Jinxed??????

What is happening at Matrix corp. cannot be described as a jinx any more, it is something else. I once said that Matrix Corp would be wiped out one by one till they were all gone if the show's producers did not do something. They tried and at least Eunice and Kathleen will have a longer life span on the show as members of Zulu corp. Not so Oscar and Eddie who were shifted from Zulu to Matrix, this signaled their demise. Last week, Oscar concluded that Matrix was jinxed and it’s really hard to argue with that at the moment.

This week, the spotlight was on Celtel. The CEO called Isaac on his Celtel blackberry phone and asked him to assemble everyone for a tele-conference. The week's task was a marketing task for Celtel Nigeria. Celtel Nigeria wanted to market their Celtel red phone or the Jembi phone which allows the caller to pay for only what they use. The task was two fold in nature. The first part involved each of the teams working with a Jembi phone operator and convincing people on the streets to make a phone call using the phone. Whichever team generated the most money in this task won. This part of the task was judged out of 60%. The second part of the task was to come up with a marketing strategy for the Jembi phone in Nigeria and make a presentation to Celtel Nigeria executives. This would be judged out of 40%.

Zulu corp. decided to have Isaac as their project manager, something Eunice was very happy with citing that this was his second time as PM and that he was a well rounded leader hence his team mates’ trust in his ability to lead them to victory. Matrix corp. chose Eddie as he was the only member of the team never to have been project manager.
Matrix corp. was down to four members whereas Zulu had a two man or as I would rather say, a two woman advantage.

Both teams were briefed by Celtel officials and given a chance to ask questions. Isaac requested for any market research that the company had and also categorically requested that Matrix corp. NOT be given the same research unless they asked for it. He said the same thing when he requested for promotional materials such as T-shirts, caps and the like. Eddie later asked for the same in their session with the Celtel officials. This highlights how tough the competition is and how determined everyone is to win the task. We would later see how far Eddie was willing to go to win the task.

Zulu corp.’s strategy on the streets was to use emotional appeal to lure customers to make calls. For instance they would ask you to call your mother just to tell her you loved her. This meant that they had to interact with the customers and Kathleen got a chance to meet and chat with two Cameroonian ladies. Soon, they had people lining up at the little Celtel kiosk and because there was only one phone, there was a long waiting period and some people decided to leave hence drastic measures to keep them there.

As if this was not enough of a set back, there was a power cut in the area where Zulu corp. was operating and the battery of the Jembi phone. The team had to work fast to find a generator and recharge the phone’s battery enough for customers to be able to make calls. This lost them some more customers.

At Matrix Corp, Eddie’s personality was once again shining through as he managed to convince people to come to their stall and make calls. Blessing and Nancy also had the same task whereas Regina's was to take care of customers at the stall. Eddie went a bit far in his bid to bring people to their stall. He offered people Celtel merchandise if they made calls on the Jembi phone to their friends and loved ones. Calling abroad got you more merchandise and so people were actually calling so as to win T-shirts, caps, etc

Phase one of the task over, it was time for the boardroom. Zulu Corp presented to the Celtel executives first. Their strategy focused on billing mechanism which allows customers to pay for only what they ask for or what they use. They also had time lines for projected growth. Their presentation was very organised.

Matrix corp. on the other hand focused on the social nature and giving back to the society. They proposed Celtel creating jobs for the poor and disabled in Nigeria. Eddie tried to apply his personality to wow the Celtel team but they were focused on what was on the projector screen and the figures they showed. Matrix corp. has computed projected growth in figures amounting to over 2.6 billion Naira by 2011. Michael Folly of Celtel questioned how they had arrived at this and Nancy who had done the computations was speechless.

In the boardroom, the CEO started off with his usual lessons. He then went on to admonish the Matrix team for over fraternizing with customers saying that the competition wasn't about making friends with the customers but about business. Isaac in his team's defence said that they had to talk to the people and create emotional appeal to make them come and make calls at their stall.

The CEO then went on to criticise Matrix corp. for the use of Celtel merchandise to "bribe" customers into coming to their stall. This, he said was unacceptable and completely against the rules he had set for the task and Celtel company policy. Eddie was quick to defend his team saying that he had read the dossier and that wasn't in it. The CEO would have none of it so he went on to invite the Celtel executives to give their verdict of who had won the task.

Micheal Folly said that they had not seen a lot of creativity in the two presentations but he applauded Zulu's presentation as well as their handling of the Q & A session, especially Deox. The verdict on their part was that Zulu corp. had won the task based on the fact that they had a good understanding of the business model of the product and their presentation too.

Matrix had brought in the most revenue from their stall but the way they earned the revenue was against the rules. On top of that, their financial projections were horribly wrong. The Celtel team had done a check and discovered that they had over shot by 1000% hence questions were raised about the validity and credibility of the rest of their presentation.

Zulu Corp had survived the boardroom once again!!! Their reward was dinner at the Yellow Chili restaurant with a surprise guest.
Back in the boardroom, Eddie cited the fact that they were outnumbered as the reason why they had lost the task. The CEO said they had concentrated on the first part of the task and neglected the presentation and as such they had presented a completely unprofessional marketing strategy. They had earned 60 out of 60% in the first part of task but they neglected the second part and so Zulu had won.

When asked who was responsible for the financial projection disaster, Eddie said it was Nancy but he was taking responsibility because as PM he should have double checked before the presentation. When he was asked who he was bringing back to the boardroom, he decided to spare Nancy saying that she had become a veteran of the boardroom and he said he was asking Blessing and Regina to "escort" him. Ideally, he had just sacrificed himself for Nancy because there was no way she was surviving had she reappeared in the boardroom. Plus the CEO wasn't about to fire either Blessing or Regina.

So back in the boardroom, it was time for Eddie's funeral procession. Everyone understood that Eddie had decided to sacrifice himself and so it was a real funeral as the girls and Eddie cried as the CEO gave his final lesson to a man many had bet would be the first Apprentice Africa. It was a really somber farewell, the look on the face of Mr. Shobanjo and on those of his advisers was really sad and my heart broke too.
Fare thee well my brother, the Matrix jinx got you!!!!

Episode 8 - The African Spirit

Episode 8 starts off with Eunice having lunch with Deox and then the phone rings. Eunice picks up and is told that the two teams should meet the CEO and his advisers at Troyka Holdings, one of Mr. Shobanjo's companies.
When they arrive, the board room table is filled with art supplies. Mr Shobanjo discusses the importance of art and then runs them through the week's task which he says incorporates creativity, organisational abilities and business acumen. The task is to create original art pieces depicting the African spirit. They are then to exhibit their art pieces at the Nimbus underground art gallery where a team of art buyers will grade them and the team with the highest score wins.

This task was really interesting because all the contestants were completely out of their depth. None of them had any real experience with art (except for Isaac who has just a little) and Regina later confessed that the last time shed had drawn anything was back in kindergarten. The CEO in an effort to make things a little easier for everyone sent the contestants a guide by the name of Chike, an artist himself and the proprietor of Bogibiri House and Nimbus gallery where the two teams would be exhibiting their finished work. He also brought with him two friends and fellow artists, one for each team.

Regina volunteers to be project manager of team Matrix on the basis that she was the only remember of that team that had not taken on that duty. Nancy wasn't too happy with this saying that she had wanted to be project manager again so as to redeem herself for her team's loss when she was the leader. For Zulu Corp, Deox stepped up and he said that he believed that this was the hardest task they have ever been given and therefore as PM, his only strategy to win and not end up in the boardroom.

Both PMs proceed to assign duties and the soft spoken Regina managed to get her team to work in sync, something which has never really happened. Eddie noted that she was a very wonderful leader as she continuously appreciated every one's efforts and also offered constructive criticism in nice but firm way.
The two teams headed to Nimbus to look around the gallery and seek inspiration and ideas from the exhibited art work as well as to plan their own exhibitions. Blessing really enjoyed the tour saying that she was really amazed and that it was an eye opening experience. She also expressed renewed respect for artists. Deox assigned the task of organising the exhibition venue to the two ladies, Eunice and Kathleen and they took their duties to heart.

At Matrix corp, Nancy and Oscar were given the job of creating art paintings whereas Blessing was entrusted with the organisation and Eddie was appointed creative director. At Zulu corp, Tunde's creativity was impressive. He and Eunice went out together in search of a calabash and sand which he later used the sand to come up with a wonderful collage depicting Africa and the fact that are one people in spite of the diversity in colour, race, cultures, etc

Exhibition time and there was a bit of an argument between Matrix and Zulu about exhibition space. Apparently, Zulu had booked the lounge and when they arrived, Matrix had started setting up there but the dispute was quickly resolved.
Zulu wore uniform attire, black suits for the guys, no ties but a scarf around the neck whereas the ladies wore black strapless dresses with the same scarf around the neck. Matrix corp wore different clothes but made of African fabrics or with African designs.

Zulu corp came up with the brilliant idea of having an auction and Kathleen did a brilliant job auctioning their works most notably Tunde's collage which brought in a large percentage of their revenue. Tunde noted that the CEO's dossier on the task also mentioned business besides just creativity and that they had decided to pay attention to this because art is subjective and so they had no control over that.

On seeing how well Zulu was doing with the auction, Eddie quickly decided to do n=one too and lured the art buyers to the Matrix corp section after Kathleen was done with them. H e went on to tell the buyers that their room was air conditioned before he quickly got down to business. Perhaps because it was haphazard and unplanned, Eddie seemed anxious to sell and just went through it all without bringing in that much revenue.

In the boardroom, it was Mr Shobanjo and Chike on the other end of the table. Asked about how the task went, Regina noted that her team had for the first time since the beginning of the competition, worked as one and she compared it to a football team.
Deox said that the task had brought out hidden talents in each of them. He requested that their earnings from the exhibition be used to buy books for the children of Ikaare island where they had their first reward as Zulu Corp. He said that while they were there they had befriended the children (remember them playing soccer together?) and that as they were leaving, he had been approached by a little boy called Victor who requested books especially mathematics. The CEO was really impressed and everyone's hearts were warmed by this gesture. Deox appears aloof and introverted so it was nice to see him express such strong emotion.


The CEO gave a lesson on the importance creativity and the need to rise up to any challenge. He then asked Chike for his impression. Chike said that he was greatly impressed by the unexpected creativity in each of them and it was pointed out that he was wearing a T-shirt which was one of their creations, Blessing was very pleased as it was her handiwork. Chike went on to praise Regina's job as the team leader and also specially noted Eddie's efforts during the exhibition. He also applauded Zulu corp's idea of having at auction at the exhibition.

Final results; Zulu corp earned 68,000 naira whereas Matrix Corp earned only 50,000 naira and the verdict of the art buyers was that Zulu Corp was the winner. The members of Matrix were crestfallen whereas Zulu corp rejoiced and Deox breathed a sigh of relief.
The CEO noted that when judged on the basis of creativity, it was a close call, the results were Zulu 293, Matrix 292. However, he had told them that he would be judging them on the business side. So on this front, Zulu had won fair and square. Their reward was a trip to New Metro where they would watch movies, shop, have coffee and generally enjoy themselves.

Back in the boardroom, Regina was surprised that they had lost the task while Blessing was in tears. When asked by the CEO her take on the task, she said that for the first time she had worked under an effective leader and the difference between success and failure was the element of passion with which her team had done the task.

The CEO put Eddie to task to explain how they had failed and yet their team had a better location within the gallery. Eddie was quick to offer himself to be brought back into the boardroom saying that he felt responsible because he could have gone for higher prices during the auction. The CEO told him that if you do not dare, you do not achieve and that if you don't dream, you can't actualize. He said that the onus was on them to ask for prices that they felt reflected the value of their original work. Regina reiterated that for them it wasn't about the money but about the message and that it was from the heart......the CEO was quick to set her straight.

Anyway, Regina decided to bring Oscar and Nancy back into the boardroom to the CEO's disgust. They were the same two who had been sitting before him the week before. Fingers were pointed at Oscar because he stood at the entrance and did not apply himself to other duties when the team was short staffed. He on the other hand blamed Nancy for spending too much time with particular clients. When asked to defend himself, he only managed to put forth a feeble defense saying he had generated the largest number of art pieces in the group. This was not enough for the CEO and it did not help that earlier Mimi and Paul said they had not been impressed by him and that they weren't sure what he brought to the team.
This together with Regina's input signalled the end of Oscar's stay on the Apprentice Africa. So it was good bye for Oscar and a really stern warning for Nancy. The CEO said she cannot be three times lucky.....

Today, I weep.

Today, I weep.
My heart bleeds,
for the mother whose child has been snatched,
by death's cruel hands.

For the mother,
who will never see her little angel's smile again.....

For all those great women to be.......
whose flames were so brutally extinguished
before they had a chance to shine......

I weep for a nation,
robbed of a future generation.

Today, I weep,
for every life lost in the Budo junior school fire,
May their souls rest in eternal peace.

Tragic or what?

Is there an English word to describe a person who fails to learn from other people's mistakes and goes on to make the very same mistakes? You would think by now every contestant in the Apprentice Africa would know that if you volunteer to be project manager there are things that you should do and should not do.
I believe the CEO gives lessons on leadership in every episode but apparently, these fall on deaf ears as the trend of firing project managers seems to grow with every episode. At this rate, the CEO is going to have to force someone to be PM as I am sure everyone is reluctant to put their necks on the chopping block because it is almost a certainty that if the team loses, the PM is going home. This has brought on a bit of criticism of the CEO because surely you can fire someone else for instance in this case, the problem was clearly Nancy and she was the reason that Matrix corp. lost. Maybe, Mimi, the CEO's advisor didn't inform him of what really happened.
Nancy's actions or lack thereof led her into a fit of tears and Matrix corp. into fervent prayer. The desperation on the team was supposed to be depressing but I found it hilarious. The printers had failed to deliver on time and were not picking up her calls. She actually shed tears and then led the team in prayer!
Zulu corp. on the other hand was giving us all the laughs with Nnamdi at his usual best, bargaining at an open air market and comforting a little girl who was bawling her eyes out.
He asked her to stop crying because he didn't have money to pay her bride price o! In pidgin English, it was so funny. Meanwhile, Kathleen was showing us her skills in pidgin English and bargaining. These two together presented such a formidable force that those market people did not stand a chance.

Perhaps, am getting ahead of myself, lets go through the story properly.
This episode was different from the rest in that as opposed to a phone call that usually signals the beginning of the new episode and a new task, the security guard delivered a package to the house which Oscar received.
It was a letter from Mr. Shobanjo together with a DVD recording of his instructions for their next task. He started off by apologising for not being able to be there in person and launched into the assignment of the week. The contestants are given a quick lesson on the importance of branding and then asked to come up with a new brand identity for an undisclosed product.

The two teams were asked to pick PMs then and there and Nnamdi was chosen for Zulu corp. and Bekeme for Matrix corp. Then, in what was supposed to be an interesting twist, the CEO asked each PM to select one person and whoever she or he picked would then go to the opposing team. The core rule was that there was to be at least two men and two women on each team. This exercise went on and at the end of it all, Zulu corp. looked the same to me, the only difference was that Oscar and Eddie were now part of Matrix corp. while Zulu corp. had Deox, Nnamdi, Isaac, Tunde, Kathleen and Eunice.

Eunice quickly integrated into the Zulu team and we could all see that she loved it there. It’s easy to understand why and she clearly stated that at Zulu corp. decisions and directions were reached a lot faster than at Matrix corp. where a drawn out argument was compulsory before anything was done. She was clearly relieved and rightly so.

Eddie on the other hand was at wits end at Matrix corp. He went on to say that he now understood why Matrix had only been successful twice. He was close to pulling out his hair, fortunately, he doesn't have any. Oscar wasn't enjoying it either and Blessing was quick to note that the guys were being frustrated by Nancy and her often unclear trend of thought, argumentative and bossy attitude which often resulted in the team's inability to move forward on even the smallest of details.
The guys were so aggravated that Bekeme had to call a meeting where they were able to express their views. Nancy was quick to defend herself and promised to change but alas, talk is cheap, as they say. Bekeme did not put her foot down and draw the line for Nancy and this can be interpreted as a misguided expression of the camaraderie the two have.
Nancy and Bekeme appear to be close friends; the two have always got along like the proverbial house on fire. For instance, remember the fight that Blessing had with Bekeme when she was PM, Nancy was her back up......

Back to the task, the teams were asked to brand peanuts! or what we in Africa like to call groundnuts. Zulu corp. acted fast and was able to make quick decisions on direction, allocation of duties and such. Matrix on the other hand went on and on as usual, arguing or should we be diplomatic and call that debating?
Matrix corp. came up with the unoriginal brand name "nutty nuts" while Zulu corp. came up with" Zizi nuts" Each team then headed to a different studio to do the production of the product jingles. Zulu then went on to execute their brilliant idea of creating a mascot for their product and off they went to the market where Kathleen amused us with her bargaining and Nnamdi stole our hearts with his sweetness to the little girl.

Exhibition time and the Zulu corp. stall was more attractive with their mascot dancing about to the jingle they had recorded. At the Matrix stall, Eddie cleverly responded to the query about the absence of a mascot by saying that it was already incorporated in the product packaging. Makes me wonder, does the man have an answer for everything? Its quite impressive though, shows his ability to think on his feet. The rest of his team was just standing there.
After a brief classroom session with the CEO, it was revealed that Zulu corp. won the task and so they received their reward which was a stage drama presentation and quality time with the actors.

Mr. Shobanjo then went on to express his disappointment in the matrix team and the fact that there were before him for the fifth time. He said they were giving him an impression that women are weak yet he believes that in the real world, they are strong, hardworking and most often think better than their male counterparts.
Bekeme was quick to reiterate that she was surprised that they had lost the task and that her team had a strong brand. The CEO went ahead to tear apart the team's output, telling them that using a descriptor as their brand name was terrible, imagine if Omo was called "washy wash?" He also criticised the fonts and the colour combination of green and yellow that Matrix corp. had used.

At the end of it all, Bekeme chose to bring Nancy and Oscar back into the boardroom where upon everyone started passing the blame. Bekeme said Nancy should be fired because she had assured her that she knew what she was doing. Oscar was quick to defend himself saying that he had told the PM that the team was being derailed by Nancy and no action was taken.
Nancy made a feeble attempt to defend herself which did not suffice. The CEO went on to pass his verdict saying that as a leader you have the final say and no matter how much you have to accommodate advice from your team, you cannot justify a bad decision basing on advice you got from others. For that reason, he fired Bekeme.

On one hand, I think he was right to fire Bekeme as she showed weakness in her leadership and on the other hand, I think he should have fired Nancy. She has had it coming for a long time and is bound to continue being a non performing asset or derailing factor to whatever team she is on.
But then again, he knows what he's doing; he's the big boss, right?

Day dreams

Due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances, the writer of this blog was unable to write for the last couple of weeks......blah blah blah
I wish i could come up with a really interesting reason for my absence like i was sequestered on a remote beach off the coast of Zanzibar, away from civilisation, no cell phones, no Internet......ha, this is what my daydreams are made of. Anyway, one can dream, right?
I mean if i was one of the contestants on the Apprentice Africa, I'd have a 1 in 18 chance of earning 200,000 dollars and i would actually have a shot at turning my day dreams into some semblance of reality. Someone please remind me to audition if ever there is another Apprentice Africa.

Its really easy to sit here and criticize the contestants' efforts and say you could have done this and that better but you really never know, do you? Its one thing to be confident in one's own self as i am sure everyone of the 18 was going into this competition but the reality is another thing altogether. Probably why they are no longer 18 and the number keeps dwindling every week to the point that an elimination/survival strategy has come into play especially in the Zulu corp.

The twists and turns in this competition could leave one a little confused if you don't watch carefully. This week, Bank PHB officials were so critical of Zulu's newspaper insert to the point that i thought someone was going to get fired there and then only for Zulu Corp to emerge as the winners of the task in the boardroom. This is actually not the first time something like this has happened but i guess they are entitled to change their minds or is it a case of the whole TAA team sitting down and deciding not who was the best, but which of the two groups did worse than the other.

In every boardroom session of the six weeks that the competition has been running, all the project managers have come close to being fired and in fact four of the six people fired so far were project managers. This whole business of someone stepping up to be PM just for the sake of it is quite ridiculous. I think one should assess the task given and decide whether you can lead your team to excel in that particular area..

In week 2, it was Michelle whose team Matrix failed to come up with a new, innovative, viable financial product for Bank PHB although she herself is a banker, so out she went. Her argument was that there is hardly anything new in the market so she decided to take already existing products, merge them, package them differently........

In week 3, Anthony's team failed to come up with a "combo" for chicken inn and to manage one of their fast food outlets for a day, well, some hours. As leaders come, Anthony is just not one. He wasn't where he needed to be and his argument later in the boardroom was that he assigned everyone tasks and he just expected them to deliver.

In week 4, Zulu corp picking Omar as their project manager was merely an elimination strategy as they knew he would suck as a leader and in the boardroom, they'd just kill him. Fortunately for them, this worked our perfectly as in a weird twist of events, team leaders were switched and Omar ended up at Matrix corp and Kathleen at Zulu.

Omar did not think too highly of his teammates at Matrix as he believed losing was in their DNA, etc, his words, not mine.I could say a lot about that but i won't make this personal, i will not let the feminist in me tear out his eyes though i want to. So Omar took on his role as a leader like an autocratic husband assigning duties to his various wives according to their strengths. It was quite hilarious, he actually convened a meeting and asked them each to tell him what her strength was.

Did i mention that the task was to decorate a hotel room to the standards fit for an international businessman like the CEO, an area where you would think that the ladies would excel but then again, its not always a certainity. At the end of the day, Matrix corp ended up with a very homely room in line with their theme of home away from home whereas Zulu corp had a businessman's room complete with a laptop.

Omar was later criticised by the CEO in the boardroom for not bringing a "manly" feel to the room and for not being an involved leader. He "supervised" and of all the people he could choose to take to the boardroom, he chose to take Bekeme and Eunice! two women with two very strong characters, he really didn't stand a chance and it was a foregone conclusion that he was going to get fired although he was strategizing to have Bekeme fired as she stood up to him, very vocally, i might add.

In week 5, Akatu got fired and i felt that it was just a case of somebody had to go and unfortunately it had to be him. I believe there was a lot more to him than he showed, perhaps it was just his strategy gone wrong in that he was biding his time before he gave us the best of himself. On the other hand, in whatever you do, you must always give your best, right? He had previously been criticized by Deox and Eddie for being flamboyant but with no actual results, more of a talker than a doer.

In week 6, Matrix lost and Joyce their PM ended up performing an act of self sacrifice. First of all, she picked the wrong people to take back into the boardroom, Eunice had come up with a solid concept and Regina, well, she is the nice little quiet sweetheart and she had actually worked hard on the task. She could have picked others on the team who had not had that much input. That said, she could not lay the blame on any of the two people she picked and so she felt like she had to shoulder it herself and on top of that, she was being "nice."

Now the debate is raging on whether this whole "integrity" thing is a Kenyan thing as Joyce seemed to echo Anthony in the boardroom saying she took responsibility for their loss. I don't agree, its completely a personal thing otherwise, this chaos with Kibaki and Odinga wouldn't be, would it now?