Nice guys can win in the boardroom

My previous post on the 2011 series of the Apprentice proved fairly accurate from the point of view of the characters we were likely to meet.  It was however wrong in one important respect!

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Women on top in the boardroom

At least in Lord Sugar’s boardroom, if not the real world, women have clearly got the upper hand in the opening epsiodes of this year’s Apprentice.  Three firings and three blokes trudging to the door with their wheelie cases following disconsolately behind them.

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The Apprentice 2011

The must see TV programme for afficionados of boardroom bust ups returns to our screens shortly.  It can only be the Apprentice.

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The Apprentice - a victory for the Ice Queen (and King)

This year’s Apprentice has drawn to a close with a worthy winner in Stella English.  Both her and Chris Bates took on a difficult task in the final and showed that they had great business brains.  Stella edged it by virtue of her better track record (and you suspect in part because of Lord Sugar’s greater affinity with her background).

What was notable is that a trait of both of the finalists was their ability to separate personality from business and avoid getting involved in the personal attacks that characterised many of the boardroom encounters.

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Boardroom disputes on the TV - The Apprentice is back with a vengeance

Once again The Apprentice is showcasing a selection of the personality types that can wreak havoc in the boardroom and cause shareholders to spectacularly fall out with each other.

This series is proving to be another guilty pleasure as you watch open mouthed at the antics of the candidates.  The misguided self-belief and and unbridled hubris of some them is a delight to watch.  The drama lovingly amplified by the claustrophobically shot confines of the boardroom.

The formula is much the same each week.  Lord Sugar’s facial expressions get more and more pained as management speak and jargon is wheeled out as a substitute for genuine communication.  The candidates bicker and apportion blame, most of it unjustified.  They dissemble and deflect.  They seem convinced they can pull the wool over the eyes of a ram that has tupped much bigger flocks before breakfast.  Their wizened inquisitor points and a candidate is gone.  Only a few eschew the judas hug of those who shared the final boardroom moments but scrabbled their way to fight another day.

Perfect television - but not something that you would want to see in a boardroom near you.  Roll on the next episode.

Junior Apprentice

Having had my nose firmly stuck in some knotty cases over the last few months the existence of Junior Apprentice had somehow passed me by.  Having finally caught an episode I am sad to have missed the earlier ones.

All the great ingredients of the main series are there - the over-confidence / arrogance, the backstabbing and the spectacular failures - just in a younger package.  Some business commentators have been very snooty about the educational pretensions of the show - but who cares!  This is entertainment but at the same time it is a microcosm of what goes on and what goes wrong in teams and boardrooms around the country.

I shall not be missing any of the future episodes.

Sir Alan - you are hired!

Another series of the Apprentice ends with two surprising results.  First, Kate (”Miss Perfect”) fails to bag the job and second, Sir Alan is announced as Gordon Brown’s new “Enterprise Tsar”.

Starting with the Apprentice itself - this series did not disappoint with its boardroom disputes.

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Keeping your head below the parapet

Another classic boardroom brawl in the Apprentice with contrasting fortunes for Ben and Philip.

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The Apprentice in the boardroom

As the latest series of The Apprentice gathers pace with an epic boardroom encounter involving Ben, Debra and the unfortunate Noorul, what does this series tell us about boardroom disputes.

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