The wrong girl was fired

Posted in Latest News, Nicky's Blog by Nicky on October 20th, 2009

I was looking forward to this week’s task as a Meteor advertisement was always going to be a great challenge. They had the opportunity to be creative as Meteor are always open to the talk ability factor and being a little different, humour is a large selling point for the company. Both teams seemed to be on the right track according to Meteor but I thought they both looked quite amateur. There is little time, a lot to organise and coordinate in these advertisement tasks but something was missing for me with both teams. The teams had little resources to make the ad look more professional but I think they had quite a few vital mistakes, for instance – not enough product placement, renaming product from “broadband” to “to go” and no branding throughout the ad. Also I am so familiar with Meteor ads that comparing cannot be helped, but I appreciate that it is unfair to the candidates. I find myself quite frustrated this week as I cannot identify a true opinion of this task, maybe it is the candidates themselves?

One thing I do know is this was the first week where I absolutely did not agree with Bill’s decision on the fired candidate! Maria! I can’t believe it! Fair enough she has been a background character on the show but has always exposed good skills and potential. In my opinion and in the opinion of ex candidates, she was a front runner. Geraldine and Breffny seemed to do little but mess, which was comical. After Breffny’s hysterical comment “Bill it was in my brain and wouldn’t come out”, instead “I was standing there like a model”, Breffny probably was the right choice for Maria but in fairness I probably would have picked the same two in her position. It is easy for us to judge now but at the time there was much emphasis and blame for losing the task put on Sam and Steve. They were both as bad as each other, Bill was a bit dramatic calling Steve an intimidating bully but Steve should have digested Sam’s idea’s better as she had valid points. I think he underestimated her because she is a teacher. He reminds me of Shane last year, “dog with a bone” if his idea is not adhered to. In saying that I can see Steve’s view. Sam can be so irritating and I wish I had never pleaded for her to start singing again, I can’t even watch the TV when she starts. The behaviour of both team members in the presentation was awful. Maria should have intervened in their playground spats as PM, which I am confident she did, though we may not have seen it on screen. Both Steve and Sam are adults and are responsible for their own behaviour. Was this a justified reason to fire Maria? No! Steve has shown potential in past tasks, Sam has not and really what has she got to offer?

This was last chance saloon for both Aoiffe and Brendan and the PR expert won the PM role, to the obvious distaste of Brendan. I wonder if it was fair to continuously accuse Brendan of being negative out of jealousy. Brendan knew he had a lot to prove and a gripe Bill has is not showing authority and standing up if you do not agree with something, could this have been it? The problem was he had no ideas to back it up. In fairness to Aoiffe she did well, her team were under control, they seemed to be given good direction and she showed leadership skills by confronting Brendan and putting him in his place. Why did the actress had to have a cork accent though? Lucinda really shone for me this week; she has always worked well in the background but really embraced her role and worked to her potential. I do think the panel are a little hard on her in the boardroom compared to others. I feel this is a tactical move to be hard and push those they have faith in, so one does not become complacent and fights back. This is a good turning point for Aoiffe and has catapulted Lucinda; I hope they keep it up.

Friendships/relationships, however you wish to describe the relations between candidates, one common theme throughout the show is these guys are certainly ruthless! Nothing will stand in the way of the top prize. Bill Cullen’s Apprentice! I agree with keeping the eye on the prize but let’s hope integrity is not totally lost along the way. This is a huge bonus in business and strong value for Bill.

Until Friday!

Nicky