Anita Shah on The Apprentice 2012: Bilyana will be feeling aggrieved The eighth series of The Apprentice began with all 16 candidates looking to make their mark, and the first task had them doing just that: making marks on merchandise to generate profits. They were instructed to buy blank products, brand them and sell them. Sugar offered the usual welcoming wishes and warnings on their first visit to the board room. He wanted the Lennon for his McCartney, he said, he wasn't looking for "Where's Wally?." He might not be but the rest of us most definitely are definitely looking out for the wallies amongst them. The girls, under the name of Sterling, took on the boys" team, Phoenix. As the battle of the sexes began, the teams" differences were more apparent than their similarities. Nick was reluctant in putting himself forward as project manager, Gabrielle couldn't do so fast enough. The cost-obsessed boys were in sharp contrast to the largely cost-ignorant girls. Yet the boys" bland flag and bus patterns for bags and teddy bears were uninspired compared to the girls" more creative cartoon creatures for T-shirts, bags and jigsaws. It was clear that this was less of a battle of personalities, and more a straight war between the cost-conscious minds and the creative hearts. Jane, the lady in red, was the only one with margin on her mind but she got sidetracked into complicating the design process. The girls revealed themselves to be better at sniping and undermining, very quickly turning on each other and marking out their sacrificial lamb if things did not, in the end, go well. The boys on the other hand claimed to have a created a "bromance" amongst them with only a minor disagreement about pricing bears ruffling a few feathers. Phoenix had a worrying disregard for saleable quality. Thomas, the owner of a winery and already looking worse for wear, managed to spectacularly botch up the print process and produce what might just scraped the definition of being "seconds." I'd keep him out of the kitchen when the food tasks arrive. As Thomas threw more ink onto the power socket than the bags, and he despaired at his substandard efforts, a voice bellowed: "Sell them to the gullible tourists." The girls, on the other hand, wanted to perfect their products for their customers, to give them the most value. With such polarising views on meeting their customers" needs, I was disappointed that the reckless Phoenix returned with almost three times the profit of Sterling and that included the batch of returned goods that they had to refund. Admittedly the task was about profit, but few businesses will have long term success if they deride their customers, produce poor quality goods and then start out by overcharging them. With the onslaught she had faced earlier, it was clear that Bilyana was being lined up to take the heat. Some of the criticism might have been deserved but the rest of her sub team also failed on their sales approach and seemed to evade responsibility for it. The project manager hadn't set a strategy and there were a few others who looked as though they were present in body but not in mind. The first firing of the series was less clear cut than last year. I can understand why Bilyana will be feeling mighty aggrieved that she didn't get a decent chance to make her mark.