Property consultant Michelle Niziol is the first boardroom casualty on The Apprentice, as her project management skills left a lot to be desired...
The Apprentice kicked off on Thursday night, with property consultant Michelle Niziol becoming the first candidate to hear those immortal words from Lord Sugar: ‘You’re Fired!’
The 12th series of the BBC1 reality show got off to a flying start as this year’s 18 new entrepreneurs were tasked with ‘sorting the trash from the treasure’.
The boys' team, Titans, and the girls' team, Nebular – led by Michelle as project manager – were each given a lock-up garage of antiques and collectables that they would have to sell to the public and trade.
With Titan's sales totaling £1,428.10 against Nebular's £959, it was a win for the boys, which meant the girls had to face Lord Sugar in the boardroom.
The business tycoon was far from impressed with the girls’ pricing strategy, telling them: "It appears to me that I was talking to a brick wall. I thought I made it perfectly clear.
"The important thing about this is to identify what you have there and to establish some kind of pricing policy, in order to know what you can go and sell it for. And according to Claude, you just made it up as you went along."
After their defeat, Michelle brought account manager Rebecca Jeffery and cake company owner Alana Spencer back into the boardroom, where Lord Sugar gave his damning verdict on all three…
"Rebecca, you make a lot of claims about being a great business woman, yet you’ve demonstrated nothing to me in this particular task. Alana, you were in charge of the market team and the pricing was completely wrong; overlooked. Michelle, you claim to be a business woman and I do see you as responsible for not laying down the rules to your team."
Boardroom showdown: (L-R) Alana, Michelle and Rebecca all face the wrath of Lord Sugar
For a minute, it looked liked it was Rebecca that would be getting in the black cab but, suddenly, things didn’t look good for Michelle, as Lord Sugar delivered his parting shot:
"Michelle, it's very easy for the finger to be pointed at you as the project manager. But having said that, I do think that there's a lot of stuff that you are responsible for… Michelle, You’re Fired."
The Apprentice continues Thursdays at 9pm on BBC1.
