Team Stirling, led by Jenna, seemed to grasp the basic idea of the task and set about creating an Aberdeen Angus based casserole. They insisted on nothing but the highest quality ingredients to ensure the best possible product. Although Jenna did have one issue when it came to selling in Scotland…the language barrier. I bet many viewers thought they had misheard her when she asked Laura ‘Do people in Scotland speak a Scottish language?’ Really Jenna? And you want Lord Sugar to go into business with you? Don’t hold your breath!
Katie was adamant that selling Adams pasta and meatball dish at a football match would be a winning idea due to the large footfall. You would be forgiven for thinking that she has a good point with such large crowds frequenting high profile matches, however, there are few football fans willing to pay a steep £5.99 for a portion of pasta.
So with pasta and meatballs costing the team just 90p per portion and a gourmet casserole costing £1.54 the two teams hit the streets eager to make lots of sales and generate high profits.
With Jenna and her team making slow but steady sales in one location, Adam begins feeling the heat at the lack of sales from the footy fans until Stephen calls with some great news – he has managed to secure a deal with a local bus tour operator allowing them to pitch their meatballs to the customers and encouraging them to disembark and buy their lunch! Who could have foreseen the uninterested response from the first bus load of potential customers or the fact that Stephen and the rest of the sub-team wouldn’t make it back in time to catch the next bus?
Bus idea abandoned they decided to try to generate sales on foot and created a discount deal.
Suffering with dwindling sales, Jenna takes the decision to move team Stirling to an alternative location and go head-to-head with an Aberdeen Angus burger van. The new pitch coupled with a price reduction seemed to do the trick and the team are once more busy with lots of customers complimenting the high quality of food and taking advantage of their multiple order discounts. Even with the final influx of sales Jenna still seemed concerned that their smaller margins had endangered their chance of taking victory.
The concern was still etched all over Jennas face when they entered the boardroom but the results contradicted her gut feeling and she led her team to victory with a profit of just under £22.
Adam seemed to suddenly turn on at least four of his fellow team members when it came to choosing who to bring back in with him but finally settled on Katie and Azhar. Katie was blamed for choosing the football location and the branding catastrophe whilst Azhar was accused of doing nothing at all.
This is where it becomes particularly interesting for me. Adam seemed to be suffering from word vomit and found it very hard to shut up whilst presenting his case to Lord Sugar and whilst Katie accepted the blame for the football location she denied responsibility for the branding mishap. What was Azhar saying during all of this? Very little.
Suddenly out of nowhere, Azhar seemed to come to life and very articulately explained that Adams greatest skill was passing all management decisions over to other team members, namely Stephen, and therefore wasn’t entirely responsible. Such a clever tactic! He appears to be defending his PM but in reality he’s laying all of the blame on Adams shoulders.
Lord Sugar has always stated that he could never work with someone who stays in the background and who doesn’t take risks during the task and yet it wasn’t Azhar who was shown the door but Katie.
Maybe the lesson to be learnt here is to blend into the background during the task and not worry about selling the product in question to the public but to concentrate on selling yourself to Lord Sugar in the boardroom. It’s a tactic that worked for Azhar as he lives to fade into the background for another day.
