Raj Dhonota

First of all, congratulations to Tom Pellereau for winning The Apprentice. Regardless of all my criticisms of the show, none of it relates to any candidate. Anyone who appears on The Apprentice is on the show to win it, and when someone achieves what they set out to achieve, it is right that they are applauded for doing so. I wish him all the success in the world.

With Tom winning, does it mean the others have failed? Not at all. We have seen before that some candidates who have not won The Apprentice have done better than those that have. And it cannot be doubted that whilst most candidates who have appeared on The Apprentice would like to win The Apprentice, their main motive was not necessarily wanting to work with Lord Sugar.

For me, it became obvious that Tom was a strong favourite to win The Apprentice. How many times did we hear Lord Sugar saying he is a “product man” and that Tom was right up his alley? Add to that the number of times Lord Sugar warned Tom that the next time he appeared in the boardroom he would be fired, and yet each time he did appear in the boardroom he escaped! It does seem that Lord Sugar was determined to land his man at all costs; you then have to ask what the point of the show was. It does not take much to figure out that Tom had the worst record of all The Apprentice winners, and that being so, it seems unfair on the other candidates who thought they had a genuine opportunity to win it if they performed well during the tasks.

I am in no way doubting Tom’s value and perhaps Lord Sugar saw that of all the candidates his skills and previous experience put him in a stronger position to succeed in a real business venture. Clearly the fact that he had got his product into a major retailer showed Lord Sugar the opportunity for an instant win, and who can blame him for taking it from a business point of view. But then you have to question the whole point of The Apprentice – because what they like you to believe is that the best performing candidate will win it. But let’s leave that for another day.

For now, it is right to congratulate Tom Pellereau again for winning The Apprentice. I look forward to seeing how he gets on and also whether my opinion regarding the prize is correct!