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RANDAL IS THE
APPRENTICE!
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This week's assignment:
Arriving at Lincoln Center by limo,
Mr. Trump took the stage at the live
Apprentice finale to screaming throngs. Polling the crowd by applause over
whom they favored, the audience seemed evenly divided between
Randal and
Rebecca. Trump concurred, and told one and
all, "Believe it or not, I haven't made up my mind yet."
According to the old proverb, "The road to success runs uphill." Nowhere is
that proverb truer than through the doors of Trump Tower. After making it
through an arduous
twelve week job interview, the final two
contestants faced their most intense task yet: manage and execute a huge
charity event in New York City. Rebecca was put in charge of the
Yahoo! All-Star Comedy Benefit for the Elizabeth
Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Randal was challenged to run
the
Outback Steakhouse VIP Softball Challenge to benefit
Autism Speaks.
However, Rebecca's star comedy host canceled at the midnight hour, and an
unforeseen torrent of showers
drenched Randal's softball field. Lacking a
contingency plan, Randal and Excel corporation scrambled to
move the event indoors. With
VIP's, celebs and Trump in attendance, they
clambered to keep the event together while raising money for charity.
Meanwhile, Rebecca and Capital Edge scoured New York for a
suitable replacement MC, all the while
balancing Yahoo!'s needs with the
desire to fundraise for a worthy cause.
Following the close of the events, Donald Trump convened the final
boardroom. Both Capital Edge and Excel spoke with glowing conviction of
their project managers. Between Randal's experience and Rebecca's tenacity,
Trump acknowledged he was being forced to choose between two very worthy
candidates.
The choice grew near as the live boardroom began before a packed house at
Lincoln Center. Former colleagues of each finalist trumpeted their style and
substance. Meanwhile Trump marveled over Rebecca's toughness and Randal's
impeccable credentials and praised the leadership of both, which had
inspired such unflinching praise from their employees during the task.
Randal did his best to set himself apart: "I run businesses, Rebecca
writes about businesses." In the end, Trump made the tough call:
"Rebecca, you're outstanding. Randal, you're hired." But he left the
door open, asking Randal if he should also hire Rebecca. Randal, however,
did not take the bait. He said there should be only one Apprentice, adding,
"It's not the Apprenti." Trump heeded the advice of his newest
employee, and Randal remained the sole Apprentice.
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Lessons Learned
- Be clear on the objectives in event marketing:
Both events featured in the final task had big corporate sponsors:
Yahoo! and Outback Steakhouse. Representatives from these companies
worked closely with Rebecca and Randal, but they seemed to be more
interested in promoting their own brands than in raising money for
their respective charities.
"Doing well by doing good" is a popular phrase used to describe how a
company might align itself with charities and help to stage events
that will raise money and enhance the image of the company or of the
company's product. There's nothing wrong with "doing well by doing
good," as long as the "doing good" component isn't overlooked.
The bottom line? In the marketing of charitable events, it's very
important for representatives of the charity to work closely with the
people from the major sponsoring companies. In addition, there should
be quantifiable goals set at the outset of the planning for the event,
including specific fundraising targets.
If you want it, ask for it:
The representatives from Yahoo! did not think it was a good idea to
have an overt appeal for donations at the all-star comedy
extravaganza. Rebecca and her team complied and did not pressure
attendees at the event to make pledges or donations on the spot.
Instead, the "goody bags" given to attendees as they departed
contained an envelope that could be used to send a donation to the
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Center. Thus, Rebecca and her team did
not raise any money during the event that could be counted. There was
also apparently no way to track the money that may have come in after
the event.
The bottom line? Asking for money during the event heightens the
critical nature of the work that the charity does. As an example,
every year, the Little Sisters of the Poor come to my church to ask
for donations. One of the nuns gives a brief talk, and a collection is
taken up immediately after she finishes. If people want to give but
aren't prepared to make a donation right away, then the Little Sisters
stand at every exit, talk to churchgoers as they leave, and provide
brochures and envelopes that people can take home. The point is,
people need to be asked to donate; too much passivity in fundraising
equals no money.
The End of Season Awards
As has been the
tradition in this series of columns, it's time to take a look back
throughout the season and bestow some awards:
Best Candidate to Not Make the Finals: The winner is Chris, who
suffered some misfortune early in the competition and was fired, but
who worked for Rebecca in the last task and performed very well. He
did an excellent job promoting the Yahoo! brand.
Biggest Gap between Resumé and Performance: The winner is Toral,
a Wharton-educated multimillionaire. She performed poorly in two
consecutive tasks, but constantly bragged about how much more talented
she was than the other candidates. Even her staunchest supporter,
Rebecca, eventually conceded that Toral deserved to be fired, but
brought her back for the final task anyway. Interestingly, compared to
James and Chris, Toral had very little on-camera time in the final two
episodes. To her credit, she repaid Rebecca's loyalty by delivering a
spirited soliloquy on Rebecca's behalf in the boardroom after the
final task.
Most Uncomfortable Moment: The winner here is Markus, who upon
being fired, remarked to Mr. Trump that he had experienced "a railroad
job from the beginning," on his way out the door. Markus later spoke
out publicly about what he felt was deceptive editing by the producers
of the show, which he said "decimated" his reputation.
Best Firing Scene: Honorable mention goes to the "Thursday
night massacre" when Mr. Trump fired four candidates at once. As they
sat in stunned silence, Mr. Trump finally said, "Go home. Go home."
However, the winner is the firing scene that set up the final task,
when Mr. Trump fired Felisha, and then Alla, who thought she was safe
and had started to get up from her seat.
Worst Boardroom Performance by a Candidate: The winner is
Felisha, who before being fired, wept and told Mr. Trump how
disappointed she was in herself. She looked like a beaten person. It
was painful to watch.
Biggest "Oops" Performance by a Candidate: There are lots of
nominees here, but there are co-winners. The first is Jennifer M., who
when presenting her team's promotional float for the sci-fi movie "Zathura,"
kept mispronouncing it as "Zanthura." The second winner is Jennifer
W., who prepared a cake for a special event at a senior citizens' home
and had a misspelling in the inscription on the cake. The third winner
is Randal, who prepared a promotional poster for XM Radio's "XM Café"
channel, but put the wrong channel number on the poster. The final
winner is Mark, who had the idea to spell "Italian" without
capitalizing it on a print ad for Lamborghini—something that didn't
sit well with the Lamborghini executives or with Mr. Trump.
Most Annoying Candidate: Toral gets an honorable mention here,
but the winner is Kristi, whose shrillness and constant complaining
about her teams' project managers was very unbecoming.
Meanest Candidate: There's no question that Alla wins hands
down. Her attacks on other candidates in the boardroom were
reminiscent of a school of hungry piranha. Even in the live season
finale, she was true to form as she took the opportunity to bash
Rebecca, in spite of the boos she received from the Lincoln Center
audience.
Most Loyal Candidate: Rebecca wins. Misplaced though her
loyalty was at the time, she defended Toral to the end in the
boardroom and spared her from the firing scene in Week Three. She
simply would not back down. In that boardroom scene, Mr. Trump took
notice of Rebecca's spunk and toughness.
Commentary: Grand Finale or Grand Bust?
Compared to the three previous seasons of The Apprentice, this
season's final episode was the worst end-of-season climax yet, for a
variety of reasons.
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Neither of the finalists did an
all-around great job: Let's look at Randal's
performance first. Randal didn't keep track of the weather forecast in
advance of his planned celebrity softball game. When it rained, he had
no backup plan. He and his team threw together a charity auction that
appeared to be poorly attended and netted a total of $11,000 given to
the beneficiary, Autism Speaks. That's not a lot of money for a
celebrity event. For comparison purposes, my Rotary club in Virginia,
the Rotary Club of Innsbrook, does an annual silent and live auction
for charity that last year raised over $30,000 with no celebrities and
no huge corporate sponsor!
Turning to Rebecca, if her sole assignment had been to put on an
entertainment event that would strengthen the Yahoo! brand, she would
have been a smashing success. Unfortunately, she was supposed to raise
money for the Elizabeth Glaser Foundation, and she didn't.
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What about those corporate
sponsors?: The representative from Outback
Steakhouse was very visible during last week's episode, reminding
Randal that it was important to represent the Outback brand. This
week, he was almost invisible. Another telling point—in past seasons
of the show, the corporate sponsors for the events have often been
called in to comment on how they thought their events went. There was
no such appearance in the finale by anyone from Outback Steakhouse.
It's hard to imagine that the people at Outback Steakhouse were
thrilled with Randal's stewardship of their event.
Rebecca, on the other hand, was confronted with a demanding sponsor
(Yahoo!) that appeared to have no interest in raising money. At the
same time, there seemed to be no one from the Elizabeth Glaser
Foundation to speak up for the charity during the planning of the
event. Mr. Trump actually criticized Yahoo! on the air and more or
less shamed the company into contributing $100,000 toward both of the
charities that were featured in the final task.
The perils of live TV:
NBC insists on having a live season-ending show, and in the past
seasons, there have been a few awkward moments during the finale simply
because of its unscripted nature. This season's parting shot, however,
has no equal.
It has been pretty clear from the start of the season that Mr. Trump
really likes Rebecca—she's feisty, defends herself well in the boardroom
scenes, and she stayed in the competition after she suffered a broken
ankle in a freak accident early in the season. And, Mr. Trump has been
impressed with Randal from the start. Randal is a Rhodes Scholar, and is
the only candidate who had three victories as a project manager. In
addition, he was shaken early in the competition by the death of his
grandmother, but bounced back and kept on going.
Mr. Trump hinted that he wanted to hire both Rebecca and Randal. After
anointing Randal the winner with the words, "You're hired," Mr. Trump
asked Randal if there was any reason why he shouldn't hire Rebecca.
Amazingly, Randal insisted that she should not be hired, because there
should be only one winner – him! This statement has touched off a storm
of controversy. Some view Randal's statement as egocentric, others think
that he was simply claiming ownership of a victory he had just won. Some
have even called Mr. Trump a racist for wanting to water down the
success of an African-American by hiring another white candidate at the
same time. All in all, it was a bizarre conclusion to the season that
probably harmed the "Apprentice" franchise.
Mr. Trump can't be blamed for wanting to hire both candidates. In fact,
last fall, he hired one of the candidates, Andy, who did not even make
the final four. However, he did it "on the side" and not as part of the
season finale. He could have done the same thing with Rebecca, or simply
said, "You're both hired." He fired four people simultaneously in an
earlier episode this season; if he had wanted to, he certainly could
have hired two people at the same time.
Mr. Trump put Randal in a tough spot—Randal probably didn't anticipate
having to respond to a question like that just moments after winning the
competition. Mr. Trump may have assumed that Randal would be magnanimous
in victory, because Randal had been an exceptional team player during
the season, and just seemed like a really nice guy. But Randal's
response, live and in prime time, turned the tables on his new boss.
The bottom line? There were no winners in the final episode of The
Apprentice. Yahoo! ended up looking bad, even though in the end, the
company coughed up $100,000 for charity. It appeared that Outback
Steakhouse didn't get the promotional mileage it had hoped to get out of
its event sponsorship. Neither charity made as much money as it could
have from the sponsored events. Rebecca came within an eyelash of
getting a job with the Trump Organization, and was denied not once, but
twice in the span of a couple of minutes. Randal tarnished his image as
the candidate everyone loved, both with his lackluster performance in
the final task and his statement that he should be the only apprentice.
And Donald Trump, who had experienced a superb season as grand
inquisitor and ultimate decision maker in the boardroom, seemed to lose
control over his own show at its climactic moment.
But, "The Apprentice" is scheduled to be back for two more seasons, so
as Mr. Trump himself said after one of the earlier episodes this season,
"Life continues…" |
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