The Apprentice (UK Series Five) - Challenges - Week 6

Week 6

• Empire: Ben (Project Manager), Noorul, Debra, Yasmina and James.
• Ignite: Philip (Project Manager), Kate, Howard, Mona and Lorraine.
• Task: To sell a miscellaneous assortment of items, including a "hidden gem", on the streets of London.
• Result: Both teams were given ten items which they had to value and sell, including a skeleton, a deceptively valuable Indian rug, a bicycle, a box of second-hand books and a commode. Both teams got stuck into selling without spending a great deal of time trying to identify the higher-value items. Towards the end of the day, with time running out, Ben sold several valuable items at a loss. In particular, Empire lost over £150 on the bicycle and the skeleton, both of which were sold by Noorul. Ignite managed a modest profit on most of their sales, but committed a serious error by selling the rug for virtually nothing, cancelling out all their profits and taking them into a deficit. Both teams made a net loss (relative to the items' nominal values), but Ignite made the smaller loss and therefore were declared the winners. In the boardroom, tensions were high and Debra became angry with Nick Hewer when he suggested that she hadn't closed a deal to sell a second-hand book. Sir Alan responded by warning Debra about her mouth. Ben initially chose to bring James and Noorul back to the boardroom but then changed his selection to Debra and Noorul, after Debra actually demanded to be bought back. Debra was warned about her snappy and argumentative manner, and Ben was told he was on a last warning, but eventually Noorul was singled out and fired.
• Winner: Ignite
• Reward: Dinner, featuring beef and truffles, at a luxury restaurant.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ben, Noorul and Debra.
• Fired: Noorul, for not contributing to the task, for being ineffective throughout the competition and for selling two of the items well below their value
• Notes:
  • A number of Apprentice firsts happened during this week, as it was the first time that both teams had lost money, the first time that a project manager was not fired after losing money, and the first time that a candidate demanded to be brought back into the boardroom (something that usually results in an automatic firing in the show's original U.S. incarnation, although Sir Alan thought that Debra should have been brought back anyway, saving her from this fate).
  • One of the factors that contributed to Sir Alan's decision to fire Noorul was James, Philip and Lorraine stating (though never referring to him directly) that they were outraged that he had not been brought back to the boardroom when they had been in previous tasks, due to his consistent habit of going under the radar; James expressing the view in Week 2, and Philip and Lorraine in Week 5.
  • Kate was at this point the only candidate who had not appeared in the final boardroom.