JOBO, JOHN MATTHEW B.

PROJECI – K31
SUBMITTED TO: DR. HARVEY ONG
Case Study 2: Junior Apprentice
SUMMARY
From around 28,000 aspiring applicants over the country, 10 candidates were chosen to
take part in Lord Sugar’s challenge based on their burning ambitions to help and revitalize the
society in the future. These candidates are between 16-17 years old and will be competing for the
prize worth 25,000 pounds to help them in starting their business. While they are still considered
young, their skills and passion were promising to make it to the list where one will be chosen as
the first Junior Apprentice of Lord Sugar.

These young entrepreneurs are promising as some of them are running their own
companies while others are helping in their family businesses. These 10 students underwent a 6-
week business schooling in which they were given a series of business tasks or challenges which
could determine their fate of whether they will stay or leave. In the first boardroom, Lord Sugar
explained the significance of the “killer instinct” that is needed in the business world. They were
also given the chance to get to know each other and live in a luxurious house in London. With
that, they were asked to come up with a name and the project manager who will lead them.

For the boys with group name “Instinct”, Jordan De Courcy, the young CEO, was the
project manager while the girls with the group name “Revolution” took time to finally have a
project manager in the person of Hibah Ansary. In the first task, they were asked to sell 500
pounds worth of cheese with 23 varieties and should sell all of them and gain a profit at the end
of the day. These teens were monitored by Lord Sugar’s aides Nick Hewer and Karren Brady.

As the two teams started to sell, problems and chaos arise when it comes to team
members, selling the cheese, and bargaining with business owners. In the end, the girls were able
to successfully gain a profit of 143.88 pounds while the boys failed with a net loss of 210
pounds. The Revolution team got a reward of having a treat in a restaurant while the boys stayed
and discussed their shortcomings with Lord Sugar and his aides. In the end, it was the youngest
CEO who was fired because of failing to be a good project manager for the task. The other 9
teens would battle it out in the succeeding tasks to determine the first ever Junior Apprentice.
JOBO, JOHN MATTHEW B.
PROJECI – K31
SUBMITTED TO: DR. HARVEY ONG
CHARACTERISTICS AND TRAITS OF THE PROJECT MANAGERS (AS TEAM)
As a project team, we obviously saw that the Revolution team managed to sell more
compared to the boys who were in chaos (especially when it was already lunch time and time
was wasted for computing and preparing and letting the customers pass by). Despite some
problems when it comes to authority (Zoe overpowering Hibah), the team was able to
successfully carry out the essential skills in project management: (1)They were able to
successfully negotiate with the restaurant owners; (2) they were able to persuade the customers
passing by in the Garden Market that their cheese is worth buying for (thanks to Zoe’s charm);
and (3) they were able to think rationally since they taught that cheese was also better with wine
and successfully sold them to the restaurants.
For the boys, we were able to see the participatory management style in planning the
location; however, things went wrong as so much time was wasted in pricing the cheese and
preparing things. Some members are not that submissive or participative and not following the
instructions of the project leader. The location can be considered as not the best place to sell the
cheese since after 1pm, no more customers were passing by, and the wind was hindering them.
Hence, as a team, they already failed in the first place of organizing things (esp. considering the
4Ps—product, price, place, and promotion) and eventually incurring a net loss due to their failure
of accurately monitoring their sales.

CHARACTERISTICS AND TRAITS OF EACH CONTESTANT

For the team Revolution, we saw that the project manager Hibah Ansary was kind of
reluctant or hesitant as a project manager. She was lacking in terms of persuasion which
somehow affects her credibility as a team leader. Zoe on the other hand, seemed to overpower
the team leader with her credibility in sales and persuasion. Nevertheless, they were able to sell
many cheeses with a big help from her persuasion skills. Moreover, Emma, with her “never give
up” attitude was also a key in carrying out the tasks completely. Similarly, Kirsty and Hannah
were also determined to be successful which is why they played big roles of being “part of the
solution” rather than being “part of the problem.” Hence, even though the team seemed to be
reluctant at first, individually, their persuasion skills, managing the stall, and monitoring their
sales led them to successfully incur a net income.
JOBO, JOHN MATTHEW B.
PROJECI – K31
SUBMITTED TO: DR. HARVEY ONG
Meanwhile, for the team Instinct, we saw that Jordan, as a young CEO, is promising
since he was clearly assigning tasks to his members and established his credibility of having the
capability to lead the team with his past experiences. Unfortunately, he failed to monitor the
specific details especially in sales and controlling the behavior of his team members. Moreover,
Tim seemed to be a brilliant person with his ideas but lacked the credibility of being a leader. He
may have promising skills, but he made wrong decisions in selling the cheese. Similarly, Rhys
also lacked the credibility to lead since he was not that effective listener and sometimes blame
the project leader instead of doing his task properly. Arjun on the other hand, with his
exceptional skills in math, should have been an advantage of accurately monitoring their sales.
With his skills, he should have made essential contribution in terms of ‘conflict resolution’ and
should participate more on how to efficiently carry out the tasks. Last, Adam seemed to be
participative, but sometimes lack sensitivity in terms of interpersonal misunderstanding between
team members. Hence, the team are individually brilliant in their own ways, but those skills were
not enough for them to work as a team effectively and efficiently.

REACTION
First and foremost, I absolutely do not agree with Jordan being fired first. He may seem
to be overconfident by saying that he will win the competition, but I saw his burning passion as
an entrepreneurs compared to the others who seemed to be reluctant. I love that he established
his credibility and presence for taking the role of the project leader and that he is more willing to
win it all compared with others. I also hate that they are putting the blames to Jordan failing to be
a project leader since I saw that some team members do not want to obey Jordan as he is a big
threat in the competition. Nevertheless, I still believe that even in a short period of time, Jordan
would be able to develop his communication skills to effectively persuade and control his
members to carry out the tasks.
Second, this competition is composed of diverse people, and it makes sense since being a
project manager must have the skill to work with different kinds of people. It is really a
challenging paradox for the teens since they are working as a team, yet they are also competitors.
At the end of the day, whether they win or not the competition, working with different people
would enhance one’s interpersonal skills and establish a harmonious relationship with other
people in their company.
JOBO, JOHN MATTHEW B.
PROJECI – K31
SUBMITTED TO: DR. HARVEY ONG
Finally, one thing that I learned in the episode is that, even if you are fired, the fire should
never extinguish and should continue burning. Many entrepreneurs experience so many failures
before eventually achieving the word ‘success.’ Personally, failures are already part of life, what
we should focus on is the learnings or new knowledge we obtain from these experiences. In the
battle among competitors, there are winners and there are losers. Nevertheless, in project
management, to be able to manage the world to be a better place, one must manage first the
smaller picture and effectively lead each project to become successful in the future.