The quality of the temps was totally Felisha's fault. It was great to have Spanish-speakers, but some English-speaking people would've nice. And she didn't exactly use the labor she did have very well, although it appears they didn't do too badly. Like many of you have said, she should've done what Excel did with their Spanish-speakers (and I blame her for that more than I do Alla because labor was Felisha's responsibility). So that had nothing to do with luck. The quantity of temps wasn't so much her fault, though, and for that reason I actually think she should've been sent up instead of Alla, since labor quantity played a key role in determining the outcome of the task (plus, she along with Alla seemed to do a great job in picking up the temp slack). On the other hand, I agree with those who said Felisha didn't defend herself very well. We saw her express her worry to Adam and Alla about not being allocated enough for labor. But her very first words in the BR were weak: having more labor simply wasn't an option. That was vague. Then later on when they asked her whether she asked for more labor, she basically said the budget decisions had already been made. That's fine, but she still shared her concerns to the PM - to my recollection, she didn't even bring that up!

I agree that Alla shouldn't have been sent up, but I also don't think she should've been fired, for two reasons. One, she deserves praise for her own work on foot (regardless of her questionable use-my-phone! technique). Two, I think the carriage idea could've worked, if not for the execution. If the wrapping wasn't so ugly and almost illegible, it could've worked, kind of like ads on buses or taxis. And also, again they could've done what Excel did - have someone (one of the temps, or perhaps even one of the CEers) ride along with the carriages and just yell. If done properly, it could've reached more people than those sandwich boards. In fact, I suspect that those carriages played some role in CE getting so close to Excel, cause 15 temps does not equal 60, and surely Alla, Adam and Felisha couldn't have made up that difference by themselves. So her trust in Adam's idea wasn't necessarily misplaced.

Of course, Alla shares part of the blame for not overseeing better execution of the carriage wrapping, and for not allocating more money to the foot force (even though it could've been a good idea, carriages didn't deserve 60% of the budget). But most of the blame falls to Adam. For one thing, couldn't he have found some more wrapping-friendly carriages? As it was, even with the carriages they did have, the wrapping was bad - it wasn't big enough, especially compared to what Excel did with that van. IMO that was the main reason they lost - if the carriages were done even a little bit better, I think it could've offset any labor shortage and gotten them those 6 extra calls. And for that reason, I agree with the firing of Adam. It was the right decision, especially if you factor in past challenges, what with Felisha and Alla each having at least one PM win.

I think this is Randal's to win, with 3 PM wins, although I'm happy Rebecca's still in there. And I actually didn't have a problem with the megaphone thing, only because I wanted them to win badly, hehe. Normally, though I would take issue with their misrepresenting themselves as "colleagues" of CE. Even if they didn't misrepresent themselves when they actually got to the store, that's a technicality - lie by omission, IMO. I know this happens in business all the time, but even regardless of whether it was shady or not, it didn't have to be like that, cause I refuse to believe they couldn't have made a few calls and gotten the megaphones elsewhere. They're not that hard to find - go to a cheerleading store if you must!

On the other hand, I was also bothered by Alla giving people her phone to use. She even said she was dialing the number herself - all she had to do then was go up to some random person and say, "Just press send. Thanks!"

I've read all eight pages, but I haven't seen anyone mention this: Why would you want to promote a perfume by affixing a poster to a horse drawn carriage? Horses are pretty in print and on TV, but in person, esp NYC horses, aren't exactly what one normally associates with a "good" fragnance.

I'd have placed people outside the Empire State Building, Macy's, Times Sq, Rockefeller Center, Union Square, Columbus Circle, the various museums, South Street Seaport, Canal St, Broadway and Houston, etc.

Is it against the Apprentice rules to use craigslist as a way to recruit people or to enlist people to call the 1-800 number?

I thought Alla was highly annoying with those super-pushy tactics she was using on the street. Didn't one clip show her saying "Ladies! You have to call this number" and holding out her phone? Then Felisha was pleading with people (men?) to call the number because "we have a deadline to get as many calls as possible."

As marketing techniques, those don't suggest a desirable product. Quite the opposite. IMO, strident voices, handing your phone over to people and begging are tactics that show desperation and poor marketing; the whole point of a real marketing task should have been to stimulate genuine interest in the product so that people would wait for their free sample with some interest. I think when you use such forceful tactics, people might call because they're too polite to ignore a young, educated-sounding, aggressive woman in a business suit or because they felt sorry for you, but they are also far more likely to toss the sample when it comes. Forcefeeding doesn't create an appetite.

Shania Twain telling Randal and Rebecca how if they work hard, they can really succeed?

(From official Apprentice site)
Randal:
"...holds five academic degrees in engineering, business and technology including a B.S. from Rutgers University, an M.S. from the University of Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar, and an M.S., M.B.A. and Ph.D. from MIT. A former college championship track and field athlete, he has received numerous awards for his accomplishments as an entrepreneur and technologist including the National Society of Black Engineers "National Member of the Year." A Leadership New Jersey Fellow and Next Generation Leadership Fellow, Randal has been featured by Black Enterprise magazine and Ebony magazine in their "30 Leaders of the Future" issue."

Rebecca:
"...graduated with honors from the University of Chicago, earning degrees in economics and pre-law. As a Chicago-based investment banker, she structured mergers and acquisitions, as well as equity and debt transactions. Prior to that, she traded short-term interest rate options on Citigroup's foreign exchange desk in London. Outside of business, Rebecca founded a non-profit organization, raising over $750,000 to support disenfranchised children."

Please. Just sit there and look pretty, Shania.

On the issue of Alla giving out her cell phone to make calls, I think that should maybe have been against the rules of the task. But it apparently wasn't, so whatever. What I'm curious about is this: would the temps be allowed to be some of the calls? R & R had 60 temps. Seems to me like that's a head start of 60 calls for you. Have every one of them call for the samples. I was really quite surprised that they didn't win by a larger margin. Even more surprised that Felisha or Adam didn't pound on that issue more in the BR. They worked more efficiently by far. If it hadn't been for Adam's stupid idea, they would have had money to hire more people and probably would have cleaned up on this task.

Adam's idea to wrap the horses was great, because really, nothing sells perfume faster than a horse that's collapsed from heat exhaustion.

I hate the fact that Adam was fired tonight for having a bad idea and that Alla completely escaped any responsibility for deciding to go with that idea (and to allocate more than half the budget to it). I think that kind of firing deters candidates from speaking up with any suggestions at all and is one reason why we don't see more creativity on this show.

I think that the efficiency argument for the boardroom is weak because they had the same amount of money to spend on getting the results. They didn't allocate their money properly, IMO. I still am amazed at all the temp help they were able to find.

And they spent more than $10 (plus the cost of all that wrapping) per free sample caller. Such a waste of money.

Shania came across as quite condescending. I stepped away from the TV for a minute so correct me if I missed something but I got the impression that she didn't even shake hands with R&R. She just sat on the horse with that tight, fake smile. And the hat at dinner? "Oh, I'm a fashion icon and I'm making a fashion statement with my divine, delightful hat even though it's common courtesy to take your hat off when you're sitting down to an indoor dinner." She's so pretentious. She looks like a woman embittered by Faith Hill.

Is Rebecca's foot ever going to heal? Speaking of which, Trump really does love Rebecca -- as shown in his harping on her broken ankle in the boardroom. But why this week? Her ankle's been broken a long time.

When The Hair opened the non-clip show by saying there's this new thing called 'wrapping' I just about sprayed turkey all over the TV. First, I thought he was talking about rapping (and Randall seemed to have a look of dread wash over his face) and then I realized what TD actually was talking about.

Donald, wrapping ain't new. I've been doing it since 1996 when I wrapped an MTA bus. Bitch, please. Not new. To him maybe, but not in the real world where everyone else lives.

And word to everyone who thinks that wrapping the carriages was a bad idea. It totally was. Not only a bad idea, but incredibly poorly-executed, as well. Wrinkles, lumps, they weren't on straight. They looked like they were fastened on with safety pins. Feh. Especially in contrast with the van, which was thoroughly professionally-done.

I have to admit, I lurved the megaphone appropriation by R&R. TD would have done the same thing...and probably has done.

And that clip show? A revelation. Markus is a bigger tool than I imagined. I guess Burnett's paying him back for whining to TV Guide about being poorly edited. Looks like Burnett actually did Markus a favor with the edits he did get.

I've never heard of wrapping advertising before. When I heard that they were gonna do it, I immediately thought of like, wrapped up lampposts or something. Is there a good example of it (since obviously these two weren't one)?

Reflecting back, I'm not against the whole megaphone deal. I initially laughed and laughed because Randall's looks made him look like he thought that if they found him, they'd kill him or something to that effect. Silly Randall.

niklj - Buses are commonly wrapped.

This show has me hooked! With only 5 candidates left, it was great to see everyone understanding the meaning of the word 'competition' and, in some cases, showing innovation. Both teams were equally conniving, Excel for (rightfully IMO) getting the bullhorns, and Capital Edge for using their personal cellphones.

However, Excel's maneuvers are the kind seen often in the business world - someone upthread mentioned that the goal of all businesses is to undercut competition, and they seized the opportunity when they saw it!

Capital Edge's cellphone ploy, on the other hand, is a tactic not done in business, making it obvious that their end goal was not to have the most effective marketing but rather to make the most phone calls. Superficially, this was the goal of the task but it will mostly likely reflect negatively on Alla and Felisha later because it showed poor marketing techniques. As Firestarter said: