Another week, another task, another hour of me screaming at the tv.
What a highly infuriating episode!
From a team who had really strong design and marketing but that didn’t touch on their USP, to a superfood bar that didn’t contain enough superfoods to have a super-effect and crumbled to dust as soon as you opened the wrapper….this was not the strongest week for either team…
Brett’s team had this unique angle on their vegetable crisps. The crisps weren’t fried. They were made into crisps in a way that was significantly more healthy and maintained more nutrients. The vegetables were raw. This was the USP. This was the selling point. This was the thing above all else that should have been focussed on. And instead, Richard didn’t even put it on the packaging and they hardly mentioned it in their pitches. Major error in my eyes.
Charlene’s team seemed a bit lost when it came to most of the process to be honest. Their putting together of the recipe was weak. Somehow Vana and Richard seemed to have more help in the kitchen than Charlene and she really did struggle. I think that was the main downfall of the product…even the crossed out lines on the packaging were to do with the recipe and the percentages of the superfood in each bar…The packaging and design was significantly weaker than the other team too….the veg crisp packaging just stood out do much….and the bar packaging was just so bland and boring.
It seemed to be like two sides of a coin this week. Complete opposites. You had dryness versus oiliness. You had overselling the USP (begging up the superfoods) to underselling the USP (not mentioning the manufacturing process). And neither side of the coin made a tempting enough product.
I still can’t believe that they didn’t sell a single unit. Not one. Neither team sold a single product.
I can’t blame Charleine for getting emotional – if I were in that boardroom with a product I felt I could maybe have done better on, seeing everyone fail and be completely mortified about the situation, I’d have been in tears too….
At the end of the day I don’t think I would have had a clue who to fire…. I think Gary was a bit neither here nor there in this task, Brett was PM but was nowhere near leading his team, Richard missed the USP in the marketing, Charlene created a product that was nowhere near the standard it should have been….I don’t know where I would have started.
I think it was Brett’s time. But I am sad that he has gone. I think he has been a good candidate throughout the process and I actually think that it could have been anyone to go this week. He was just the unlucky one who didn’t stand up and fight when he needed to.
I do think he did a good thing though, sticking to his guns about Richard. He thought Richard did a good job and he wasn’t going to deny that to save himself. He was being honourable and though some people might think it was silly, I think it was a gentlemanly way to behave and it wasn’t that which got him fired. There is always space to be honourable in the workplace. It’s refreshing.
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