The Apprentice (UK series 2) (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The Candidates

The Challenges

Week 1 - Acquire and sell Fruit and Veg in Hackney

• Project managers: Ben (Invicta) and Karen (Velocity)
• Task: Sell fruit in Hackney. The team that makes the most money wins.
• Result: The Velocity team obtained most of their fruit for little-or-nothing by asking for overripe products and acting flirtatiously towards the vendors. The entire Invicta team remain at Hackney market for most of the day, only selling fruit door-to-door in the closing hour. The Velocity team split up and sell at both the market and to small businesses. Velocity, having spent very little of their budget, appeared to have won by a large margin. However, Sir Alan decided to knock £300 (the same amount Invicta spent on buying food) from their earnings due to his disapproval of their tactics in obtaining the knock-down fruit, and concerns about selling substandard products. Despite this, Velocity still made more money on the day.
• Winner: Velocity
• Reward: Celebratory champagne in one of the Vertigo 42 bar at the top of Tower 42 in the City of London.
• Brought into the boardroom: Syed, Ben and Samuel.
• Who gets fired: Ben, for failing as a leader.

Week 2 - Design and sell a calendar for Great Ormond Street Hospital

• Project managers: Samuel (Invicta) and Nargis (Velocity)
• Task: Design, shoot and produce a calendar to raise money for Sir Alan's "favourite charity", Great Ormond Street Hospital and then pitch it to three different purchasers. The team that makes the most money from sales wins.
• Result: Velocity decide to go for a 'contemporary' calendar featuring kitten photos despite repeated protests from Jo. Invicta decide on a calendar featuring 'fun' photos of children dressed up in various costumes. Nargis' pitching goes horribly wrong as she appears to lose track of what she is saying and even snap at the purchasers. Despite this, Velocity manage to sell calendars to all three retailers. Mani's pitching for Invicta isn't as bad, but they only manage to sell to one retailer. However, that one retailer buys 6000 calendars, which gave them a substantially greater profit than Velocity.
• Winner: Invicta
• Reward: Caviar tasting
• Brought into the boardroom: Nargis, Jo and Karen
• Who gets fired: Nargis, for having a terrible sales pitch, and being the project manager overseeing a product which Sir Alan saw as poor for the intended purpose.

Week 3 - Purchase a number of consumer items for below retail price

• Project managers: Syed (Invicta) and Jo (Velocity)
• Task: Purchase 10 items with a budget of £1000. The team that succeeds in acquiring all 10 items while making the smallest dent in their budget will be declared the winner.
• Result: Both teams decide to split up into two smaller groups to procure the items. Invicta immediately got on with the buying, while Velocity wasted time coming up with a strategy. Invicta decided to do a lot of shopping around before buying, whereas Velocity wasted time bargaining for items that were not even in stock. Invicta managed to purchase all 10 items, however Velocity failed to purchase the tyre required on the shopping list. This resulted in a penalty, with the list price of the tyre being deducted from their total.
• Winner: Invicta by a mere £8.
• Reward: A day at the races
• Brought into the boardroom: Jo, Karen and Alexa.
• Who gets fired: Karen for not sticking up for herself in the boardroom and Sir Alan stating that he doesn't need another corporate lawyer. He refers to Jo as a "bloody nutter" but admires her vigorous self-defence. Sir Alan agrees to give Alexa a chance to prove her abilities after she defends herself.

Week 4 - Organise and run a food stall at a public event

• Project managers: Alexa (Invicta) and Mani (Velocity)
• Task: With a budget of £2000, each team had to set up a food stall at the Thames Festival and make as great a profit as they could in a day.
• Result: Alexa's team decides to sell pizza at an Italian themed stall. Mani's team sold noodles at an oriental themed stall. Mani's team make around £300 in profit and Alexa's team lost around £800. The loss of money for Alexa's team could arguably be blamed on Tuan's overestimate that the team could make and sell 500 pizzas (when they made 90), Syed ordering an excessive amount of ingredients (such as 100 whole chickens when they only made 90 pizzas!) and Alexa for not controlling her team or dealing with Syed's mistake.
• Winner: Velocity
• Reward: Dinner at the Oxo Tower restaurant in which they had earlier been briefed.
• Brought into the boardroom: Syed, Tuan and Alexa.
• Who gets fired: Alexa. While Alan stated that "frankly I'd like to fire the bleeding three of you", he eventually fired her for being a poor team leader despite - or perhaps because of - her promise from the previous week that she would succeed in the role if given the chance. He described her as a "lightweight".

Week 5 - Produce advertisements for the Amsair card

• Project managers: Ruth (Velocity) and Paul (Invicta)
• Task: The teams were asked to produce both a billboard and a short promotional video for Sir Alan's new venture: a card that allows booking of business jets and related services.
• Result: Paul's team had few ideas at the start, while Ruth's appeared to have a clear strategy throughout. Despite this, Sir Alan felt that Ruth's television advertisement was not focused sufficiently on the card, but instead on the concierge service.
• Winner: Invicta
• Reward: Champagne reception and front-row seats at the London Fashion Show.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ruth, Jo and Mani.
• Who gets fired: Mani. Alan had concerns about all three, but eventually Mani's apparent delivery of "misinformation" to the team (that resulted in them advertising the incorrect component of the service) and attempt to evade blame led to his eventual firing.

Week 6 - Sell cars to consumers at a car supermarket

• Project managers: Ansell (Velocity) and Sharon (Invicta)
• Task: The teams were asked to sell cars for a commission - the team who made the most money would win.
• Result: After a bad start, Sharon's team managed to win by selling the extras which carried a higher commission. Ruth managed to sell six cars alone, giving Ansell's team an advantage at the start.
• Winner: Invicta
• Reward: Boat Trip down the Thames, where an argument broke out between Paul and Michelle.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ansell, Jo and Samuel.
• Who gets fired: Jo. Despite being told by a manager at the "car supermarket" about Ansell he decided to fire Jo since it was her fourth time in the boardroom in only six weeks.

Week 7 - Select and sell merchandise to consumers at Oxford St Top Shop

• Project managers: Michelle (Velocity) and Tuan (Invicta)
• Task: Selling items for Topshop
• Result: After getting off to a flying start, Invicta started to lose their 23% lead at the end of the morning. However, Michelle's unproductive time spent in the VIP Room drinking champagne for most of the morning and Samuel's lack of success at dragging in customers from the street led to Tuan's team emerging as victors.
• Winner: Invicta
• Reward: A night in a top-class country hotel with skeet shooting, a jacuzzi and individual bedrooms.
• Brought into the boardroom: Michelle, Samuel and Ruth.
• Who gets fired: Samuel, for his mismanagement of marketing.

Week 8 - Select and sell design objects to the trade

• Project managers: Ruth (Velocity) and Syed (Invicta)
• Task: Buying a particular product from the designer and selling it on to the trade.
• Result: Both teams split up in order to sell their products in different parts of London. Although Tuan and Syed were able to get a huge sale, they were penalised 25% of their total sales as they were late for the deadline of 6pm, enough to cost them the task. However, Sir Alan offered Syed immunity from being fired because he was so impressed by Ahmed's selling prowess. However, Ahmed refused immunity and put himself forward for firing with his team. The entire segment was edited out. Reference: The Times Online
• Winner: Velocity
• Reward: Day at a luxury spa
• Brought into the boardroom: Syed, Tuan and Sharon.
• Who gets fired: Sharon as Sir Alan believed she was too "nice" and not aggressive enough.

Week 9 - Signing up tenants for leases on rental properties

• Project managers: Michelle (Velocity) and Tuan (Invicta)
• Task: Rent out property in areas of London around Mayfair, including Clapham.
• Result: With only three members on each team, Velocity split up and worked individually with Michelle keeping in contact with both Paul and Ansell. For Invicta's part, Tuan took a back seat role leaving Ruth and Syed to concentrate on sales. Syed made many mistakes including taking the wrong keys to properties and mistaking Wandsworth Bridge for a railway line.Both teams closed six deals (two each for Velocity, whereas in Invicta, Ruth closed five, Syed one and Tuan none). Invicta lost the task by approximately £250.
• Winner: Velocity
• Reward: A day's tuition with chef Raymond Blanc.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ruth, Tuan and Syed (there was no choice as only three team members remained)
• Who gets fired: Tuan for not managing to let out any properties, and also taking a back seat on the task after being warned by Sir Alan for doing that last week.

Week 10 - Conceive, manage and promote a unique event onboard a cruise ship

• Project managers: Paul (Velocity) and Syed (Invicta)
• Task: Come up with and promote a service available to over 2000 passengers onboard the cruise liner the Grand Princess on her voyage between Istanbul and Naples.
• Result: For Velocity, Paul hit upon the idea of running and promoting a series of dance classes and a competition with a grand prize of $100 USD to the winners. For Invicta, Syed came up with the idea of an above-deck fun day with events taking place across the ship. The teams were told that success would not be judged solely on sales, but also on many other criteria including marketing, originality and customer satisfaction. At the end of the task, Velocity had generated $1,014 USD, whereas Invicta had only made $383 USD. Invicta's deficit was due in part to Ruth buying more bottles of Moët & Chandon champagne (distributed as thank-you gifts to staff) than was necessary. There was also an incident with raffle tickets where Syed lost the names of many people who had bought tickets and suggested going ahead anyway (the names were later found).
• Winner: Velocity
• Reward: As the liner was docked in Naples on the coast of Italy, the winning team was sent to Rome and got to stay in a luxury apartment and spend a few days in the city.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ruth and Syed (only two team members remained)
• Who gets fired: Syed. Sir Alan recognised his "flashes of genius" but ultimately, Syed was too much of a risk. This was the first significant point in the series in which a key character was being fired; Syed had become very famous, and a different style of ending with higher, slower music emphasised this.

Week 11 - Interviews with three high-ranking executives from different industries

• Airdate: 3 May 2006
• Task: The week 11 show took a slightly different style than the others, repeating a similar episode in series 1. The four remaining candidates (Ruth, Paul, Michelle and Ansell) went through a series of interviews with each of three associates of Sir Alan. The interviews were based around the candidates' previous work and experience as well as their reasons and motivations for appearing on the apprentice.
• Result: Despite consistent success with previous tasks, Paul's abysmal employment record was unearthed and he was taken apart by the interviewers. He came across as cocky and a derogatory statement about homeless people did nothing to help. His confident attitude and cocky personality meant the interviewers delivered bad reports to Sir Alan. Michelle received better reports, yet Sir Alan was confused by the fact that she already had a £100k salary and was self employed. Ansell was described by all as a "nice guy" and yet there were questions over how limited he was to sales and how well he would cope in a more aggressive environment. Ruth had an impressive record over the series of sales and generally she impressed, despite Sir Alan having some doubts over the credibility of parts of her CV.
• Who gets fired: Alan spoke to Paul in depth for the first time in the series and despite Paul's record throughout the tasks, having been on the winning team seven times, Sir Alan decided he was nothing like what he wanted and fired him. Michelle, when questioned, justified her cause and Sir Alan was impressed with her independent business nature and her apparent generosity with family and friends. He decided that she should stay. It was close between the last two with Sir Alan obviously torn between them. It was Ruth's intelligence, however, that led to her staying - both her and Ansell were strong candidates, but Ansell was deemed to be too nice. Alan "regretted" it, but Ansell was fired.

Week 12 - The grand finale

• Airdate: 10 May 2006
• Task: Ruth (Invicta) and Michelle (Velocity) were given the opportunity to select from six previous candidates - Syed, Sharon, Tuan, Paul, Ansell and Jo. They had to put on an evening event to be staged at London's Tower Bridge with a theme of their choice. While money was not the main issue, costs were monitored carefully.
• Result: Ruth chose to have a "Murder Mystery Theme" and hired actors to play the parts of various characters throughout the night. Despite Sir Alan having doubts about this, her night took more money than Michelle's and sold more tickets, mostly because of the way in which her team of Tuan, Ansell and Jo worked through contacts made throughout the series. Sir Alan, however, having himself paid a visit to both evenings, questioned her originality in that she had directly implemented his suggestions to her of can-can dancers. Michelle's night also came under fire for being almost identical to Sir Alan's suggestions when he had briefed the two on the task. She chose a casino themed 007 (James Bond) evening called '00Heaven'. Her team of Sharon, Paul and Syed was an interesting choice as the group had experienced many confrontations in previous weeks. They failed to work as efficiently as Ruth's - Syed and Paul sold minimal tickets and clearly did not enjoy working together and this lead to conflict between Syed and Sharon. In the end tickets were sold for as low as £10, despite the original price being £65, although Michelle did manage to improve their sales by reorganising her team.
• Who was hired by Sir Alan Sugar: Michelle

See also

• The Apprentice (UK series 1)