Todd Fired For Slow Fast Food

The teams had to do 2 things:

• Incent customers to buy the specialty burger
• SERVE the customers!

Fast Food is supposed to be fast. People walked out of Magna's Burger King because they weren't getting served. Based on what we saw, they weren't getting served because there weren't enough people on the POS. More people served would provide more opportunities for sales of the Triple Cheeseburger.

Alex pointed out repeatedly during the task that Todd wasn't trained on anything - he could have been out helping Danny get customers in the door, or promoting the Triple Cheeseburger to people waiting in line... but either he didn't do it or editing didn't show it.  Either way, he was not a hands on project manager and this task was more about doing than strategizing.

Todd was fired because he delegated but did not manage to keep control of the delegations. The fact is, he should have known what was going on with the promotion and he should have known how to help when the task came down to implementation. Leadership, leadership, leadership.

Ben hits the nail on the head in his comment - "Look at your customers: they want fast food and won't linger in the store.  All they had to do was give an incentive to buy the specialty burger"

Comments

[M. Parnell]

Did someone notice Donald Trump's flat out lie when asked about whether he had paid off someone's mortage when they helped him with a flat tire.

http://www.snopes.com/luck/trump.htm

[U. Patel]

He executed very obvious body language on this lie. Did someone noticed Carolyn's sparkling eyes on mention of Erin's name of while she was watching her working?

[Paddy McAloon]

Snope.com is known to be 100% correct. Besides, Do you think Trump will risk ruining his reputation by lying in front of national TV?

[PM]

oops not 100% correct.

[U Patel]

whooops, I think that Trump is not a seasoned actor. Hiding own lips or biting inner lower lip is a very common gesture that executes while speaking a lie. He took few miliseconds before he replied. If he was to say that on a lie detector, he would have failed though. Reason: He took time to reply, which was good but the but when he spoke the words "its true", there wasn't enough gap between two words as normally there usually is. I would rewatch this part though!!

[PM]

U Patel,
If it is really a lie, I believe Trump would have the scene edited out, don't you think so?

[S Tyson]

Does anyone know where the money that Net Worth used to buy the Vegas tickets and the Comboy paraphenalia came from? Was it deducted from their total earnings and if not, did the other team have the same financial resources at hand?

[PM]

A lie like this would be a major blow to his reputation. I don't know much about Trump's past, but he seems to be a nice guy to me.

[PM]

S Tyson,

I was thinking the same thing, need to rewatch the final result part, they reported how many burgers and how much money they made...

[U Patel]

Well, He may not have lied. But by all means his behavior wasn't co-operating with these words. To me, He would have it edited in both cases though, doesn't serve any purpose then impressing someone who is already impressed. I really wonder, why he didn't came out back then and said that it wasn't an urban legend, he really did it! Was he trying to be generous then? if so, whats the point spelling it out now? He could have got away with the answer "guess yourself".

[Exercise]

This episode was just horrible and amazing. Horrible as in the book smarts looked like idiots the entire time. It was painfully obvious that some of them were not grounded in reality and had no "smarts" other than from material being fed to them. Street smarts are proven winners coming into this. They are entreprenuers and successful ones at that. They know all aspects of a business or know when to delegate and how to stay on top it the delegation. I bet street smarts will win in the end.

[Josh Clemons]

I LOVE YOU KENDRA!! palm beach county, florida has your back! i hope i meet you one day when im @ boynton beach ! your thebest

[Raj hater]

Does anyone know where the money that Net Worth used to buy the Vegas tickets and the Comboy paraphenalia came from? Was it deducted from their total earnings and if not, did the other team have the same financial resources at hand?

PM,

Each team received a substantial amount of money for promotional activities. Danny used his teams money up on weed, incense, plastic balls and a cardboard box. The weed made Todd really spaced out and made Erin very paranoid and confused with all the buttons and flashing lights on the cash register. Verna really really enjoyed the fast food. A good high was had by all!!!

[TragicLad]

What I would love to know is just what the heck was Todd doing all afternoon? We see him sitting at a table writing furiously away in his notebook. What was so important that he couldn't have taken some time to get a bit of training himself on the cash?

And even after the faux pas of not getting trained on the POS terminal, there's nothing that says he couldn't have stepped behind the counter and started pouring the colas and running the meals over to the two ladies on cash. Not as effective as having a third person on cash, but it would have sped things up a little.

[PM]

Todd felt he was too good to work behind the counter. I am so glad he is gone.

[U Patel]

The more I am thinking about Trump's "lie", the more I am leaning towards He did it purposefully. I belive he was trying to get perception of the person who questioned him.

[stephen]

Lessons from the apprentice:

Episode #1: Burger King:

There are a few items that stood out in this episode:

Todd's "hands-off" leadership style: This is not really a lesson, but more of an observation & suggestion. As I matured in business, one of my best mentors (a young man that rose quickly through the corp. ranks), displayed an honest and sincere "hands-on" management style. There was no job to small that Mike wouldn't roll-up his sleeves and dive into. He did NOT take over the assignment, he was there to be an assistant; to lead by example. Todd sitting in the booth reviewing notes (??) did not demonstrate strong leadership. And when the pressure was on, he was unable to provide the hands-on support his team desperately needed.

Lesson: Be a hands-on manager - lead by example and inspire your team by your sincere efforts to work with and amongst them. Grab a fire bucket or help hold the hose when the fires begin. This may be sound advice for Alex as well; as head of training, he should have been able to pitch in at the point-of-sale during peak capacity.

Alex almost got himself taken out of the game when it became clear he led the training of the floor team. I am sure he has a red-mark next to his name in Trump's book. However it isn't there for the same reasons that I would have it placed there. In many of these scenario' that Trump sets-up, the candidates often do not have the relevant experience to succeed. They think their education or adrenaline will do the trick, but that doesn't work in business.

Lesson: Seek advice from experts to help shape your decision and strategy. In Alex' case, contact a store manager and ask what their policy or strategy is for training, especially for peak times. Secondarily, plan for unseen circumstances (illness, failure etc) by having additional members of the team trained, just in case. Note: Was Todd & Alex trained - if not they should have been (see Hands-On lesson).

stephen
apprenticeviews.blogdrive.com

[Steve]

Who vets these candidates? Kendra Todd is not a licensed real estate "broker" in the State of Florida. She is a licensed "sales associate". Other candidates have represented themselves correctly. Why the misrepresentation? Grounds for termination?

[Tara]

In the last season they always mentioned how much was made, minus what they used for items such as Vegas tickets to have a profit of $___. Or they have given them a dollar amount for promotions, which wasn't mentioned this time. Hopefully they will work on making this more clear in the future.

Todd is just a loser. Any good manager will jump in and help out on the register, preparing food, whatever is needed. And I agree. . . I was wondering the whole time, "what is he writing in that notebook?" since he wasn't delegating (Alex was taking care of that - poorly I might add)or promoting??? wake-up and smell the hamburgers!!

[becky]

Hey,
Ya gotta give the guy some crettit. He gave Alex the choice of who worked were in the Burger King. So i think that it was Alex's falt that there was only 2 people at the registers. Then Todd was the only one that did not pre-judge people right before they met Trump for the first time. He also by far, was the most encouedging on his team. Lastly, ya gotta give it the fact that he's cute. Not many guys have that kinda stuff these days ya know.

[jen]

who cares how cute you are . . . business is business. you can lose or make money for the company if you are cute or ugly. there is a bottom line . . . and that is Todd doesn't want to stoop to a level that he THINKS is beneath him.

[Linda]

When I watched season 1 and 2 of the Apprentice, I really liked it. In fact, I could hardly wait for Thursday night to watch it.
Now, in Season 3, I am very very disgusted with ALL the FOWL LANGUAGE. Mr.Trump,I had high admiration for you until this season. I can't believe that you allow that language. I sure hope that you DO NOT talk to your employees like that. If you don't, why do you allow these people to talk this way??? If this is going to continue, I will have to stop watching. I feel there is enough fowl language on TV as it is. I don't think we have to add more!!!!!!!

[someguy]

Huh? What? Man, I missed it, I slipped out for a pee and this guy was gone!

[Dong-Keun Lee]

Todd is very handsome!!!

So, he is valuable to employ ^^