Most of us will have spent the majority of Sunday’s final of The Apprentice in stitches.
My notes for writing this blog really don’t go beyond the moment of hiccups and bloopers of absolute comedy gold. And I’ve got a slight problem with that.
Crucially, these “outtake” moments weren’t contributing factors to the final decision made by Sir Alan. If they were, ‘The Fitness’ would surely have been sent packing weeks ago.
In reality TV, you have to cut through the crap to work out what’s really going on. When recruiting your next business partner, as in the case of Alan Sugar, you have to do exactly the same thing.
I think Alan Sugar, for all his limitations as a human, actually does this pretty well. Bottom line is that the last two candidates, Tom and Ricky, were by far the strongest two. Nick and Jade (the latter in particular) never even got close. So how was Sir Alan making his decision?
According to Jim Collin’s book ‘Good to Great’, there’s are certain themes that define “great” businesses, setting them apart from good/average ones. This is a good way to think about why Ricky became Sir Alan’s new business partner.
Collins coined the phrase “Hedgehog concept”, which means having a simple, extremely clear concept of what the business is. That business, Collins said, is something they can:
1. Make money at
2. Be passionate about, and
3. Be the best in the world at
2. Be passionate about, and
3. Be the best in the world at
Let’s look at these against each candidate’s Business Plan in isolation against these four core factors: clear concept, money, passion and expertise:
Jade
Essentially Jade’s concept was a Telemarketing company, but bigger than the others. This is a shocker. There’s simple and clear, and then there’s simple and clear!
Her business proposition had little or no appreciation of what her actual costs were going to be, a fundamental flaw that was pounced on by her interviewers, and as much as she had bundles of “passion”, it wasn’t for Telemarketing per se, or for becoming the best in her field.
Final nail in the coffin was one of her websites being bought by her interviewer…
Total: 0/4
Nick
Nick’s funky online tool that assimilates recipe ingredients is a cool concept that you can grasp quickly. From a money perspective it had great potential, but he hadn’t really done compelling market research.
He might have tried this:“Pinterest is the fastest growing social network currently, and their core market is middle aged women, whose core interest is sharing recipe and cooking ideas…”
There were big question marks about Nick’s passion and expertise. You got the strong impression he’d run with this until he spotted something else that was more interesting!
Total: 2/4
Ricky
Despite the fact that Ricky tried to dress it up at the beginning, his business concept was a really clear one: niche recruitment agency.
The point about Ricky is that he’d done his research. He knew the market trends, already had great contacts across the industry, and financially he’d understood the risks in setting up the business and had built those in to the figures.
Ricky’s passion for his job really showed, he’s a recruiter through and through, not only this, he’d found a niche in his market that he could build his expertise around.
I’m not going to give Ricky 4/4 on this, however, because for me a business that sets out to be “the best in the world” has to challenge or change something substantial, Ricky was just spotting a gap in the market.
Total: 3/4
Tom
Tom’s proposition was the clearest of the lot, albeit the riskiest. His business plan received similar plaudits to Ricky’s, and the potential to make big money far outweighed a start up recruitment agency.
There wasn’t much to separate Ricky and Tom on any front; they were different styles of business, but they were equally well thought through. Again, like Ricky, Tom was pitching for investment in a field he was passionate about – vintage wines – and this was very much his field of expertise, but he had no hedgefund experience.
Total: 3/4
Choosing between Tom and Ricky was always going to be tough, but there was only going to be one winner.
As much as you can provide yourself with different “data points” for making a decision about who to recruit, or who to invest in, at the end of the day when you’re choosing between two very strong candidates gut feel really comes to the fore.
Apprentice Finale – Key Learning – Objectivity and gut feel are a winning combination
Think about the process the finalists went through in terms of four quartiles, each stage adding an increasing degree of insight into that individual’s future success:
First 25% – The CV. Only 25% accurate as a tool used on its own. Created the original 16 (think how many of this 16 you’d have invested in, probably less than 25%!)
Second 25% – Behavioural Observations. More reliable predictor of future behaviour than experience or competency interviewing. Created the final shortlist.
Third 25% – The Real Life Scenario. Assessed the credibility of the candidates’ thinking abilities, and their resolve in dealing with a high stakes scenario, both essential in running a successful business. Created the final two.
The Final 25% – Gut Feel. You can only objectively measure so much about an individual sitting in front of you. At the end of the day, when both Tom and Ricky had got 75% of the way to convincing Alan Sugar he should invest £250,000 in them, it comes down to gut feel.
Sir Alan had never been interested in letting other people gamble with his money, and nor was he about to be.
Created the 2012 winner: Ricky Martin.
One thing you can say about Alan Sugar is that he always stays true to his gut feel, even if that might be a very “old fashioned” way of looking at things. Truth is, he knows “what great looks like” for him, and that’s the point, it’s his money!!
What he knows, though, is that in order to invest in someone he needs more than just a strong inclination to understand if an individual is going to succeed. It’s called objectivity. You know, he might not actually make a bad recruiter…
- Tom Quayle is a business analyst at talent management consultancy, The Chemistry Group.
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