Former runner-up Claire Young shares her thoughts
on the successes and failures of the last episode of series eight
of The Apprentice.
It was a gruelling twelve weeks but we made it to the final, and
finally saw Lord Sugar choose his new business partner and invest
£250,000. All of the candidates did exceptionally well to reach
this stage, so congratulations to them. However, the
public is cruel and we all sat on the edge of our seats
desperate to see who would fall at the last hurdle.
To help him decide, Lord Sugar brought in his trusted allies to
suss out the truth, cut the rubbish and smell any rats. There was
no hiding. Margaret Mountford was back, along with her eyebrow,
which at times spoke a thousand words.
There were some classic The Apprentice lines in this round:
"Your application makes me want to be sick" a reference to
Ricky's egotistical words and "No cash flow, no balance sheet, no
costs, no money" when assessing Jade's non-existent business
acumen.
Jade walked out of one interview and summarised how I felt
watching her: "I'd quite like a drink," she said. For me it
would have to be something big and strong to block out the horrors
I was witnessing. They should have called this episode "how not to
do an interview". For example Jade was caught out lying about her
qualifications. She got an N grade in Business Studies A Level.
What does that stand for? Noddy? Not Finished?
Jade's business plan was terrible and it was just not an
original idea. Plus she's shouty and made my ears hurt. Thankfully,
she was fired first. Then there was Nick. He failed to explain his
idea clearly, so Lord Sugar showed him the door.
Next up was Tom who needed £25m to start his business, Lord
Sugar pointed out that he's an OAP these days and can't take on
such a risk. Tom is 23 and at the start of a big adventure, so
although he lost out this time, I'm sure we'll see him go on to do
great things.
The last man standing and overall winner was ex-wrestler Ricky
Martin. Lord Sugar liked his idea of a niche recruitment company
specialising in the science industry and gave the 27-year old a
£250,000 investment.
You can find Claire tweeting here: @ClaireLYoung