The Apprentice 2011: Natasha Scribbins Fired by Lord Sugar

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The ApprenticeNatasha Scribbins has become the latest candidate to be fired by Lord Sugar and therefore missing out on a place in Sunday’s final.

In a challenge which saw the candidates set up and branded a new fast food restaurant, Natasha, Jim and Susan’s Team Venture failed to impress Lord Sugar and his group of industry experts with their Mexican themed outlet.

Team Logic on the other hand, consisting of Helen and Tom, made their own share of silly mistakes, with their ‘Best of British’ themed restaurant. The pair opted to reference famous British historical figures, but ended up naming their store after Italian born Christopher Columbus.

After tasting their food and listening to their branding pitches, Lord Sugar and the experts marked the teams out of 10 in four categories: brand identity, customer experience, food quality and long-term viability, the responses were collated and the results were as follows:

Team Logic averaged a mark of seven out of 10.
Team Venture received an average of just four out of 10.

Lord Sugar then praised Helen and Tom and revealed to them: “You’re in the final! You’ve done very well getting through to this stage. Go back to the house, have a good rest, and I’ll be in touch shortly.”

Turning to Venture however, the Lord Sugar told them: “I guess you must be sitting there wondering what your fate is now that those two are in the final. The good news is that two of you are going to be in the final, and the bad news is that one of you is going to be fired today,” before sending them out of the boardroom.

On their return, Lord Sugar took the team to task over their performance, and after listening to some pretty poor excuses, he delivered his final verdict, “It’s a very, very difficult decision I have to make now because you have come through 11 weeks of gruelling pressure… Jim, you have this kind of manner, some people might call it charisma, for getting people on your side and controlling the situation, which is a good trait sometimes in business but it also has its downfall.


 Susan, you don’t get on too well with people, that may be because you’re very determined and don’t take any prisoners. Anybody that I got into business with, I’ve got to be able to work with. Natasha, I can’t reconcile some of the things that have happened today… you started off like a house on fire but I have found you a little lacklustre in the last few weeks. Susan, there’s not many people that have got a good word to say for you… but you have achieved quite a bit in putting yourself through school and you’ve run a business. Susan… you’re in the final. Jim I like your spirit… you’re in the final. Natasha, You’re Fired!”

As Natasha is driven away in a taxi she said: “In this process, some of the characters will scream and shout and fight, and I’m not willing to lose my own dignity. I’ve walked out of this process with my head held high.”

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One thought on “The Apprentice 2011: Natasha Scribbins Fired by Lord Sugar”

  1. People often refer to mathematics, one of favourite and strongest subjects, as an art as well as a science and I can really understand and see what they mean by this; the number line is so complex and artistic in patterns that spring up and vast area of different topics that crop up in mathematics. You can also see how mathematics is what you make of it; there is no definite label on how maths should be done, throughout history many cultures have used maths in their daily lives probably right back thousands of years ago when people would evenly share food between a family (the theme of division is evident here). The ancient Egyptians used complex hieroglyphs for their fractions that still only a trained interpreter would be able to understand and make the correct calculations with. It is this that intrigues me the most about mathematics; how different cultures used mathematics in a variety of different ways and the history behind discovery’s and great advances in maths…..and the cultures and the new company being formed by Lord Sugar will need mathematics!…..and so Jim goes into the final with a rather sad minus to say the least for not knowing his 60 times table or worse still his 7 times table!

    This was a very tough challenge week but in my opinion both the ideas from the teams were poor. The fast food industry is a walk out pace industry where the product is already made in most respects and sometimes making a very simple product pays….even ready hot baguettes pay!

    Jim’s lack of business fundamentals was a disaster and any Director or Managing Partner would be horrified, just like I was; and Helen’s 23% margin….well that’s a different type of financial meltdown in view of the huge overheads of these business models. Nevertheless, Helen flew through because she had numbers and not because they were good numbers. This should give an indication of why I do not believe Helen, as good as she is, is not the one to win The Apprentice this year, and despite her ten wins so far.

    Natasha’s long overdue sacking at last happened; proving that the dynamics of this show also allows weaker candidates their longer stays but eventually they are weeded out too. Personally both Leon and Glenn were much better candidates than Natasha in this series; and whilst both would not feature in my last four, they were far better than Natasha.

    So again, Susan Ma is my choice this year and for all her competencies and superb attributes and those that I have mentioned before. So, good luck Susan again.

    Continuing best wishes,

    DINESH R MAKWANA (DREAMWORDS AND INORBITS)

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