Sir Alan Sugar doesn't suffer fools gladly. Nor does he beat about the bush with regards to The Apprentice - for him the money earned by the eventual winner is secondary to their position working with someone who's been in business for over 40 years.

Faced with a new batch of business hopefuls culled from sales, management and other walks of business life, he gets straight to the point and sends them out on their first task...

The teams have to hit the ground running - not only do they have to sell a vanload of fish ... each ... they also have to pick a team name. The Boys go for Renaissance, while the Girls pick Alpha.

The task itself is based around several key business skils:

• Location - deciding the best place to sell a product;
• Pricing - determining the right price for the product;
• Organization - making sure everything gets done, and done right;
• Selling - closing deals with real people.

Sir Alan made a start in business doing exactly that. Selling goods out of the back of a van : knowing the value of each item, putting the right price on it, and making sure of a stream of clients.

These are the three things that the candidates could get wrong. In a helpful mood, Sir Alan has provided them with a folder containing pictures and prices for all the fish they are expected to sell.

Sir Alan cuts to the chase 5 minutes into the clip : the Girls put all their eggs immediately in one basket, selling on a market. Only later in the day did they decide to split up to try to spread the talent around.

Then again, the Boys fared no better - failing to actually identify the fish correctly, and pricing incorrectly even when they were able to identify the fish. They too, split the team eventually, to try and sell higher volumes.

Selling all the stock was key to this task - as Sir Alan had stipulated a hefty fine for any outstanding fish brought back. This fine represents the money that would be lost in the real world by failing to sell the fish - as a fast moving consumer good (FMCG) any unsold stock would have to be be thrown away.

In short - fish goes off.

To be fair, the candidates had less than 12 hours to get acquainted, decide on a name, and then form a strategy to sell fish, execute it, and get backto the Boardroom. But then again, this is supposed to be the crème de la crème of up and coming UK business nouse.

It was hard to tell, sometimes, as both teams made some serious beginners mistakes.

Lesson #1 : Research. Even in a simple task such as this, it is vital to know what the market will bear in terms of price. Fresh fish sold on the market has no other differentiator, and a quick trip up and down to see what the other fishmonger's prices were was a must.

Both teams managed some basic research, but the Boys fell down heavily on the pricing and identification task which had been assigned to Nicholas. It's no good having the research done if you cannot link it to the stock that you have.

Lesson #2 : Markets. Both teams stuck for most of the day on a merket. This is good for passing trade, but is not a good use of resources. Splitting up the team and going after two different markets - the public and the trade sector - would have been far smarter.

Lesson #3 : Sales. For teams comprising largely of salespeople, there was almost zero innovation. Price is the only differentiator; inventing new differentiators would have brought in more trade.

Something as simple as walking up and down offering samples, or just shouting slogans into the crowd, might have given either team more of an edge. There's a reason markets are noisy places : each vendor is trying to out-differentiate the other.

Lesson #4 : Value. Know the value of the goods on sale. Not the price, the value. For example, lobster is more valuable to a restaurant than it is to your average shopper. Most shoppers on the market wouldn't know what to do with a lobster, even if they were giving it away.

So - what should they have done? Split the stock into high, medium, and low value categories, and work out the best places to sell them. Research the market prices and undercut the competition,whilst also introducing special offers to shift stock at a higher value point.

And, above all, stay focussed as a team, no matter the personal differences. This last is important, and it became evident that the Boys just couldn't manage it.

Nicholas failed to set the prices correctly, losing the team money. Desite the fact that Alex was the team leader, and had the final responsibility, he had volunteered for the job; something that counted in the final decision.

Sir Alan made a point of noting that, in this case, it was the only reason Alex survived.

Was it the right decision? Listening to Nicholas whinge about his perceived class gap in the team, one can only agree with Sir Alan's decision.