The Apprentice Season 1 Episode 7

Task:

Renovate an apartment in a day, and get it rented out the next. The team that gets a higher percentage gain from the original appraised rent wins.

Rights:

Everyone except Omarosa got down and dirty when they needed to. You might be making a 6 figure salary or driving an Aston Martin, but if you really want to win, you gotta put all that aside and just do the things that needs to get done like cleaning a toilet.

Wrongs:Always back your team 100%. Even if you don't agree, when your team is put on the spot to defend a decision, don't be the lone ranger and go against what your team. For example, say that there are 6 of you, and you were the losing team. If 5 of your teammates are arguing with Donald Trump that they did not lose the task because they were only a few dollars shorter than the other team, and the overall accomplishments of both teams were spectacular, don't be the 6th team member to blurt out, "well, we still lost" in front of Donald. It might be what you believe, it might be what you are thinking, and you might be the person that speaks his/her mind, but before all that, you need to back your team up first. Its fine if Donald points out a loss is a loss, then that's fine, but the team has to stick together. Without the backing from an entire team, instead of looking like a team that worked together, you just look like a team that probably argued through the whole task. That's why Tammy got fired for blurting out something obnoxious like "I think we got duped" after the whole team said they did not got duped.

What I would have done as the project manager:Get the cheaper apartment at all costs.

Then whatever apartment we got, I would have tried to brainstorm some innovative marketting to lure most people as possible like take some nice pics and say things like "offer available for today only", "starting bid at $999/month", "auction starts at 4PM", and then reserved some money to buy appliances that catored to the winning bidder's needs so we can upsell the montly dollar amount (for example if they need a refridgerator, washer/dryer, granite, premium carpet, etc.) If you pay $25 extra a month it comes with a refridgerator, if you pay another $35 a month, you get a washer and dryer etc.

Lessons:

Always stay focused on the big picture. People tend to get lost in the minor things. Both teams made this mistake. Instead of realizing that a higher priced apartment is going to be harder to get the best value in the one day to rent out, teams wanted to choose the apartment that had the most potential for renovation. That doesn't sound like a mistake unless you factor in that you only have one day to renovate, and one day to rent.

Some of the team members made this same mistake again by concentrating on the finer details on how things were going to get done, rather than focusing on finishing on time.

Katrina said, "The work we done in the apartment is unbelievable. The only way Troy could have won is pure luck." Katrina lost, not due to luck, but by getting caught up with the minor details. The task wasn't to "get it appraised at a higher dollar amount."