then we had a barely-explicable firing of one contestant, and the rest never made it to a second Boardroom. To try and make some sense out of all this hullabaloo, its time for “Performance Reviews” of the remaining applicants! The Task: This week’s task was to promote a new model of Lexus (“LS 460”) to a select group of their customers and score higher on satisfaction surveys completed by the attendees. For what I think is the first time this season, we learned how much of a budget each team had – $50,000. From what we saw, I shudder to think how either team used those funds. One thing I learned from the web material was that there was very limited space to drive the cars. However, Arrow was able to work within that constriction, whereas Kinetic assumed the space was insufficient and responded with their goofy go-carts. Team Arrow: The episode opened with the other three male team members all taking shots at Surya in his absence, who they see as riding their efforts to success. I can say two things about that: (1) I agree; and (2) welcome to the world of business. The trio of James, Frank, and Stefani did yeoman’s work this week. With Tim and Nicole on an extended date and Surya in love with the planning process yet never accomplishing tasks, the trio was essentially working alone. When I look at what Arrow did, I’m not really sure why they scored so high. Actually driving the cars had to help, and the setup looked pretty snazzy. We know this team is pretty personable in one-on-one contact. But when car batteries ran down and they couldn’t show off the car’s features, this left people standing around with nothing to do. I have to assume that not every vehicle suffered battery failure. Still, how did they score a near-perfect 96? Frank: Frank has proved himself to be a far better worker bee than a leader. Teamed with the efficient Stefani, he was in charge of event planning and that’s what won them the task. So, big kudos for Frank and he gets a GOOD rating this week. James: James took over the “ride” part of the event, which was where the attendees got to ride in the car. They actually had three separate stations set up to show smoothness of ride, its self-parking ability, and to hint at acceleration. I applaud his imaginative use of the space. Web clips indicate that it went very well. On the reward, when Snoop said “The sky’s the limit,” and James fawned, “I love that line,” he needed to be wary. James ought to know that only The Donald’s a$$ need be kissed! All right, I guess that’s not such a serious thing and digging deep, I can certainly find it in my heart to overlook it. So it’s a VERY GOOD week for James. Stefani: Stefani took on event planning tasks, along with Frank, and we saw her ordering food (shrimp and pastries) and, on the web clips, beautiful flowers. I’m sure there were a hundred other things, too, and to me, it looked like a first-class setup in all areas. Stefani went one step farther – she also made the oral presentation. We’ve seen Stefani make oral presentations before and it seems to be a forte of hers. This time was no exception, and as one who has no such skills, I am impressed. Taking all this into consideration, an EXCELLENT rating is the only appropriate one. Nicole and Tim: The two of them worked well initially, brainstorming ideas and planning a solution while Surya was busy amusing himself at the whiteboard. Nicole even came up with the theme ,“Bringing Luxury To A New Level.” However, the “Showmance-lite” came into play again in this episode and resources and time were diverted when they ought to have been spent on the task. Even James noted, “Their relationship is making them soft.” I feel I must continue to rate them both as NEEDS IMPROVEMENT. As Hattie McDaniel said in Gone With The Wind, “It jes’ ain’t fittin'... it ain’t fittin’.” Surya: Again, Surya over-managed his project. I think he’s been sniffing too many of those whiteboard markers! However, one thing I saw on the web clips was that Randal took a ton of notes and said that’s what Trump taught him to do. Hmm, does Surya have secret inside info here? Despite all his planning, Surya still managed to find himself managing a project where he didn’t really know what was going on. That, my friends, is a gigantic problem. Assign tasks, but monitor progress – I think I could type that every week! Fortunately, Surya was still able to force himself to accept Trump’s kudos in the Boardroom when the victory was announced. On the reward, despite claiming to be a big fan, Surya refused to get into the spirit of things and hung back. Maybe he got confused; maybe he thought he was going to meet Charles Shultz’s Snoopy dog? Even on the webisode (which showed more of the recording session), the other five were participating fully, yet the only time I saw Surya he was trying to get farther away from the action. Consider this an excellent team-building opportunity, lost. In the Kinetic Boardroom, even Trump commented that Surya was not contributing much. Okay, maybe Randal didn’t make that easy, but this is a critical time for Surya to make an impression on Trump and again, it went a-wanting. For Surya it’s a UNSATISFACTORY rating. Except for accepting praise and writing on a whiteboard, I find it difficult to list a single positive skill in his arsenal. Team Kinetic: Before this task was even assigned, Kinetic was in a defensive posture and Derek was ready to cut out more of the “riff-raff.” If Kinetic put the effort into the tasks that they did into blame avoidance, they could take over the game. Kinetic had a pretty good score – 84 – so these Lexus customers must be a pretty generous lot! In fact, that mark doesn’t square up with the negative-only remarks Randal read out. In the Boardroom, Jenn said their setup was luxurious, yet Randal called the presentation “sparse.” That’s a world of difference, and I really think Kinetic missed the whole picture. According to Randal, there was just one couch, two TVs, three signs, and a bar. There was no mention of food. Toss in a go-cart track and it’s woefully underwhelming. Possibly excepting the sale of honey, we rarely see anything innovative or energetic from Kinetic. In her exit interviews Aimee said all the “idea people” were gone from Kinetic, and although I took it as sour grapes at the time, I’m beginning to believe her now. Angela: Angela was lucky this week not to be fired. Primarily, she was put in charge of marketing, yet in a three-hour period could not generate a single idea. Unsatisfactory! Then her indecisiveness regarding graphics design led to a critical deadline being missed, and substandard signage resulted. That’s bad time management. Even when the part-delivery of signs was made, she seemed confused by what had occurred. Did Derek sandbag her on this by refusing to offer his opinion? Yes, but Angela didn’t confront him. Unsatisfactory! Even forewarned by Jenn, Angela stated her case poorly in the Boardroom. Her oral presentation skills and even her preparation need work. Unsatisfactory! Morally right or wrong, as a game play move, once Derek was gone she ought to have dumped more responsibility for the problems on his absent shoulders. He deserved much of the blame anyway. As the team left the Boardroom, Trump put her on warning, and although Frank has survived a similar fate so far, that’s never a good sign. Surely that signifies her “Olympic Brownie Points” are used up by now? I’m sure it will be no surprise when I give Angela an UNSATISFACTORY rating. Had it been up to me, she’d have ended this episode in a cab as well. Heidi and Muna: I’m rating these two together this week because they were paired in all their tasks and performed similarly. I was getting a little worried when the Lexus guy was showing them the vehicle. Heidi said they were both detail-oriented, and it seemed like they were making too much of this task. Taking the time to review the mysteries of the gearshift and identifying hi-tech materials such as… wood? However, they were later given credit for knowing their material well, so as long as meaningful time was not lost from other tasks, I’ll have to assume this was indeed time well spent. Most importantly, both the Lexus execs and Randal gave them kudos for their performance on the task. Even though Trump hinted to Heidi in the Boardroom that her own “Brownie Points” were dwindling, both ladies receive a GOOD rating. Kristine: The team had a lot of trouble generating ideas this week. The one I thought that may best have indicated the “magic” of the new Lexus was Kristine’s idea of hiring a magician. However, with that big budget and a large crowd to entertain, why not hire half a dozen of them? I’ve been to events where these guys are present and despite the lame trick we saw on camera, they usually command their share of attention. Kristine was also the first to point out that go-carts detract from the luxurious image of Lexus that they wanted portrayed. Not making one’s opinion known has been a problem on this team, so I was happy to see this. The web clips tell us that Kristine hired models and controlled the budget. Certainly we are not aware of shortcomings in either area. I’d have liked to see more of what she did, but Kristine’s rating is unquestionably GOOD for this episode. Derek: Derek started out just like he’s been in the last couple of episodes – playing the game more actively than accomplishing the tasks. He was a ringleader in the group’s unsupportive sniping of departed boss Aimee, and after Jenn stepped up as PM, informed us he was going to send her home as well. His teamwork skills must be brought into question. Derek gets minor credit for quickly admitting his idea of go-carts was a bad idea, but not putting that idea out there in the first place would have been a whole lot better. I did like Derek’s suggestion of getting a tarot card reader, but it seemed to be ignored by the group. Do any of you remember Candida from Branson’s Quest a couple of years ago? She generated so many ideas that good ones got lost in the mire. For an upscale Lexus event, the go-cart suggestion is “mire.” While working with Angela, he steadfastly refused to give an opinion. In my world, when a task leader asks me for an opinion, I can only say “I dunno” so many times. Further, he knew the 9 PM deadline was being missed but made no attempts to save the situation. In fact, he pointedly complained to Jenn later on to try and distance himself from the situation. Derek saw his opportunity, that he could undermine Jenn by holding back in supporting Angela. However, that is not a behavior rewarded here. At this point I’d usually be set to rate Derek as UNACCEPTABLE and move on. But then we got to the strangest, wackiest Boardroom I can remember. Derek made a weak self-deprecating joke about “white trash” and immediately took it back. The Donald responded by losing control of himself and firing Derek immediately. Ridiculous! Why, even the ever-loquacious Randal was afraid to say anything! Let’s just call it the dumbest firing to date. I could allow Derek bonus points for the appropriateness of his no-backward-glance exit, but remembering his withholding of key information last week, it cannot raise him out of the UNACCEPTABLE range. Jenn: Trump had Jenn in his crosshairs after the last Boardroom, so it was in her best interests to step up and be the PM. It was probably a bad time in the game to become a PM though. The chances of winning all the remaining events is slim, so at some point you’re going to be back in the Boardroom with a target on your forehead. Initially, Jenn did a lot of things right. Organizing the team into functional units was one good idea. However, in the Boardroom both Derek and Muna were unable to say who performed a pertinent task, so there must have been gaps in either the planning or its communication. Putting Angela in charge of marketing was a bad move and it backfired. Perhaps Jenn confused “Winter Olympics” with “Wharton Business School”? At any rate, Jenn made even bigger mistakes when it came time to bail Angela out. First of all, why did it take three hours to discover Angela’s coming up empty? Secondly, being the sole person to promote Derek’s bad idea of setting up a go-cart track to impress they buyers of a car that costs over $100 G’s ought to have set off alarms. As much as taking even more time to come up with a better idea was going to hurt the team, pursuing the idea they did had a very predictable result. I have no idea why Jenn thought she could just wing it for her oral presentation. What resulted was obviously unprepared and unprofessional. Even worse, in a web clip of the Boardroom, Muna pointed out that per Lexus’s directions, Jenn used incorrect terminology several times. All other things aside, despite what Jenn said in the Boardroom, this alone was enough to cost her team the victory. In the Boardroom, Jenn painted a very confused picture. She simply cannot say, “I thought that everyone did such good on this team… it was incredible, I was really proud of us,” and then respond to the next question with, “We had some issues with a lot of things.” Trump saw that contradiction in a moment, and knew it was a lame attempt to protect weaknesses. As the Boardroom wound down, Jenn ought to have attacked Angela much more forcefully and stopped blaming things on Derek. Other than herself and the already-departed Derek, there was no one else likely to be fired. Her suggestion that Derek’s firing be the only firing this week… WOW, did that not go over with The Donald?! I think after that thudding moment, Jenn saw her departure as inevitable. The rating must be UNACCEPTABLE for Jenn. We’ve seen worse jobs, but I’m remembering her possibly selective memory from last week and I can’t go any higher. But at least Jenn’s team respected her. And after all that vitriol, wasn’t a group hug what they all needed to make things all better? Sheesh. I’m done! In Conclusion: Did Trump make the right decision? I understand his need to get rid of a given number of people over a smaller number of weeks, but last week’s transgressions were worse and the move ought to have been made then. This firing was just the expression of The Donald’s bad mood and not one of his finest moments.