DECISION-MAKING

THE APPRENTICE, S03E01, WHOPPER 101

Show Summary
Each season begins with a group of contestants with backgrounds in various enterprises, typically including bankers, real estate, restaurant management, political consulting, sales, and marketing. During the show, these contestants live in a communal penthouse, allowing their relationships to build. In Season 6, however, the teams were separated, with the winning team living in the LA mansion and the losing team taking up residence in tents located in the mansion's backyard. They are placed into teams, and each week are assigned a task and required to select a project manager for the task. The winning team receives a reward, while the losing team faces a boardroom showdown in order to determine which team member should be fired (eliminated from the show). Elimination proceeds in two stages. In the first stage, all of the losing team's members are confronted. The project manager is asked to select up to three (one, two, or three) of the team members who are believed to be most responsible for the loss. In the second stage, the rest of the team is dismissed, and the project manager and the selected members face a final confrontation in which at least one of the two-to-four is fired. Trump reserves the right at times to do the following: not allowing the project manager to choose who goes to the boardroom for a final hearing, fire/eliminate any candidate without a final boardroom session if there's enough information to warrant so, and fire multiple people if two or more people are found liable for the weak performance. Trump also reserved the right to fire all candidates inside the boardroom if all candidates performed badly. In season 6, the project manager of the winning team got the opportunity, and was mandated, to sit with Donald in the board room and help make the decision of who from the losing team gets fired. The winning project manager was expected to ask questions and give opinions in the board room during this process. When the final candidates are left, an interview process begins, involving executives from various companies who interview each of the finalists and report their assessments of them to the host. After that, a firing takes place. In the event four are left, a double firing occurs. Seasons 46 were the exception to this rule as Seasons 45 foresaw Trump jettisoning the remaining members of a losing team (eliminating the need for interviews), and Trump utilized three pairs of two and a final four for Season 6. Save Season 6, the final two are then assigned different tasks, along with support teams composed of previously fired candidates. After the tasks are done, a final boardroom occurs, with testimonials from the team members and a last chance for the final two candidates to prove themselves to the target CEO. Finally, Trump hires one of the two candidates to become the apprentice for the season (save Season 6, in which Trump fired two people from the final six to decide the final four, and hires one of the four candidates to be the apprentice).i

Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

Cast of Characters
The Net Worth team contained four men and five women, and the Magna Corp team contained five men and four women. Trump stated that "You just have to be business-smart", no matter what kind of smarts you have. Trump also pointed out one other major difference between the two groups - those with only a high school diploma earn three times as much as the college grads. Stephanie suggested Magna for the team name. It was short for magna cum laude, which means "with great distinction" and is often used as a title for high achieving graduates. Tara suggested Net Worth.ii
Candidate Kendra Todd - Real Estate Broker Tana Goertz - Sales Executive Craig Williams - Shoeshine Business Owner Alex Thomason - Attorney Bren Olswanger - Prosecutor Chris Shelton - Real Estate Investor Angie McKnight - Gym Franchise Owner Stephanie Myers - Supply Chain Consultant Erin Elmore - Attorney John Gafford - Technology Firm Owner Audrey Evans - Real Estate Agent Tara Dowdell - Senior Governor Management Michael Tarshi - Real Estate Developer Kristen Kirchner - Real Estate Financier Danny Kastner - Marketing Tech Firm Owner Verna Felton - Business Manager Brian McDowell - Real Estate Broker Todd Everett - Sales Manager Age 25 37 37 29 32 21 41 29 26 32 22 28 25 31 39 31 29 34 Residence Boynton Beach, Florida Des Moines, Iowa Conley, Georgia Brewster, Washington Memphis, Tennessee Las Vegas, Nevada Lake Balboa, California San Diego, California Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tampa, Florida Salt Lake City, Utah New York, New York Boston, Massachusetts Los Angeles, California Boston, Massachusetts Seattle, Washington Wildwood, New Jersey Carlsbad, California Result Hired by Trump Fired in Season Finale Fired in week 15 Fired in week 14 Fired in week 13 Fired in week 12 Fired in week 11 Fired in week 10 Fired in week 9 Fired in week 8 Fired in week 7 Fired in week 6 Fired in week 5 Fired in week 4 Fired in week 3 Quit in week 3 Fired in week 2 Fired in week 1

Legend: Red = Book Smarts/Magna; Green = Street Smarts/Net Worth

Episode Recap
Week 1: Whopper 101Airdate: January 20, 2005 Hosting Company: Burger King Project managers: Todd (Magna) and John (New Worth). Both had experience in the food industry, and were trusted by their teams to lead them to victory. Project: Both teams have to promote new hamburger product from Burger King and then sell it. Results: Magna chosen Triple Cheese Angus Steak Burger while Net Worth chosen Western Angus Burger. Winning team: Net Worth. The team of "street smarts" specifically picked a burger that they would be able to make an effective marketing campaign out of. They were able to incorporate a Western theme in their restaurant, along with a contest for two round trip tickets to Las Vegas, that encouraged customers to buy their burger. Net Worth also had
2 Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

three cashiers and eight members trained for the restaurant, and were able to successfully upsell their burger. Reward: Dinner with Trump at the famed Club 21 restaurant. Losing team: Magna Reasons for loss: Magna had trained six people and only had two cashiers in their restaurant, which lead to a bad point of sale and long lines. They also had an awful promotion scheme. Dramatic tension: In the beginning, Danny's eccentricities became too much for some members of his team. On the task, Todd had delegated a lot of the responsibilities to his teammates, but didn't do much work himself. Danny and Stephanie struggled with Magna's marketing, and ended up with a ludicrous baseball theme that did not impress the team or advertise their burger well enough. In the boardroom, Danny was singled out for the loss and was blamed for being difficult to manage and responsible for the horrible marketing. Danny defended himself, stating that he was able to at least get people into their Burger King, but Carolyn reminded him that it was not their objective to just get customers. Danny also called out Stephanie for "selling out" in the boardroom, blaming him solely for their marketing and for him not letting her express her ideas. While everyone else blamed Danny for their failure, Kendra was the only one on Magna to call out Todd for not being able to control Danny, which impressed Carolyn. In the final boardroom, Alex shot himself in the foot when he admitted he did not train enough people, which took the heat off Todd, who was primarily responsible for their point of sale. Sent to boardroom: Todd, Alex, and Danny Fired: Todd for having no leadership ability, not being able to control his team, having only two cashiers that were ineffective, for making poor delegations, horrible marketing, terrible-decision making, and for being a poor leader.iii

Discussion Questions
1. Identify the three most significant decisions made by each team. 2. Which ones are programmed and non-programmed? Which are individual and which are group decisions? 3. Which decisions, if any, make it all the way through the 7-stage decision making process? 4. What are the major behavioral influences on these decisions? 5. Is the group decision-making negatively influenced by any behavioral factors (see p. 473)

Solutions
Write to starling@qatar.cmu.edu for to obtain a copy of the solution to this case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice_(U.S._TV_series)#Premise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice_(U.S._season_3)#Candidates iii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice_(U.S._season_3)#Week_1:_Whopper_101
i ii

Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu