Thursday, June 05, 2008

Boardroom farce

As someone who has followed every series of The Apprentice, it has been clear for some time that the quality of candidates in this year's competition leaves a little to be desired. They probably won't thank me for saying it, but I could look around my office and spot three or four people who would have made a better fist of it than the current lot.

So the fact that four of these no-hopers have been deemed worthy of a place in the final seems somewhat farcical to say the least.

A gruelling day-long series of interviews designed to eliminate three of the remaining five candidates succeeded only in revealing that £100,000-a-year business analyst Lucinda was "too zany" to work for Sir Alan, which, privately, most of us could have told him all along.

Then again, Sir Alan's decision-making in this series has been pretty idiosyncratic all around.

He fired pert Irishwoman Jennifer Maguire well before she had a chance to mess-up big time, got rid of nice-guy Rafe even though he won nearly every task, and kept the completely clueless Michael Sophocles in the contest until the third-from-last episode.

Of the remaining four, I hope Lee McQueen manages to win. Despite bullying Sara and lying on his CV, he deserves it. And apart from anything else, if he wins he might do his reverse pterodactyl impression again.

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5 comments:

Holly said...

how did you get all your readers?

Anonymous said...

Thought Lucinda was hard done-by myself. Bit of a whinger, but clearly the brightest finalist by a street. Is an interest in aromatherapy any more "zany" than chasing a small white ball round the countryside on a Sunday morning - or any other activity which Sir Alan and his business chums would find perfectly respectable?

Paul Linford said...

Not a golf fan, then, Stephen?

I don't think it was the "zany-ness" that sunk Lucinda so much as her inability to work under anyone. Had she been more of a team player I think Sir Alan would have overlooked the interest in aromatherapy and penchant for bizarre headgear. I liked her, though - by far the most interesting of a rather bland bunch of candidates.

Cyberleader said...

I think Lucinda would make quite a good Tory MP. She had a touch of Maggie about her in the way she spoke...

Unknown said...

Have to say, this morning's R4 piece on The Apprentice was most interesting - coming to the broad conclusion that the series is a TV gameshow rather than reality. (Jolly good thing too - such self-serving back-stabbing antics as often seen in the boardroom bear little resemblance to any business environment I know.)

And Lucinda being 'Zany'? I maintain a very large soft spot for the girl ... lovely, in so many ways!