Not since 1977 when John Williams' iconic Imperial March burst into life and the be-gloved villain of George Lucas' creation marched into view has there been a scarier appearance of gloves on screen. I talk of course of Edna's presentation to a room full of bemused and distinctly unimpressed looking technology enthusiasts during the App task.
In true Richard Hillman glove style, the addition of said accessories seemed to be leading to a car-crashing-into-the-ship-canal ending for the girls. Yet in a twist of Corrie proportions we gasped open mouthed (it was nearly 10pm on a school night) as victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat and the girls team lead by Edna secured an improbable victory.
Even the most ardent supporters of the girls’ team could not have predicted the final result having seen the team lurch from one disappointment to another throughout the task. However thanks to this unlikely win we were treated to piece of Jedi magic as Jim avoided the final three by calling on the great Obi-Wan to point out to team leader Leon that he ‘wasn’t the candidate he was looking for’.
It was a piece of brilliance though possibly unnecessary as Jim certainly wasn’t going, but genius all the same and left Leon (yes he did appear on an episode of Dragons Den) looking weak and firmly in Lord Sugars’ tractor beam.
But what did we learn from the second task? Understanding the brief certainly, after all the girls victory was sealed purely on the basis that their app had a more global reach than the boys.
However I would argue that luck more than anything played a bigger role in the win than any well executed strategy. As with any venture, planning is essential but a fair wind is a massive help. There are those that look upon luck in business as a fallacy - there is no such thing as luck. But I prefer to see luck for what it is, something we can try and turn in our favour as much as possible, and it is a concept that we should embrace. See luck as something that can be worked towards and it’s possible to envisage seeing yourself getting luckier.
Luck can be broken down into four parts, and it’s amazing how the luckiest people seem to have these things in place. It goes as follows:
L - Location, getting yourself out there and speaking to as many people as possible, mentioning your aims, your goals and your challenges and where you're looking for help. Or being in as many places as possible, one of them may just be the right one.
U - Understanding, know your chosen field as well as you can, who are the players, where are the opportunities
C - Contacts, speak to people, network, draw up a list of the people you would really like to speak to and mention them to everyone you know...you've played the Kevin Bacon game right??
K - Knowledge, know your subject, be an expert, you don't need to be working in an industry for years to know about it, do your research.
Ok it’s not a perfect system but to bring it back to the App task the girls won the task by perhaps understanding the key part of the market and producing a intro to it that played well with the global market. Whereas the boys team through the design of their App failed to understand that they were (for such a short task) cutting off the largest market through not understanding the field correctly.
Of course it could just be that the sight of those gloves scared most of the world into downloading the girls app on the understanding that there may be a new Death Star lurking behind the moon so they best hurry.
Star of the Week: Jim Eastwood – He made me say that with a whoosh of his Jedi powers
Got Lucky: Edna Agbarha – Two lucky episodes on the trot for Edna who almost lost the girls the task with a strange presentation that failed to mention the product at all.
Heading for a Fall: Glenn Ward – Lord Sugar is already questioning his potential and he appears to be winding a few others up
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