The Apprentice Season Six Episode – 10

I’d say competitiveness was the keyword for this episode and I thought there were a lot of interesting incidents that demonstrated how competitive you have to be when it comes to business. On top of that, being able to separate your emotions from making ideal business decisions can be tough at times.

In the beginning Team Arrow had to give up one of its members to balance out the two teams and James was told by Donald Trump to choose that one person. James felt that it had to be either Tim or Nicole as he felt they were both creative people which made the most sense to him as he could give up one person and still have a team with a balanced skill set. Of course, we all know how Tim and Nicole are like two lovebirds right now which made the situation more dramatic. Eventually, James decided that Nicole would be the one to go to Team Kinetic. Nicole took it very personal and was jazzed up to win the next task as it seemed like she really wanted to stick it to James.

The task for the two teams was to sell passes for Universal Studios Hollywood Theme Park using what they call an “Adwalker” system. The Adwalker system basically looked like a vest that you wear that had gear which enabled you to do transactions on the spot as it had things like a portable credit card terminal. It also had a screen on the vest that allowed people to watch multimedia products on it. On an off topic note, Donald Trump mentioned how he had the number one rated show on television. I’m not sure if that is entirely accurate as I would think something like American Idol would be the highest ranking show right now.

Team Arrow’s strategy was to have a very noticeable station with big signs that highlighted the annual pass prices for the theme park in hopes to draw customers to them. Team Kinetic decided to wear roller skates to travel around the theme park in hopes to snatch up sales by approaching as many potential customers as possible. Nicole then mentioned how she wanted to try and use sex appeal as well as it helps to sell things. This was also the first task where the teams were competing against each other in the exact same space at the same time.

It was pretty much cutthroat business as the two teams were all over each other. Team Arrow appeared to be the most aggressive though as they had no guilt or remorse in simply walking up to customers who were already being pitched by a member of Team Kinetic. On top of that, Team Arrow tried to further distinct themselves by broadcasting how if people purchased the passes through them that they would get free bottled water and was not something you could get from the people on roller skates.

Team Kinetic seemed to have been fairly bitter as a result of Team Arrow’s aggressiveness as they started to label them as slimy sales people that would do anything to make a sale. Basically, they were calling them unethical. In my opinion, there is a difference between being pro-actively aggressiveness and being shady. Frank on Team Arrow had an interesting quote where he said something like “If you care about the other team you are going down. If you worry about taking another sale from the other team you are going down”.

The initial reaction from most people over a quote like that is how the person must be so heartless and so fourth. As hard as it may be for many to swallow, that is how aggressive you have to be many times whenever it comes to something competitive. Now you should obviously do things within reason such as you don’t want to say violate any rules. In this case, there were mentions on how some members of Team Arrow were misleading others that their prices were cheaper which I’m not entirely sure of such as if they were able to set their own prices. But if that is the case, then that would be an example where I would agree that it is crossing the line between aggressive sales and bad business practices.

I personally hate it when people whine over aggressive business tactics though and then seeing them justify their own shortcomings by implying that they are too good to be like that so to speak. There is usually more than one way to do something and for this case if you can’t think of a way to outshine the other person’s strategy then you need to take accountability for that. In the end, Team Kinetic sold $24,440.37 in passes and Team Arrow sold $31,366.65 in passes.

An interesting scenario came up shortly after as Nicole confronted Tim on how she felt kind of hurt/betrayed that he didn’t really speak up for her when James decided that she would be the one to go to team Kinetic. Tim then got angry over that and mentioned how he felt that was a selfish thing for her to do and that it would be silly to try and argue over a decision like that which was business related. I guess for myself I can see both point of views. At the same time I think what Nicole said can be true for business as well which I personally analyze at times as well.

For example, there were times where I say helped and stood by a certain people when it came to business. I helped them accomplish great things and at the same time defended them when they were ridiculed by others. When I say defend I don’t mean in an emotional way like “This person is my best friend” type of thing but rather something more subtle along the lines of “This person is an important part of our growth” and so fourth. When it came to the other way around where they were in a position of power to do the same, they didn’t do anything and justified it by saying they didn’t want conflict with a higher up. I think that is kind of similar with Nicole’s example as the fact that nothing was said shows a lot. To me, it shows one’s character and loyalty as well which is important even in business I’d say.

In the boardroom, the blame game was on the roller skate idea and Angela mentioned how Nicole should be responsible for the loss as a result. On top of that, Angela used the fact that James sent Nicole over to Kinetic as a sign that she isn’t that strong of a candidate. However, that didn’t mesh out too well at the end as the entire team agreed that only the project manager could be blamed for the end decision. Trump seemed like he really did not want to get rid of Angela as she is an Olympic gold medalist. Eventually though, he decided to fire her which she became extremely emotional over.

This was kind of a complex but interesting episode I thought as there are so many examples of personal beliefs and values in one’s life and where you draw the line on something being entirely personal and business related is different for everyone.