The final of this third season of Young Apprentice reunited us with some familiar faces as the four finalists – Ashleigh Porter-Exley, Lucy Beauvallet, Maria Doran and Patrick McDowell – were joined by all eight previously fired candidates to help them stake their claim for Lord Sugar‘s £25,000 investment fund. The teams were tasked with creating and promoting a new sportswear brand with the potential to go global, and it was Ashleigh and Lucy’s Release streetwear brand which triumphed over Maria and Patrick’s Cyc cycling range. As for the winner, well, if you don’t know already then read on …
Just do it
Our four finalists are summoned to White Hart Lane to meet Lord Sugar. Neither Ashleigh nor Lucy have any idea what that is. (That’s understandable: it’s the home of a minor football team who forever live in the shadow of their more successful North London neighbours. Yes, I’m an Arsenal fan.)
She may only have been joint PM, but Maria drove her team’s agenda early on (image courtesy of bbc.co.uk)
At the stadium, Sugar sends Ashleigh over to join Lucy and informs the two resultant pairs of joint project managers that they have three days to design a new sportswear range, from branding and tagline to producing a viral video and delivering a pitch to an audience of experts. He also reunites them with their eight former housemates, with Alice, Andrew, Max and Sean joining Team Luleigh, while Amy, David, Navdeep and Steven side with Team Patria. Sadly, the teams are assigned rather than selected, meaning we don’t get to see Max – the first candidate to be eliminated – squirming in discomfort as he is left until the end, like the weedy kid picked last in PE. You just know he’d have been last, right?
Anyhow, there’s no time for a group hug or collective Facebook status update, as it’s straight into the task as the teams board a train for Manchester. Job number one is to agree on a target market. On Team Patria, Maria initially suggests winter sports. Patrick counters with a street-wise theme before Maria comes back with cycling – a timely thought given cycling’s status as a major growth activity and the fact this was filmed not long after Bradley Wiggins became the first British winner of the Tour de France. Unsurprisingly, Maria wins the day – partly because it’s a better idea and partly because, as Nick Hewer drolly observes:
Who’s in charge? They both are. Who’s really in charge? Maria.
Over on Team Luleigh, Ashleigh successfully argues the case for streetwear.
There was nothing harmonious about Patrick’s choice of choir (image courtesy of bbc.co.uk)
After arriving in Manchester, both teams split up to research retailers and meet up with focus groups. Brainstorming possible names for Patria’s cycling brand, Steven comes up with Rusty Chain and Puncture – perhaps not the most positive connotations ever! – before David proposes Cyc. Happy with that, Maria initially comes up with a tagline of ‘Just do it.’ I’m sure I’ve heard that somewhere before … nah. Eventually Navdeep’s suggestion of ‘Lead the way’ meets with general approval – solid if a little uninspiring. Research at a bike shop suggests a potential gap for addressing a younger, more urban market.
Ashleigh gets some useful and strong direction at a training centre for urban street sport: they want a brand with a strong ethos which delivers substance over style. She wisely sticks to that direction after Lucy comes up with suggestions that are based more on establishing a cool positioning, and her branding of Release with the tagline of ‘Strive. Emerge. Achieve’ is bang on.
The day ends with both teams meeting with Creative Spark, experts in viral marketing, to plan their video shoots. Steven starts singing Queen’s Bicycle Race as a suggested soundtrack but Patrick – against Maria’s counsel – books a choir because he wants to do something different and because:
I need to show Lord Sugar that I’ve got a voice too.
Unfortunately it’s one that is out of tune with the requirements of the task.
Day 1 score: Luleigh 1 Patria 0
Mama’s got the hump?
Day two opens with Maria and Patrick having a ‘discussion’ in which she ‘discovers’ that Patrick has booked the choir without consulting her (because obviously she wouldn’t have asked him at any point the previous evening). Her response?
Flip me, Patrick.
I’m betting that’s not what she really wanted to say. Or possibly even what she did say on the first take. After some toing and froing about whose decision it was to make – “It was my decision.” “No, it was mine.” – which requires Navdeep to step in as a mediator, it’s clear that Patria’s joint project managers are not in harmony about the choir. Or in tandem about how to promote their cycling brand. I could go on. (Thankfully, I won’t.)
Lucy exhibited an eye for creative design (image courtesy of bbc.co.uk)
There are three main tasks for the day – logo design, the viral video and deciding how to place their logos on the unbranded products they are given – requiring the teams to split their resources again. Lucy shows a strong eye for visual design with a striking logo for Release which emphasises the ‘R’ in a bold flash. It’s genuinely very, very good. Maria’s effort for Cyc – which has the two C’s forming two halves of a bike wheel around the central ‘Y’ – is less eye-catching but also perfectly decent, but uses the colours purple and green. Hmm, I’m sure those colours bring to mind a completely different sporting event …
Ashleigh takes responsibility for Luleigh’s video shoot at Piccadilly Gardens, directing a team of street dancers to surround unsuspecting passers-by and attempt to engage them. It’s an ambitious and risky approach. Early efforts, predictably, result in women fleeing in terror, presumably thinking they’re about to be mugged in broad daylight. But eventually Ashleigh strikes gold and gets some good footage, with even Karren Brady raising a smile at some of the team’s antics.
Meanwhile Patrick’s shoot at the Trafford Centre involves his choir – which appears to consist primarily of middle-aged ladies who don’t really fit the bill of ‘young’ and ‘urban’ at all – posing as shoppers before breaking into song in the middle of the crowd. His musical choices? Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and Poker Face. He really would have been better off with Steven’s suggestion of Bicycle Race. Or perhaps Kraftwerk’s Tour de France (the music used by ITV for their coverage of the race). Nick looks on from above, bemused, although Patrick seems happy to see that passers-by have stopped to watch – not so much out of interest or engagement, but more in the way one slows down to rubber-neck when passing an accident on the motorway. Patrick also seems to think he needs to use a megaphone to address the choir from all of six feet away. Odd.
Day 2 score: Luleigh 2 Patria 0
Pitch perfect
The final day of the final task finds the two teams preparing for their pitches. Stage sets have to be created, models and dancers rehearsed, and key messages practised and polished before an audience of marketing experts, representatives from global sports brands and, er, Rio Ferdinand are wheeled in to receive the teams’ presentations.
Patria’s pitch for Cyc is met with a degree of bemusement. Rio asks why their cycling brand uses the same purple and green colour combination as Wimbledon, the incongruence of the choir with their youthful positioning is criticised and the pair struggle with how they will balance quality against an ambition of low cost, but they are congratulated for tapping into a booming market.
The response for Luleigh’s Release presentation is more positive, despite some tricky questions about how they will raise enough money to fund the charity projects which will underline their ethical position. However, their video is seen as more relevant and Rio makes positive noises about youths buying into the brand. And both Ashleigh and Lucy are composed both in making their pitches and in fielding questions.
As individual performances go, all four acquit themselves admirably well.
Day 3 score: Luleigh 3 Patria 1
Boardroom Brouhaha™
Back in London, the final four depart from the Apprenti-Mansion™ for the last time. Sadly, we aren’t told who won the last game of table tennis doubles – my guess is that Maria has a mean smash, offset by Patrick’s rather weak lobs.
Sugar ascertains that Maria wisely drove the cycling concept and Patrick unwisely chose the choir. Ashleigh came up with the name and slogan for Release, but it was Lucy who created a stand-out logo which would work even in non-English speaking countries. Before the eight team members are dismissed, it is Andrew who offers the most insightful comment into his project managers:
Ashleigh leads more, Lucy is a bit more inclusive.
Which I think is a nice way of saying that Ashleigh tends to be more dictatorial while Lucy is more team-oriented.
With just the four finalists now on the other side of the table, Sugar probes a bit more deeply into their individual contributions before declaring that he has listened to the experts’ views on which concept has the greater potential to go international. There’s no real doubt on this – or indeed any other rational – basis: Luleigh are the clear winners, having come up with a better brand and stronger ideas overall. Sugar compliments both Patrick and Maria as he dismisses them, saying he is proud to have been associated with both of them – although he doesn’t hand out business cards as he did to Steven and Andrew last week.
Sugar has one final consultation with Nick and Karren, where the contrast between Ashleigh and Lucy’s leadership styles is again emphasised. The former leads, does the talking and is passionate and driven, while the latter sits back, brings a team together and is more creative.
Ashleigh’s hard graft paid off (image courtesy of bbc.co.uk)
The pair are brought back in and asked what they will do with the money. Lucy states that she wants to study law but ultimately wants to work with food and restaurants – are you listening, Jamie Oliver? – while Ashleigh offers up twin ambitions of going into property management and owning her own accountancy firm. To be honest, neither is an overly attractive prospect – the best individual investment was probably Patrick’s nascent fashion business – but that’s perhaps unfair to judge of 16/17-year olds who are still at school.
Sugar deliberates. He tells Lucy she is intelligent and articulate, and a worthy winner. He tells Ashleigh that she takes over and controls tasks – a bit of a double-edged comment, that – and brings results through. But in the end he opts for Ashleigh’s hard graft over Lucy’s creative flair in a triumph of stereotypes as the gritty northern lass overcomes the educated southern girl. It is a victory for perspiration over inspiration, if you will.
In the Riches-To-Rags Rags-To-Riches Roller™, a justifiably delighted Ashleigh says:
It’s just absolutely amazing to know that I’m the winner and that Lord Sugar is willing to invest in me. It’s the best experience I’ve ever had. You can have as much work experience as you like but the skills I’ve learned while being here are just unbelievable.
I can’t wait to get home and see my family and friends. I’m so excited to get home and see my parents, my little brothers – they’ll all be so proud.
Final analysis
I don’t think there is any question the right team won a task which was fitting of the final because of the broad range of business skills it tested. The first day required sound marketing skills and an ability to make good business decisions. Day two tested creativity in terms of both design and video production. And the final day was a more traditional Apprentice test of salesmanship and pitching skills.
As for the two finalists, regular readers will know that I have backed Lucy since early on in the process, and have raised questions about Ashleigh’s ability to be more than a highly directive leader whose sole trick is to minimise costs. In this task, Ashleigh allayed some of my fears by showing creativity in her branding ideas and her video concept. Her unwavering determination to see the latter through after a difficult start was also impressive. It’s easy to see why Sugar likes her, as he no doubt recognised the drive and courage in one’s own convictions that are two of his own defining qualities.
Personally, I found Ashleigh at times overly directive and unwilling to listen – but then one man’s dictatorial is another’s decisive. As a more reflective, creative type myself with a leadership style which is more coaching than directive, I found it much easier to empathise with Lucy. Horses for courses. I have no real issues with Sugar opting for Ashleigh as his Young Apprentice, although Lucy would still have been my choice.
My one disappointment is that, although she consistently demonstrated sound commercial awareness, Ashleigh – along with virtually all the other candidates this year – did not have a proper ‘wow’ moment to stand out from the crowd. For me, Lucy had two which showcased her creative strengths: her fantastic cakes in the afternoon tea task (where she was, admittedly, very much on home turf), and then her branding work here. But did she put forward a compelling enough case for investment? Probably not. Going from running her own cake business to a law degree and back to the food/restaurant trade – an industry with a notoriously high failure rate – was perhaps one risk too far for Sugar.
However, at the end of a season where one of the consistent themes has been to highlight the candidates’ academic flaws and holes in their general knowledge, it was good to see all four finalists finding some space to shine in this episode. When I think back to what I was like when I was 16 or 17, I know I wouldn’t have done any better than any of the 12 candidates, and each of them are to be congratulated just for qualifying for the process.
Will this be the final run for Young Apprentice, as has been rumoured? Should it be? Arguably, yes. As such a mature franchise now, I’m not sure there is sufficient space to accommodate two sister programmes, and if one is to be retained it must surely be the original grown-up version. Having said that, if Young Apprentice does return for a fourth run, I’ll be right here watching and blogging as enthusiastically as ever.
Links: BBC Young Apprentice website, Ashleigh Porter-Exley interview, My interview with season two runner-up James McCullagh
You can also follow Ashleigh and Lucy on Twitter at @AshleighPorterE and @LucyBeauvallet.
Young Apprentice season 3:
Thanks, Tim, for all of your thought throughout the series. I think you and I are of the same opinion, though you rightly point out that as 16 or 17 year olds we probably wouldn’t have done any better! Although, if I had access to 2 previous series of YA and more of it’s older sibling, I hope I would have learned something!!
Overall, I think it is time Young Apprentice is Fired, and we stick with the more rounded older sibling.
Have a great Christmas and I look forward to further chat next year!
You can read my thoughts at http://markdecosemo.com/2012/12/21/young-apprentice-2012-final-thoughts-or-why-its-time-that-young-apprentice-should-be-fired/
You too, Mark! Same again next year?
I have some thoughts about what needs to be done revitalise both series, which I’m saving for the launch of my new blog – if I ever get round to it!
I think that Lucy highlighted a major conundrum for the BBC with this series. Should they be encouraging entrepreneurship at the expense of education? Her best option (and that of most of the contestants) has to be to get good A-levels, go to university and assess their position after that. A true entrepreneur will continue to make money and develop ideas during this time as their horizons broaden. The difficulty is that this is not the Sugar model but nor is this the 1950s. I am sure that the prize is available to fund a university education but it is still a bit vague. I also know that there are many young people who for financial reasons do not go to university but I doubt that any that we have seen over the last eight weeks fall into this category.
I read yesterday’s blog with the interview with last year’s runner-pu and could not help feeling that although he had got a great start as a result of the programme and will no doubt be measured on his ability in his role, as he develops his career the absence of a degree will still be a potential drawback.
Perhpas it is my age and professional background that makes me so traditional in my approach but I think that it doesn’t help the case for the series. The other problem is that there is a limit to the number of times we can see some of these projects (though the purchasing task coninues to produce comedy gold). Yes, probably time to go.
I do think there’s a danger of mixed messages. I seem to recall Arjun was always planning to go to university anyway, and I was told by someone else that Zara was going to go to film school, so it doesn’t seem that either of their investment funds were being put directly into businesses. I suppose they have to continue the charade of it being a business investment, or else YA is simply a glorified game show with a £25k cash prize – Total Wipeout for Business Studies, as it were.
I wonder whether it might be more appropriate to collapse the two series together and do a single Apprentice series focussing solely on, say, 20-24 year olds, which can then focus on young entrepreneurial talent, and move the whole degree issue to one side?
As for James McCullagh, I think he always has the option of gaining a couple of years’ valuable experience and then going to university after that. It’s not often you get the opportunity to work for a company like Saatchi’s at such a young age, so I can understand him jumping at it. But I would certainly be a little wary of the programme taking the stance that it’s OK to skip tertiary education. That works out brilliantly for some people but not for all, and having a degree and an extra 3 years’ worth of life experience is invaluable for the vast majority. I know I was nowhere near ready to face the working world at 18 – I barely was at 22!
You make a fair point about James but the difficulty is, having had two years of the high life in London’s West End whether he would ever want to give it up to go to university? Not while it is going well anyway and then if if were to go pearshaped then it could be too late. I would think that with his YA success on his cv he could have told Saatchi to wait three years, or at least done an internship with them, then his degree and then applied to them or any other advertising firm.
The whole franchise of course moved from a job interview from hell to the investment in a business proposition and in many ways is not as good as a result. Perhaps time has come to wind up the whole series?
Do you remember my idea from a couple of years ago, which was to move from weekly tasks to turning the whole series into one big start-up task? Every week the teams would focus in depth on one aspect of the process: coming up with the idea, making the most of research, branding, product design, pitching to potential customers etc. That way you could follow the process in depth from start to finish rather than just doing a variant on the same theme every week. It’s a big change to the format, a tough sell and not without some major logistical difficulties, but it feels much closer to the new format of the show than the current weekly task process.
And now I’ve pre-empted my post on how to save the programme. Bugger.
There was no way Maria and Patrick’s team were ever going to win was there? And the ‘Flip Mes’ from Maria were very funny – good on her for self-censoring! I think Ashleigh was more prominent during the series and from task one showed her ability to understand money and profits. How many adult apprentices have failed to understand the concept of simple accounting? And she wasn’t as aggressive as Maria, or Amy, so I can see why she won. It will be interesting to find out how and what she does with the money in the end, but I doubt anyone will be following her in 5 years time to find out.
True. I’ve probably been a bit hard on Ashleigh during the course of the series. Being financially aware is an important part of business – and, as you say, something many of the grown-up candidates are woeful at – but my concern was whether she really has the entrepreneurial spark or the listening skills. And while she was good from a creative standpoint here, I still think Lucy’s creativity will give her an edge in terms of being successful if she wants to set up on her own at some point.
Still, each to their own. I’m a quieter, more creative type so my natural affiliation was always going to be with Lucy. Similarly, Sugar was always likely to look kindly on the loud grafter. I would have still picked Lucy, but no qualms about Ashleigh winning given her unquestionable drive.
I was not a fan of Ashleigh – real estate and accountancy is hardly entrepreneurial is it? She is probably the least academic of the finalists, doing an NVQ level 2 and an evening class in accountancy, so looking at the comments above I would think is least likely to go to univesity (though accountancy through the route she has chosen is a long haul). It is difficult to see much drive in her – and though I am sorry to say that a thick Yorkshire accent doesn’t help that perception even looking beyond that there is no great spark.
I agree with you about Lucy. Cupcakes is a great little earner in the short term but catering is not a big money option unless you are exceptionally lucky or talented and the reason cupcakes are expensive is that they are difficult to scale up.
I will confess that my favourite for a while has been Maria – I am not sure that you know quite what you are getting and suspect that some of the self-censorship that is referred to was second (or later) takes! But she is fiesty and I think creative and was dreadfully unlucky to be paired with the weakest of the last four by a country mile. I do not think that anyone could have won in a team with Patrick and his viral marketing exercise showed so little imagination (direct rip off of the T Mobile ad that they used as an example or what?) that I question Lord Sugar’s judgement that he will make a fashion designer.
Broadly I agree. Going into the final, my order of preference was Lucy, Maria, Patrick (yes, Patrick) and finally Ashleigh. Even though she won, I cannot for the life of me see why Ashleigh was so highly rated, for all the reasons I have outlined above and in previous weeks. Was she a safe, financially aware pair of hands? Absolutely. Is she an entrepreneur? Absolutely not. Financial awareness IS important in business, but it is no substitute for great vision and ideas. No matter how good you are at counting the pennies, a bad business is a bad business.
Patrick’s fashion business showed far more entrepreneurial spirit – which is why I eventually ranked him above Ashleigh – but represents a huge risk and, of course, Patrick himself is far from inspiring. Although arguably being a successful fashion designer is all about designs and nothing about general business acumen.
I grew to like Maria, despite her tantrums. The cynic in me says that Patrick chose the choir partly to make a personal statement about his contribution (albeit a bad one!) but also because he knew that Maria would blow her top and scupper her chances. As it was, I thought she handled it quite well – she didn’t let it lie, but made good points and walked away before it did too much damage.
But who do I think will be the most successful in later life, even if she is the most likely to end up in a “corporate” job? Lucy. Creative, personable, a great team person. In short, a good role model.
Bearing in mind that the chances of any of them actually making anything as an entrepreneur are slim to nothing then the corporate career is most likely. Lucy will do that because she has the personality and if she goes for law she will get a decent start. The thing that I think that is forgotten (or not understood) by many is that the top lawyers, at least solicitors, are not the best at law but are the most personable and the best sales people. Partnership in any firm, legal or accounting, is about contacts and marketing and sales. The geeks do the law! (or the accounting)
You are right about Patrick – it was his statement. But he should not have been in the final. I think that one of the things that the final showed was how good the last competitors were in comparison with the earlier ones. I cannot recall the names but the two most recent departures were by far the strongest and left Patrick looking weak. He survived the early stages with a bit of luck and then was the weakest in the winning team when it got serious. It takes more than some sequins on a shirt and shorts to make you a designer.
Patrick certainly lived a charmed life. He was in the final three as the losing PM in week 1 – when really he should have gone rather than max – but was never brought back in thereafter, so the next chance Sugar had to fire him was in the final itself. He made it all the way purely by default. I have no doubt that if Sugar had had the opportunity to fire him sooner he would have done.
Arguably you could make the same argument about any board level or partnership role in any industry, not just service firms such as accounting or legal. Success is as much about relationship management and understanding how to survive in political waters as it is about talent or competence. Which is why I’m resolutely middle management …
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading your commentary each week. I’ve loved Young Apprentice once again. There aren’t many TV shows that portray teenagers in the way YA does. It shows them that they are determined; that they care; that they can learn; that they are self-aware; that they are enterprising. I could probably go on. What brilliant role models they offer to other youngsters! As a teacher I believe that schools have a huge role in teaching children real skills – skills that will make them more employable. Schools have a responsibility to be aware of finances. Young Apprentice has delivered these messages in a big way. I hope that the audience of the show included a significant number of teens so that the message has hit home with many of them.
‘Flip me’ has got to be the stand out phrase from the show this year (far better than strategy)!
Thanks James. Interesting to get your perspective as a teacher
Overall, I think the show does a good job of showing that teenagers can do just as well as their adult counterparts (sometimes better) despite their relative inexperience. This series has been slightly odd in highlighting some of the candidates’ academic deficiencies, but I guess if that underlines to viewers the value that education can bring then that’s no bad thing.I don’t know the breakdown, but given that episodes have been going out at 8pm rather than 9pm you have to assume there will be a good younger audience.
“Flip me” was hilarious, although I do wonder whether that required (at least) a second take …