Posted on 01/19/2005 8:46:41 PM PST by ClintonBeGone
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This Season: Book Smarts versus Street Smarts
I read on an Apprnetice blog that one of the 2 finalists had trouble locating an American flag. I would guess that would be Tana. That could be the mistake that Donald is referring to. Remember they edit too to make it look closer than it is. I still think/hope it's Tana in the end.
If I were Trump, I'd give an edge to Kendra because her background is in real estate and she has excellent marketing skills and instincts. She does great at just taking over and doing a project herself but I haven't really seen her manage other people successfully. I'd hire her but I wouldn't put her in a position where she wasn't "boss" over a group larger than two.
Erin said this week that Kendra's most important job was handling her three underlings. Wrong! It is impressing Best Buy, Sony and the people putting on the event. The three underlings are disposable to an extent.
Tana, despite being a "seller", does show better skills at managing others (being a mother probably helps). I was impressed when she told her three stooges that they were free to make decisions without her and that she would stnad by them - recognizing the task is going to need everyone running full tilt to make the task a success. It's a bit risky but it shows someone willing to cede control of the little things and keep her headstrong trio upbeat because they won't just be servants (this could be a major mistake with Kristen as she chirps about her ass not being on the line). Kendra, OTOH, appears to be micromanaging which is what control freaks do. She was "furious" that Danny started the meeting with the execs without her but she also said she was the one who called the meeting so isn't it her responsibility to be there in time to start?
Tana also did well as PM of diffusing conflicts and getting people back on task (another "mom" skill). I'm beginning to think that Tana has better management skills than Kendra if that is what Trump is looking for but she is rougher around the edges for a corporate apprentice than Kendra.
Tana really would fit into QVC or similar venue. She has a good grasp of what women want and how to sell it to them, is an excellent presenter, etc etc. Kendra lacks empathy with other women imo, but may have the sharper marketing mind. Either could occupy some chair in a Trump organization and do well....like any other job, it's a matching game.
But these tasks are the pits! A far cry from running a polo or golf event. You can see what Trump has in mind for the poor woman who comes to work for him. Hardly a Bill Rancic job.
I, too, thought the golf and polo events were a bit cushy but I don't see how these tasks are different than the Jessica Simpson concert that Kwame oversaw or the basketball charity event that Jen ran. Tana's looks almost identical to Jen's. I guess I don't understand your point. Jen's task also had the videogame thing for the basketball stars to relax with and they had problems because the electricity shorted out when they had all those games hooked up to it. If I were Kendra and I had watched last year's final, one of my first questions would have been "are we sure we have enough electricity and a backup generator?" Can you imagine the nightmare for her if that old dump didn't have the juice to keep all those machines humming?
I have to play catch up. I missed the last episode. Good comments all around though. This season was boring imho.
The difference for me is the look of the venue. Scruffy places I wouldn't want to set foot in, not enough light, Trump dungeons perhaps.
Reminds me: A friend of mine was office manager for egomaniacal attorney Melvin Belli. She was not allowed to hire anyone who was not super gorgeous, because Belli wanted everything to look perfect. She hired decorative ladies to pretend to work upstairs and filled the basement with plain but competent women who were not allowed to come upstairs when the boss was there. In the same way, Kendra and Tana are getting a bit of the downstairs treatment from Trump imo.
Gee. I remember the Kendra-lookalike attorney who sat in for George that one week. Trump called her "ruthless" but he did show her off on national television.
I don't know how many businesses are lining up to have their big expo event run by a bunch of rank amateurs. Perhaps these are the best Trump and the producers could find. The one chick kept saying to Kendra, "We trust you. We hired you." If this event goes in the tank, how is she going to look to her bosses? Does it say anything that this is twice in one season The Apprentice visits Chelsea Piers? This may have been the best offers Trump got for an event.
At least this time we are spared the drama of "Will rain ruin the golf/polo event at the Filthy Rich Country Club?"...
Maybe some potential sponsors had already heard about the Dove disaster at that point. I bet we don't see any tasks for P&G during future seasons.
Is it too late to be added to the ping list?
Looks like Tana is toast.
Yup!
Last episode but do stay :-)
Ooops next week is the finale. Looks like it's going to be good. Hopefully it won't drag on forever like last time.
I suspected they had the deck stacked against Tana but tonight's episode left no doubt. Coddling 20 celebs is certainly harder than coddling one. Tana's venue was bigger, the crowd was bigger and she really had no help from her underlings. In fact, the thought of Brian, Kristen and Chris at an Olympic event had me wondering if UN Peacekeepers might be needed as backup.
What moron is going to cut and paste a program together and not read what it says? Who's going to look at 100 flags and expect the American flag to be missing out of it?
The only thing I can truly fault Tana about is that she adopted the "management mentality" - treating her underlings like dirt while chumming it up with the bosses. When she was "one of them" she was able to get them to work together but when she decided she was the "manager", she let her attitude about her dummies color her treatment of them. I've seen that happen too often in business life.
The producers have sucked all the drama out of their live finale. There's really no reason to watch it. I just hope they don't have a bunch of people dumping on Tana next week the way they dumped on Jen last time. That was just unseemly.
great summation
I thought tonight was the finale by the way it was going. I got home a little late *lol* You're right about Kendra.
I almost expected Kendra to pull a Sally Field in the boardroom, talking about her team "they like me.......they really like me..........."
LOL!!! Did you see those crocodile tears? BARRRRRRRRF!
she's such a kid, Trump must see that.
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