The Apprentice

My God!! Wasn't Michael annoying, and these people are supposed to be the "best"!! I know it is probably different when you are in that situation, but my god - its as though common sense has flown out the window.

I have been screaming at the TV also, but also think its fantastic entertainment, and also a lesson in "how not to...."

Can't wait for the next episode

OK I loathed her at the start but my god she's been resilient if a little whiny. Glad she's gone though because the job wasn't for her.

I think the four in the final is a great idea - I had no idea what he was going to do until the very end. Immensley looking forward to more car crash telly next week.

But ..... am I the only person to be outraged about the lie on the CV !!! I've heard of people losing jobs they've worked at for months when a lie about a qualification is uncovered - especially university education.

I think Lee is a very lucky guy to still be in the competition (although I do feel sorry for his hang ups on the subject of education) - he's a charming enough guy to do well in life without lying on his CV

That said, I've just spent £ 50 on-line for the following :

Philip J Knight
BSC Hons
(only joking - its actually a Phd !!!)

Can't stand this program. It seems to me to promote a very restricted set of values: all to do with the utterly selfish accrual of wealth. Well, I for one, don't go along with this, or the unashamed promotion of the Sir (how debased is that title!) Alan Sugar brand.

Now, business is, of course, about money. But it is not all about money. Money is necessary to business, to be sure, in the same way that blood is necessary to a mammalian body. But like the bloodstream, it should be an enabling factor, that allows objectives to be reached, not the prime or sole objective in and of itself. Businesses that leech their customers are parasites, blood-suckers, vampires.

The fact is, an ethical business conception is becoming, and will continue to become, more and more essential, as we hit the environmental limits to economic growth. Over the next century, the businesses that succeed, and grow, will need to manage a whole variety of (sometimes incompatible) objectives, of which shareholder return is only one, and environmental and employee and social responsibility quite as relevant. Of course, we need to earn profits. Like the bloodstream, it keeps a business alive. But it is a sad business indeed that thinks that profit maximisation is it's role, and not the value that it provides it's stakeholders.

Life is better than that, more complex, more challenging, and so should be a business.

Best, 2ndRateMind.