This week saw the candidates have a meeting with Lord Sugar in their pyjamas, a map of London and the return of products from the last 9 series. The task was to locate these products and negotiate for the cheapest price possible.
There was a discussion over who should be PM for team Tenacity and Daniel came out on top. He split up the products equally between team members and sent Katie and Mark off to collect a Belfast sink, Nigella seeds, a 1m old rope, some tea and Oud while Felipe and himself went off to find a kosher chicken, fresh scallops, a diamond and a human skeleton as well as to build bridges between themselves after the disaster of last week’s tasks.
Both sub teams got off to a good start, Daniel managed to knock 30% off the price of a kosher chicken and Katie got a Belfast sink down to £75 from £80, however judging by the speed at which the seller agreed to this, I can’t help but think that they could have gone lower. Later, Katie and Mark headed to a garden centre to buy some seeds and got a piece of old rope for free, which apparently is quite shocking. The rope however didn’t match the description and was 1.7 metres, they were offered scissors to cut it, but decided that it would be fine. All other products were gathered successfully and at a good price, apart from the skeleton. Felipe had made some calls and found a full human skeleton made of paper disassembled for £18, according to lawyer Felipe this would be perfectly fine as this specification wasn’t mentioned in the description.
Over on team Summit, Sanjay had been appointed PM due to his knowledge of London and his skills in logistics and organisation. Sanjay’s plan was to stay put and make calls and plan where everyone should be heading. Roisin went straight on to find the diamond, wasting hours calling up independent retailers for a loose diamond, when anyone with a knowledge of London (cough cough Sanjay) would know that Hatton Garden, London’s diamond district, would have been the best place to go. After spending 2½ hours planning, team Summit finally headed out, however 5 minutes into their journey Sanjay had already deviated from the plan after he saw a skeleton in a shop window, which wasn’t even his product to find.
It was a bit of a win-lose situation with team Summit and their negotiation skills, Roisin practically stole the diamond from the dealer at a ridiculously low price of £50, however they then ended up paying £100 for Oud and £200 for the skeleton. Finally, because of Sanjay’s not so strategic planning, Summit were fined for being late and not managing to get a kosher chicken because he trekked all the way to Stratford.
The boardroom showed how much bad luck team Tenacity had. Tenacity would have won the task by around £250 if Felipe hadn’t played the role of the lawyer and tried to be clever about the skeleton. Maybe if Felipe had played lawyer in the boardroom and fought for his side more he would still be in the competition. Felipe was fired, surely leaving Daniel on his last leg in this competition.
Posted by Saskia Benjamin