Monday 18 July 2011

The Apprentice won by non-stop ideas factory Tom Pellereau

Contestant who flopped in many tasks comes out on top to win investment and guidance from Lord Sugar

With an astonishing run of task failures behind him, inventor Tom Pellereau won through on the final of BBC1's reality show The Apprentice on Sunday night.

Lord Sugar apparently was not put off by Pellereau's ideas such as the "emergency biscuit" EmerCrunchy; or by the 32-year-old's shifty Action Man eyes; or his new pupil's method of making important business decisions by playing scissors, paper, stone.

This year's twist in the show's format ultimately helped Pellereau: instead of searching for an employee, Sugar has been on the hunt for a partner to benefit from �250,000 of investment and grumpy guidance. As a result, the show's least ruthless contestant ever has triumphed.

After 12 weeks of bravado, bragging and blagging, rival Jedi Jim Eastwood's fate was sealed with just one glance of utter despair from the marvellous Margaret Mountford. Tell me about yourself, Sugar's former right-hand woman cajoled, "but try and say it without cliche". Eastwood paused. "I'm exactly what it says on the tin."

The usual pattern ? contestants desperately bullying people into buying things they didn't want or need, occasionally in a different language, always at top volume ? was pushed aside as The Apprentice went all Dragon's Den and the finalists unveiled their brilliant business proposals.

Eastwood's grand idea was to teach schoolchildren employability skills. This from a man who has shown himself to be devious, slippery, back-stabbing and unconcerned with such things as market research. Sugar, getting more irascible by the second, fired him.

Susan Ma, who has spent the last three months whinging "that's not fair" at teammates in a particularly grating tone, proved surprisingly impressive. She has her own skincare company, as viewers will have gathered from the 3,000 mentions per episode, and a business plan that showed potential.

Despite firing her, Sugar did bizarrely reveal that he was keen to break into the cosmetics market. (Lord Sugar Scrub, perhaps; You're Fired Aftersun?).

Many thought the winner would be super-smart Helen Milligan, the woman who has won practically every task, made proper money in the process and is so organised she quite possibly lives inside a flow chart. So it was a quite delicious moment when the most perfect Apprentice candidate ever came unstuck over the entire point of her being there.

Milligan's grand idea was the kind of concierge service used by cash-rich, time-poor people who need to secure a table at the best restaurant regardless of cost, but this one is aimed at cash-poor, time-poor people who need to do the grocery shopping based largely on special offers. "I cannot express my disappointment at your business plan," said Sugar, somehow managing to do just that.

What came next was even more alarming. Milligan, who works in management at Greggs, produced an innovative new scheme for a bakery that sold "homemade cakes and bread". Greggs' PR department might be wanting a word.

Which is how we ended up with Pellereau, the non-stop ideas factory who invented the curved nail file. His pitch for a chair to help protect workers from backache included neither the word chair, nor any sums that were actually correct.

His proposal for talking to staff also sent Sugar into a small health and safety tantrum, but essentially this was the only idea that made any sense.

"I've also got a lot of other ideas which may well be coming through," Pellereau revealed after his win. "So it's a question of watch this space ? but there will definitely be some very exciting products coming shortly."

It was a not entirely satisfying end to the series ? Mountford's brief, withering cameo excepted. ("Your degree was in philosophy and economics?" she asked, upon learning that Susan had been paying her staff cash in hand).

Pellereau won, essentially, because he had the least rubbish idea, wasn't completely objectionable and might make Sugar money. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement ? but I suppose it is progress of a sort.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/jul/17/the-apprentice-winner-lord-sugar

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