Each episode of The Apprentice will be scrutinised by Chloe Harrold, a senior employment lawyer with the progressive business services group, Outset, and she will pull out the HR blunders for your entertainment and education. Based in Maidstone TV Studios, watching out in case Lord Sugar lands on the helipad, Chloe has experience of advising employers and senior executives in all areas of employment law. She deals with contentious and non-contentious matters, including exit strategy, settlement agreements, discrimination, reorganisation and TUPE.
Chloe is also a qualified New York lawyer who qualified as a UK solicitor in 2009 whilst specialising in employment law at a City firm. Having spent several years working in the City she joined Outset in 2016.
Suck it and Sea
This week Lord Sugar set the candidates a very aptly themed task – the manufacture and selling of sweets. The Apprentice mogul got things rolling by mixing the teams up and deciding on the PMs himself: selecting Alana and Oliver given their foodie backgrounds. Surely we’re in for some stellar performances?
Or not. It seems manufacturing rock and fudge isn’t quite the same as making sausages – who knew. Oliver seems like ever such a nice chap, but as PM was laughable. His team were bossing him about, talking over him, making their own decisions about where to assign themselves – all before he could get a full sentence out. They had no strategy and even in the boardroom, on being questioned the second time around, Oliver still wasn’t able to confirm his team’s pricing. Mukai managed to sell their product for a lower price than originally agreed to the trade buyer, Aleksandra gave the wrong pricing (twice) and Paul couldn’t bring himself to associate himself with his embarrassment of a team long enough to try to sell anything.
Alana’s team on the other hand seemed to do relatively well (by cringe-fest Apprentice standards anyway). That was despite their rock pillow making machine breaking – they turned to using moulds instead and Sofian had to try to convince the Brighton Seagulls that he pulled some strings to produce “half footballs” especially for them: “err, there’s no such thing as half footballs” (says man from football stadium).
This week really highlighted the need for effective management instruction and guidance – and for staff to follow those instructions. Whilst we are all grown up professionals, ultimately if there’s no one forging the way, setting a clear plan and keeping everyone on track it’s easy for things to quickly fall apart. Samuel ignored the pricing Alana had set but she didn’t let him get away with it. Sofian also tried to defy Alana but she held firm, Courtney backed her up, and ultimately the team worked well with direction and support from their PM.
Given the shambles of Oliver’s team it was a total non-surprise to see them lose and even less of shock that the Sugary finger of doom headed straight in the sausage king’s direction.
Next week its high end selling at Liberty of London. Think class, sophistication, decorum …. oh no wait, it’s the Apprentice candidates …. good luck discerning shoppers of the West End.
