Apprentice 3 - Street Smarts vs. Book smarts

The interviewers stressed Kendra's young age.

Kendra is 26 years old. Both Tana and Craig are 37 years old.

Look at Kendra's biography:



I think Trump would benefit by having someone like Kendra on his real estate development and marketing staff. She has developed marketing strategies that are unparalleled giving her company the competitive edge. She's young, driven, innovative, and successful. She's only beginning to capitalize on her talents.

Compare to Tana:



Tana is a sales person. She's a successful sales person. She's a nine-to-fiver who will adorn t-shirts with rhinestones to increase the price point and she's personable. However, I don't think her talents are as broad as Kendra's talents.

Just by the editing, I think Kendra will be chosen.

We saw lots of Tana winning inthe early going, and she was presented as one of the heavyweights from early on.

Kendra was not much heard of until the Pontiac brochure, but after that, all we hear is Kendra's confidence. I think they edited the series that way so that Kendra will seem to close with a rush.

Tonight's the night.

I don't know who to cheer for.

Kendra just seemed to come from out of nowhere. I think she is basically a shy person-she doesn't seem so at ease with a group of people. She can be all right one-on-one, though.

I think Tana really is the consummate "people" person. She really likes being around people.

I suspect that Tana would be a lot more fun to work for, but that is not what the competition is all about.

I do believe that Tana and Craig cooperated on a "get Kendra" program during the Pontiac brochure episode. And not because Tana went to bed at 1AM-after all, when Tana was project manager, she didn't ask Kendra to stay up all night.

It was obvious that Tana and Craig had a mutual admiration society for several weeks. When the Pontiac brochure task came up, well into the first day, Tana and Craig were saying such things as, "but I don't understand the concept". Craig actually walked out of a meeting.

They kept saying that Kendra just didn't have a workable plan, etc.

As a result, Kendra stayed up all night and got it done by herself. As Kendra is from publishing, she is experienced in advertising, which a brochure certainly is. Basically, it was a one woman show.

Craig and Tana sandbagged her. The stalled, stalled, stalled until there was no consensus by 1AM the first night. If Kendra managed to pull off a miracle, fine-everyone on the team advances. If Kendra fails due to lack of support, all three of them go into the boardroom, and Craig and Tana both back each other up in telling Trump, "but she had no workable concept". As a result, Tana and Craig survive, Kendra goes.

Kendra simply outworked their plan. She was from publishing, she knew advertising, and she put together one heck of a brochure all by herself.

Incidentally, I think there was a reason for Tana to pair up with Craig.

Craig had a couple of flaws which Tana could exploit at the end. First, he was frequently noncommunicative and authoritarian. It's great that he decided to build that toy box, but absolutely nobody on his team though it was a good choice. A good leader gets people on board, even if reluctantly.

Second, Craig's attitude toward Kendra was sexual discrimination suit waiting to happen. Maybe he just didn't like Kendra personally, but he put it in such a way that it seems like gender discrimination.

How about this exchange between them-this actually took place:

Kendra: "Craig, you're very condescending to me".

Craig: "You don't even know what condescending means".

A guy who handles a conflict with a female colleague in the business world that way is likely to get his employer in trouble.

I think Tana's plan was to form an alliance with Craig, who was pretty competent despite his flaws, to eliminate everyone else. Then at the end, point out that Trump simply cannot have on board someone who talks to female employees the way Craig talked to Kendra. Then Tana gets the job.

Tana's plan half worked. Teaming up with Craig got her to the finals, but not against Craig, who had obvious weaknesses, but against Kendra.

I'm guessing Kendra wins, if only for the reason that the editing seems to show her coming from nowhere to gain strength week by week.

Wow, we're definitely seeing Tana at her worst ever right now. Terrible organization, terrible delegation, terrible people skills, and incredibly condescending. Chris was talking to the athletes to make sure they were ready to go and to help them prepare, and she comes along and insults him WHILE HE'S STANDING THERE. Then when the event planners told her that Chris's way was the best, she took the credit. Wow. And what's with all the "I think you're talking to the next Appretice" and "This job is mine" stuff to the athletes and participants?! So unprofessional. I mean, we haven't seen how Kendra's event went yet, but Tana was just plain terrible.

Kendra has 1000 times more class, 1000 times more skills, and did a 1000 times better job than Tana. I was very impressed by Kendra, especially as a gamer (Oh man, that tournament rocked!! THEY SAT IN THE RING AND PLAYED ON THE BIG SCREEN!! COOOOL!!!), especially since she ended up making the Playstation executives so pleased. Also, Kendra gave her team a lot of credit and treated them very well. They were happy to work for her.

Sure, Tana's team might not have come through for her, but that's only because she treated them like crap.

I pretty much agree with evrything you said, Smog.

I'm in the Kendra camp now.

I first thought Kendra was aloof and probably not someone who likes people. After this episode, I now see that Kendra values others very much if she perceives that they are giving their best for her-the mark of a good boss.

In fairness to Tana, I do believe she got the more difficult of the two crews. These people started off at each other's throats from the get-go. Kristin should have proofread that printed material-that bit about having the private evaluations of the athletes making it's way into the flyer was just terrible. Anyone who bothered to read the flyer could see that was never meant for the public to read!

When it gets to the point that you can't trust your crew to see evaluations like "so-and-so is a real primma donna" and realize this does NOT go into the flyer for the public to see-that's almost enough to make someone give up right there!

Even so, I think Tana could have done better trying to get everyone together. Both Kendra and Tana were dismayed at their crew at first, but Tana immediately went out of her way to say that she will fire any or all of them in a minute if she senses they are blowing it for her. Not exactly thinking positively, is she?

And I agree that what she did to Chris was totally out of line-having him stand there while you make gratuitous insults about him to a third person, and when that third person informs you that Chris was doing the right thing, acting like it was no big deal. Very phony, very shallow.

I cannot see how this ends up as anything but a win for Kendra, even though Tana did get the job done very well.

Wow. Interesting show.

Tana has a huge ego. If that wasn't apparent before, it's apparent now. During the course of the show, Tana's good opinion of herself grew larger and larger. At the same time, everyone else's good opinion of her grew smaller and smaller. She was losing points every time she opened her mouth.

Tana is grumpy and disrepectful to her team members from the moment she gets them up in the morning until the time she says goodbye to them.

She's grumpy when Kristen bothers her with minutia. She mutters, "leave me alone."

The extremely important programs were a disaster because Tana didn't take the time to proofread them before they were printed.

Tana failed to make sure that a United States flag was available for the flag procession led by the Governor.

Tana bad-mouthed her team members to anyone who would listen. Chris worked so hard for her and she didn't appreciate his efforts at all. When Chris reported to her about the management of an important detail, Tana blew him off and then complained to the person standing next to her: "He’s tryin’ to tell the boss how to do the job!"

Tana was responsible for managing the event--yet she failed to pay attention to the specific details necessary to make this particular event run smoothly.

When she said good-bye to her team, she refused to walk out with them. They were the EMPLOYEES and big-headed EXECUTIVES like her can't be walking out with mere employees.

She peeks to make sure the lowly employees are gone before she makes a mad dash to her limo. On the ride back to the penthouse, she's declaring victory and talking about packing up her family and moving to the Big Apple. “We aint in Iowa anymore, Toto,” she says.

While her reference to the Wizard of Oz was a delightful Tana-ism, I believe a reference to the Beverly Hillbillies would have been more appropriate.

Kendra, on the other hand, paid close attention to all the significant details of her particular event. EVERYONE was pleased with how smooth everything was running and EVERYONE was having happy and having fun. One of the sponsors was so impressed that he told Kendra, if Donald Trump doesn't hire her, his company would.

Kendra didn't give her team members the brush-off like Tana did. Instead, she gave them her heart-felt thanks along with hugs and tears of appreciation. Quite an amazing contrast between the two women.

Unless we were tricked by the editing, Kendra will be hired.

I agree with the points above by Debra and Smog, but I am going to give a partial defense of Tana. I am firmly in the Kendra camp, but I want to be fair to Tana, too.

I think Kendra had the more cooperative team, right from the get-go. In one of the few places you can fault Kendra's treatment of her team, I don't think she is willing to accept that Michael did not hijack those sponsors, they walked in and he was trying to hold them there until Kendra showed up. From what I could see, it really wasn't his fault, but Kendra blamed him for it to the end. Kendra later made it clear that she appreciated Michael's and the other team members' total efforts, though.

Tana had Kristen on her side, which is a liability. The other guy, (not Chris), also seemed high maintenance. I came to the show after Kristen was gone, but on the basis of what I saw last night, Kristen is pure poison. All she ever did was get everyone started on nonstop arguments. This is who Tana had to work with. It takes it's toll.

Tana was wrong to treat Chris the way she did, since Chris did not give her any trouble and was trying hard to help her. But if at least one of her employees is driving her nuts, I can see why she got frustrated.

Kristen's failure to read that program was just unbelievable. I would get upset too. Kristen is in real estate, she knows how to deal with people and she knows the importance of making a first impression. If Tana cannot trust Kristen to read the programs she is in charge of putting out, and have Kristen realize that internal notes like, "This athlete is a pain in the nick-humor him" do not go into the program, then it is almost time to throw one's hands up inthe air. That's got to throw anyone off their game.

I think it is possible that Tana might have had the bigger task. Kendra had to deal with video machines all over the place, but machines go where you put them. Tana had Over 100 athletes-human beings-to coordinate. Kendra's event went smoother, but I wonder if Tana didn't have the bigger job.

Up to now, Tana seemed pretty nice. She probably is. I think her departure from that nice behavior might be the conscious effort on her part that since she is one step away from the job, it is time to pull out all stops. If feelings get bruised, they get bruised. She was one step away, and it was time to forget everything else and just get the job done.

I still think Kendra should get the job, but I think Tana performed pretty well, overall. Everyone agreed Tana got the task done well. At the end, everyone from Trump and the Governor on down was pretty satisfied, and I guess we can forgive Tana for thinking that the Trump job was in the bag. And she did it all with Kristen to deal with-that's quite a load to carry.

I wonder if they didn't show so much of Kendra previously because it may have been too obvious who would be the next apprentice. By only showing her when necessary, it may have delayed the audience notice of her and thereby making the show a little more interesting.

I love the fact that one of the sponsors actually offered Kendra a position. I think right there it shows a lot. I cannot believe that Tana "her staff" idiots! No matter their flaws, they were picked to be on the show and therefore are not idiots. Carolyn had made a great comment before that sometimes you don't get to choice who works for you and sometimes you have to work with difficult people. Her choice of words and how she handled these individuals proves that she would have a difficult time handling a large team of people. If I said anything like about people reporting to me, it would be completely unacceptable and I am a lowly AVP.

I think they both got a difficult team - it is hard to say which was worse, but I honestly do not think that one team was significantly better than the other. Remember Danny talking with the execs about a jingle? Kendra just handled the difficult situations better and also made sure she was (after the Danny incident) available and overseeing any of the high impact stuff. Tana really should have quickly read through the brochure and not just relied on Kristin. All she had to do was take 15 minutes from a high level and read though - she would have seen instantly that there was a problem. You have to as a manager, make a risk assessment. Whatever is high risk, you need to look at yourself. It is no different than my job (at a significantly smaller scale). I have important reports that it is imperative are accurate. Although I have some one reporting to me that is responsible for the review of this data - anything high risk, I also review.

Also what the h*ll is the deal with Tana keep saying she is a nice person. One nice is not necessarily an attribute that you are looking for in this position. Two she is not nice.

Also even though Tana may have had many athletes, Kendra did not simply have just machines to deal with…since machines need people to play with them - Kendra also had several people to set up that were part of the tournament. Many comments that participants had was how they loved her set of the tournament.

Gamers are at least as hard to please as athletes.

Tana's blustering ego should have gotten her booted off the show before now. It is true that all of them have to have egos but it's managing that ego that counts.

Hi Lightwizard, Long time no see. I don't believe in managing one's ego. Without our ego, we end up depressed.

Other than to hype ratings with artificial drama, I don't see a real contest here between Kendra and Tana. To me, Kendra is and has been the real choice at least since the Pontiac brochure task. The rest have been clear also-rans.

Tana's self-proclaimed "niceness" is really pure phoniness -- maybe as phony a contestant as Omarossa. Previously, she's bagged projects when she was immune and then claimed credit for Kendra's sole work. I had little respect for her prior to this final project, but after watching her "performance", I think Trump would be better off hiring virtually any of the candidates before hiring Tana. In fact, her handling of this task could be a "what not to do" video for management trainees. She belittled her so-called employees behind (and then later, in front of) their backs; she delegated what she called the single most important task to Kristen and then didn't bother to check the program; she flitted from one burning fire to the next without really putting an extinguisher to any of them; she claimed credit for herself when none was done and blamed everyone but herself for the mini-disasters, all the way crowing obnoxiously to the camera and the event participants what a great job she was doing. It was the single worst performance by a finalist in the 3 versions of Apprentice and but for the morbid entertainment and advertising dollars on the line, this one should have been called like one of the earlier boardrooms where Trump didn't even bother to confer first with Carolyn and George (let alone a studio audience) before firing the candidate.

Kendra on the other hand showed she not only has book AND street smarts but she has something extra that very few (if any) of the other Apprentice 1, 2 and 3 candidates has ever shown -- a heart.

By managing, I mean not letting it run us into the ground or inflict boorish behaviour on other individuals. There's ego and I think there's quasi-ego.

The Dalai Lama and the monks don't seem depressed. I think that there is a difference between self-esteem and self-inflation.

Anyways, Kendra will win, she should win.

You nailed that, Ray.

Kendra is a shoo-in over that self-gratifying, phony display of one-upsmanship Tana attempted to foist over on Carolyn, the absolutely wrong person to attempt this obvious ploy.

I concur with Allan; Tana is wayyyy too phony. Her kool aid smile with those beetlejuice teeth is just a facade to make people think she's the goody-goody of the bunch.

Agree with both, Tana is someone who can put a smile and say nice stuff to you while plotting seriously to insult you in some way and carry it out, IMO anyways.