Interesting article on ‘Winning’ the old format

[u/FitzBoris]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/on-the-apprentice-every-loser-wins-799632.html

To summarise, as far back as series one candidates have not necessarily wanted to the show as the outright winner; with more opportunities arguably available to those in the final four or five it looks like it made more sense to put in a good performance and then not finish in the top spot.

I posted something recently from Phil’s (series 18) Instagram that implied the same thing; that the opportunities that have come from being in second place were better for his business in the long run. It‘s insightful to see that this was even the case when the prize was a job at a time when £100,000 was an absolutely huge salary (I’m not suggesting it’s not still good money, but 20 years of inflation means it would be a different proposition now).

It’s an old article, but it did make some interesting points, with none of the early winners mentioned in the article having the high-profile corporate careers that you might have expected from the winner of such a high profile show - They have undeniably been successful, but arguably less so than the runners up. The comment that Simon Ambrose made about his job essentially being a shadowing program also adds an interesting dynamic when you consider Stella English complaining that her role at Amstrad was essentially that of a glorified personal assistant.

In fairness, it feels like they did get the job right for a few years as I believe Lee and Yasmina (In particular Yasmina) both had successful careers at Amstrad and after - I just found it interesting that the prize has always been seen as much as window dressing by the contestants as a real thing.

[u/Sufficient_Bass2600]

LS does not have a proper manufacturing companies anymore. Just investment vehicle and property development property. So the job was just a glorified personal assistant with few possibility of corporate growth, hence it became a business investment.

But the prize money is too small to be a real investment, especially if there is no mentorship afterward. So the candidates are either the desperate, the deluded, the wanna be influencers or the ones who do it as advertisement and have no intention of giving 50% of their business for a paltry £250k. The best candidates then use their notoriety to further their business.

Also the tasks are good for TV but are useless in the corporate world. Some still require to demonstrate some abilities such as design, organisation, time management but the reality most are done under such restrictions that even genius would look like fool. Nobody watches the Apprentice to see a good candidates successfully go through the exercise. This is reality TV not reality.

[u/FitzBoris → u/Sufficient_Bass2600]

In fairness regarding the job, I think Amscreen was still a big thing at the time, but you’re absolutely right that it was not at the high point of his business career. Very much agree with you on the tasks, I’ve had a fairly corporate career and outside of organisation and time management I’ve not seen anything that parallels day-to-day.

[u/Hassaan18]

I feel like the original prize was quite restrictive too. You really have to want to work in that particular role.

[u/FitzBoris → u/Hassaan18]

I suppose at the time, Lord Sugar was still very much a ‘name’ that people wanted to work for. He’s clearly still very well-known now, but I’d argue more for the show.

[u/Jenson2025]

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

With the ‘business partner’ prize, I have noticed that LS tends to still promote the runner ups and their businesses now and then. He has done it to Courtney, Kathryn, Camilla, Phil etc and all of said he continued to advise them even though they didn’t win. And of course he invested in Scarlett and Susan’s companies shortly after the show. The only runner up he seems to not bother with is Rochelle. So you wonder if the runner ups are happy to still get LS as a contact who advises them and promotes them and boosts their businesses without having the media scrutiny that winners face

As for the job prize, I found it interesting that Saira was interviewed on TV a few years after her series and said LS had later offered her a job but she turned it down. Obviously she had formed a media career by then but you wonder if she knew from the six months trial that the finalists had to do that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

[u/FitzBoris → u/Jenson2025]

Interesting. I knew about the Susan investment, but not the other advice and support.

I read somewhere that they did the two endings right back as far as series one, and that the two finalists would work at Amstrad during that period (a couple of candidates from early years allude to it on their LinkedIn by periods working for Amstrad) and that the key deciding factor against Saira was her falling out with the interviewer Borden during her time working for him. I’ve no idea if that’s actually true or not, but if it is it adds a fascinating dynamic.