Decision-making in The Apprentice (S03E01, Whopper 101)

DECISION-MAKING in THE APPRENTICE (S03E01) SHOW SUMMARY The Apprentice is an American reality television program that judges the business skills of a group of contestants. It has run in various formats across fifteen seasons since January 2004 on NBC. The Apprentice was created by British-born American television producer Mark Burnett. Billed as "The Ultimate Job Interview," the show features fourteen to eighteen business people who compete over the course of a season, with usually one contestant eliminated per episode. Contestants are split into two "corporations" (teams), with one member from each volunteering as a project manager on each new task. The corporations complete business-related tasks such as selling products, raising money for charity, or creating an advertising campaign, with one corporation selected as the winner based on objective measures and subjective opinions of the host and his advisors who monitor the teams' performance on tasks. The losing corporation attends a boardroom meeting with the show's host and their advisors to break down why they lost and determine who contributed the least to the team. Episodes ended with the host eliminating one contestant from the competition, with the words "You're fired!"1 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice_(U.S._TV_series) CAST OF CHARACTERS CANDIDATE RESIDENCE RESULT Kendra Todd - Real Estate Broker AGE 25 Boynton Beach, FL Hired by Trump Tana Goertz - Sales Executive 37 Des Moines, IA Fired in Season Finale Craig Williams - Shoeshine Business Owner 37 Conley, GA Fired in week 15 Alex Thomason - Attorney 29 Brewster, WA Fired in week 14 Bren Olswanger - Prosecutor 32 Memphis, TN Fired in week 13 Chris Shelton - Real Estate Investor 21 Las Vegas, NV Fired in week 12 Angie McKnight - Gym Franchise Owner 41 Lake Balboa, CA Fired in week 11 Stephanie Myers - Supply Chain Consultant 29 San Diego, CA Fired in week 10 Erin Elmore - Attorney 26 Philadelphia, PA Fired in week 9 John Gafford - Technology Firm Owner 32 Tampa, FL Fired in week 8 Audrey Evans - Real Estate Agent 22 Salt Lake City, UT Fired in week 7 Tara Dowdell - Senior Governor Management 28 New York, NY Fired in week 6 Michael Tarshi - Real Estate Developer 25 Boston, MA Fired in week 5 Kristen Kirchner - Real Estate Financier 31 Los Angeles, CA Fired in week 4 Danny Kastner - Marketing Tech Firm Owner 39 Boston, MA Fired in week 3 Verna Felton - Business Manager 31 Seattle, WA Quit in week 3 Brian McDowell - Real Estate Broker 29 Wildwood, NJ Fired in week 2 Todd Everett - Sales Manager 34 Carlsbad, CA Fired in week 1 The Net Worth (Street Smarts) team contained four men and five women, and the Magna Corp (Book Smarts) team contained five men and four women. Trump stated that "You just have to be business-smart", no matter what kind of smarts you have. Trump also pointed out one other major difference between the two groups - those with only a high school diploma earn three times as much as the college grads. Stephanie suggested Magna for the team name. It was short for magna cum laude, which means "with great distinction" and is often used as a title for high achieving graduates. Tara suggested Net Worth. EPISODE RECAP The episode, which broadcast on January 20, 2005 was entitled “Whopper 101” and the hosting company was the fast-food chain Burger King. The project managers were Todd (Magna) and John (Net Worth), both of whom had experience in the food industry and trusted by their teams to lead them to victory. The project itself involved promoting one of three new hamburgers developed by Burger King and then managing the operations of a restaurant for the day—grills, cashier, etc. The winning teams that sold the most of the burger it had chosen would be declared the winner. The Magna team chose to promote the Triple Cheese Angus Steak burger while Net Worth chose the Western Angus burger. Net Worth prevailed. Their victory was accredited, in part, to the Western-themed promotional campaign that included a chance a winning two round-trip tickets to Las Vegas, as well as better training of cashiers. As their reward, they got to eat with Trump at the famed Club 21. Magna Corp’s loss was attributed to having trained too few people to operate the point-ofsale (cashiers) and their very poor promotional scheme developed by the eccentric Danny. On the promotional campaign task, Todd had delegated a lot of the responsibilities to his teammates, but didn't do much work himself. Danny and Stephanie struggled with Magna's marketing, and ended up with a ludicrous baseball theme that did not impress the team or advertise their burger well enough. In addition to the team leader, Todd, two other members of the Magna were sent to the boardroom—Danny and Alex. In the boardroom, Danny was singled out for the loss and was blamed for being difficult to manage and responsible for the horrible marketing. Danny defended himself, stating that he was able to at least get people into their Burger King, but Carolyn reminded him that it was not their objective to just get customers. Danny also called out Stephanie for "selling out" in the boardroom, blaming him solely for their marketing and for him not letting her express her ideas. While everyone else blamed Danny for their failure, Kendra was the only one on Magna to call out Todd for not being able to control Danny, which impressed Carolyn. In the final boardroom, Alex shot himself in the foot when he admitted he did not train enough people, which took the heat off Todd, who was primarily responsible for their point of sale. Somewhat surprisingly, it was Todd who Trump chose to fire. Among the reasons were his not being able to control his team, especially Danny, insufficiently training the staff, failing to oversee the marketing campaign, and generally being a poor leader.2 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Identify the three most significant decisions made by each team. 2. Which of those decisions ones are programmed and which are non-programmed? 3. What are the major behavioral influences, if any, on these decisions? SOLUTIONS For solutions, write to [email protected] with “Solution Request” in the subject line. 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice_(U.S._season_3)#Week_1:_Whopper_101