As experts in predicting human performance at work, Chemistry is always fascinated at the frankly odd ways that The Apprentice goes about sifting the wheat from the chaff.  So, with the eyes of impartial experts, we will throughout Series 7 being offering in part, expert insight to the runners and riders, and in another part, generally gossiping and being mischievous as required.

So how do you start predicting future performance? How exactly do you – with little knowledge of an individual – decide whether they will be a top performer in your business?

Below you will see the Chemistry 5 Box Model, from top to bottom the list is prioritised from the hardest to change about yourself at the top, to the easiest, at the bottom (excuse the lack of a sexy image, not possible in this blog);

INTELLECT

VALUES

MOTIVATION

BEHAVIOUR

EXPERIENCE

This represents how we see people. ‘Intellect’ is at the top, not because it’s the most important but because it’s the hardest to change.  ‘Experience’ is at the bottom because all our research tells us it is the least reliable predictor of future performance. 

Yes, you heard that right, the No.1 criteria for all hiring decisions in the UK (have you done it before?) is the least reliable predictor of success.  The true predictors are locked in ‘Values’, ‘Motivations’ and ‘Behaviour’.

The interesting thing, when it comes to The Apprentice, is that most organisations do not get the time with their potential hires that Lord Sugar gets with his.  Over the episodes of Series 7, we will together get to assess all the participants against our Model; it’ll be fun and enlightening!

Most fascinating about this Series is that Lord Sugar is actually looking, not for an Apprentice, but a business starter & owner.  The "success" profile for a business owner is somewhat different from an employee, so this year we are looking for something different. Yippee, even more fun! 

So given Lord Sugar is looking for a business owner of something, what exactly do we know to be the success traits of successful people who start and build businesses?

1. Intellect – Strategic thinking will be required. A tactical thinker will not be able to see the bigger picture, the vision for the business.  Truly great business owners stay in the context of their work and hire people to do content.

2. Values – The winner will need to build effective relationships, challenge convention, be resilient and take potential customers, colleagues and investors on the journey with them.  We are expecting the successful applicant to value people, be comfortable making independent decisions, be comfortable challenging the current status quo, be emotionally intelligent and not get bogged down in the detail.

3. Motivation – They’ve got to love, and we mean love, change.  They’ve got to have a balanced way of working, managing their role in the organisation so that they can work with all different types of people.  We expect them to be action oriented and goal focused, but not flighty.

4. Behaviours – If we think of behaviour as 4 Clusters; Thinking, People, Inspirational and Delivery, we expect strengths within Thinking and Inspirational clusters.  As a business owner you have to set a Vision, articulate it and execute it.  Also we expect the successful individual to have a strong awareness of their weaknesses…we expect it but don’t have any faith we will see it!

5. Experience – Well we’ve said it’s irrelevant, so let’s ignore it.

So with this as our frame of reference, we will each week do two things:

1. Give you a view on whether the assignment the contestants were set actually looks for any of the "predictors of success"

2. Let you know who we are predicting success for and who we are not.

With all this in mind, bring on the contestants!