The Apprentice Los Angeles Finale: The Big Yawn

By the time the Finale rolled around, did we really care? Did we ever get a clear decision about who wrote the best commercial for the final task?

On the positive side, I think Stefani deserved to be the winner. I was afraid Donald would cave in to demographic pressure. We've had winners who are male, female and African-American. It would be so tempting to balance with an Asian-American -- and such an appealing, genuinely nice guy, too!

But Stefani remained a calm, quiet presence. She was the only woman on a team of four and she conducted herself with dignity. She got the work done without stepping on egos.

Is she a leader? Frankly, I'm not sure that matters. Her first year will be mostly about learning, not leading. At the end of the year, she'll be well-positioned to take a position with a law firm, specializing in real estate and construction, earning as much as she will get from serving as The Apprentice.

I hope Trump finds room for Frankie somewhere else in the organization. He's got so much heart (and he could get a little polish along the way.)

I've always enjoyed The Apprentice but this year, I get the feeling NBC says to The Donald, "You're fired!"

Apprentice Los Angeles Ends With a Whimper

Apprentice Los Angeles is down to the Final Four. The last task was fairly mundane - nothing like the previous finalists who had to run major public events. Here they just completed a fairly bland advertising task.

We can't get excited about any of the candidates. Nicole hasn't emerged as strong and certainly hasn't been a leader. The Bronx guy won't make it: too down to earth. It's down to Stefani and James.

My money's on James. Stefani has quietly emerged as a leader. She's calm and she appears to have influenced James's success. James has gotten calmer and more sensible. As a team, they're effective. But we haven't seen either of them alone, as we would if they'd been assigned to a big benefit.

Of course, after the last few seasons, what benefit would turn a major event over to an Apprentice wannabe?

Trump seems frustrated. He's been rude and insulting to the candidates. The tent business seems to distract us from the weaknesses of the show.

Sadly, it's time to give The Apprentice a decent burial.

Apprentice Los Angeles: Who's responsible?

Watching The Apprentice Los Angeles this week, I was reminded of a conversation about a seemingly unrelated subject: football.

"Larry" had played football in high school and college. When he watches a game, he says, "I would never boo a player. Sometimes one guy seems to make a mistake - but he was doing his job. Another player wasn't following the game plan."

And that's what happened here.

Kristine - the competent-looking lawyer with the rimless glasses - teamed up with Nicole to create a promotion for some new condos in Las Vegas. Of course, Kristine's game plan was a little shaky: she wanted to get out from under the shadow of Heidi, whose competence shown on most tasks.

But as Kristine worked on the brochure, Nicole decided to take a nap. Kristine decided to let Nicole sleep. After all, she reasoned, Nicole had been useless on this task so far.

So Kristine decided to write the whole brochure herself. She attempted to do the work of 2 people.

And she came close...except that she got one phone number wrong.

True, in marketing, that's a very serious mistake. On my own articles, getting the contact information wrong means, "What's the point?" If they can't find me, why bother to advertise?

But if Nicole had been doing her share of the work, Kristine might have had time and energy to pay attention to those little details. If they had worked together, they might have proofed the brochure more accurately.

So who should get fired?

In real life, hopefully you wait to collect more data to establish a pattern. But someone else's mistake can make you look bad, in football and in business. You weren't supposed to be on the receiving end of a catch, but it comes to you anyway...and you miss. You weren't supposed to handle this part of the job...but the other person disappears.

Almost always, these situations tend to be lose-lose, once you're caught up in them. Best to prevent them from happening in the first place. Football players don't always have a choice but professionals can make a concerted effort to hang out with winners, even if they risk being overshadowed.

A controversial call, either way.

Apprentice Los Angeles: An Unintentional Lesson

On the surface, last night's Apprentice was all about leadership. But I believe it was all about luck. Both teams hated their project leaders. Team Kinetic recognized that Aime (pronounced "Amy") wasn't fully present. She seemed unaware of her environment (Spanish speaking culure -- hello!) and she delegated to the max. Still, her team came up with a clever concept, dressing up in bright costumes to attract visitors to their booth. And as her team realized they needed to communicate in Spanish, they should have fought for an interprter. Instead, they said nothing. They walked the mall, trying to drum up business but didn't bother to call Aime to clue her in. I don't blame Aime for being angry, as she stormed off to her waiting limo. Consciously or not, her team set her up. In the real world, employees are supposed to make their bosses look good and avoid dumb mistakes. Suriya didn't fare much better. He got emotional. He wandered up to strangers, one at a tim - a very inefficient process. His team made fun of him. Suriya does show some insight. As he pointed out, "We all have jobs to go back to." He does have some marketing savvy. And for some reason, teams begin winning when he joins them. Despite the differences, the teams were only about $40 apart. They were evenly matched as far as creating a team vs. leader conflict. I think the real lesson is something I repeat to myself often, "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good."

Career Tips from The Apprentice LA? Don't do it!

As a long-time Apprentice fan I looked forward to the move to Los Angeles. This one was over the top. First, do you believe the losing team really slept outside in the tents? This scene has to be staged! Second, we need two judges. This time around, Donald has decided that the winning project manager can sit in the Boardroom to have input on the big decision: who gets fired. Bad idea. In the old show, Donald had not one but two people to be his "eyes and ears." Now he just has one -- his daughter, an attractive woman who seems very smart. But she can't be everywhere. And she just lacks the edge. Trump made a huge mistake when he fired Carolyn Kepcher. She cut through the nonsense to ask just the right questions. We had fire in the boardroom. Last night's boardroom went all over the place. The best part came when the candidate simply couldn't believe he was fired. Donald chose the nice-guy fatherly approach: "I'd hire you as a lawyer. You could teach my children. But you won't do the nitty-gritty stuff..." Actually he's got a point. Corporate life is about tending to mind-numbing details, over and over again, while you're all dressed up in a nice suit. Read Carly Fiorina's book, Tough Choices, for an eye-opening view of life at the top (not to mention the perches along the way). As for other new rules: the winning project manager gets to stay in charge until his or her team loses. Again, bad idea! How will we assess the leadership skills of the other team members? OK, let's face it. This show gets driven by ratings, not realism. Good watching. Bad business.