Simon Ambrose Wins The Apprentice
A reality TV show has an intelligent, likeable winner. Who would have guessed it:
Simon Ambrose has won The Apprentice, beating the show’s favourite Kristina Grimes to the £100,000-a-year job with business mogul Sir Alan Sugar.
The public school-educated 27-year-old was chosen over the single mother, 36, who was visibly upset after the result.
Ambrose said; “I’m over the moon, I can’t believe it. I feel like I’ve come a long way to cross the finish line.”
He spoke of his admiration for new boss Sir Alan, saying: “If he gives me a tea-making job, I’ll do it.”
Posted: 13th, June 2007 | In: Twitterings Comments (4) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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June 14th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Whilst I thought all the way through Kristina would win it. When I realised what the actual job involved in all honesty I could genuinely see Simon training to be a surveyor as part of the role-I couldnt Kristina. Kristina is a born sales manager or business owner.
I think there are aspects we cant see. I suspect Sir Allan may need an injection of “fun” and enthusiasm in his company and by god its a hell of a salary to pay for that but combined with enthusiasm and his sheer “need” for the job, Im sure Simon will jump to it. he will either do amazingly well or be a total flop and I do hope its the former. Sometimes in life you really need a break, even a rich kid. His dad may be rich, he may well not be, not all parents are faboulously generous with their kids. I think he would have been harder to employ if he didnt get the role as he is a bit of a maverick and Sir Allan sensed that. Katie will get great offers, probably more interesting than this one! and I think Sir Allan sensed that as well.
June 14th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
The right decision, made for the right reasons. Simon was a little rough round the edges, but was significantly more intelligent and creative than the relatively limited Kristina.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Well, look who has won? Simon - the nice guy. He played a clean game, no slagging off of contestants! Elegantly channeling Machiavelli in programme one was the closest he got to scheming. Confident, but not afraid to make himself look a prat, possessing good manners, bright and energetic - everyone liked him. In the end he was judged more creative than Christina and he won.
Has their been a shift in the Zeitgueit (or do I mean paradigm?) Will Simon’s style signal a change in strategy to aspiring hot shots or their potential employees? If so will those educating both react?
Whilst studying economics, Simon managed to find time to perform with the Cambridge Footlights. Cambridge seems to produce a lot of leaders so might business schools might want to encourage theatrical and comedy skills to compliment the hard analysis and teamwork? It might make those PowerPoint presentations a bit more interesting, but the collaboration involved in putting together a show has valuable team work experience in its own right - Baden Powell know this when theatrical skill were incorporated into scouting.
What also might be worth considering are elocution and etiquette studies so that communication and networking skills in different social systems can be achieved without having to go to ‘the university of life’ or a public school. In his friendship with Tre, Simon demonstrated he has the ‘common touch’ - sometimes a tough skill to master for those educated in prestigious institutions.
Sir Alan has changed his business strategy but there also appears to be a shift in self perception. No more products like the ‘e mailer’ phone (the only time you will see one is on the apprentice). No more electronic slimming aids (this is what the poor guy who won the first series had to try and flog). Sir Alan now wants to be associated with iconic architecture. Alan would like to be funny, likable, posh and with a whiff of the theatre. He wants to be like Simon.
It is nice that Sir Alan has let go of his myth. The chip on his shoulder has disappeared. There seems to be real mutual love between master and apprentice- (He couldn’thave gone for another ‘blond’ - he woul have looked like a dirty old man.) They looked quite cute talking to Adrian Chiles in the post game analysis.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Alan is crazy. Over the course of the 12 weeks Simon has not shown that he is an apprentice but rather has failed miserable i.e. freezing when presenting, giving poor if no direction to his team, being a bumbling idiot! Alan demonstrated that if you come onto the show and do everything right you won’t win. Kristina deserved the post simply because she performed much better than Simon over the course of the twelve weeks and that is the whole point of the tasks over that period; it’s to show the contestants strengths and weaknesses and Kristina showed that she was the strongest. In the final task Kristina stood head and shoulders above Simon but Alan hardly acknowledged that.
Kristina deserved that job and lost out, basically, to youth. Alan just reflected the discrimination that exists in private industry, in that youth often wins over substance and at 36 years old even if brilliant at an interview the Kristina’s of the world will always loose out to the Simons.
Alan Sugars decision disgusted me and I have no faith in his judgement. He planned to put Katie and Simon through to the final even though these two people are the most attention seeking and Alan is always saying how he doesn’t like people who are in it for the TV. In fact Alan is caught up in the whole TV thing, Ruth Badger from last year and Kristina are strong, focussed women and obviously Alan rathers women who are more feminine, even if it is a manipulation of femininity i.e. Katie fluttering her lashes and Michelle from last year appearing as the blond toughy with a heart.
Alan needs to get a clue and start employing those who have worked hard and deserve the position. Alan said Simon would be great at real estate which will be his companies’ next venture and yet Simon owns only 1 property which from the interview process it seems he doesn’t run very well. Also, in the last task he designed a building that people wouldn’t even be able to fit into and the design itself was awful, whereas Kristina not only considered the design of the building but also the commercial aspect which is of most importance to Alan. Therefore Kristina showed much more professionalism in designing her building. Alan said that Simon has ideas but all of the ideas in the task came from Trey and the other team mates and not Simon. Simon just hung around looking gormless and at one point had to resort to bribery in order to get his team to work.
Sorry for the long comment but I can’t believe Sugar could get it so wrong. Kristina was the worthy Apprentice and in future shows contestants will know that there’s no point in doing their best because it won’t be good enough, whereas if you’re under 35 and have a TV personality you’ll do fine!