Deep Green Crystals

« My Bet for PC client application development | Main | Technology that actually helps my life »

November 30, 2004

The Apprentice 2: Andy's Alamo

Since Episode 1, I have been predicting the demise of Andy. Not out of any malice, but simply I couldn't see me hiring him as President or CEO of anything and thought The Donald would agree. To cut to the chase, he finally did.

This week we get another brand tie-in: Pepsi. Create a promotion for the new Pepsi Edge (the soft drink's LAME attempt to address the Atkins frenzy). I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during the Coke/Pepsi bidding war! The Donald showed his decision criteria again at the beginning (Gawd I wish he would stop doing that!).

Again with the "corporate reshuffling". The teams are getting so small that this will be a regular thing. This week it was exacerbated by the fact that last week Donald fired two people. The Producers again played to our stupidity by prequeling the solidarity between Ivana, Kevin and Kelly against the fourth wheel, Jennifer. So of course they punted Jennifer to Mosaic as quick as you please. Their mistake. So Mosaic is Andy, Jennifer and Sandy. Apex is Ivana, Kelly and Kevin.

Jennifer had wanted to be Project Manager of Apex, but since they booted her and Mosaic had already chosen Andy, she gets to contribute. Being project manager this week carries the extra perk of going directly to the final 4 without passing go (due to the free ride next week). Important choice. I was impressed with Andy as PM on the advertising task, but his team's victory was due more to the mis-steps of the competition than any heroic efforts on his part. I still wouldn't hire Andy for anything other than Excel model builder. In the Venture business I spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out if a potential hire actually contributed to the success of his prior companies or just happened to be standing on the right corner when the bus stopped. Andy was at the right bus stop. He is not a driver. This analogy is not going anywhere, so back to the show... OK, immediately upon entering PepsiCo world Headquarters, Andy starts mainlining the stuff. I guess he was deprived as a child. Andy started acting a little Stacie J on the team bouncing off the walls. The team came up with an interesting under the cap promotion where you collect countries to make a continent (thanks Sandy). But they took the geography concept too far and put it in the bottle making this dumbbell looking thing that you couldn't see into. I see looser written all over this. During the late night graphic design session on the bottle and label, Andy gets a little Raj on everyone and does some kooky stuff. He hands out $100 bills as incentive to the highly paid PepsiCo designers but denies them pizza until they finish the task. God this kid is young and inexperienced. Carolyn in completely perplexed. The team goes into present and gets surprised to be presenting to the whole PepsiCo marketing team not just the VP. Andy's caffeine fix carries him though though and he earnestly and enthusiastically pitches geography as cool and hip. Sandy pitches the game, but stumbles on her words. This is the first time I have seen her nervous. No formal education following the US college debate champion would make anyone nervous. Jennifer wisely minimizes her role in this disaster. The audience isn't buying it with grimaces all around. The first comment after they leave the room is "when was the last time Geography was cool?". Uh, never. Looser.

For Apex, Ivana gets the PM job after successfully shuttling her competition (Jennifer) over to the other team. Kelly immediately comes up with the killer idea of making the bottle spell the word Edge. Ivana ads the idea of having a hole in the bottle in which you could put some kind of promotional material. Good concept. They didn't go much further than the bottle with their concept which at first worried me. The team goes home early satisfied. The first time a team has finished early. They are a bit concerned, but I like it. Make a decision, implement it and go. Their problem is that they looked back. I don't think the Donald would appreciate the looking back part. Needless to say, Apex's presentation went much better. The marketing team liked the "edginess" of the concept. It had some logistical issues (the bottle is hard to make), but it was a big swing of the bat with a line drive straight at the target demographic for the soda. A solid base hit. Winner Winner, chicken dinner!

The Boardroom. Everyone goes of course. Andy should be fired. He is not a leader and not experienced enough to manage teams effectively. Sandy stumbled a bit, but not enough to cause the loss. Geography was Andy's idea. The bottle was Andy's idea. The game was Sandy's, but that is secondary. Jennifer kept her head down (smart). Andy and Jennifer agree to gang up on Sandy in the board room. The Donald immediately whacks Andy for a stupid looking bottle and the geography concept. He accepts blame and keeps remarkably quiet. Andy goes after Sandy who surprisingly shows alot of pluck defending herself against the set-up by Andy and Jennifer. The Donald is impressed by Sandy's pluck and underwhelmed by Andy's seeming lack of ability to defend himself (especially for a debate champion) and fires Andy. But Donald says he thought he was going to fire Sandy which I don't get at all. Maybe that part is just theatre.

So I am 11 for 13 , batting .846. Up this week!

Ivana, or Kevin should be one of the next to go

My finalist are:

Jennifer (hard core and straight up)
Kelly - solid organized, player.

My choices for most likely to go sooner rather than later are:

Ivana - She will do something silly and stupid.

Posted by Martin at November 30, 2004 11:07 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.nwventurevoice.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/1562

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Apprentice 2: Andy's Alamo:

» Kelly wins the Apprentice from Czarism.com

Let’s all take a second to thank The Don in his decision last night. *Thanks*. The
choice for the next apprentice to the Trump Company was aired on live TV last
night;

Tracked on December 17, 2004 9:45 AM

Comments

Posted by: troyangrignon at November 22, 2004 8:41 AM

Posted by: ministeroforder at November 22, 2004 10:06 AM

Posted by: Damian Roskill at December 1, 2004 12:40 PM

Posted by: jazzyjus at December 14, 2004 10:33 PM

Post a comment