FIVE LEFT

Just like a four hundred meter dash, the Apprentice Africa, a business reality show, gets to the home stretch with five contestants out of eighteen left in contention. An executive job with an annual salary of $200,000 and a luxurious car with befitting perks are up for grabs by the winner.
In this episode, the two teams, now equal in manpower with three persons apiece were asked to create an interactive sales event in order to a sell a repackaged brand of Tetmosol to its prime distributors in Nigeria. Tetmosol is one of the major products of Jagal Pharma Limited, a subsidiary of Jagal Group and also a co-sponsor of The Apprentice Africa. The team with the higher profit margin at the end of the task wins.
Isaac went into this task as the Project Manager for Matrix corps while Deox was chosen as the PM for Zulu Corps. Coincidentally, both Project Managers had held that position on two occasions. What made it more interesting was the fact that on those two occasions, their teams went on to win the tasks. The winning streak on of one of them was definitely going to end and Isaac was the unlucky one.
The aim of this task according to the CEO, Biodun Shobanjo was to bring to fore the persuasive ability of both teams. However the end result was for the contestants to sell more products whilst offering fewer incentives to the distributors.
Both teams went about the execution of the task in the manner best known to them. However, it was Matrix Corp that was at a disadvantage as Kathleen could not control her anger while negotiating with some of their prospective customers.Interestingly, Tunde and Blessing of Zulu corps used their ability to speak the local language with the prime distributors to their advantage as Tunde said “it wasn’t an unfair advantage, but an advantage” Interestingly when this issue was later brought up in the boardroom, Kathleen from Matrix corp instead of rebutting that assertion, collaborated it.
Drama as usual unfolded as Blessing from Zulu Corp promised one of the distributors that the incentives being given for the purchases were on a six months basis whilst it was actually meant to last only two months. The Prime distributor sensing he had been given a raw deal after he was alerted by Eunice of Matrix Corp, decided to cancel his deal with Zulu Corp and signed a deal with Matrix. Both teams claimed ownership of that deal, a case that was ruled in favor of Matrix Corp in the boardroom.
Before delivering the verdict, Mr. Hargray Richard, CEO of Jagal Pharma Ltd, sponsors of the task, noted that Zulu corps was much more confident and closed their deals sooner than their Matrix counterparts. He further noted that Matrix corp got desperate at a point in the execution of the task. According to him though Matrix Corp gave a higher profit margin, it was Zulu Corp that sold more cartons. Interpersonal relationship he noticed was what made the difference. After summing up the sales of both teams and the incentives they offered, Matrix corps had a profit of $160,000 while Zulu corps made a total profit of $192,000. Zulu corp won.Asked who the weakest link in his team was, Isaac of Matrix corps, without mincing words, said it was Kathleen. He told the CEO he would tackle it from two angles. One was on the task in question and secondly considering all other task. He said, if Kathleen had given him half of what Eunice gave him, it would have been a different story. Also, Kathleen sold only 10,000 cartons as against Eunice’s 15,000 cartons and Isaac’s 22,000 cartons. Picking on his second angle to the analysis, Isaac said Kathleen has very weak interpersonal relationship, manifesting through all task executed. “She is quick tempered and even a simple “no” will irritate you” he said.
Kathleen in reaction said Isaac was entitled to his own opinion about her. However, when Eunice was asked whether Isaacs’s opinion about Kathleen was true, she hesitantly said yes.
It became very easy for the CEO to say, “Kathleen you are
This leaves just five contestants in the race for africa's prime apprentice. As stated by Isaac in this episode, “It will be very painful to exit at this time of the game” But the reality is that come what may, someone will be evicted this week. Can the two member Matrix team of Isaac and Eunice stand the Zulu trio, Deox, Tunde and Blessing. I can’t wait for Saturday 9:30pm on TV3 to witness this ‘business thriller’.