Are shows like 'The Apprentice' making small businesses look bad?

[Dot Design]

So it's 'The Apprentice' season again and I can't even bring myself to watch it anymore after being subjected to a mere 10mins of episode 2, (I missed Ep 1).

I used to love the show in the early series but now it's everything I hate about business and it seems to be a complete fantasy drawn up to get viewing figures.

Anyone else think it makes small businesses look bad?

BTW: Shameless plug alert, we've a post about it on our website...
Why shows like The Apprentice make small businesses look bad…

 

[Nochexman]

Anyone else think it makes small businesses look bad?

I have not watched it this time around yet, but I've never thought it makes small businesses look bad, in fact, I would say the opposite was true. It is a great advertisement for people to start their own businesses.

However, the contestants often find a way to manoeuvre themselves so that they look like absolute chumps, which I am sure the majority are not.

 

[Dot Design]

"However, the contestants often find a way to manoeuvre themselves so that they look like absolute chumps, which I am sure the majority are not."

Good point, guessing the editing process doesn't help them either!

 

[Paul Murray]

I still find it entertaining, if cringe-worthy at times (those egos!). As for how it represents small businesses, I think the contestants, or rather, the way the show is edited, makes 'business' as a whole look bad. The men in particular are portrayed as greedy, desperate and egotistical, and are something of a cliche "business man" (I can practically smell the Brill cream!), whilst the women are shown to be catty bitches who will turn on each other to save themselves.

I'm sure there are people like that in the business world (I could probably name a couple I know), but I think you hit the nail on the head when you state that it's an entertainment show. It seems to be shifting towards a 'Big Brother' type format where we watch them plot, fight and back-stab rather than watch for the business (was that ever the point though, I can't recall).

I do love having a laugh at the design and branding tasks though. Really speaks volumes for using a creative professional!

 

[mit74]

It's become a bit of a joke but still entertaining. 70% of the candidates are useless egotistical morons and we all know it. I love it when they introduce themselves as 'entrepreneurs' when they're 21 and all they've done is set up a few crappy companies online.

 

[studioraygun]

I used to love it.

Then I got tired of it.

Now I hate it.

I don't think it harms business as I expect most people realise it's basically satire, created primarily for the purpose of entertainment. Having said that, one could make the same argument for X-Factor, and I believe that actually causes social harm (by putting people on pedestals, and encouraging kids to laugh at humiliated hopefuls).

Didn't Alan Sugar say this is the last season a couple of seasons ago?

 

[Nuno]

I'm not sure it harms businesses in the same way as Jeremy Kyle doesn't seem to harm procreation.

 

[DazRave]

I never got into the Apprentice. I don't even class it as a business show because in reality all they are doing is Sales and occasionally a bit of Marketing on the side (more del boy trading then 'businesses').... but the majority of the show is sales based. The first time i watched an episode was within the same week i had watched Glengarry Glen Ross. Brilliant film but pretty much sums up my opinion of shady ego warrior salesman.

So, to bring it back to the topic of this thread, no, i think it just makes salesmen look bad.

 

[silvermusic]

If the show's facebook feed is anything to go by they seem to be treating it more as a comedy show than anything to do with being a business programme.

 

[Fred_the_frog]

The time you realise it isn't about business and all about entertainment is the point you start to enjoy it.

 

[sirearl]

Freak show tv at full throttle,normal people not allowed.

 

[Jeff FV]

Freak show tv at full throttle,normal people not allowed.

When are you making your appearance?

 

[MASSEY]

I think it could possibly give capitalism a bad name. It's all money money, treating the consumers as cattle.

 

[Matt1959]

well it only makes businesses look bad if you know anything about business. Those that are wage slaves know no different so probably think its what business is all about...

 

[MASSEY]

well it only makes businesses look bad if you know anything about business. Those that are wage slaves know no different so probably think its what business is all about...

I was thinking that but even wage slaves have some sort of insight into the cut throat nature of it all.

 

[Nuno]

I think it could possibly give capitalism a bad name. It's all money money, treating the consumers as cattle.

Does it show consumers being treated badly? It only really shows wanabees strutting their stuff in a pathetic way, other businesses treating them with polite disdain because it's all a set up and Suralun having the odd tantrum.
It should come with the message "No consumers gave a toss about the making of this program".
Back in the real world of small businesses, if you treat your consumers like cattle you run short of consumers fairly quickly.

 

[Matt1959]

Back in the real world of small businesses, if you treat your consumers like cattle you run short of consumers fairly quickly.

big business as well - Tesco.

 

[Nuno]

big business as well - Tesco.

Sure. I was a) trying to focus it down on what people do here, and b) trying to avoid muddying the waters with the large monopoly utility suppliers who treat people like cattle and get away with it. And BT.
Also c) avoid giving the oldest socialist in the world anything to carp about.

 

[Excel Expert]

I got to about the 17 minute mark of last nights show and turned it off - I've officially reached my fill of the Apprentice and I have been watching it since the first series of the US version.

I'm not sure it gives business a bad image but I think, like Dragons Den, it gives the public a corrupt version of what being in business is like. I don't think there is a single person on this forum that would tackle the challenges in the way they are tackled on the show. For example none of us would send half a dozen people on a sales pitch worth £200 or to negotiate the buying of £200 of produce. We wouldn't run blindly from door to door trying to sell stuff etc etc

If people end up thinking its the way business is done they will soon end up broke

 

[Cobby]

I think it could possibly give capitalism a bad name. It's all money money, treating the consumers as cattle.

That's part of how capitalism works.

big business as well - Tesco.

Not technically accurate. Big business like tesco treat customers like cattle but put a bit of effort in to reparations for the vocal customers that have been wronged.

 

[Nuno]

How would they know which are the non-vocal customers that have been wronged? Bit like Rumsfeld'd 'unknown unknowns'?
BTW do you mean 'capitalism' or a 'market economy' when you say what is technically incorrect? They are not in fact synonyms.

 

[Cobby]

Of the customers that suffer poor 'service' (i.e. substandard products), the majority will likely not complain and without a critical level of complaint about a particular issue, the issue will, even when known to be the cause of poor 'service', continue.

In short, their poor 'service' is only rectified if there's a cost benefit to it and for the most part there isn't.

 

[dmckellar]

I used to enjoy the programme, I'm starting to lose interest in it though, too many people on it think they are 'it' with a suit on.

It's been mentioned but if the practices they demonstrate on the show are used in a real business, they would soon go bust.

I also find it 'all too easy' basically Sugar lays out all they need to do, where to make the goods/buy the goods and sets up meetings with the correct people.

When you look at the contestants flap you notice that they sell to everyone & anyone - the candle thing was a joke - running around pubs selling for £5 each, and them not taking into account any fees for setting up a stall at the market, car hire, fuel, use of the facilities to make candles.

Each company would go bust.

 

[Mobile & Tablet Repairs]

I agree with dmc here, i got into the first series, i even keep in touch with one of the ex contestants. But since then the big i am or i cannot even say the word failure to me just a bunch of over mouth idiots. My wife watches it. I have better things to do like run a business in the real world.

 

[Paul Murray]

The more I watch, the more I feel it's all staged/directed ( a bit like America 'reality' shows are). For example;

Team – "The market research strongly suggests we should produce a soy candle that's white."
PM – "Ok, well I've decided we'll do a yellow one made from paraffin…"

Who in their right mind would follow that logic? It used to seem that at least the contestants came from a business background, or at least had some business sense, but now, I dunno. Weirdly I do still find the ego clashes and sense of self-worth quite entertaining though.

 

[Mobile & Tablet Repairs]

Like i said, lost all regard for the show. The first one at least had proper business people in it. Not like todays clowns. Same pointless challenges. not seen it for a few years now.

 

[Excel Expert]

Tonight's episode required them to produce a YouTube channel because advertising from these channels is worth a fortune.

I follow a lot of vloggers, big and small, who share their revenue figures on a regular basis and it roughly averages out as $1 for ever 1,000 views. The two teams managed to get a combined viewership of 6,000 which equates to a massive $6 or £4.

To do that they had to rely on some high hitting vloggers to promote them.

Interesting to note that losing team manager wants to set up a TV production company but has never uploaded a YouTube video!

 

[Excel Expert]

For the first time I can recall Sugar sacked all 3 people in the board room.

In previous years this would have set Twitter and Facebook alight but I didn't see it mentioned once. A sign that its time is over?

 

[Nuno]

In previous years this would have set Twitter and Facebook alight but I didn't see it mentioned once. A sign that its time is over?

Modern reading of the Runes?

 

[Excel Expert]

LOL Possibly

I have a lot of friends who watch it and Tweet/Facebook about it constantly (especially while it is on) but for this series they have been mostly silent

 

[Mobile & Tablet Repairs]

i no longer follow it if i'm honest. The wife was watching something on spiders. I was watching something on the great war. I used to watch the apprentice religeously but since then just lost interest. Same old challenges, same idiots going for it. No time for these "big i am" approach. Actions and all that. If he got rid of three in row kind of rests the case. But i have no interest in seeing it through. I wont even bother with the final. There is more passion, interest, and ambition in Master Chef (with less of the arrogance).
Yes thats the problem i have, i despise arrogance

 

[Matt1959]

In previous years this would have set Twitter and Facebook alight but I didn't see it mentioned once. A sign that its time is over?

yes I think so. For the first time ever whilst watching having seen each series, I said to my wife i was bored. The arrogance doesnt bother me, its the embarrassing results of tasks like tonight - just terrible and now so predictable (not that I could do any better) Such a shame they dont choose people for their actual business business ability....

 

[MikeJ]

Ratings aren't vastly different from last year, it seems, being around 6 million.

I still think the show is good entertainment. Some of the contestants are idiots, and appear to be put there purely to make the show more fun in the early days but there's still some clever people in there.

It's easy to criticize the show and say it's not like a proper business, but that's not the point. The tasks do a good job of reflecting different aspects of real business life, leadership, presenting, pitching, handling difficult people, controlling budgets, holding up under pressure, etc.

Roisean should win it. And if she doesn't, then I'd find a position for her.

 

[Excel Expert]

I would say they very vaguely resemble real world scenarios, but they have been shoe horned in to a box that is designed to create conflict rather than results

As far as I can see the fix is simple - remove the artificial limitations the show imposes. For example let them bash the phones to sell stuff rather than sending teams of people around to sell cleaning goods door to door. Allow individuals to do individual tasks as you would in a real business. Stop setting up potential clients in advance etc. Without those unrealistic restrictions the program would be a lot more interesting.

That will never happen because (a) individuals working apart does not create TV friendly conflicts and (b) it means the BBC would need to spend more on crew. I personally think it is creating conflict that drives the show rather than business results.

 

[capitalvirtual]

I don’t think it makes small businesses look bad at all. The show could be seen as beneficial to those contemplating starting up on their own as it demonstrates such a wide array of tasks and situations that almost any business might come across such as costings, staff issues, sales techniques etc.

It highlights that you will come across many different ways of handling tasks, situations and people whether it be the right or wrong way. We may not always share Sir Alan Sugar’s views or opinions of people; but it can help viewers to make their own judgements on how they might handle or cope with similar situations or people in that environment. Seeing how such a diverse team of colourful personalities handle these situations can give an individual a great insight which they may not ordinarily have experienced in their lives.

Whilst we might wonder how some of these candidates make it on the show when some appear to be so naïve and lack any form of basic common sense; that in essence is the very concept of the show. By throwing together a group of the most colourful and diverse personalities this only makes for a more entertaining show to pull in the viewers. Whilst the show can be undeniably cringe worthy at times, it does provide watchers and potential new Business starters to gain an augmented viewpoint of the diverse reactions, opinions and attitudes of our young population which surely enriches the audience positively?

 

[Excel Expert]

They bring up the issues but they don't cover them in a positive way at all. Using your 3 examples

Costing's - In yesterdays show about a dozen people plus outsiders generated about £5 in advertising revenue over two days. Costing's (wages, transport, studio hire etc) didn't come in to any of it.

Staff Issues - It certainly highlights staff in-fighting but does not address how to stop or control it. Keeping in mind that it is in the interest of the program makers to keep arguments going

Sales Techniques - Teams of people running around door to door to sell items worth a few quid? A team giving a "sales presentation" about over priced cleaning products?

That is just using the last few episodes as examples.

The thing to remember about the candidates is that most of them claim to have successful businesses or 6 figure salaries. They should not be out of their depth in these challenges

 

[Paul Murray]

When Sugs read out the total number of views I literally scoffed out loud. Yes, the winning team got the most views, but even if they'd gotten 10 and the other team 9, they still would have won, despite poor figures.

Building up a channel with great content people actually want to watch and subscribe to is not something that typically would happen over-night, so I would have deferred the decision on this one for a week and see how the channels fair once they've been given some time to 'develop.'

I would say they very vaguely resemble real world scenarios, but they have been shoe horned in to a box that is designed to create conflict rather than results

As far as I can see the fix is simple - remove the artificial limitations the show imposes. For example let them bash the phones to sell stuff rather than sending teams of people around to sell cleaning goods door to door. Allow individuals to do individual tasks as you would in a real business. Stop setting up potential clients in advance etc. Without those unrealistic restrictions the program would be a lot more interesting.

That will never happen because (a) individuals working apart does not create TV friendly conflicts and (b) it means the BBC would need to spend more on crew. I personally think it is creating conflict that drives the show rather than business results.

Ironically, I actually think that would make a good YouTube channel/series. Rather than having staged scenarios and yet more selling tasks, I'd be interested in seeing how an individual or small team go about building their own business from scratch. I'm more interested in seeing the real challenges (and failures) they face each day, and I imagine the scenarios would be different depending on the business idea and the person running it.

 

[Karimbo]

most of them couldnt even run a cafe.

 

[Karimbo]

The thing to remember about the candidates is that most of them claim to have successful businesses or 6 figure salaries. They should not be out of their depth in these challenges

i think the show rules go some way of explaining their behaviour a bit, they are not allowed to use the internet, they're not allowed to split up in more than 2 camps (so last season we saw someone go to a cash and carry to buy apple juice so alll 3 had to go with them.

Yep, if you throw in wages they wouldn;t even make minimum wage with their profits, but then again they're asked to come up with a brand new product from scratch in one day, so it's very rushed.

They seem to have a tendency to go to extremes rather than play it safe. for instance the exercise video task should have just been a very simple video on dos and donts of fitness. Had they been able to go onto the buzzfeed website and see what sort of videos they do - it would have been very easy to make a video to fit the site. Unfortuntrly i dont think they re allowed to use the internet so that's why they did so badly.

 

[Excel Expert]

I'm surprised the makers chose Buzzfeed mind because Buzzfeed constantly rips in to the Apprentice. I think it would have taken an exceptional video to get their approval