Sugar Sugar

The third series of The Apprentice has now drawn to a close. If you had told me before the final episode the Simon would win, I'd be a bit surprised but from the way the task actually went it made sense.
Did the best overall candidate win? Probably not. I think Kristina and Tre were the most impressive based on their performance in all of the tasks. However Simon probably fitted the profile better of what Sir Alan was looking for in this series.
It does create an interesting query though. You'd think it would be the best candidate that would be chosen but ultimately it just depends on what Sir Alan needs at that time. It does explain some of the apparently random reasons for sacking people, sometimes it's based on their performance in a task but at other times Sir Alan looks at the bigger picture. Simon probably could have been sacked a couple of weeks ago but Sir Alan obviously saw something he liked. Amstrad are moving into real estate and Sir Alan seems to think that Simon would better fit the profile of this role which is fair enough. The final task involved the redevelopment of a building and Simon seemed to come into his own here, I suspect this helped swing the decision in his favour.
However it seemed that the decision was a surprise for a number of the former candidates. They all watched the show in the studio for the follow up programme You're Fired and apparently a few of them actually wanted to leave as they felt that Kristina deserved to win.
Despite some quibbles, overall The Apprentice does make for an excellent TV programme. Here is my quick guide to winning The Apprentice if anyone plans to enter for the fourth series:

Don't become visible too early.
Don't antagonise other contestants, may come back to haunt you.
Don't badmouth other people behind their back.
Study up on Sir Alan and try to figure out what he is looking for from his apprentice.
Talk yourself up but not in an arrogant way.

One final point on the pantomime villain of the piece, Katie. I developed a real hatred of her over the series, there didn't actually seem to be anything likable about her. She was forever slagging off other contestants on camera, even wishing death on them. The way she went about things just seemed to wind me up no end, there was a real arrogance about her. It did backfire on her though, after leaving The Apprentice, she was fired from her job which had originally been left open for her! Serves her right, I can't see many people wanting to employ her now.
However I guess she was good for the show, there is always space for a villain in these kind of things. Makes me wonder how much of the show is genuine and how much is actually decided in advance....