This is how Harrogate candidate Keir did in BBC's The Apprentice's first episode
A Harrogate man has had a tough opening week in the new The Apprentice series on BBC TV with Lord Sugar questioning his “rock, paper, scissors” sales tactic which even viewers labelled as “crazy”.
Yorkshireman Keir Shave, 27, who employs more than 40 staff at his telemarketing business in Leeds, had a lucky escape after ending up in the boardroom following Team Forest’s failure in Austria the first episode of the 19th series.
Although the likeable Harrogate hopeful emphasised he had sold the most tickets, Lord Sugar, alongside his trusted advisors Baroness Karren Brady and Tim Campbell MBE, was distinctly unimpressed by his methods.
Sent to Innsbruck to make a profit by running Alpine tours, the enthusiastic Keir dropped the price of tickets below the cost price and challenged one potential customer to a game of a rock, paper, scissors to decide how much to charge for entry, which he then lost.
After Team Forest sold just six tickets in total, with Lord Sugar labelling it “a shambles”, Keir was joined by fellow Team Forest members Carlo, Dean, and Emma in the boardroom for Lord Sugar’s first firing of the new series.
Fortunately for Harrogate’s candidate, the business tycoon opted to dispense with “Proud Northerner" Emma Rothwell, who set up her online gift store business with just £600 but failed to come out fighting sufficiently, when it came to the crunch, in a manner Lord Sugar traditionally likes.
Pointing out that she had sold not one ticket, Lord Sugar said: "You haven't explained to me what, in fact, you did do."
"My gut feeling is telling me, Emma, it is with regret – you're fired," said Lord Sugar.
Harrogate’s Keir Shave is one of 18 new candidates or, rather 17, that is now, battling it out for the opportunity of a lifetime - to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment and mentorship.
But, with the notoriously hard-to-please tycoon “looking for a Bezos, rather than a bozo,” Keir Shave cannot afford many more “rock, paper, scissors” moment if he is to make it all the way to the final of The Apprentice.