The Apprentice Loses Lucinda Ledgerwood

Lucinda Ledgerwood, she of the purple beret and stylish clothes was given the old heave ho from Sir Alan after the interview round.

Although the gang of four that do The Apprentice interviews was changed slightly they still gave the candidates plenty of opportunity to dig a hole for themselves. The new interviewer Sir Alan brought in was Karen Brady, who, at age 23, was the MD of Birmingham City Football Club. The others we all know and love from previous series. We had Sir Alan’s Viglen chief executive Bordan Tkachuk; consultant Claude Littner; and Paul Kemsley (who is some sort of property tycoon).

The apprentices were grilled, diced, sliced and minced and in the morning it all caused Lucinda to reflect on whether she really wanted the Apprentice job. After some thought she decided she did and re-entered the afternoon interviews with that frame of mind.

So into the boardroom where the interviewers were asked for their observations on all the candidates.

Lucinda Ledgerwood: Claude observed that she would be a disaster for Sir Alan’s organisation, Paul thought she was an absolute nutcase. Karen noted that she’d been great as a project manager. Margaret piped up with the point that she’d been appalling when she wasn’t a manager.

Unfortunately Lucinda shot herself in the foot by admitting to the other candidates that she was wondering whether she should stop the whole process and she didn’t feel she’d fit in. Absolutely ammunition for the others to use in the boardroom. And of course they did!

In the end Sir Alan decided Lucinda was a little bit too zany for him and fired her. The rest of them he decided should go into the final.

Comments on the Remaining Candidates

Lee McQueen: Bordan pointed out Lee’s rubbish spelling and Lee trotted out his usual expression “I’m disappointed with that”. And even worse Lee had “fudged” the dates he went to Thames Valley University as being 1996-1998, in actual fact he’d only attended for 4 months. So then he says that “I’m disappointed with myself for doing that…”.

Come on Lee, stop being disappointed!

Everyone was so busy Ooh, Ahing about the fact that Lee had changed his attendance dates they quite forgot to ask about the work he did during 1996 to 1998. I’m assuming he worked for the company that started him at Thames Valley initially. But did he?

Karen noted that with Sir Alan this is Lee’s final chance to make it big.

Alex Wotherspoon: boring, lacking energy, charming and handsome. In the boardroom he pipes up during a Lucinda moment to say, “with absolute passion…”. I’m sorry Alex you shouldn’t need to SAY “with absolute passion” it should be in the tone of your voice and your body language. Neither of which changed when you made the statement! Alex claims to be a partially painted picture. Maybe, but is it black and white?

Claire Young: Sir Alan reckons that Claire doesn’t listen. I’m going to second that motion, certainly on the evidence of the Marrakesh experience at least. When asked by Sir Alan, Karen Brady said that Claire was a doer, an achiever and said she would offer Claire a job if Sir Alan didn’t.

Helene Speight: There were mixed reactions to Helene from “solid candidate” and “well rounded” to “backroom worker.” My opinion, she’s never demonstrated an ounce of ability and freely admits she can’t sell. So what does she do? She didn’t lead any of the projects particularly well.

Was The Firing Fair?

Much though I like Lucinda it was obvious that she just didn’t have the capacity to learn new things easily. Or to sell. She claimed to be creative and yet was unable to demonstrate that during most of the tasks.

As I said she really didn’t do herself any favours during the interviews when she was hesitant about whether she should be going forward as Sir Alan’s apprentice. Just that was grounds for firing her.

She’s been fun and it’s been great telly, which would have been poorer without her. And yet in the end she obviously didn’t fit in with a company like Sir Alan’s so the firing was fair.

And So To The Apprentice Finale

In the Apprentice Final Claire and Lee are one team and Alex and Helene are the other team. I’m quite looking forward to it. Particularly as I suspect Claire will drive Lee up the wall as Lee will do to Claire. Alex and Helene are the dark horses.

If Claire and Lee win I think Claire will get the job. If Helene and Alex win it’s less clear cut and really depends on how they win the task. Currently my money would be on Alex because he’s shown some entrepreneurial spirit by selling aggregate from a farm his family lived near.

Technorati tags: The Apprentice, BBC, Sir Alan Sugar, Ian Stringer, Shazia Waheb, Lee McQueen, Lindi Mngaza, Alex Wotherspoon, Nicholas De Lacy Brown, Jennifer Celerier, Jennifer Maguire, Raef Bjayal, Claire Young, Lucinda Ledgerwood, Kevin Shaw, Simon Smith, Helene Speight, Sara Dhada, Michael Sophocles