The Apprentice Interviews

It’s the penultimate episode of the series, and some familiar faces return as the final five candidates go head-to-head with Lord Sugar’s most trusted advisors for one-to-one interviews. Business plans are interrogated, CVs picked apart and white lies exposed as the candidates battle it out to make the final. Back in the boardroom, the semi-finalists are revealed.

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Having honed their survival strategies over millennia, mammals have evolved to be masters of the cold. In this episode, we journey across the globe, exploring a frozen world, from icy seas to snow-capped mountains and meet the unique mammals that call them home. For most, the cold is a killer. But for mammals, with their unique physical traits like warm thick fur and rich nourishing milk, and remarkable behaviours like hibernation, conquering the cold is possible.

We begin our journey on the Arctic islands of Svalbard, where polar bears, synonymous with this cold archipelago, dominate this remote frozen world. But as their world warms, and the frozen seas that are their hunting grounds disappear, they are being forced to find new sources of food. For the first time, we follow a polar bear hunting on land as it heads high up into the mountains in a rarely seen long-distance pursuit of Svalbard’s reindeer.

Mammals have been forced to adapt to the cold for millions of years. Whereas other species avoided the series of thick ice sheets that once covered a quarter of all land, mammals were able to survive the freezing conditions, and by adapting their behaviour, many are now completely at home in these inhospitable lands.

One land that has little changed since the last ice age is the tundra of northern Alaska. In this remote, hostile landscape, a mythical and rarely seen mammal endures: the wolverine. They rely completely on snow to survive, providing them meat from animals that have succumbed to the cold and dens in which to raise their young. Whilst other animals either flee or hibernate to avoid the coldest time of year, they stay active all winter, traversing the vast landscape in search of food. This privileged view reveals a surprisingly caring side of a highly elusive animal.

Knowledge can play a huge role in surviving the cold. Rather than roaming huge distances, some smart mammals will return annually to places they know will provide them with food. In Canada’s northern Yukon, a unique community of bears has been passing knowledge down the generations of a special ice-free river. While most bears are already hibernating, this late flowing river allows chum salmon to spawn into the winter months, giving the bears an opportunity for one last feast before hibernation that they simply cannot resist.

Mammals’ ability to hibernate is a clever way to avoid winter, and deep underground in an abandoned mine, little and big brown bats are well into their hibernation. But not all stay asleep. One sneaky bat wakes in order to mate while the rest of the colony sleeps on.

Bringing newborns into a world of snow and ice has many challenges, but mammals’ unique ability to produce fat-rich milk allows harp seal mothers to have one of the shortest weening periods of all. In just 12 days, off the coast of Greenland, they race to fatten their pups to independence as the icy nursery melts around them.

Far above sea level, the remote Kluane Mountains of North America support the largest ice field outside the poles. In this rugged landscape of rock and ice, pika, a relative of the rabbit, patiently wait for summer. Having stayed awake all winter, surviving on food they collected last year, once summer does return, they will all have just a few weeks to harvest nearly a year’s worth of food before the winter lockdown begins again. But storing your hard-earnt supplies all in one place comes at a risk if you can’t trust your neighbour.

Averaging 4,000 meters above sea level, the thin air of the lofty mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China struggle to retain much heat at all. As a result, life here always feels cold. Snow leopards are the top predator and have lived here for millions of years, but recently their lives have become linked with humans and the domestic yak they herd. It’s too good an opportunity to ignore. But through a community initiative, they have found a way to live alongside each other, even when the yak are taken by the leopards.

Back at sea level, on the shores of Canada’s Hudson Bay, for mammals specialised for life in the cold, a warming world is now the biggest challenge. Here, arctic fox and polar bears wait together by open water where there should be ice. For arctic foxes living here, as food ashore runs out, they would normally move and follow the polar bears onto the ice in order to scavenge off the bears’ kills. But as the winter freeze, and arrival of the ice is delayed, the bears cannot hunt, and life becomes more and more desperate. This has led to the foxes resorting to cannibalism, desperately fighting with each other to feed on the unfortunate foxes that have succumbed to hunger.

Linda Plant on The Apprentice 2024 Interviews

Can you share a piece of advice that has stuck with you throughout your career?

Don’t be afraid to have a go. Stay focused on your goals. Flexibility and adaptability are the keys to success.

What inspires you about the next generation of businesspeople?

I think there’s so much innovation available now to embrace for today’s generation. They’ve got fantastic tools to work with. You can become a global business from a single room. I think there’s great innovation which is moving all the time. I think the future is very exciting. 

Describe the ideal candidate using only three words?

Shrewd, realistic and hardworking.

What distinguishes a great business plan from a mediocre one?

To have a great business plan, the first thing you need is a clear vision and strategy. You need to show that you’ve done your market research and analysis, and that your goals are achievable. You’ve got to show that you have looked at other businesses in that sector and fully understand that sector. If you’ve got all that, you’ve got a business plan. This is a key element that shouldn’t be overlooked because some of the candidate’s business plans are 90 pages and full of irrelevant facts. They just blind you with useless information.

What keeps you coming back to do the interviewer’s questions?

Well, I think the simple answer is I really enjoy it.  If you’re passionate about something, it becomes a source of enjoyment. Hopefully, I’m giving some good advice and constructive criticism on how to improve an idea and how to make their business plan work. I hope I can do a little bit of good and not always be thought of as ‘the Queen of mean’.

How do you balance being both tough and critical with the candidates in the interview process?

I always try to be firm but fair, it’s never personal. I try to be honest and I try to give constructive feedback, suggestions on how to improve and constructive criticism. I do acknowledge the good things if there are any.

What do you think viewers can learn from watching The Apprentice?

Watching The Apprentice is really a great opportunity. A great mock class for business and strategy, watching how the candidates perform under pressure, how they handled negotiation, marketing, communication. It offers real life challenges and highlights the difficulties of being an entrepreneur. A viewer can gain a lot of insight into the world of business. Plus, it’s very entertaining.

If you had to describe Lord Sugar’s leadership style in one word, what would it be?

Authentic.

Which of the interviewers, past or present, would you be most nervous to interview you? 

Well, Paul Kemsley. I used to watch him on The Apprentice because Lord Sugar sent me his tape when I went to audition. Paul has a similar strategy to me: no nonsense, get to the point, cut out the bullsh*t. So, I would be quite worried if he interviewed me.

I do have to say Mike Soutar, when a candidate’s business is a drink or a cake, he actually makes it or bakes it and then you have to drink it or eat it. I wouldn’t like to taste one of those from Mike.

What specific qualities or traits do you look for when grilling the candidates during the interview process?

Common sense. That’s always a good one. Leadership skills, which become apparent in the tasks. Problem solving because problems need solutions. You’ve got to communicate; communication is the key in a lot of things in life. Resilience, you’ve got to be resilient in business. And teamwork, because in a lot of cases to grow a business you’ve got to build a team.

Do you have any top tips for entrepreneurs during the cost-of-living crisis?

You’ve always got to cut your cloth. You’ve got to evaluate your expenses, renegotiate deals, if possible, try to come up with more effective marketing strategies, strengthen your relationships, and carefully evaluate the deals that come along because they must make good financial sense.

If you could put Lord Sugar in the hot seat, what would you ask?

I’d ask him what he thought was the key ingredient in the success of his business and how he stays so young looking and fit.

What’s the toughest question you’ve ever asked a candidate during the interview process, and how did they respond?

What’s your USP is a tough question. They very rarely have an answer and that’s quite key.

When I started my knitwear business, I knew I wanted to have very pretty feminine knitwear that was going to be my USP. And in a lot of businesses, you need a hook. So, that’s a question that is quite difficult for a lot of the candidates to answer.

What’s the most common mistake candidates make when facing the interviewers?

Well, lack of preparation or research. I mean, the lack of research is just unbelievable. They come in being overconfident, they might have a poor idea, but I usually grill them on how to back up what they’ve written. And a lot of them just don’t have the answers because they really haven’t done the prep work.

Without giving too much away, can you recall a particularly memorable moment from this series’ interviews?

I was very impressed by one candidate. And I gave this person a lot of compliments and praise about their achievements. Prior to presenting me with their business plan, I was quite impressed with this candidate.

What’s the most outrageous lie a candidate has told during an interview, and did they think they could get away with it?

Many lies, so many years. How can I recall? One candidate told me that he was going to be a global entertainer. I said, ‘you’re not a global entertainer. You’ve just got a mobile discotheque, haven’t you?’ A lot of them cave under pressure.

Loads of lies, loads of fibs. They all think they can pull the wool over my eyes but actually they can’t. It’s not happening in my interview. When you get to the final five, you’ve gone through 10, gruelling weeks of tasks and it’s not easy. I think people would be disappointed if I sat there and said how nice you were. In fact, I’ve looked at my episode this year. I think I’m quite nice this year.

If you had to sing a business-themed karaoke song, what would it be and why?

‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ by The Beatles.