The Apprentice: Laura Hogg is fired!

It’s a 6.00am start for the candidates who are summoned to Waterloo Station. They're hoping for a trip but they find a plasma screen bearing a video message from Lord Sugar:

“You might be wondering what you’re doing, standing there in a tunnel. Look around you, because this is an example of what you’re going to be selling next. You’re going to organise the sale of urban art, tomorrow night, in two of London’s cutting edge galleries. You’re going to pick two artists to represent.”

The teams must choose two artists each then sell their work to the public and a high end corporate client laid on by Lord Sugar. The team that makes the most commission will win while one member of the losing team will be fired.  
 
 
Tom volunteers as Project Manager for Phoenix due to his creative knowledge, “I know a bit about graffiti. I understand the art and the technicalities of how graffiti is produced, so I can tell the difference between what a good quality graffiti piece is and what a bad quality graffiti piece is.”
 

Gabrielle is picked as Project Manager on Sterling and, before they meet the artists, she briefs her team on their game plan: “Everyone that you meet, please show enthusiasm, listen to what they say and show your dedication, because at the end of the day they will be picking us to represent them.”
 
 
In Shoreditch, Laura and Tom meet with an artist known as Pure Evil. Tom tries to impress him with his knowledge of urban art, but Nick Hewer is not convinced that the meeting was entirely successful, “I think that’s Tom’s knowledge of the edgy urban art scene has gone pretty well for Phoenix but I don’t really think they have set out to demonstrate to the artist that they are the people to sell his work.”  
 
 
Hot on their heels, Gabrielle’s team meets with Pure Evil. Karren, overseeing proceedings, is impressed with the team leader’s behaviour and conduct, stating, “Gabrielle’s arty side comes to the fore in tasks like this. She’s very engaging; she talks to the artists on their own level.”
 

With both teams deciding that they want to represent Pure Evil, he gets to pick which of them he would like to represent him.
 
Pure Evil opts for Gabrielle’s team due to their enthusiasm for the work, leaving Tom devastated that he has not been chosen. Not coping well with the news, Tom is already prepared to admit defeat, stating, “It’s a no-win situation for us as we’ve lost Pure Evil.”

In the car back to the house a despondent Tom complains, “I’m not very happy, to be honest with you, not happy at all. At the end of the day, having expertise and having knowledge and rapport with people obviously counts for nothing, which doesn’t make any sense to me. I actually think he’s mental for going with them.”

With five artists to see, the two teams split, with half of each staying in London whilst the other half head to Bristol. Adam has no idea what he's doing so he comes up with a plan. “I know nothing at all about urban art. My strategy with the artists today is to give them my unbiased, unique opinion, really, of how I interpret their art.”
 
Adam’s strategy soon comes into play when he meets with one artist and offers his opinion on his work, telling him, “This to me is the best thing I’ve seen all day. To me it’s very hypnotising really; you could look at it for hours and get several different meanings from it. It’s very good.”
 
The next day at the gallery, Adam continues with this unusual approach, though he quickly shows he's out of his depth: “One of the questions we were asked today was, “which medium does he use?” Now a medium to me is someone who is used to contact the other side.”
 
Adam's honesty gets him the sales but Laura is not so lucky, “it’s not usually how I work, and it’s very different sales. I have a chat, test the water, and let them have a look around but then before you know it, Adam’s on them!”
 
Off to the corporate meetings and Gabrielle’s team sits down with Beefeater Gin. They're in the market for art for their distillery but the team appear unprofessional by not asking for enough information. In this instance size matters!

Things go from bad to worse after the team opt for street artist Nathan Bowen. The artist is perfect for the client but sadly when they meet up with Beefeater Gin the following day at the gallery, they all ignore their arrival - no welcome, no drink, no introductions. They're obviously not impressed and aide Karren Brady can't believe her eyes. “I’ve just witnessed a master class in how not to treat a corporate client. You invite them to an event, when they turn up you ignore them, you don’t introduce them to the rest of your team and you forget to say goodbye when you are leaving. A complete and utter ridiculous chain of events.”
 

Regardless of stupid mistakes (and there were plenty) at the end of the day it's all about the money...

THE RESULT: 

Beefeater Gin didn't buy anything from Gabrielle while Renault bought five thousand pounds worth of art from Team Tom. Gallery sales for Tom were just short of six grand but Gabrielle's were double that, a whopping eleven thousand pounds. Team Gabrielle won the task by a mere £137!

THE BOARDROOM:

Tom looked like he'd given up already and took the blame for not landing the artist they wanted. He woke up quick and realised that he should be pointing the finger anywhere but at himself, so he opted for his sub-team (Adam and Jade) as they 'didn't help him out with objective opinions'. He discovered that Adam had the highest sales while Laura was lowest, so chooses Laura as part of his final three with Jade.

It's a cut and dry affair once it's down to the final three. Lord Sugar has little interest in firing Tom (that's obvious) so it's down to Jade and Laura. Jade was inidicisive yes, and could have done a lot more but Sugar's got his eye on one person only... Laura. His lordship reviews Laura's application form and informs her that although it says she's a great salesperson and has won awards she was anything but "work smart" in the task. "You'd win a prize for talking but it's talking too late!"

Laura is fired (and no, I didn't understand what he said either. I think he meant too late for talking LOL!)

Did the right woman leave?
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Selena x

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Selena Ledgerton
MSN Reality TV

Images courtesy of BBC