The Apprentice kicks off it’s 2012 series on BBC One tonight and after viewing the entire episode last week at the press launch, we can guarantee you, it’s a great premiere!

In the first boardroom meeting, Lord Sugar wastes no time in informing his 16 possible partners of his high expectations:

“This is not about a job anymore and I’m not looking for a friend, if I wanted a friend I’d get a dog. I’m looking for a partner, the ‘Marks’ to my ‘Spencer’, the ‘Lennon’ to my ‘McCartney’. This is about me investing £250,000 into a business with one of you and I’m expecting you, as the so called entrepreneurs, to make the money for me.”

“Some of you may come here with preconceived plans of how this is going to play out. Let me give you a warning, don’t try and hide. We’re not playing ‘Where’s Wally’ here. I’m not looking for Lord Lucan, I’m looking for somebody who is going to put themselves forward and show me that they have got the aggression and business acumen to be my partner.”

The candidates are split into two teams and briefed on their first task – buying £500 worth of blank material, from mugs to mouse mats, creating designs to print onto them and then selling their unique products to the public.

The decision of what products to choose and which customers to target is theirs but who will make the most profit and who will draw a blank in this first boardroom challenge?

IT’S CREATIVITY VERSUS COSTS IN THE TEAMS DIFFERENT APPROACHES

After the girls opt for the team name Sterling, Gabrielle Omar volunteers herself as Project Manager due to her experience in the field, as she has recently opened up her own print and design store.

Over on the boys’ team, with a team name of Phoenix selected, all members are reluctant to put themselves forward, with Nick Holzherr eventually being thrust into the role which he seems less than confident about, “I’ll put myself forward if nobody wants to do it. I don’t really want to do the first week’s task but I will do it.”

The boys immediately set about working out their costs and margins however they are less interested in their branding, with Nick stating, “the design comes second”. After shopping for blank items on a tight budget they eventually make a split second decision to target tourists, creating teddies wearing Union Jack t-shirts and bags branded with red buses. Overlooking the situation, Karren Brady is less than impressed with Phoenix’s branding, “the boys have thought about the cost of the printing and the margin and have kept the design really simple, but what’s different about it? Nothing is different about it. The red London bus? Come on! There’s got to be more imagination used in this process than that. ”

Meanwhile over on Sterling, Gabrielle is keen to come up with a quirky and unique design and is reluctant to listen to Jane’s imploring “hold on a second, how much is this going to cost us? At the end of the day it’s about the margin.” With the team splitting in half, the design sub team agrees to target families with their products, deciding on an animal theme designed to appeal to kids, with cartoon zoo animals sketched by Jade. However over at the warehouse, the other sub team feels that they have no indication of how much to spend on products and no direction from team leader Gabrielle, with Maria voicing her concerns, “she’s an architect, she can draw. That’s it. She can draw buildings.”

PRINTING CAUSES SOME MESSY MOMENTS FOR THE BOYS

With their designs decided on, both teams head to the studios to screen print their products.

Despite still not having made a decision on the figures, the girls crack on printing on to their products, with Gabrielle’s expertise showing through. Nick Hewer is less than impressed with Katie’s involvement however, “the one that’s disappointed me is Katie, she’s keeping very quiet. She better start getting involved or they’ll sense weakness and turn on her.”

Over at the boys’ studios however, the printing is not going so smoothly, with inconsistent images coming out on their merchandise and some of their bags looking more suited to the bin than anywhere else. Tom admits the printing has been tricky, “the printing on the bags has been a little more difficult that we first envisaged as it’s not done by machine, we’re doing it by hand, so some of the quality is different. At the moment that’s a concern.” They decide to go ahead and try and sell the faulty products anyway, with Nick stating, “we’ll sell it to a gullible tourist.”

The next morning the boys set out to sell their goods at high prices with a stall at the Southbank and a sub team based at St Pancras train station. After finding a trade sale opportunity, the boys attempt to shift the imperfect bags, but will they get away with the dodgy deal or will they be left shame faced by the shopkeeper?

THE GIRLS BEHAVE LIKE ANIMALS AT THE ZOO

With the girls set up at a stall at Greenwich market offering personalised merchandise, a sub team is sent over to London Zoo to flog their wares.

After a long drive, it’s every girl for themselves when they finally reach the zoo as the candidates all desperately try to make sales to the public. Katie is less than impressed by Bilyana Apostolova’s sales approach, explaining “we decided we would take turns to use everybody’s strengths in sales but Bilyana is diving in there and taking over other people’s sales. You don’t want to be behaving like animals in the zoo.”

After an unsuccessful experience at the zoo, the sub team follows Bilyana, who assures it that she knows of some relevant retailers located nearby where they could sell to trade. Tempers are fraught after a long walk and after finally reaching a shop, the girls frantically try to make a last minute sale to a bewildered retailer. After realising they are getting nowhere, the girls finally leave, but are scolded by one of the retailer’s colleagues, “I really don’t appreciate that, this is not a good idea, to come in and barricade someone. You do realise the last thing you said was “we’re wasting time, on to the next one?”

Will the girls be left roaring with pride at the results, or will the boys be flying the flag? Tune in to find out who will be first to hear Lord Sugar’s immortal words: You’re Fired!