Posted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/12/2011 - 14:37
Melody Hossaini, a candidate in the last series of BBC TV's The Apprentice, social entrepreneur and founder of InspirEngage International blogs about the seventh episode in the new season of Young Apprentice. Melody has 14 years experience in the youth sector and tweets at @Melody_Hossiaini
Week seven task: Develop and pitch a new brand of popcorn
What a dramatic week! From six down to two finalists.
At the start, when I saw the candidates playing a ball game on their day off, I knew Lord Sugar was about to pay a special visit! This happened in week nine for us, but unfortunately I was in a dressing gown about to step into the shower (yes, could have been worse!)
The twist this week was that all of the losing team and one person from the winning team would be leaving.
After much debate about who should be project manager, Harry Hitchens took the reigns of Atomic and James McCullagh took lead of Kinnetic.
American Hollywood v Mediterranean
Harry H quickly opted for an American cinematic concept over Harry Maxwell’s ‘Smoochies’ sharing idea. @niteshmahtani tweeted: "popcorn for him & her to share - reminds me of your biscuit task - flashbacks to ur legendary roleplay!" (oh memories!)
James’ team developed a Mediterranean product called ‘La Popcorn’ (not a great name but better than ‘MediCulturePop’) Most people, including myself, preferred the American concept, @Sonia_Jaysean tweeted: “I agree Harry's team will win! Mediterranean popcorn is too far fetched!”
Pitching
In the pitches, the 16 and 17 year-olds were breathtaking by anyone’s standards. I tweeted saying how nerve-wracking those pitches are with a camera crew, leading buyers and Sugar’s aides taking notes. @Jadeeeyyy_xX tweeted: "brilliant pitches from the 'empire state popcorn' team! Very impressed!"
What was also commendable was the fact that the prior disagreements within the team were not at all brought into the pitches.
(Also, did anyone notice the airline had rows of airplane seats in their office? Tres cool!)
Winning a task is dependent on opinion of the buyer in the pitch rather than specific units sold; you can ever know who’s going to win.
Winning
Like our Paris task when it was all hanging on our presentation to La Redoute, this was all dependent on the pitch to Morrison’s, and it turned out James’ team and La Popcorn nailed it much to everyone’s, including James’, surprise!
@ZuleikhaDesai tweeted: "the wrong team lost, definitely!"
But at the end of the day, the retailer liked it and that’s all that matters.
Young talent
It marked the end of the road for Harry H, Haya Al Dlame, Lizzie Magee and Harry M. @vn92 tweeted: "Harry H definitely left with his head held VERY high! Well done Harry H!"
How amazing was it that they all received Lord Sugar’s business cards and were offered his personal support.
Following Lord Sugar’s positive remarks about young people, I tweeted @Melody_Hossaini: "Absolutely right, all the negative media portrayal of young ppl is not reflective of the majority & how talented they are." And that’s certainly been proven with the candidates. Well done to all of them.
Join me for the final next week for live tweeting and the final blog post. Zara v James…
P.S. Can someone please tell Zara that the sky's not the limit if...
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