Lee McQueens Apprentice Byline – The Final

Lee McQueen’s byline – Mexican v British Pies

Week eleven – a fantastic week on the apprentice.

It’s a different format with the £250,000 investment as week 11 is usually the interview but this week was the final task before the interviews. With the final 5 it was 2 versus 3.  The task this week was to set up and run a fast food outlet….no mean feat to get something like this up and running in 2 days.

This week saw the formidable Helen was project manager. She had Tom with her and what a fantastic team. As PM, Helen was organised with great attention to detail, particularly on choosing the right product which was high end and 100% British.  Tom was let loose on the creative and came up with ‘My Py’ which were smaller pies so everyone could get a variety of tastes of totally British ingredients.  I was a bit disappointed that neither team came up with a health food concept which I think would have been a great idea in reality.

On the other team, Jim was PM and was back to the fore with his charm.  However, last time he project managed he wasn’t very good and lost.  This time it was the same story and he lost.  He did however have Natasha and Susie with him who, not because individually they are bad but when they are together they just want to cat fight.  Jim had his hands full trying to manage them and didn’t really get much out of them at all.  They went for a Mexican theme with sombreros and cacti.  It was OK but the food was slow and looked a bit of a mess.  To quote Lord Sugar in the board room, he said the nachos looked like his sons dog puke!!!  Which made me laugh!

Lee McQueen’s byline – Task 10

Afternoon everybody just to give you a quick overview on week 10 – we are fast approaching top 5 after this week.  I’ll give you my thoughts on the top 5 in a second but just now I want to give you my views on the week that has just passed and ‘The Reinvestment Task’.   I think this is something I would have relished – going out there selling, trying to get as much profit as you can and then actually reinvesting that when you can see what is actually happening.

Natasha put herself forward as PM and she was a brilliant manager and the other Project Manager was Melody.  Now some people have been a bit critical of Melody since weeks 7/ 8/ 9, but I’ve liked her all the way through.  It’s the first time she’s been the PM since week 1 but she put herself forward – here I’d like to dispel a myth really – everyone gets really het up on who puts themselves forward! I know Lord Sugar asks you about that every week but by week 10 that doesn’t really make any difference, so I personally believe that by week 10 everybody should be comfortable with and understand the process and know what to expect and now they know each other.  This is why anyone who’s PM should get the plot by now – if we work together as a team, then we win the task, therefore none of us will be fired! 

Task 9 – Lee McQueen’s byline

Task 8 – Lee McQueen’s Apprentice Byline

Wow Helen. She is definitely the one to beat, after the pitch that she did. I think Suzy was good aswell. She single-handedly beat the others with her last pitch. These two really rose to the occasion.

I’m not saying I like Melody as much this week (certainly not as much as Lord Sugar did!), but saying that she was brilliant. I think this week it’s all about the woman, the fellas didn’t do anything.

I fear for Tom – he got out of jail this week. I think if Leon had done a little bit more in a couple of the tasks, he wouldn’t haven’t been fired. Tom just wasn’t forceful enough – he’s not assertive enough to get his ideas across. On the flip side, Melody was very assertive. They need to take a piece out of each others books.

It’s 5 women against 2 fellas. I was hoping a bloke would win this year, but I think that’s going to be a long shot now. Who knows… Jim may still pull it off!

Top 5: Definitely Helen, Melody, Suzy and then Zoe and probably Jim. It could be all women with Natasha in there, but I think it will be Jim.

Posted by Lee McQueen

Task 7 – Lee McQueens Byline

This week both Natatsha and Jim got to TL for the first time. I think Jim got away with it and he should have gone. We haven’t seen the good stuff from him since week 3 or so. This week he had a prime opportunity to negotiate and sell (which I thought was a strength of his). Every man and their dog knows that rate cards don’t mean nothing. Especially if they were looking to take the whole lot, then he really needed to negotiate.

He also changed the design of Hip Replacement which made it look like one word and that just looked like a derogatory term. He was lucky.

I just can’t get to like Natasha.

Lee McQueens byline Task 6

Loved the double firing last week and in my view, it could have been any of them. This week was my favourite task of this series so far. They had to be forward thinking, there were three or four different ways to make money. It turned out that high risk versus low risk strategies was how it played out. High risk won, which I think is quite normal in business.

Helen did really well and she shone this week. She’s been in the background and is easily forgettable, but must be one to watch.

I have backed Zoe over the past weeks. She’s put herself forward twice now for TL, so the pressure’s off to do it again. She reminds me of Clare Young from my year – bit of a bull in a china shop, but she’s getting better and just needs to reign it in a little bit. She lost it a bit on day 1 but pulled it back on day 2 and didn’t let it get to her. It shows persistence, tenacity, and there was no bullshit when she was honest in the boardroom. Her tears, I think, were from frustration as she thought she’d lost it… for the team. Lord Sugar likes people that come through the tough times. Only then you get to see someone’s real character.

Nick obviously likes Suzie and Melody has done well too. She cracks on with the job and I quite like her. My top 5 are

Lee McQueens Apprentice byline

Bit of a shambles to be fair! Going in to Lord Sugar and losing is one thing, but making a loss on profit is a cardinal sin! Any one of that team could have gone this week. Vincent could have been in the bottom 3 quite easily and I think he’ll probably be TL and will go next week.

I would have picked the shells myself, but they focussed on the product, not the treatments where the profit was. They throw things in like the treatment room being so far away from the selling points. They did it on one of our tasks, and it makes a big difference. Saying that, the other team didn’t do that great either. I gave Zoe quite a bit of stick last week and she stepped up as TL and she won, so I can’t knock her this week.

People I’d highlighted before, such as Jim were also quite weak, so I’m struggling to pick someone that could go all the way… people that should be fired, yes, but a winner… not on that showing!

By Lee Mcqueen

“We can do two things for you today. We can get you naked…!”

Task 4 – Beauty Products

We’re into week 3 now and task 4 for the remaining 13 contestants. The task this week was to sell beauty products.

The cars arrive early morning to take the teams to theBritishMuseum. They stand in front of the statue of Aphrodite (Goddess of Love and Beauty). The aim? To set up their own beauty treatment service. Lord Sugar has lined up several beauty companies for them to choose 2 of their products to sell and 2 treatments to perform on customers. Can’t see this going wrong, can you?!

Now although he said “You’re going to be professionally trained…”, he followed this with “…and tomorrow you’re going to start selling to the public”.  Katie Piper on twitter wrote “As a former beauty therapist this is all wrong wrong wrong “. Couldn’t agree more Katie.

Birmingham was the place where all of this was going to happen as ‘London is already a saturated market’. First key point of the programme just 2 minutes in.

When you are looking to set up a new business or even to increase your current business, a lot of people look to where the market is the busiest and think “Well if they’ve got profits there, then I can make profits there”. There are occasions where this will work – I’m thinking of coffee shops in major thoroughfares and places of work, but even then there will be a saturation point based on the population.

Look at where your service is required and then

“He could have been a contender” by Lee McQueen

Lee McQueen predicts his weekly winner on his byline to  Angela’s Apprentice review

Last year I picked the final 4 from week 1. I thought Gavin was going to do quite well and I tipped him last week as a contender! He was out of his depth though.

This task is close to my heart.  Remember Marrakech? I was the PM on this one and we won. We didn’t just win, we smashed it!

I thought that this week’s was a tough one,  it wasn’t just about negotiation and they couldn’t just buy any old tat like we did, as it was for the Savoy. They couldn’t just get the top hat from the fancy dress shop, it had to be high end stuff.

For me it was about the planning. They had to think about it and then put it into practice and Gavin spent so much time procrastinating rather than planning, so he didn’t get to finish the task.

Also Gavin’s team only got 6 of the 10 items; you’ve got to give yourself a chance – the negotiation came secondary to that. Let’s get all the items and then negotiate. The fact is, neither of the teams successfully got all 10 items (and yes we did get all 10 in Marrakech!). Saying that, team Logic only lost by £8, so Gavin must have done well on the ones that he did get, 1 more item and they would have won!

Each week I’m going to predict my winner. This may change as the week’s go on, but I hope the people I highlight are in the last 4 again.

Lee’s predicted winner this week = Jim - Who’s yours?

See our interview with Lee McQueen