"Raj...You're Fired"



From this week I will be posting an analysis of the week's task on the Apprentice. This is just an exercise I am conducting for myself in order to improve my management/leadership skills and you are all welcome to post your own comments on how things could have been done better as well.

What I have realised about being the project manager on the Apprentice is this. The style of leadership suitable for every area of business is radically different. While most intelligent people could probably falter once and learn the correct way to manage things the next time, the candidates on the Apprentice don't have this facility.

Take for instance last week's show about the advertising campaign for the NYPD. Raj imposed the wrong military attitude on this campaign, as a consequence Elizabeth got fired because she didn't stand by her convictions. Andy, on the other hand, didn't care about the opinions of the rest of his team-mates and stuck to his guns about the kind of advertisement he wanted to execute. In the case of advertising, having the right idea and then sticking to it made the winner.

In yesterday's task the dependence on the contractor made a huge difference to the final results. Also Raj I think lacks that inherent business sense, and the lack of that common sense showed up in the tasks in the fashion industry, advertising and real-estate industry too. I admit he is someone who has a lot of panache but he frequently has the wrong idea and in last night's show he made the mistake of changing a 4 bedroom house into a 3 bedroom house.

The contractor was a huge variable on this task. Having control over the contractor had paramount importance. I think a reward-based competitive scheme would have worked well in this scenario. Employ two contractors to do two different rooms in the house. Tell each of them that whoever does a faster and better job at the first room will get to work on the upper floor of the house. Ofcourse I have the benefit of hindsight but well in many cases "not putting all your eggs in one basket" can make a lot of difference.