Have I already mentioned that I hate the Apprentice? No? Well I watched the first season and I hate the Apprentice.
I have been hesitant to admit this because so many people love the show. The undergrad entrepreneurship program at UW even does their own mock-Apprentice. But even so, I dislike the show. Why?
The Apprentice may be good TV but it is bad business.
There is a serious need for financial education in our country. People just dont understand money or business so when this show was announced, I thought it might be a great opportunity to address this educational need.
To my disappointment, the Apprentice turned out to be little more than a marketing vehicle for Trump and his poor taste. Like any TV show, it goes for ratings and controversial losers like Omarosa over real content. Running a lemonade stand in NYC is a good test for someone running a major corporation? Puh-lease. Firing someone good for making a mistake? If only that happened in the White House.
Now I have enjoyed Survivor because that show is fundamentally about people and human relationships under competitive pressure. I find lessons in human behavior while watching that show but it doesn't claim to be anything more than a game-show reality-style. The Apprentice puts on airs about being a business show but its more of a 60-minute product placement for Trump's hair and his phoney "rags to riches" self-promotions.
To be honest, I had forgotten about the show until today when I noticed an article in our local paper. Maureen Moriarty is now writing a weekly article on the Apprentice, in the business section no less. I rolled my eyes when I saw the article but read it all the same. And I was impressed.
The author actually manages to find some real lessons on business and workplace behavior in these shows. I dont know if the show has gotten better but I did enjoy the article and will look for others.
(I was amused to note that this week's lemonade-stand assignment reminded me of one of my class assignments in business school. We did an Xbox display for Target instead of Wal-Mart but they sounded quite similar.)
Check it out for yourself. You dont even need to watch the show (or more than one season) to appreciate the article.
Apprentice 101: Eye rolling (and denying it) fails to impress
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Five applicants remained at the start of this week's episode. The Gold Rush team was down to Lee and Sean (project manager). Tammy led Synergy, which included Allie and Roxanne. This episode featured juvenile behavior from the women resulting in a losing team that was completely out of sync. Allie and Roxanne failed to back their leader, choosing instead to gossip and criticize their manager. Donald Trump fired Tammy for "having no control over her teammates" and her "terrible" design.
This week's assignment was to create a three-dimensional in-store display featuring Microsoft's Xbox 360 inside a Wal-Mart store.
