Functionality and practicability

The opening sequence of episode 14 of The Apprentice Africa took place in a school playground and thus it was easy to guess that this week's task would involve children. Well, I hoped it would make this episode more interesting than the last one; children are always fun, adults...hmm, not so! The 5 remaining contestants met the CEO and his advisors in the playground of Abbey junior school for the delivery of the week's task. Mr. Shobanjo said the 5 of them should be proud of themselves for making it thus far in the competition and at this point they were at a critical stage where one little slip could bring you down. These words were surely to resound later when someone was given walking orders.

The task was to design, create and present 2 original uniform sets for the students of Abbey junior school. 1 set for the female and the other for the male pupils. Mr. Shobanjo asked the contestants to pay attention to style, practicability of the uniforms, the realities of the environment and the needs of their clients. He said their designs would be presented to the executives of Abbey junior school who would then judge both teams on the basis of originality, functionality and marketability. The team with the highest score would win the task.

The contestants were then ushered into one of the school's classrooms for a briefing by Ms. Odeleye, the school's administrator. In an effort to guide them, she asked them to bear in mind the texture, weather, durability of the fabrics because they were designing uniforms for little children between 3 and 10 years of age. She explained that although the children worked hard, they played hard and that their designs should consider the playground and be able to stand the test of time. She also informed them that the school's colours were actually yellow and green although it had never been reflected in their uniforms which were red and white. She therefore asked them to consider these two colours in their designs.

Eunice was project manager of Matrix Corp and Tunde was PM for Zulu Corp. How the two teams arrived at this, we have no clue but I am assuming rotation because it is the only explanation I can give myself as to why Tunde ended up as PM on this particular task. This was the beginning of Zulu corp.’s problems. Blessing was excited about this particular task as she loves working with children and it was easy to see her enthusiasm as she drew designs of uniforms on the blackboard. Deox was impressed with her creativity unlike Tunde, the PM whose ears were glued to the words of the consultant his team had been provided. Deox said Blessing is a very intelligent and creative person who unfortunately does not push forward her views and ideas. She had brilliant ideas for the uniforms but she chose to shut up when Tunde trashed them. She just withdrew into herself and resigned herself to doing what she was told. At this point, it was clear that if the team lost, Tunde was definitely going home.

At Matrix corp., things were running smoothly and Isaac and Eunice were working very well together. Eunice expressed great admiration for Isaac's passion. When he got excited about something, he did whatever it took to see it through. The last two members of Matrix corp. sat together, discussed and decided on everything together. They decided to come up with two uniform sets, one for the pupils from pre-school to Primary 2 and the other set for primary 3 to primary 6. At one point, they decided to have a pinafore and shirt for the girls in the lower section. Eunice came up with the idea of having the shirt inbuilt so as to have one piece. This idea was discussed and incorporated into the team's designs.

This was not the case at Zulu corp. Tunde placed Blessing and Deox in charge of purchasing shoes and socks for the models and preparing them and the venue for the fashion show. Tunde and his chosen sidekick, the uniform consultant went out to buy the material for the uniforms and later to the tailors. Blessing and Deox played their part perfectly as per Tunde's instructions.

On the day of the fashion show, Zulu corp. got to go first with Tunde presenting the models onto the runway and explaining the designs. Their fashion show was titled "A new me" No one appeared excited about this apart from Tunde, clearly this was his idea.
The Zulu uniforms were of checkered yellow and green shirts and blouses whereas the shorts, trousers and skirts were green in colour. For the lower primary section, they had a dress for the girls and a short sleeved shirt and shorts for the boys. For the upper section, they had a skirt and blouse for the girls and a long sleeved shirt and trousers for the boys. Their uniforms had three questionable features;
1. The checkered pattern
2. Long sleeved shirts.
3. The green satin strips on the shirts.

When they asked for questions from their audience, the first question was about the long sleeved shirts and Deox stepped in to answer as to why they chose to have long sleeved shirts for the boys in the upper section. He said that this was done so that the students of Abbey Junior School could stand out from the other children in the other schools in the area. Was this a classic example of shooting from the hip? Later in the boardroom, Deox said that they had decided to have long sleeves after speaking to the older students and realising that they wanted to wear long sleeves to look like their fathers and also because of the air conditioning in their classrooms. I must say, his second attempt at the question was a lot better than the first one. I was actually shaking my head in wonder along with the school's administrator after that first answer.

Matrix corp. presented their models with their designs after modeling lessons from Eunice, herself a former model. She noted that teaching the kids how to model required patience and understanding. Matrix's models were less enthusiastic than those of Zulu corp. on the catwalk but the focus was on the uniforms. Matrix corp. had decided to use white and green. For the lower section, they designed a green pinafore for the girls with an inbuilt white shirt and for the boys, a short sleeved white shirt and green shorts. For the upper section, they had a white shirt and green skirt for the girls and for the boys, a short sleeved white shirt and green trousers.

When questions were invited, the first one was about the fact that on the pinafore for the girls in the lower section, the zipper was at the front. Eunice explained that this would make it easier for the kids to dress themselves as opposed to if they had to reach back and try to zip from the back. She was also asked about the shorts for the boys in the lower section and whether they had an elastic band at the waist. She answered in the affirmative saying that this would make it easier for the little boys to get them on and off as opposed to having to manoeuver buttons or zippers.

In the boardroom, the school administrator informed them that even before they presented their designs, the school executives had had a discussion on what the focus of the uniform designs should be and the basis on which they would be judged. She said that they had unanimously agreed that overall emphasis would be on functionality, after all, the students were in school to learn. At this point, foreboding was visible on Tunde's face.

Ms. Odeleye congratulated both teams on a job well done. When she finally got round to announcing who had actually won the task, she said that Zulu's designs were nice, colourful and cheerful but on the basis of functionality, Matrix corp. won the task. According to her, the Matrix design was functional, simple and not distractive whereas the Zulu design was fashionable but lacking in functionality. The results basing on the fabric, comfort, design and finishing were Matrix 53 points and Zulu corp. 42 points.
Matrix corp.’s reward was a celebrity photo shoot at Fruition which greatly excited Eunice and Isaac. On the Zulu side of the boardroom, Blessing was on the verge of tears as is always the case whenever her team loses. Tunde was unsettled and kept shaking his head in disbelief. Deox was very calm, it was like he knew exactly what was going to happen.

When it came to who should be fired, Deox asked Tunde to do the "honorable" thing and resign instead of wasting the CEO's time. Tunde took great offense at this and went on to defend his skills as a leader citing his various "leadership achievements" church inclusive which had Deox rolling his eyes and the CEO completely unimpressed. Every second thing he said was, "the lady said this, the lady said that..." in reference to the advice he received from the uniform consultant. This was his coup de grace.
It's like Tunde knew that his demise from the competition was imminent because he did not try to pin anyone down for their loss but went on a futile attempt to convince the CEO to keep him on. The more he talked, the more everyone was convinced that he really did not have a chance as the winner of the Apprentice Africa. I am sure he would have gone on talking if the CEO had not stopped him to deliver his final verdict.

The CEO went on to tell Tunde that most times he is congratulated for successes that he can only attribute to the members of his team. He said that no leader relied solely on the advice of outsiders as opposed to his own team. He reminded him that it was supposed to be a team effort and that he had wanted to see their creativity not that of the uniform consultant. He said the uniforms they designed could be worn by the kids to parties not to school. Inevitably, Tunde was fired.

I don't understand how Tunde could get it so wrong after the words practicability and functionality were repeated so many times in so many different forms. He managed to come up with haute couture uniforms for Nigerian primary school kids! Perhaps he and his uniform consultant can set up a haute couture shop for uniquely designed children's clothes, they could make a killing and who knows, this way, he could eventually make the 250,000 US dollars a year that he flushed down the toilet......I truly doubt it.