Enterprise Week - The Apprentice Challenge

The apprentice challenge is a competition in the style of the popular TV show The Apprentice in which teams compete in various challenges, with the ultimate goal of making as much profit as possible. Any current students studying any subject and from any year could compete as part of a 6 part team. The team would be given money from a sponsor company to participate in the challenges.



I will be talking from the perspective of team leader of team Smarty Pants, being Lynne, Francine, Hannah, John, Ian and of course myself.

When we heard about the apprentice challenge, it went the way of a school disco, all the girls teamed up and the boys did the same. Being that we are no longer 12 we decided that a mixed gender group would be more beneficial all round, bringing more variety to each team (plus who doesnt like a bit of female company). So, what proved to be an awesome team was formed.

The team then had to attend a preliminary meeting, unfortunatly only a few team members (Lynne and Hannah if my memory serves me well) were able to attend. It was they who created the enigmatic entity that is TEAM SMARTY PANTS.



CHALLENGE 1 - DOUGHNUTS



Mission - Sell doughnuts and doughnuts only for one day. The team with the most profit at the end of the day wins.

We elected to go for a buy a lot cheap and sell a lot cheap strategy, using all our budget to purchase jam doughnuts from Tesco. We managed to negotiate a spot in Eden shopping centre that gave us an excellent footflow and lots of sale opportunities, all that was left to do was to start selling.

We split our team into 2, the boys taking on a sales role that involved a lot of shouting and generally attracting a lot of attention and the girls handling the money and the transactions between customers. We then further split the team by setting up 2 seperate stands to maximise our sales potential. All the team members did very well, John used his innate charm and sales experience to great effect, Ian however, was utter shit.

An hour or so in sales were not going as well as we had hoped, we needed a USP. It was then that we decided to approach Starbucks to get free coffee to sell with our doughnuts. We managed to blag it and sales shot up as a result.



By the end of the day we had sold all of our doughnuts and we had made a tidy profit. This got us through to the next round!

CHALLENGE 2 - PROPOSAL



Mission - To propose an idea for a stall within Eden to management.

We decided to use our stall to sell painted pictures of popular childrens characters with a sale or return deal in place. Although they were impressed with our initial idea, implementing it was not allowed due to copyright laws. 6 teams passed through the round, each with different ideas. The strength of our initial idea got us through, although in 6th place and having to completly rethink our strategy.



CHAllENGE 3 - THE STALL



Mission - Sell whatever (legal and tasteful) commodity you wish so long as it is purchased using only profit from previous rounds.

After having our initial idea complimented and then crushed to dust we went with what we knew we could do well. Selling cakes and doughnuts. Our strategy was similar to before, although it focused more upon providing a range of cakes of different price and quality, as well christmas cards. This time the sales team went balls to the wall, assaulting the public with a barrage of charm. John and I made it our mission to approach each and every person who crossed our path, we managed an excellent rate of sale, especially amoungst young women thanks to John's gleaming smile. Ian remained a hideous salesman.

Come the end of the day we had sold our entire inventory, even down to the balloons and christmas hats we had used to decorate the stall. The whole team put in a great effort and if paid off, we had made it through to the penultimate round.

CHALLENGE 4 - THE PROPOSAL (PART DEUX)



Mission - Propose an idea for an event to be held in the SU infront of Uni staff and SU managers.

3 teams left, 2 teams get through, we fancy our chances. The team came up with an excellent idea of hosting a James Bond Casino Royale night. This would allow us to play around with a fun theme as well as capitalise on the income that can be generated from gambling. We decided to go the whole hog in the proposal. We dressed to impress and were accompanied by music as well as posters and all our facts and figures worked out. Although they had some reservations about our theme, our effort and enthusiasm got us in to the final round.

FINAL CHALLENGE - THE EVENT



Mission - Run an event in the SU, highest profit throughout all the tasks wins.

It's game time now. Having already decided on our theme it was now time to put the man hours in and make it all it could be. We went on a sales escapade and knocked on every door there was in student halls, selling as many tickets as possible. The girls did a great job soughting out decorations, creating posters, making jelly shots and generally organising the boys. Thanks ladies.

The night of the event arrives and it is crunch time. The doors open but the queues we hoped for were not there. Over the next few hours people came in drips and drabs, we sold a few jelly shots here and there and a few poker chips but there were no big profits yet. The other team next door were in a similar position. Our trump card was yet to be played however and we held on for a few more people before we held our 00's and Ho's auction.

The auction kicked off and despite my initial nerves as host it went quite well. We received some big offers and made a substantial profit (thanks largely to Anthonys longing to purchase the DJ) with no cost.

The end of the evening came and our nerves reached their climax. Before we knew it the announcement came and we were holding champagne and big cheque. We had won!!!!

It took a lot of effort and a little bit of luck to fight through each round and emerge victorious, but we did it in the end, forever confirming......



WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Lynne Carter opened a brothel with her winnings, Anthony Holt is a regular customer.

John is now pursuing an actor/model career, using his good looks and lack of morals to get work.

Hannah opted to have a new experimental plastic surgery procedure, she is now a member of the tall society.

Francine bought a share in Nestle to show her support for Yorkies, her stock went through the roof when Craft purchased Cadburys and she is now sipping mohito's on a yaught in San Tropez

Ian decided to use his new found "talent" for sales and start a telesales business, he is now homeless.

As for me, Im selling myself to fuel my crack addiction.

Future Apprentice Challenge members, team Smarty Pants will be back next year to defend their title, so watch your backs.