Episode 1

King Corp in the boardroom. Kum Hong Fired!

Eighteen apprentice wannabes arrived at the Tiong Chuan building ready to begin their 15 week interview in a bid to become The Apprentice. All were from the class 4/2 of Ghim Moh Secondary School. All the classmates were familiar with each other and they knew who would be good at different tasks. But how would they be grouped? Would they have to work with people that they didn’t like?

After letting the candidates stew outside the boardroom for about half-an hour, Mr. Tan Tiong Chuan, dubbed as TTC, told his receptionist, Ms. Dewi to let them in. The candidates proceeded gingerly into the boardroom to meet with the TTC.

Seated by him were two other familiar faces, Mrs. Farahain Aidil and Mr. David Sim. Both were strict when it came down to business. The TTC then addressed his candidates. He introduced to them his advisors, stating that they would be his eyes and ears on the streets.

After explaining to them the interview process, the TTC wished them good luck and sent them up to “The Suite”.

Located along Orchard Road, the suite was a gorgeous living area where the eighteen candidates would, hopefully, spend the next fifteen weeks. As they entered the suite, there were many gasps and smiles as they saw the elaborate furnishings. They wandered around the living area, taking in the breath taking views of the town area and marveling at how luxurious everything looked.

Upon entering the kitchen, they were greeted by the feast set on the table. Along with the food, were two envelopes. Kimberly immediately grabbed one and began to read it aloud. The letter inside told the candidates that they were to be split into groups by gender, nine men against nine women. Their first task was to sit together as a team and come up with a group name.

The women took out some large plates and piled on their food then took it to the sitting room where they all sat down and began to think of their team’s name. The guys ran up and down, getting food now and then. On the women’s team, Esther suggested that they come up with a few synonyms for the word ‘victory’. Out of these, they all agreed that Conquest Corporation sounded the best and thus, Conquest became their team’s name.

In the living room, the men wanted a name that reflected their machoism. Shi Hao suggested Daring corporation, but the others thought it too clichéd. It was Yen Hao’s brain wave that they used and decided on King Corp.

The next day, they met the TTC on top of the Tiong Chuan building. He arrived along with Farahain and David. He approved of both team names and laid out their first task. The candidates would be working in the dessert industry, with established companies. For this task, they would be working with Hagen-Daaz to market a new flavour of ice-cream. He also stated that Farahain and David would tag along to observe the teams, and each team would have a budget of $5,000. He then asked the teams to nominate Project Managers who would oversee the team’s task. King nominated James while Conquest chose Syaza. The TTC then left the teams and they scrambled to get to the headquarters of Hagen-Daaz.

On Conquest, Syaza decided to split the team into two different groups, one working on marketing and another on securing the logistics. Esther, Yessita, Kimberly and Victoria would be the marketing team while Carol, Shu Hui, Sharmaine and Debbie would work on the logistics. Syaza would oversee both teams.

In a confessional, Yessita expressed her confidence in her team winning, saying, “I am sure that Conquest will succeed in this task, Syaza is a great leader with foresight to divide the group into two teams.”

At the King group, James brought everyone down to the Hagen-Daaz headquarters to meet with the chef on the new flavours available for marketing. The group took time to look at the catalogue displaying the new flavours that the company was interested in marketing. However, the group was split on which flavour to market. Some wanted the new Mango Ma flavour while others wanted to go along with the Vodka Twist. The temperature soon got heated in the room as Shi Hao opposed the decision to sell the Mango Ma ice-cream flavour.

Everyone quickly got exasperated and Kum Hong then stood up, condemning Shi Hao for creating a fuss over a “small matter”. As tension escalated between the two group members, James stepped in and made a corporate decision and in a u-turn decision, decided to go along with the Vodka Twist flavour.

Stephen observed in a confessional, “By choosing Vodka Twist, we lost the market for children as the ice-cream contains alcohol.”

Back in the suite, Conquest’s logistics team sat around in the living room and around the computer. The women were trying to contact a vendor to rent an ice-cream push cart for a day. Some of the team members poured through a street directory trying to find a prime location for their sale.

At the Hagen-Daaz headquarters, the marketing team for Conquest quickly chose the Samba Surprise. They then settled down to come up with a marketing strategy for the flavour. Kimberly suggested going along with the Brazilian theme of “Samba” for their promotion. They could do a street show or even dress up as the Brazilian dancers themselves.

An excited Esther even went as far as suggesting offering a round trip to Brazil to watch the Samba parade. Syaza warmed to the ideas put forward by her team and was very impressed.

Meanwhile, back at King corp, the men struggled to come up with a marketing strategy even with Yen Hao’s experience in the Fundamentals Of Marketing. In short, he summed up the situation as , “We have no pricing strategy, no placing strategy, no product strategy and no promotion strategy.”

The next day, the teams got ready to get on the streets to market their products. Conquest had contacted a printing company to print flyers for their promotion next to the Orchard MRT station. They had managed to rent an ice-cream push cart for the day and gotten the Brazilian association to put up a small performance for a small fee. Syaza had gone ahead with the idea for the round trip for two the Brazil and had a relative in the media industry get a discount for her to display the winner in The Straits Times newspaper the following day.

King corporation on the other hand, still were running around trying to get their promotion together. They hadn’t got and idea how to market their product, unsure if they should sell their product to restaurants or to ice-cream parlours.

In the end, King Corp desperately tried to sell their ice-cream to several vendors and night clubs. Kum Hong kept getting in everyone’s way, asking what he should do while the others were busy trying to get the buyers to purchase their ice-cream.

The buzz created by the street performance along Orchard Road drew a big crowd and they were the enticed by the free give-away tickets to Brazil. Farahain observed from a distance, smiling to herself as the women got busy serving ice-cream to customers.

David came to the suite to check on the men and found them a mess. Thoroughly disgusted, he left saying, “They don’t know what they’re doing, Conquest will win.”

The next day, the teams entered the boardroom, anxious to see which team had succeeded in their first task. After the TTC had entered, he inquired of his advisors how each team had done. Farahain reported that Conquest had made a record $350.20 while David said that King had a meager $100.00. The winners were the women of Conquest. As their reward, the TTC announced that they would be dining with him at Les Amis, an exclusive restaurant. King Corp however, would meet him in the boardroom where someone would be fired.

As the impending boardroom session drew near, the members of King Corp became antsy. They wondered what would happen in the boardroom. How would they be fired?

As they entered the boardroom, the TTC commented on their work ethic, calling them “Lousy”. James tried to defend himself, saying that Kum Hong needed adult supervision as he was a nuisance. This Kum Hong denied, but failed to give any evidence. When TTC asked who James would fire, he said Kum Hong and Kum Hong said James. He then asked James to select two people to return to the boardroom. James chose Kum Hong and Shi Hao. Ben, Beng Loong, Antonius, Stephen, Jin Hui and Yen Hao were safe.
TTC, alone with his advisors, reviewed the candidate’s performance. Farahain said that Kum Hong obviously agitated everyone. David said that Kum Hong obviously couldn’t work with his team mates. Finally, the TTC called in the remaining three back into the boardroom.

James reiterated that he tried to lead the team, but the were just too disorganized. TTC called him a lousy leader. James suddenly agreed with him. He then asked why James brought Shi Hao into the boardroom and the story of the conflict then surfaced. But Shi Hao stated that it was James who made the decision in the end. James shot back that he was the one who suggested selling it to bars and night clubs as a novelty item.

TTC called James a lousy leader again. Turning to Shi Hao, he told him that he should make wise decisions. Finally, he turned to Kum Hong and told him that he caused friction and was a drag to the team. With that, he said to Kum Hong, “You’re fired!”