Mar 16 2005
THE girls are in pretty dire straits on my TV show The Apprentice. As we hit the fifth week it really is turning into a battle of the sexes with seven boys and just three girls left - each hoping to be the next great entrepreneur and land that six figure salary job with me.
What you saw last week, people will come across in life and business all the time. Someone who realises they are doomed and jump knowing they are going to be pushed.
Adele really had a problem. Basically she had a complex that everyone was against her from the beginning. She continued to moan and it got on my nerves.
I did warn her that Harrods were going to help us out and she had to treat them respectfully and there she was being rude to them. I knew she was going to go.
I felt sorry for team leader Tim. He didn't deserve to lose (both teams did exceptionally well) but I was glad Adele was on that team as it gave me the excuse to get rid of her. Had she not been in the losing team I would have found it difficult to pick someone to sack.
I could have really used my power as the boss and decided that the winning team was illegal as they did, in effect, give away some of their seed money (the float they were given for marketing) to bring in sales. They bought vouchers to give customers, which I could have disqualified them for. Tonight's show tests a completely different set of skills. The teams have to put on an art exhibition, interview some up and coming and established artists, pick two to work with and sell their art.
This one really sorts the men from the boys. It exposes the different skills one needs in selling different categories of product.
The person who everyone had down as the super-salesman really bombed out. Art is all down to the punters' likes and dislikes. What you have to recognise is when you have a fish on the hook and to reel it in.
The girls continue to embarrass me. At the beginning of the series I told them some of the best people who have ever worked for me are women. I think women are great in business but this is really testing my beliefs.
I just hope the remaining women pull themselves around and grasp that this is all about teamwork and not bitching and arguing. We seem to have got rid of most of the squabblers and they might now see the light and get down to proper business.
Mirror