The Gloves are Off! Apprentice Series 7 Episode 2

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

For Twitter updates on The Apprentice and other things don't forget to follow me @simonbrooke

What a lucky shot: football and business opportunities

It's nearly football season time again. The time when every football fan in the country experiences a massive high of expectations in that last 10mins before kickoff.  A feeling only a relative handful will continue to feel for the remaining 9 months of the season.

For those of you who are not followers of our national sport you will be quite justified in dismissing the upcoming months as yet another year of pointless running around with a pigs bladder.  But there is no getting away from the fact that football as a sport, way of life and increasingly a business, is a key strand of our local and national pysche.

Take Burnley, many non-football fans in the town (of which there are very few) will point to the glorious industrial past, ringing singing tree and the beautiful pennines as major selling points.  But few will be able to argue that the town has been put back on the map of England in a major way by the promotion and season in the Premiership that filled the past year.  Even those businesses that didn't benefit directly from the increase in the football club's spending in the local economy will have seen the benefit that having a team in the Premier League with the eyes of the world focused upon it brings.

It is certainly a benefit that Blackpool will feel this coming season as they emulate Burnley by taking their turn in the 'big league'.  Without doubt it is an opportunity that must be taken, as an Oldham fan I can vouch for that.  Our town saw our Premier League opportunity come too early (before the big money really arrived) and despite 3 seasons in the top division our team now prepares to embark on it's 13th consecutive season in League One (or division 3 in old money).  As a club and a town Oldham didn't take the opportunity to maximise the chance they had, and that is really where a business lesson lies...maximising opportunities however big or small they may be.

Luck plays a part with all opportunities, and rather than declaring that luck has nothing to do with business I like to look on it another way.  Luck or LUCK really is all about maximising opportunities and how do you do that?  Well through LUCK:
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.  Be on the field.
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 (both in real-life and on social networking sites), 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.

Or to bring it back to football, Rooney worked hard on his skills and that enabled him to score 36 goals in total last season.  But he also used a big slice of LUCK...he knew where he would score most goals and got himself there. He worked in training on where the opportunities best arrived for him. He had some excellent teammates, and he knew exactly how he needed to strike the ball each and everytime in order to take advantage of the opportunities that came his way.  (World Cup aside of course!!!).

So increase your chances of scoring by using your own slice of luck, and take a leaf from Burnley and maximise the opportunities when they arrive.  And any time you get that feeling of complete optimisim in the 10 mins before kick off hold on to it...it will get you through those cold winter Tuesday nights at home to Gillingham.