Commentary

• Location, Location, Location.

  • The winds of fortune appeared to blow Protege's way when a threatening sky made their inventory of umbrellas look even more inviting.  Protege project manager Kristi sensibly moved the team's table indoors, where the customers and goods could stay dry.  But it was Kristi who was left high and dry when the clouds lifted and shoppers moved outdoors again, where Nick's Versacorps crew sold everything down to--and including--the tablecloth.  An umbrella salesman should never be undone by rain.  Kristi could have rolled with the meteorological punches by relocating or expanding to multiple locations to increase her sales.

• Find a Unique Product. 

  •  Kristi thought she had a winning approach when she purchased hats and umbrellas at rock-bottom prices in Chinatown, then sold them at a nice markup at her uptown table.  But the profit margin proved meaningless when the good failed to excite the customers, who knew that better prices for the same products were just a few subway stops away.  Meanwhile, Nick's Versacorp sewed fairly ordinary ribbons onto fairly ordinary T-shirts, and with just that little bit of extra effort generated a completely original look as well as a fairly nifty profit.

• Look at the Record. 

  • No matter whose example you follow when evaluating your team, don't rely on words alone.  As they say in politics, "Look at the record."  Nick became the first male project manager to win by following this good advice.  After Trump gave him the chance to poach talent from the ranks of undefeated all-female Protege, Nick took a look at his recruits win-loss record and made the wisest possible choice: he got out of their way.  "They've won four in a row," he observed. "Obviously they're doing something right."  Nick watched bemusedly as Versacorp's new faces chose, tailored, and sold the product with more success than the team had ever seen.  At the end of the day, Versacorp's surviving members had finally learned how to win.  Nick didn't make many strong choices, but he made the one that counted the most:  he trusted the record.

• Leadership Means Making Decisions. 

  • Project manager Kristi refused to make an executive decision about what Protege should sell at the flea market.  "I don't want to be a dictator," she said while her crew scoured Manhatten's shops.  "I want to make sure the team is on board, too."  Unfortunately for Kristi, the team was waiting for her to act like a leader.  It was 7PM before Kristi made her tentative choice.  Protege left Chinatown loaded with hats, umbrellas, and doubts about their project manager's performance under pressure.  "I tried to lead by group consensus, " Kristi confessed in the boardroom.  That was her biggest mistake.

• Fight Back. 

  • Kristi's indecisive leadership left her vulnerable, but it was her friend Jessie who really did her in.  Jessie advised Kristi to stay quiet in front of Trump no matter what, and that's exactly what Kristi did--even after Jessie turned against her and said that she should be fired.  Jessie may have started off with the best intentions; the emotional Kristi could easily have crumbled during a dirty boardroom brawl.  But under The Donald's demanding gaze, Jessie threw Kristi to the wolves and Kristi took it like a lamb.  "Kristi, until tonight you were a star," Trump said. "But then I saw Heidi fighting for her life, I saw Omarosa fighting for her life, and I didn't see that fight in you . . . You never even said anything in your own defense, and I don't get it."  Finally, Kristi got the message and tried to argue, but it was too late.  After she'd gone, trusted Trump employee Bernie Diamond illustrated the importance of fighting back.  "She took the heat without any defense," he said, "which by default meant it was all true."

Lessons Learned