Luke Owen on last night’s final episode of The Apprentice 2012…
If I may, let me take you back to week one of this process when I typed, “if this contest was based on great quotes, the show would already be over with Ricky’s ‘I am the reflection of perfection’.” Well this wasn’t a show based off quotes but instead business plans – and it turns out that Wrestler Ricky Martin was the best at that too.
The series is over and Lord Sugar has found his business partner in the form of someone who no one gave a chance too. Because of the way Wrestler Ricky Martin has carried himself throughout this process, he has sort of earned himself the Stuart Baggs label (Apprentice fans will remember him) which painted him in a bad light. People thought he was arrogant, people thought he was one-dimensional and most importantly, people thought he didn’t have a chance. But what people failed to notice about Wrestler Ricky Martin was that he was a good businessman, had the passion for success and the knowledge of how to get it. When he was Project Manager during the gym task, I said to my girlfriend that, despite losing, he was a fantastic leader but was let down by a team of bad apples. Since that task he was always one of the strongest members on whatever team he was a part of and his general attitude shied away from the brash and arrogance he had in week 1 into that of a level headed businessman.
This week was what has always been my favourite part of this process – the interview stage. This part of the show always made sense when the aim of the series was to find an Apprentice to work for him, but with the goal posts moved last year it seemed really out of place. But with it now being the final episode, it was a chance for the candidates to show off their business plans and present to Lord Sugar’s advisors exactly what they want his money for, which made more sense. So, you’d imagine these business plans would be fool proof – why else would they be on the show?
Looks-Posh-But-Isn’t-Tom’s plan was to start a hedge fund business where people invest in fine wine (what a shocker) and One Direction reject Nick wanted to open a website (what a shocker) that buys ingredients for recipes from shops so you can make meals you find online. Wrestler Ricky Martin’s business plan was to start a recruitment firm specialising in a niche market and Jade wanted to open one of those call centres that calls people at 6 in the evening to bug people. All in all, these are not brilliant plans.
Tom’s business plan was a hell of a risk. If it were to work it would make a lot of money for Lord Sugar but it would require an overall investment and input of around £25million. Ricky Martin’s plan was actually pretty decent, as was Nick’s, but Jade’s business proposal really surprised me. Why did she think that Lord Sugar would want to attach his name to a business that is not only thoroughly annoying for the general public but also morally and ethically void.
What surprised me however was the reaction for Lord Sugar’s advisors to Nick’s business plan. When he first pitched it to Lord Sugar I felt that it was the best for the four as it would be something I’d want to use myself. There have been many times that I have looked at recipes online and then gone down the shops to buy what I need only to find that the shop I’ve picked doesn’t carry the product I need. I would then have to go to other shops to pick up my missing ingredients before I can start my cooking. If there was a website where I could do that all in one place, and plan out my weeks meals, I’d use that all the time. However the powers that be didn’t see it that way. They asked him questions like, “who would care?”, “who has time to do that?” and “what’s the point?” as if the thought of finding recipes online and planning out meals was ‘outrageous’. Perhaps if Nick had done a bit more business research than, “it’s what me and my friends do” he may have stood more of a chance.
What I will say about this episode is that it didn’t have the tension that the final episode of The Apprentice usually has. From the first round of interviews you could map out who was going and at what point and, more importantly, who was going to win. They all said that Jade’s plan was full of holes (she hadn’t worked out any costings and planned on spending all £250,000 in the first six months), Nick’s plan was pointless, Tom’s was risky but well written and Ricky’s was fool proof, but he’s an arrogant fool.
Wrestler Ricky Martin’s wrestler bravado really came back to bite him on the arse during his interviews. In his personal statement he compared himself to Thor (sorry Ricky, you are no Chris Hemsworth), claimed he could teach ‘an old dog new tricks’ and said that he was ‘the best business partner on the planet’. It felt more like a promo from Hulk Hogan than a business statement. My favourite moment however was when one of Lord Sugar’s advisors finally asked the question we’ve all been dying to ask, “you’re name is Richard Martin. But you call yourself Ricky Martin. Like the famous Latino singer. Why is that?” To be fair, he did give a good answer in that it is a name people will remember so they would always know who to speak to when they came back to the business. I think this is where Ricky showed his true self as he admitted that he wrote a load of immature crap on his personal statement to get his foot in the door before showing that he isn’t this wrestling persona and is actually a good businessman.
Back in the boardroom, the rest of the episode mapped out just as we’d all guessed. Jade was the first to go for bringing forward a stupid business idea, Nick was off next because his plan was too ambitious and Ricky was picked to win because his plan was less risky than Tom’s. So our winner of The Apprentice 2012 was my boy “The Reflection of Perfection” Ricky “Hype” Martin.
And that’s it for another year and overall, this has not been the best series of The Apprentice. It certainly had its moments and characters but nothing like previous series and the tasks didn’t really have the hook the show is known for. But what I will say though is that after the experiment of format change which didn’t really work last year, it was much better this year. They’d ironed out the kinks and mistakes from last series and put together a well edited and well paced series.
I’m glad that Ricky Martin won as he has been the one candidate that has stood out for me the entire show. His business plan was strong and well put together and he has a good business head on his rather large shoulders. I’m disappointed that Lord Sugar and his people were so dismissive of Nick’s plan as I felt it had more legs than they gave it credit for – certainly more than Tom’s and Jade’s. But overall, Wrestler Ricky Martin was the worthy winner.
I’d like to thank everyone who has read my little series review. In particular I’d like to thank Ross Williams (who has his own excellent Apprentice blog), Emma Martin (no relation to the winner), Ben Owen, Anne Owen (who are related to this writer) and Victoria Robson (the often mentioned girlfriend) for all their amazing support and help during this series. It’s been a blast and I’ll see you again next year!
Luke Owen is a freelance copywriter working for Europe’s biggest golf holiday provider as their web content executive.
