The Apprentice update: Anita Shah fired first

Sugar said that Shah, 35, had failed to live up to her billing as “one of Britain’s best business prospects”.

“You showed no initiative in spotting that you were going for a disaster,” said Sugar. “And on that basis, Anita, you’re fired!”

Shah
was brought in the boardroom alongside senior sales consultant Debra
Barr by team leader Mona Lewis, after the girls’ team Ignite lost out
to the boys’ team Empire in a cleaning challenge.

Empire, led by Howard Ebison, made £239.61 profit compared to Ignite’s £160.55.

Confronting
the girls about their failure, Sir Alan said: “There are reasons why
each one of you should be fired. Mona, you haven’t shown me any
business acumen. Anita, you were on the back of that van and you were
seeing the money flow out. Debra, at the end of the day you were
seriously responsible for a lot of things that went wrong on this task.”

Speaking about her exit afterwards, the law graduate blamed her early departure on Sir Alan’s dislike for lawyers.

“I’m
bitterly disappointed but I accept that I wasn’t a stellar performer,
and without appearing to have a chip on my shoulder I just think that
Sir Alan doesn’t particularly like lawyers,” she said. “Let’s see in 10
years if he doesn’t sit and think, ‘maybe I made the wrong decision’.”

Did Sir Alan make the right decision?