The Apprentice Show New York City

The story of the apprentice show starts from New York City in the United States, it was the year 2004 .the show was broadcasted by NBC channels network. Apprentice show is a reality show which is based on competition among collective entrepreneurs that ends with a single winner. The idea of the show was created by Ronald trump who owns a group of companies called trump organization which manages trump entertaining resorts that have casinos, hotels, and golf courts. In addition He is the largest real estate developer in New York.

Trump was graduated from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. He gained a bachelor of science in economics and specialized in the finance field, after that trump worked in his father’s company as full time. Trump faced many challenges in his career, most of them were financial crisis and debts of billions of dollars, but with his successful planning and execution, and good negotiation skills he confronted all that challenges. With his successful management he promoted his company into the highest level. The main goal of making apprentice show is to create a successful business manager who can work in one of trumps companies and at the same time spreading out the managerial skills to the participants and as well as audience.

The first season of apprentice started with 16 young entrepreneurs came from different regions in USA, so to compete in becoming the winner of apprentice show. They have different educational and occupational backgrounds but they share the field of management of business. for the competition Donald trump divided the candidates into two groups, one group will be comprised of females and the other one for males, each group will compete weekly based on accomplishing different tasks and a project manager will be assigned to take more responsibility . The winner of the weekly task will get different incentives, but the losing team will meet with Donald trump in the board room to discuss the causes of the losing, and then one person will be fired. In order to understand more about candidates it’s illustrated in the following page:

Kwame

Bill

omarosa

Amy

Troy

Nick

Katrina

Haidi

Bowie

Kristi

Sam

Jessie

Erika

Tammy

Jason

David

Episode 1:

After the candidates met with trump they have chosen names for their groups, the men have chosen Versacorp while the women agreed with the name protégé. The first task started and it was selling lemonade with initial capital of $ 250 and the group that gets the most profit will win. The location was important as trump said: (location, location, location).at the end of task the both groups meet with head of the board which consisted of Caroline, George, and trump. Versacrop has doubled the capital amount, but protégé group has beaten them by making 400% profit. They got the chance of visiting trumps apartment. Versacorp made mistakes and David was the first person to be fired in apprentice show, so we will see the analysis:

Versacorp mistake was an organizing mistake, when they assigned troy as project manager he didn’t assign the tasks to the relevant person, for example assigning Kwame to look for location, he did not ask or discuss it with other members , may be other members have strong background of getting locations, so the group paid a lot for that mistake. So the plan was not effective to select seaport as location, Versacorp were dealing with unstable environment which has a lot of uncertainties, so they spent long time in that location. So their plan was specific plan which is not good for uncertain environment. David was the weakest link in the group, he didn’t expose any leadership skills, such as motivating the group, or taking part in decision making. Instead of that his behavior of advertising lemonade was not professional, ethical, or acceptable especially when he was running after them forcing them to buy the lemonade.

In contrary protégé group won the task. Although they faced some inconsistency at the beginning when they quarreled each other, after while they reorganized themselves and that was by Erika ,also protégé faced a communication problem when Erika spent long time to find Amy, and that caused time loss, before doing something the time and location must be fixed and that is part of successful plan.

Protégé group won the task because of their plan, they used directional plan that enabled them to be flexible with uncertainty in the market, as Erika was the project manager she had a leadership skills .they picked up an strategic location by Amy .protégé group has used a new innovative negotiation skills to attract customer, and that what increased their selling’s and all the members were collaborative unlike Versacorp.

In my suggestion I think versacorp could avoid the loss, by allocating the tasks in the group depending on knowledge and experience, and the leader should consult the important decisions with all members as the members of the group are few, the controlling is also important, for example if troy could measure the output at the seaport he would realize mistake of the location. Also the time is very important in the business, if you spend a long time not getting profit in one place you should change it immediately.

Episode 2:

In the second episode the task is apprentice show is becoming complex, and it’s related to advertisement. In the morning the both teams went to Deutsch advertising agency, the mission was to advertise for marquis corporate jet cards, and the nature of advertising was to make 30 seconds video commercial and magazine photo advertisements, the wining team will be getting a flight to Boston with private jet.

the project manager of versacorp made mistake of not meeting with president or CEO of marquis jet corporation, as we know versacorp are 7 members so by that number all the members must take part in the decision making, for example troy asked Jason to meet with the president but he refused and that what minimized the their outcome, at least they will get some information on campaign. also Sam contributed to the problem when he did not do his task, and he fall sleeping so by that he become as bottleneck on versacorp and he should be eliminated so they lost .

protégé won because they were well organized, they used the same attraction methods in episode 1 to attract customers, their work was impressed by Dani Deautsch , before the start the task unlike the man ,they went to marquis jet corporation to get supportive information for the campaign, however a relationship conflict happened between Omorosa and Ereka during the flight to Boston and that could affect the group.

In my suggestion versacorp could avoid the defeat, by concentrating on giving all members a wide opportunity in decision making, and studying the decision before it functions, so if Jason met the president of marquis jet he won’t be fired. Sam also took part in lowering the performance of the group so he should not be delegated to higher responsibility.

Episode 3:

The third week came after firing David and Jason here Donald trump said: (negotiation is very delicate), here MR trump is emphasizing on the importance of the negotiation skills as part of successful team, the task was each team will be given a list of items to purchase and the group which made the most savings on the retailing will win. Protégé Corporation fortunately won the task for the third time by saving 22% of retailing items in contrast with versacorp who only managed to save 9%, so protégé had dinner with Donald trump in the famous 21 club, instead versacorp met with board as usual and sam was fired. So we analyzed that:

The mistake of versacorp that week was selecting Sam as project manager, as we know experience and knowledge is important as part of leaders characteristics and Sam was lack of that, the performance of Sam wasn’t effective and he lead the team backward when he refused to provide phone number to his group when bill and Kwame were looking for location, as leader he did not motivate his members by collaborating with them, and continuing making mistakes

Protégé Corporation continued making successful l achievements, although they faced some conflict when Omarosa and Erika dispute with each other, the other members realized the mistake and tried to solve it. Jessie suggested to solve the problem as well as Katrina, Amy solved this problem by using ERG theory for existence which she motivated Omarosa ,also protégé used the attractive method to negotiate and especially when Haidi and Katrina danced to get discount, that is key success of protégé .

I suggest that any successful business needs a leader with consistency and have enough conceptual skills to lead and direct his team. The effective communication is another point in the business. Versacorp could avoid the defeat by electing any capable member except Sam to be project manager. Because they already knew the Sam performance in the last two episodes.

Episode 4:

At the beginning Donald trump asked the two teams to manage the restaurant “Planet Hollywood” each team had to manage for only one night in order to determine who had more money compared to the same last year .

Let’s take a look first at the wining team they were divided into two groups and first group went to the general manager , he described clearly the organizational goals and objectives ,which was very important step and one of the main reasons they won is that they had the whole view about the place and they knew where ,what and how exactly to focus on to get more profits ,Basically by noticing that most traffics was passing by and no one was entering the restaurant ,they already sat their goal which is attract people to enter in order to increase value not only to eat from the restaurant but also sell merchandise ,Therefore they establish a new strategy to promote the place by adopting a “shooter girl” idea the team members were walking around wearing the shooter girl t- shirt and holding shots handing out coupons, giving the restaurant T-shirts and convincing people to attend their party.

Though the members didn’t have had specific work to do which was a bit unorganized but the spirit of team work was there as they were all involved in the work and the leader was always observing their work, consulting them and giving them advices and doing a great job in both playing a leader role and team member at the same by interacting ,adding live to the customers , motivating them to have a good time to capture customers satisfaction in return and by the time was passing they needed to sell more and since alcohol is the easiest ,fastest and it has huge profit margin they sold shots to the customers but they should have controlled the way they were selling coz it might affect the customers safety and the places reputation and they should of consider the general managers opinion first before they make decision that affect their system but at the same time the change was very good for them they added life to the restaurant customers were having a lot of fun , thus it transformed in the revenues they made it was increased by 31.3%

In the other side the Men Team they already defined their goals which is increase the revenue and every member had special and specific task to accomplish their plan for example some of the members went to do street activities by trying to get traffics to the restaurant and inviting group of tourists in the New York Bus and selling The restaurant’s shirts to them ,and some worked at merchandise counter also front door to greet people and at the other side members had a meeting with the sales team in order to motivate them and to set the goal and talk about sales strategy ,In my opinion the plan, the ideas they created and the division of work was sufficient, but they didn’t focus entirely on attracting people they were more interested in the sales and how to sell the merchandise and since organizing is about how it will be done and who is to do it they fail in this point .Candidate were not doing the work efficiency, thus they hit the rock bottom quickly and they came up with pack-up plan, the leader didn’t motivate, deal people enough but he was doing great job with controlling ,thus everything was under control.

By the overall view the team work generally they did a good job and the mistakes they made it can be avoided ,At the begging , the goal was already sat for both teams which is to increase the revenue, by taking a short look at first group they determine what exactly to focus on in order to increase the revenue but the second team didn’t show something specific to offer , their street-activities strategy was good but they should focus on category of people they go after they can give special offer to families ,teens and kids and post pictures for their popular cartoon characters ,also talking to the tourists in the bus was great and they can be a huge target because they are the most interested in exploring new things so by making it sound more fun, interesting and cultural especially it has the Hollywood impact and give free shirts rather than focusing in selling they will definitely consider coming and buy souvenirs for their friends ,family members therefore they will increase profits.

Episode 5:

In the 5th episode a change was happened to the rules of the program of the show, Donald trump decided to reshuffle the both corporations and mix men with women ,this reason is to manage the shortage in versacorp , so Kristi was assigned as project manager for protégé and nick for versacorp. Versacorp :

Versacorp has already set their goal and established the strategy which is selling women’s clothes, versacorp has spitted the team into two parts, and the tasks were divided equally, they started selling regular shirts decorated with jewels they utilized the resources they had and they kept the cost low, the plan was simple but yet effective and clear, thus the work was organized and team work was implemented and united. However versacorp faced difficulties in the selling products, and the situation of the weather.the leader nick was doing a great job in terms of informational, interpersonal, and decisional role. As result the team was enthusiastic and the profit reached more than $600.

The plan of the protégé wasn’t specific enough at the same time it was not clear to all the members, they went to china town without knowing exactly what to buy, after a random search they found some items such as Chinese umbrellas, the latter was for raining predictions, the work was unorganized and Kristi did not show a strong leadership role. The main reason the team lost was missing the money at the end of the day, that incidence turned their profit into loss, the missing money was under responsibility of Omarosa , but unfortunately it affected Kristi .

We suggest that in order to avoid all the problems the manager had the key to guide the team in right way basically the team members needed to set the specific strategy ,discuss and decide exactly what to do and how to do it, and to make sure all candidates they agree about the idea and organize the work between them , also leading is an important role and technical skills are more demanded , and for controlling the work must be produced with high quality , not like missing basic important goal which is money, and inspiring the subordinates by the manager to emphasize on quality control.

Episode 6:

Protégé corporation was working together as one team, and they went to meet Russell Simpson to show him different plans about participating into the auction , although he dislike the offerings but the group tried to make an effective negotiation especially by kwame, then the group went to the met 5 members of (queer eye to strait guy), so they learned from their previous mistake so they show a positive negotiation skills and there was consistency in the group when meeting the celebrity, then they met with executive producer of cosmo magazine and they impressed her with their preparation and organizing , especially when the team is divided into subgroups that can meet with different celebrities to add effectiveness and increase the specialization of the team to add a quality into the work, when the team met with Isaac Mizrahi they started to make mistakes especially in the assigning Jessie to negotiate with Mizrahi, Omarosa made mistake in that point, when Jessie spoke with the celebrity in a way that embarrassed him, so the responsibility was on Omarosa. Also the behavior of Omarosa contributed to the lose, she showed disrespect to the team member by shutting the phone to Jessie, and decreasing the motivation of Jessie when she was negotiating with Mizrahi.

Versacorp group was excited about the charity work at the beginning of the work, so the project manager has divided the group into two to maintain the time, and the subgroup A negotiate with Carison daily a show host, and the focus to get any possible information from him about the events coming up and his demands or interest to get, although Tammy kept asking some not useful questions and that is not good for negotiation. Also they met with Tickie Barber, executive producer of the third watch. Meeting with Regis Philiibin was turning point for versacorp they had nice conversation with him before they start talking with him about work, the group showed a great conceptual skills by changing and coming up with new ideas immediately also negotiation skills was shown and proved when they convinced him wit idea , the goals were sat goals and the strategies were determined quickly , the plans were implemented in terms of performance ,the leader shown an organizing skill s when he delegated power to his members so by that they managed to raise $40,000 for the foundation.

The bottom line for this episode showed that business all about winning or losing and both teams did a great job but the mistake they made along the way shoed less integration that can be avoided if the leader changed the way she was interacting with team members ,showing more respect and giving tasks to the members in field s that they shine in and show their respect and giving tasks to the members in fields that they shine in and show their potentials, and show more respect and assigning tasks according to knowledge and experience , and the protégé leader did not motivate their group especially her disrespect to Jessie, and haidi.

Episode 7:

The task of episode 7 is to renovate and rent out two apartments within 72 hours. “God is in The Details”, Trump believes. And Trump mentioned that the details are very important to become successful. The coin toss decides which apartment each of the group began to renovate and rent. Fortunately, Protégé cooperation get the better apartment.

The mistakes and analysis in this episode:

Katrina, who is from Versacorp cooperation, should arrange the job based on personal ability. She does not do well at this aspect.

As a project manager, Katrina should know each members advantage and disadvantage and ask members to do something based on their skill and profession. For example, Katrina asks Bill to do the marketing which he is not good at. Katrina, herself always mentions she is professional, but she doesn’t do much.

As a project manager, Katrina cannot only concentrate on renovate, because both renovate and rent are important. In fact, I think renting out the apartment is much more important than renovate.

Leader is someone who can influence other and who has managerial authority. Katrina is leader. She has authority to ask someone to do something, but this doesn’t mean she do nothing. She should influence other at all aspects, not only at renovate.

Why Protégé win.

Troy is good project manager in this case, even if he does something unmoral. He knows Katrina has professional ability to make him more careful when manages this case. And Troy really very good at marketing and he represent his skill well. Heidi is really a Valencia lady. She does not be affected by that bad news and bad emotion. And I think her strong makes other team member becoming positive. She influence the team’s to work much hard. Omarosa uses headache as an excuse to play basketball with children to make other team member dissatisfy. The other four members have a prefect team leadership, so Omarosa does not influence Protégé to win.

Why Versacorp loss and my suggestion

Katrina, who is project manager in Versacorp cooperation, is too much confident to make her careless. She is good at this case but she does not use her skill perfectly. Using Billy, who is not good at marketing, as marketing person is bad decision. She should concentrate much on marketing because she is professional. Tammy makes team members’ emotion down and she should use another way to present her ideas and suggestion.

Episode 8:

The task of episode 8 is to sell bottled water called “Trump Ice” with Donald Trump’s photo on each bottle. Both teams were given two days to sell as much as they could.

The mistakes and analysis in this episode:

Trying to sell the bottled water to potential buyers without first doing some research on those buyers.

Every organization has its own culture and environment. When we want to sell something to one organization, we much understand the organization such as internal environment and external environment. And then we can make correct decision on marketing. So do some research on buyers is necessary.

Erika did not have a strong plan

Planning provides direction, reduces uncertainty, minimizes waste and redundancy and sets the standards for controlling. The quality of planning affects performance. Erika did not prepare a strong plan, so the performance is not good.

Erika felt flurried on the pressure.

Leader can influence other members. The leadership is the process of influencing people to achieve goals. Erika, who is as project manager, felt flurried on the pressure to give the whole team a negative effect.

Marketing skills on Versacorp get some mistake.

Except Bill, other members sell the product to customers by how good the product is or what promotion we will do. For customers, they pay more attention to what the number is and how many profit they can get.

Why Protégé win.

The main reason I think is troy began thinking outside of the box and focused on making long term sales instead of one time sales. Not one time delivery, using multiple deliveries is a good idea because some shop cannot store much number of water bottled.

Why Versacorp loss and my suggestion

I think Bill is good seller and get professional marketing skill. He knows what attended is by customers. However Bill’s ideas did not be accepted. The project manager did not prepare a strong plan and she poor on marketing. Nick is wiseacre and he thinks he can sell product to customers without understand customers’ background. When we promote our products, we should let customers understand how much money they would save buying the product, not how cute of the product is.

Episode 9:

The task of episode 9 is to pick an artist from an array of controversial and strange painters and sell their painting in a gallery. Art is very subjective. It is not easy to control or we can say it cannot be controlled.

The mistakes and analysis in this episode:

Never sell something you don’t believe, love it

Protégé cooperation chooses the artist they don’t like, so they cannot present their product well. If they think their product is bad, how they make other believe the product is good.

Less communication between seller and artist

Communication in one team is important. Artist and seller have totally different knowledge and they cannot understand each other without communication. They should exchange their mind. Sellers are seller, not artist. They cannot know what artist want to expression and cannot describe the painting well without communicating with artist.

Why Versacorp win.

First of all, they love their painting, they love their artist, and they love everything they were doing. They believe the product they sell is prefect, is amazing. Nick leads his team well. He always keeps calm down and encourages his group members and said, “we will be all right”. Nick has a correct direction in this case, he knows selling painting is same with marketing, and MBA, is leading. He brings energy and enthusiasm to group.

Why Versacorp loss and my suggestion

The big mistake they made is they don’t like their painting. All of group member don’t like the product they choose. If you don’t really believe yourself, it will never work and it will never be sold. They should choose the artist they like, and they feel good. The group members from Versacorp don’t understand their product. They cannot introduce their product clearly. They should have more communication with artist to understand her thinking. The relationship among the team is not good. Omarosa always has executed to relax, and other member dissatisfy with her. Negative emotion exist, cooperation will be fall.

Episode 10:

The team takes over the Pedicab shift. After Versacorp and protégé meet trump, they being given the task that is they need to take over a Pedicab shift, the team that got highest revenue will be the winning team.

Protégé mistake was a strategy mistake. Trump had told both groups to think outside the box .in this situation protégé corporation sells prepaid punch cards while Versacorp sells advertising on the back of the rickshaws that being advertise that being suggest by Amy. Kwame spends so much of the afternoon as driver but without being able to land single fair. After one advertisement for restaurant is found to have fallen off one of versacorp pedicabs, nick irritated his team mates by going back to the restaurant owner and returning the full amount paid. Troy realizes that they cannot think out of the box like what versacorp done after protégé saw the pedicab advertising made by versacorp. Troy was quite sad because he can’t think such great idea like that. With protégé disappearing into thin air, Heidi begins swearing under her breath at passerby when she is unable to convince them to buy rides.

In this episode the team that won the task is versacorp with a sold of $3680 with bill as project manager. Versacorp won because they think outside the box so that they could increase their revenue for their team. With the advertising at the rickshaw they could sells the pedicab. So the idea that comes from Amy is working and lead them to win this episodes. The losing team is protégé this is because they cannot bring out and excellent idea that can help them to sells the pedicab and also because protégé sales idea could not match the ad revenue that versacorp brought in. the mistake made from protégé Is they not plan their work well. Actually in this task trump wan them to think outside the box rather than think in simply way like what are they doing that is selling a punch card.

Suggestion in this episode protégé should research first what they want to do to achieve the target. The biggest mistake was made by troy because he couldn’t think something that really useful and helpful to sell the pedicab. In this episode Heidi was get fired because trump was concerned that she may lack the leadership skills to run one of his companies and contributing as follower than a leader.

Episode 12:

The task of episode 12 is asked to register gamblers at the Trump Taj Mahal Resort and Casino. The team whose registered gamblers wager the most money wins. Both of teams’ strategy is to raffle off a gift to their gamblers who register at end of the night. Protégé’s gift is $1,000 cash while Versacorp’s gift is a change to drive in an expensive sports car.

The mistakes and analysis in this episode:

Protégé cooperation used a caged tiger in order to attract gamblers’ attention.

When the caged tiger came, a lot of gamblers stop gambling to watch it. Even though this way can attract many persons’ attention, it also let many of persons stop gambling. The goal of the team is not only to get persons registering, but also let persons spend much money.

All members from Versacorp cooperation sleep at the bus. When all members from Protégé cooperation think about the strategy, all of Versacorp’s members are sleeping. Time is short and they should make the time utilize. The idea of Versacorp cooperation is not attractive enough. I do not think a rental car which value is $300 can attract people. At lease, I think this way cannot attract VIPs. Almost of VIPs are rich people, and they may don’t want to have a drive in an expensive sports car. They may own that kind of car.

Why Protégé win.

I think first of all, the important thing make Protégé cooperation win is Bill’s idea. Protégé cooperation did not attract many people to register, even though they use a caged tiger. However, Protégé cooperation focuses on the VIPs who are willing to spend much money at Casino.

Versacorp cooperation’s promotion way is not attractive because people may want to have a car not a rental car. And Versacorp cooperation did not catch the VIPs who will spend much money in Casino. In addition, friendship among the team is so bad. Katrina does not satisfy with Amy and Nick because of their personal relationship while Amy does not satisfy with Katrina’s way of business negotiation.

EPISODE 14:

From episode 14, two of candidates, Amy and Bill have more energy when making an interview session with their manager, but both of them make a mistake when lack of respect to the others even Nick’s position as sales representative and Amy as a superstar. Amy didn’t earn the respect from Trump’s executives in the interview session while Nick didn’t respect Donald Trump’s opinion whenever Trump give him a trick in the boardroom. This happen when the candidate did not planning very well before going to take a task. In contrary, the winner of this episode is Kwame and Bill. Both of them always earn respect whether to interviewer or Donald trump’s judgment without complaining.

In the second part of this episode, the Kwame’s mistake when the first planning of action was done in the car by using phone without make a formal meeting with his employees. At the end of this episode, Omarosa got a phone call from Diane Lamezec, absolutely in the dinner. She made a mistake when she refused the phone call from entertainment coordinator and did not give complete information of Jessica Simpson’s arrival at airport either to his team member or manager. In this case, Omarosa should responsible to their task in any situation. The problem become furious when Jessica Simpson loss when Omarosa try to contact her. On the other hand, Bill’s team have making a successful planning when they first arrived at Trump National Golf Club and assign a job straight away to each of his employees but he got a problem with many boxes of golf club arrived in his room.

In my suggestion, I think Amy and Bill will become the winner if they plan and define their goal first before organizing and leading their employees such as making a short term or long term preparation in organization. This preparation will avoid the vagueness of work activities in the future. Kwame also should make a best preparation in a good situation and place before manage a project. It is to make sure that all the employees understand very well their job and task should be done in the