New Ladder To Success

The remaining eight contestants met with Donald Trump outside of the boardroom.  Those who accompanied Trump were Dennis Ratner, CEO/Founder/Hair Stylist of Hair Cuttery, Carolyn Kepcher and Bill Rancic.  Dennis has been a hair stylist for 32 years and he has 1000 salons on the East Coast, and in the United Kingdom.  Trump commented the hair business is a $150 billion dollar industry.

TEAM SYNERGY:  Allie, Sean, Tammy (project manager), Pepi, Andrea, Roxanne, Brent, and Stacy
TEAM GOLD RUSH:  Michael (previous from Synergy), Tarek, Dan, Bryce, Charmaine (project manager), Leslie, Theresa, Lee,  Summer and Lenny

 THE ASSIGNMENT:  Each team was to throw a grand opening event at one of the brand new Hair Cuttery salons.  The team made the most money would be this task's winner.  

THE WINNING TEAM:   Synergy

FIRED CANDIDATE:   Charmaine and Tarek

LESSON LEARNED:

1) Don't let numbers intimidate you 

Charmaine volunteered to be the project manager for this task. She thought her three male counterparts wouldn’t know hair salon business as well as her. During the brainstorming session, Tarek pressed Charmaine to come up with a theme for their grand opening. As much as she didn’t believe it was needed, she retracted and expressed she just wanted everyone on the team to be happy.

The dialogue between Charmaine and Tarek went as follow:

Tarak: Are you not comfortable to having a theme?
Charmine: We can be on different sides all day. I am not leading by consensus. But if you feel so strongly about wanting a theme, then I am leading consensus. It’s three against one.
It was clear that Charmaine felt she had to yield to her male teammates because she was the only female on the team. Yes, numbers can be a scary thing, but a real leader knows how to turn the figure into an advantage instead of a disadvantage.

2) Know your priorities

To tackle this task, Charmaine decided getting the salon ready for the customers' arrival was a top priority. She focused on unpacking salon products and stocking display shelves. She insisted the products must be organized in a certain manner, so many precious hours were spent and all the resource was tied up for this menial task.

Lee and Tarek became frustrated that Charmaine was more concerned about stocking shelves than marketing the salon to prospective customers. The morning of the grand opening, Tarek and Lee went around placing flyers on the windshields of parked cars in the nearby area, while Charmaine and Michael remained in the store to recruit customers. Meanwhile, Synergy took on a different strategy. While Roxanne and Allie worked on getting the salon ready, Sean and Tammy spent the entire day handing out flyers and special discount promoting the grand opening to prospective customers.

The final result – Synergy trounced the competition, delivering $1,005.47 in sales-- including $343 in hair products-- versus sales of just $700 for Gold Rush. Synergy won.

3) Don’t lose the sight of your goal 

While everyone on Synergy’s side was busying marketing the salon and selling hair products on the day of the grand opening, Charmaine, Project Manager of Gold Rush, decided to fill the empty salon by getting her own hair done. When Bill Rancic, Trump’s observer, came t

o inspect the progress, he was greeted by an unproductive and mismanaged sight.

Later in the boardroom, Charmaine explained she wanted to experience the hair process so she could be a better salesperson. Perhaps her intention was good, but she missed reaching the most important goal – winning.

4)  A good leader can lead people; a great leader can also be led.

Trump commented a good leader knows how to lead, but a great leader knows how to follow, at least to certain extent. Previously, Andrea was fired for lack of ability to work with others.  Tarek's condescending attitude led him to his demise as well.  Trump fired Tarek as soon as he fired Charmaine.

Trump's Lesson of the Week: "Watch Your Back"

Trump viewed everybody as wanting his job. Everybody is ultimately his competition. He said "...when you go through period where people come at you. Go after them. Fight them hard and win. I wouldn’t say it is a great way to live a life. But you have the advantage having that top spot. Don’t let anyone take that top spot from you. Stay focus!"

Related links:   The Apprentice on NBC, The Apprentice on SirLinksalot.net, The Apprentice Rules, and Hair Cuttery