InsideMicrosoft

The Microsoft Apprentice: Week 3

Follow along as we watch this week’s episode, and Microsoft employee Verna tries to bounce back from a very tough week.

You can read last week’s live report, or NBC’s recap to get caught up.

First segment: Weirdo Dan is playing his guitar. He’s a big Verna fan. Everyone is stunned that Brian basically fired himself. Verna is sitting in bed, a little tired, but says, “I have inner strength” and plans to keep going. Danny wants to put together a support group. Erin is acting like a “witch”, not giving Verna the slightest bit of support. Michael says he thinks Verna’s fine. Then Verna says she probably isn’t going to feel any better, and she quits.

They keep jerking my chain! First she quits, then she doesn’t, ARGHH!

Verna leaves. Should I even continue? One person says, “At least get fired with some dignity”. Oookay…

Second segment: Ah! Verna’s quit! What do I write about?

They show Trump talking with people like Bill Rancic, and dispensing Trumpisms. They get the call to come outside, and Danny tells secretary whatsherface that Verna quit. Trump talks about how tough this competition is. “Verna couldn’t hack it”. Nobody else wants to quit. The task is to create a marketing campaign for Nescafe (who Trump shills for). Magna throws the project manager job to Danny, who’s supposed to be good in marketing. Its funny, he lost the first one and won the second one, both almost entirely by himself. Michael is offering up all sorts of stupid ideas about models. Danny does a good job blowing him off. Angie elects herself project manager, and has some ADD idea about some sort of election for coffee with a giveaway and a balloon or something. Magna seems to have no idea what their plan is, and Danny cannot commit to making any sort of decision. Danny was so indecisive, and he was forced into a decision. If they lose, the boardroom will come to an arguement as to whether they lost because he was indecisive, or because he was forced into a bad decision.

Third segment: Danny’s big plan: to give out iPods. Give out the coolest consumer product in the world? In New York City? To coffee drinkers? Its a perfect idea! Mike is complaining. He should be fired. I find myself wishing he give up his immunity to be fired. Danny and Mike are yelling at each other, and Mike is so lazy. Net Worth is trying to give away $10,000. They’re holding a presidential debate between hot coffee and cold coffee. Pretty fun, actually. A cold coffee drinker wins the money. At Magna, people are lining up like crazy to win iPods. Mike is practically doing his best to convince people not to show up.

They all meet back with Trump. The execs from Nescafe weren’t happy with Magna not having a coherent theme. Net Worth wins. You know what’s unfair? Mike deserves to be fired, and he can’t be. That’s not exactly how big business works. Net Worth goes on Trump’s jumbo helicopter and flies over Manhattan. Not as cool as dinner with Steve Forbes or Trump.

Fourth segment: If I’m Danny, here’s my strategy going into the boardroom: I did win this one, I did come up with a good promotion. Nescafe doesn’t understand the young coffee drinkers, and they didn’t understand why this promotion worked. As for who should be fired, I have never seen more unprofessional conduct than what Mike did, lying back on his immunity, abusing his exemption to ruin this task. They all go into the boardroom agreeing to turn on Mike. In the boardroom, a bunch of people turn on Mike. Stephanie says Mike was indecisive. Bren says the biggest responsibility for the loss was Danny, but Mike should be fired.

Interlude: Trump is making a big mistake if he doesn’t fire Mike. This not a game, with silly rules and tribal councils. This is not about winning a task, it is about finding the best job candidate. You cannot fire the person responsible for the loss, you fire the person who has displayed the least capability of performing as the head of one of Trump’s companies. Firing Danny would be a mistake, because he didn’t betray his team, and by extension, Mr. Trump.

Fifth segment: They come back into the boardroom. Trump asks him why he did bad. Mike says that he tried to give good ideas. Trump said he did a terrible job. He says Stephanie did a good job getting a good event planner. He says Mike and Danny should be ashamed of themselves. He says he has to live by the rules, and fired Danny. What a mistake. Trump refuses to acknowledge the fact that he didn’t have to work by the rules, that he can change the rules, and that all that matters is who is going to win in the end, not today. He should have fired Michael, because Michael was never going to fix his problems, and will continue to hurt his team.

Next week: One team, presumably the winners, does something offensive and everyone is called into the boardroom. In the cab, Danny plays a song about how he leaves with his integrity.

February 3rd, 2005 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | General | 7 comments