David Buttress is the managing director of Just-Eat.co.uk, the UK’s largest online takeaway ordering service, which works with over 7,500 restaurants. Here he reviews the fourth episode of this year’s Apprentice.
Creative entrepreneur Felicity Jackson commented in her audition that Lord Sugar wouldn’t be able to leave her with a negative feeling, as she would always manage to turn it into something positive. It would be interesting to know how she found the bright side after being told in last night’s episode that she lacked leadership qualities, failed to make any sort of decision, and missed fundamental sales principles that caused her team to bring back the first financial loss of the series.
After Lord Sugar shuffled around the teams and handpicked project managers, Logic and Venture were set the task of choosing two beauty treatments plus related products and selling them to shoppers in Birmingham. The priorities at the outset were clear – with potential profit margins of 96% on the beauty treatments, the teams needed to secure the right products to suit their prospective customers, and they had to find the right spot from which to sell.
Felicity’s team Logic failed on both accounts. The first point, to be fair, they couldn’t have done much more about apart from realising that it wasn’t just customers, but also suppliers, that they needed to impress. From the outset, they saw the potential of the spray tan treatment that would prove to be the day’s biggest seller, but they didn’t convince the supplier that they believed in the product and would put all their enthusiasm and expertise into selling it. Team Venture, meanwhile, had beauty industry expert Susan Ma who instantly came across as the right person for the job.
It was on the second point, location, where cracks in Felicity’s strategy really started to show. Team Logic’s choice of a central shopping centre location (compared to Venture’s out-of-town spot) seemed like a sensible one at first; however it was the fact that the sales stand was three floors away from the beauty rooms which proved to be the killer. Having the second phase of the process so far from the initial sell meant any customers considering a treatment had a long time to change their minds, so despite the sales team’s best efforts to drum up interest, the conversion rate was never going to be sky-high.
It was here that Felicity’s failings as a team leader first became apparent, because erstwhile inventor Tom instantly pointed out that they should carefully consider the location before steaming ahead, and similarly it was Tom who was rightly prioritising the success of the treatments (which had far bigger profit margins than the products did). Felicity seemed to underestimate Tom, and completely dismissed his views in the initial planning session. One thing I have come to fully appreciate as MD of an internet start-up is always listen to the geek!
As the day progressed, it became clear that Felicity wasn’t keeping on top of the task at hand and failed to react quickly when things weren’t going to plan. As Lord Sugar instantly pointed out, her main priority as PM should have been checking the money coming in, and addressing any issues affecting the bottom line. Instead, things were allowed to rumble on until three and a half hours had passed before the first treatment took place. Compare that to how alert the other team leader Zoe was to the fact that sales of tanning products weren’t coming up to scratch, and it’s obvious that Felicity didn’t take the correct manager’s role. Instead, Felicity did a great job of pitching the hair products to passing customers, even though profit margins were considerably smaller on these products.
Team Venture may not have set the world alight with their results on the task, securing a small profit, but they did succeed in areas where Team Logic failed. Team leader Zoe was wise to opt for a cautious approach when buying product, despite ‘beauty expert’ Susan’s confidence in selling the tanning lotion products. Zoe also recognised the need to take stock during the sell-in period and see how her team was performing on each of their individual tasks. While some may have disapproved of Zoe’s dressing down of Susan, once she found out the tanning lotions were not selling nearly as well as Susan had hoped, at least she was assertive and took action when it was needed.
In the end, Felicity’s optimism got in the way of her facing up to problems and tackling issues head on. She preferred instead to revel in the success of the product sales, forgetting the numbers and ignoring those treatments. Hopefully she did come to realise in the end the potential benefits of those - after the nail-biting showdown that followed in the boardroom, Felicity could probably do with one of her own hot stone massages.
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