The Apprentice is getting closer to real life in real business. To get money from customers they have to know like and trust you, to get extraordinary results from the people round you they have to know like and trust you. Sustainable business is not about taking the money and running, but about building relationships. What a pleasure to see that on the Apprentice rather than the flog ‘em high sell ‘em cheap mentality which has been a flavour of previous years.

I was particularly impressed with Claude who is a bit of a demon on the figures. He seemed genuinely concerned that Yasmina and her brother only gave 1% stake in the business to their mother who obviously put her house on the line. Karren Brady comes across as very emotionally competent and gave Kate a run around about women being stereotypically bitchy. Kate came in for a lot of flak about being perfect, and while Lorraine was criticised for her adversarial approach in the house, there was not a word of concern about a chequered cv only about dishonesty.

It all felt less soap opera and more grown up as the series went on.

Best of all Alan Sugar hired the person who listened. He was conscious of Yasmina’s rather fierce gaze, and the fact that she took the lessons of the previous task and brought them into the next. Personally I thought he was going to go for Kate, but this victory for Yasmina seems particularly well-deserved, and also feels like a win for a more enlightened way of doing business. Good for business, good for Suralan, good for reality TV and good for us all.

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It is where the candidates are interviewed by four of Suralan’s associates. Some have worked with him in the past, some still do. This has always interested me more than the frenetic “sell ‘em cheap” or “think it up quick” that is the quality of many of the programmes.

You get a more measured sense of what it takes to run a business, and also of the give and take between interviewer and candidate. There has been some dramatic stuff .. the guy who lied last year, and was very elegantly challenged, and there was definitely a frisson one year between a female candidate and the male interviewer.

There is a thinking quality which to my mind is part of the inspiration for a successful business, and not simply about going out there and doing it.

I also find it incredibly interesting to see who Alan Sugar has around him. Margaret and Nick are both intelligent and perceptive, the interviewers tonight are the same, and Sir Alan’s wife looks not only very attractive but warm and thoughtful.

My sense of the Apprentice-choosing process is that he plays with the idea of a mini replica of himself (extrovert, go getting) and in the end chooses someone who won’t make waves or upset people. In short he does not choose himself. He does not choose someone who could challenge.

Maybe it will be different this year?

I will have to catch up on iplayer as I will be out tonight at the social media programme on Marlow fm .. but I am really looking forward to watching the interviewing programme!

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Many of the tasks are simply about being a street trader so I made a special note to look at one where they had to create a brand for a breakfast cereal. I was left wanting to know more about the task and less about the arguments between them. I suppose the real problem is that the show is more soap opera than business, and for us to engage with the characters we have to know them better. Perhaps the show will be more satisfying when there are fewer contestants and we can get to know and like or dislike them more.

The highlight of the Apprentice viewing for me was the conversation with Mary Portas, the ad man, and Jenny Eclair in the follow up show. There was fun and a look at the real issues behind what it takes to do the task. The interesting part was that Alan Sugar thought pantsman was simply dreadful (pants), but by the time Jenny Eclair had finisihed with the idea it seemed the audience also thought it was great! The real issue seemed to be that Kimberley took someone who had performed into the boardroom at the end, and should have taken someone who did not contribute. The audience did agree that she should have been fired, even though the panel did not.

8.1 million viewers watched the opening programme in this series – a record – I wonder what has happened to the viewing figures now… must check.

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