No idea

One thing that troubled me throughout The Apprentice process was the lack of good ideas to come out of either team in any challenge. The focus was, by and large, selling, and this is a vital skill of course. But if the idea is wrong then no amount of salesmanship will be enough (That's not strictly true - some people will buy a terrible product once...but they will rarely buy it again).

Perhaps we did not see the hours of deliberation and the thoughtful consideration of ideas. Maybe those scenes are on the cutting room floor.

More likely, in my opinion and based on my own observations of "brainstorming" meetings, such discussion didn't take place.

In order to generate a fresh idea, you must be willing to say something stupid. You must be willing to put forward a concept which isn't fully formed and may not make the final cut. You must be open to developing the ideas of other people rather than shooting them down. There was very little of that and a great deal of sitting in silence trying to come up with the perfect answer.

Who can forget "Pants Man"? How on earth did that idea survive? In a way I contradict myself because someone was willing to say something stupid and put forward a concept which wasn't fully formed so I have some respect for that. But selection of the right idea is the second vital step. The most likely reason that Pants Man survived was because there were so few other contenders. When you only have three ideas, you have very little choice. What you need are 50 ideas or 100 ideas. You need to keep going, and going, and going with the brainstorming well beyond the point at which you think you have a good idea. The first few ideas you have are generally obvious or bad. It's the ones that you struggle to find which are often the diamonds.

Comments

[Doug Shaw]

I don't watch The Apprentice so I hope this point is in context (think so....?). I agree that selling is an important skill. If it is to be done well and generate satisfaction with the purchase and even repeat business, it needs active listening as a prerequisite.

But when it comes to pile it high sell it cheap (sorry again if that's not in the mode of The Apprentice) there's no time to actively listen? I beg to differ. I spent a hugely enjoyable couple of years selling computers and stuff for Dixons Stores Group. I loved it for two reasons. One, the customers were interesting, and so they helped me to listen actively. Two, as a result of that listening, the customer bought what they needed and only very rarely needed to return anything. I remember my sales figures versus my returns always drew curious glances from Da Management.

Does The Apprentice manage to extract any active listening from its victims?

Doug