The Apprentice Africa -Episode 2

So many times during this episode i had to physically pull my jaws together after they had fallen apart in shock and to constantly stop myself from laughing like a donkey. I am still trying to find the words to explain what happened this week, this is to simply say, am yet to understand it in totality. I think i should desist from going to the jaw dropping moments and try to head out chronologically.

Episode 2 began with an air of excitement. The guys were excited because of their win last week and their reward. On their way to Bank PHB where they were to meet Mr. Shobanjo, the guys were singing songs from Shaka Zulu "we are going higher and higher and higher...." and Isaac was saying how everyone of them was going to give 100% of themselves.
The girls had a lot of determined talk going on understandably due to their loss the previous week and they were still mourning and analysing what had gone wrong the previous week, needless to say, the guys' minivan was a much better place to be, i don't like funerals, most people don't!
Last week, one of my friends said that he hoped they were given more challenging tasks than selling ropes and balls, his words not mine. Anyway, this week, the contestants were given the task of developing a new viable financial product for Bank PHB. Mr Shobanjo emphasized that the bank thrived on ideas (you've seen their ads, haven't you?)

Deox in a very democratic move called a meeting of Zulu corp where he asked them to pick a project manager for their task. Isaac stepped up and was backed by the whole team although Akatu admitted skepticism at the beginning. I must say, I was impressed with Isaac's leaderships skills this week. As for Matrix corp, Michelle was their project manager, how they arrived at this decision, i don't know but apparently they felt it was warranted as she's a banker.

The two teams were each given a chance to sit with the bank's top management to ask any questions they might have in relation to their task. Among other things the guys asked whether there was any bank customer research available that they could use. The comic part of this Q&A was when Omar asked, in a very serious and confident tone i must add, which animal of all the animals best described Bank PHB! The guys were in shock and i was laughing myself senseless, the look on their faces was priceless. The bank manager seemed very taken aback, anyway, we never got to hear his response.
check this out www.theapprenticeafrica.com/journal_detail.php?id=13

Apparently there is a storm brewing in the house between Omar and Tunde (he was the one most flabbergasted by Omar's artistic expression at Bank PHB) Omar said "who does he think he is, my mother?" This was because he had walked into the room at about 6am waking everyone up. Tunde said it seemed like the guy didn't have a lid (or was that leash?) for his mouth! This deep seated animosity is bound to affect Zulu corp and provide us the viewers with an immense amount drama.
Eddie in his calm and collected tone identified Akatu as their weakest link citing that he is flamboyant, a lot of talk but when it comes down to the ground, he doesn't follow through with action.
This time round, the ladies were very organised, no cheerleading antics in sight. The team work was impressive. Michelle noted that the ladies all contributed in one way or the other. Their presentation was brilliant in execution but lacking in the clarity. I mean, i was awed, they seemed to know what they were talking about and they managed to convince me that PHB zoom was the best new thing although i hadn't really got what it was. It seemed to be a combination of SMS banking and a kind of credit card service.....forgive me but i am not going to lose you any further.

The guys had a looming disaster on the morning of the presentation. Nnamdi (apparently he is too loud and boisterous) was sent with Eddie to print and bind the material. Eddie was supposed to be the voice of reason in Nnamdi's craziness, this worked as they got everything done in time.It was interesting watching the two interact, they are as different as chalk and cheese, at one point, Nnamdi asked Eddie to help him knot his tie and one insider in his review wondered how Eddie managed to restrain himself from strangling the guy with his own tie, hilarious, hilarious!
The guys identified a large target market for their product (students) that would indeed earn the bank some good Naira. The liPHBenefit account (life benefit account) to my understanding is supposed to be a kind of student's account whereby the money saved by students can be later used to further their studies, start a business, whatever they choose. Anthony was saying something like for every one naira saved, the bank would give you one naira (not sure, i'll ask him whenever he gets out of the house, hopefully not soon, still need to hear him doing that naija accent)

The long and short of it is that the bank management didn't quite get what exactly the girls were trying to sell whereas they understood the guys' product better and saw its viability. In the end, the guys won the task, again! The atmosphere in the boardroom was mixed, the ladies were on the verge of tears and the guys were ecstatic, more so when they were told what their reward would be, an Afrobeat show with Femi Kuti himself, son to the legend Fela Kuti. The boys enjoyed their reward thoroughly, they partied away and even got to chat with Femi, when asked how many women he has, his answer was vague but i am sure we all got what he was trying to say, i mean, its understandable considering his sire.......

Back to the boardroom, the ladies seemed shocked that they had lost again and when asked why they failed, they admitted to playing it safe with the ideas. They decided to go with what was already in the market and developing it into a better product. Michelle said "there's hardly anything new in the market anymore" The CEO was quick to remind her that people bear ideas for this very reason. Michelle chose to bring back Nancy and Blessing into the boardroom, in her position as project manager, i think understand why she did this. Nancy blamed Michelle for being in her bed while the rest of the team slaved away. Nancy was critical, questioning their every move without contributing concrete ideas whereas Blessing, well, lets say, her contribution wasn't felt. When asked why this was, she had some crazy reasons saying that the leadership was ineffective, that there is a clique in the house and if you weren't part of that clique, your ideas were instantly shot down (how lame is that for an excuse?even Napoleon stood on a table when he thought his voice wasn't being heard)
The CEO said he is is tired of her complaints about the leadership and that if she survived then she would be the next project manager. In the end, he fired Michelle saying that as a leader you've got to take responsibility for the team. He also said there were too many products in the idea they presented and that they were bound to just confuse the customer instead of giving the customer one solid product. This reasoning is being questioned, a friend of mine says he thinks a basket of fruits would be more attractive to customers than just one fruit.....the jury is still out on that one. (Maybe he knows what he's talking about, I guess thats why he's CEO,right?)

In my honest opinion, there was nothing really brilliant about the guys' product only that it was more original than the ladies' product and i guess that's why they won. It was a question of whose idea was a little better than the other not whose idea was earth shatteringly brilliant.