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.....