Key Lessons I Learnt from Episode 2 of The Apprentice - ONE Championship Edition

Team Valor versus Team Conquest (Round 2)

If you have managed to watch Episode 1 of The Apprentice - ONE Championship Edition, Team Valor won the business contest but no one was eliminated because Chatri Sityodtong, the Chief Judge decided to give Nazee (the Project Manager), Alvin and Lara a second chance to buck up.

At the time of writing this article, I managed to watch Episode 2 (which was broadcast on Channel 5 in Singapore and AXN Asia Channel on 1 April 2021) three times. My wife did ask me why I watched this show again and again and my response was:

"The more I watch this show repeatedly, the deeper the business lessons I can get from Chatri and his guest judges."

In Episode 2, the Guest Judge was Patrick Grove, a Singapore-born Australian internet and media entrepreneur and the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Catcha Group.

On the Physical Challenge in Round 2

The physical challenge this time is the ladder climb which is meant to help the candidates to overcome the fear of height.

The 16 candidates met with MMA World Champion George "Rush" St-Pierre (GSP) and martial arts pioneer, Renzo Gracie.

GSP admitted that he is really scared of height. However, he encouraged all the candidates by saying that if he could overcome this challenge (as he did a demo earlier), the candidates could do the same too.

Doe this sound familiar to you? You should be hearing this very often in any Personal Development Courses!

"The height of your success will be determined by the risks that you are willing to take here today."

Dom Lau, Task Captain

Eventually, no candidates had allowed fear to get better of them, and they have completed this task.

Personally, I believe Sho Takei, one of the candidates summed up pretty well.

"World Championship is all about courage. There's no courage without fear. And I just had to prove to myself that I can do it. If it's enough for my teammates, I don't think I can finish this."

Sho Takei

Very often Blair Singer, my teacher in Team and Little Voice Management, said that a person may be willing to do an extremely difficult task not because it is done for himself but for his team. At the same time, team support and encouragement play a big part in this physical challenge.

Now, Chatri's Conflict in Choosing the Winning Team in the Business Challenge

After watching the presentations by Team Valor and Team Conquest, Chatri said he had a tough decision to make.

Team Conquest - Crappy concept but a clear execution plan

Lack of Competence, Judgement and Confidence - Eugene Chung (Project Manager)

When Chatri asked Eugene to evaluate himself whether he did a good job as project manager, Eugene said "I feel like there's always room for improvement. Overall, I feel like I did an okay job [Emphasis is mine]." And that's a sign of showing to Chatri he is not confident in himself as a project manager.

Chatri went on to ask Paulina Purnomowati about the team members' contribution.

Paulina said that when it comes to generating ideas, it was Eugene. However, as he had a lot of ideas and he kept changing his mind, Paulina said she ended up assuming the management role by putting things/ideas together, with the assistance from Joy Koh.

Chatri was not impressed with Eugene and said that it sounds like Paulina was the real project manager when Eugene was just some fantasy guy, spewing out crazy ideas and changing his mind.

At this point, I asked myself who should be the best fit as the project manager. One on hand, it was Eugene's expertise, i.e. digital marketing. On the other hand, as the title suggests, the person has to have the ability to manage other people.

One of the disasters Eugene told Chatri was that he knew that he was weak in delegating tasks and managing people.

Immediately Chatri made this remark: "let me cook you the meal. But I don't know how to cook. So please, excuse me that the food tastes crap."

In other words, it's just an excuse!

Chatri faulted the team on its inability to bring an idea to life and this was what Chatri said to the team:

"Ideas are dime a dozen business. That's just reality. If you don't know how to bring an idea to life and execute it, it means nothing, literally nothing."

Roman Wilson bombed by screwing the Slide Deck

Roman was regarded as sitting back and playing an observing role by Niharika Singh, the Co-Judge in this competition. In this task, he also made a disaster of putting up the slide deck in which fonts and bullet points were not well aligned.

Obviously, Chatri was not impressed with the slide deck and Roman's performance in this task especially since Roman is an Ivy League graduate

Alvin Ang bombed by playing a less passive role compared to Week 1

Alvin was already at the elimination table last week and Niharika actually said that if she were Alvin, she would double down the effect and over-deliver.

Unfortunately, Alvin did not do that.

And worst at the elimination table this week, Alvin told Chatri that he's prepared to give up his seat if there are better candidates to be Chatri's protege.

Chatri's response to Alvin was that he did not have a killer instinct while appreciating his selflessness. Unfortunately, this is not what Chatri is looking for when it comes to picking his protege to work under him in this competition.

"We all lose at different points in our life. But we must not be defeated."

Chatri Sityodtong

Team Valor - Great concept with no execution plan discussed in the presentation

Louie Sangalang is a cool project manager and the team as a whole defended for Clinton Tudor

When Chatri asked Louie who contributed the least, Louie said in terms of the actual output, it was him. He acknowledged that the team worked cohesively to complete this task. Even Clinton Tudor contributed a lot.

Although Niharika questioned whether the team backstabbed Clinton when he was not in the war room, the team stood up and praised his contribution on the production side of things. It's only a matter of putting him in the right environment to allow him to shine.

In this respect, Team Valor has shown Chatri that this is a winning team and everyone plays their part to contribute to the success. This obviously has scored points in the eyes of Chatri because there was no finger-pointing / blaming or justifying in this team.

I think the X Factor convinced me. The fact that you guys were so well as a team. I can sense it. I can feel it. You guys are a superstar team.

It was the team spirit that made Team Valor the winning team in Round 2.

Eugene did not listen

When Chatri asked Eugene who are the two people he wants to take with him to the chopping block, Eugene said Alvin and Lara. Chatri was shocked and questioned whether Eugene had been listening.

"You are just completely incompetent! If it weren't for Lara, you're not worthy to be sitting here."

In the end, Chatri overruled Eugene's decision and said Alvin and Roman would be back on the chopping block.

Despite the disaster, Eugene was saved

This time Chatri asked Eugene, Roman and Alvin the question "What does this competition mean to you?"

Each of them gave their answer but it was eventually Eugene's story that moved Chatri. Chatri felt his sincerity and his fighting spirit.

As a result, Eugene was saved in this competition while Roman and Alvin were eliminated in Round 2.

I will update the content of this article to include more insight into Round 2 and in the meantime, I trust that you will enjoy what I have shared above.

Jack HM Wong

Founder of Dragons Den Tigers Cave in Clubhouse (Meeting every Saturday at 9pm (GMT+8))