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´óÏó´«Ã½ One
  • Leon Doyle
  • Alex Britez Cabral
  • Melody Hossaini
  • Felicity Jackson
  • Edna Agbarha
  • Susan Ma
  • Ellie Reed
  • Helen Louise Milligan
  • Natasha Scribbins
  • Vincent Disneur
  • Jim Eastwood
  • Edward Hunter
  • Gavin Winstanley
  • Tom Pellereau
  • Glenn Ward
  • Zoe Beresford
Melody Hossaini

Melody Hossaini

Has won the ‘Woman of the Future’ award for her voluntary work

Age: 26
Career: Founder & Director – Global Youth Consultancy Business
Lives: Midlands

Boardroom Appearances countcount

Episode Ten: It’s good to talk, but even better to know when to shut up!

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Melody put herself forward for the Project Manager role and tempted fate by stating, ‘It’s my time to take responsibility’. Jumping on Helen’s strategy to sell direct to the retailers, Melody failed to secure as many deals as she’d have liked, leaving her wondering, ‘How much of a good idea this is’.

After ignoring Tom’s advice to opt for the nodding dogs on grounds of taste and decency, Melody went on a chaotic shopping spree purchasing mobile phone chargers and digital photo frames. ÌýThis caused Helen to ask her to step down as Project Manager and let her take over the reins; a challenge that was met with a Sid Vicious-esque snarl and a flat, ‘No to that’.Ìý
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It was announced that Team Logic had lost the task and Helen described Melody as a ‘terrible team leader’. After several speeches on the merits of setting up her own business at the age of thirteen, it was decided that Melody although ‘talented’, talked too much and she was fired. Surprisingly, she had very little to say on the subject.

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Episode Nine: Melody’s digestive drama

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Packed off to the biscuit development factory in Swansea, Melody’s first biscuit idea was a mix of corn flakes, marshmallow and dough, rolled together and sealed with a prod of the thumb. Pitching the idea as ‘Biscuits - the new pop corn’ Melody confidently gushed, ‘I think there’s a gap in the market for that’... Melody’s biscuit popcorn, or ‘Pop Scuit’, as it was lovingly named by Tom, didn’t go down well with the focus group, but when the idea of a heart, half coated in chocolate that could be shared was raised, the crowd went wild.Ìý

When Zoe decided that hearts were a no go zone, Melody refused to back down on her original idea and the two had their first argument of the task, resulting in Zoe launching a fake punch at the phone. The relationship was to go from bad to worse at the supermarket pitches when the two were caught brawling in the flower aisle, yelping ‘Target Market’. However, the presentation itself was made more colourful by Melody’s insistence that they open with ‘a role play’. The supermarket executives watched on in horror as Tom and Melody dressed their boardroom up as a living room, pretended to be lovers and mimicked a fake flirtatious argument over what movie they were going to watch that night. There was a demonstration over the breaking and sharing aspect of the biscuit, but the executives were left confused as to whether they were watching a pitch or an old episode of Friends. ÌýMelody went on to defend her pitching am-dram by saying, ‘It’s actually a really effective technique, Lord Sugar’.
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When it was announced that the team had lost, Melody was brought back into the boardroom. Melody and Zoe argued over who was being the most theatrical, with Zoe shrugging off their flower aisle argument with an, ‘It’s all very dramatic, Melody’ and with Melody agreeing, ‘It was very dramatic, actually’. Melody wasn’t fired, but is rumoured to be thinking about accepting a role in ‘Bourbon - The Musical’ later on in the year.Ìý

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Episode Eight: Grrr, tiger…

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Melody is the proud master of several languages, French being one of them, so it looked like all of her Christmases had come at once when she was posted on the Eurostar and told to do market research in Paris. Project Manager Tom told Melody to look into the brand of the major shopping outlet that they were to pitch to in order to see if the children’s car seat would be beneficial. Melody had her own ideas and headed onto the streets of Paris with Leon and his sketch of a flying teapot. During the session she deduced, ‘It’s becoming more evident that people use the metro, even families', and she advised against the car seat. She then went on to sit in traffic for hours while she attempted to get to from A to B.

When it came to booking the appointments with the sales outlets, Melody was on fire, securing eight strong appointments in one day. Reluctant to give any of them over to Tom and Zoe, she stated her case by saying, ‘I’m more than willing to make these appointments for you, but the ones I’ve made I’m going to sell’. And sell she did, pushing her flying teapot lamp to the grateful people of Paris. When Leon asked if he could pitch at one of the appointments, Melody looked reluctant, but then later gave over the reins with an encouraging, ‘Do us proud’. The figures were announced in the boardroom and it was revealed that Melody’s team had lost the task. Tom hinted that he thought the problem lay with the market research, but Melody hit back with, ‘Do not come here and place blame on me’. Tom said he felt that Melody had asked ‘the wrong questions’. He decided to bring her back into the boardroom, but Lord Sugar came to her defence telling Leon and Tom, ‘Take a leaf out of her book, she’s a tiger, she’s fighting to win’. Melody wasn’t fired, but hopes that the local safari park doesn’t get wind that there’s a wild animal on the loose.Ìý

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Episode Seven: Melody’s naked ambition…

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Melody seemed a little unsure of the lads’ magazine idea at first and of Natasha’s ability to manage it. Smiling through gritted teeth she remarked, ‘Recruiting a lads’ mag?’ However, it wasn’t long before Melody forgot her previous gripes and joined forces with Natasha, although Natasha’s idea that they both appear in the lads’ magazine was thrown out with a flat, ‘Let me stop you right there’.Ìý

Melody’s enthusiasm for the lads’ magazine seemed to blossom and she took to the streets, asking various members of the public, ‘How do you blow your load?’ as part of a highbrow feature that was due to be included in the issue. By close of play Melody’s excitement about the magazine was so fierce that she announced to the team, ‘I never thought I’d be excited about a lads’ mag, until I was involved with creating one and now I think it’s brilliant’.
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It wasn’t only Melody who had enthusiasm for her product; one of the media buyers, who the team had pitched to, loved the magazine so much that they purchased advertising space on each of the pages, propelling Team Logic to a clear win. Melody is now one step closer to going into business with Lord Sugar, but it is yet to been seen whether this will be in the gentlemen’s magazine arena.

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Episode Six: Talking trash…

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Melody, helpfully, started the task by pointing out her criteria for the perfect Project Manager; ‘For me, the most important thing is whoever feels confident they can get us a win’. Helen took on the role and introduced her high-risk strategy of no charge for removal, which Melody reluctantly went along with.Ìý
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Melody got down to arguing with Natasha in the taxi - the bone of contention seemed to be a communication issue, with both yelling, ‘I don’t think YOU understand what I’m saying’ over the top of each other. Melody shrugged the tussle off and went on to pitch for the two contracts that Lord Sugar had put in place. When Helen announced once again, that the fee for removal was ‘zero’, Melody’s eyebrow shot up so fast that it nearly hit her fringe and she warned her ‘You want to win it but not at a loss’ Melody’s insistence that they charge for removal became a reality when she secured a job at a builders merchant and asked Jim to charge £200-£250 for their services.Ìý
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Although the deal didn’t exactly go according to plan, she still went on to ring the cash register by selling 31 bags of quality rubbish for £120 and making sure the sale of their metal stash was rounded up to a healthy figure.Ìý
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In the boardroom, although Melody nodded her head when asked if Helen’s strategy had worked, she still voiced her objections by saying, ‘Labour costs, our time will cost, for that we should be charging for a service, whilst also making a profit’. When it was announced that her team had won the task, she kept her opinions to herself and went off to enjoy the Spa day.Ìý

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Episode Five: The pound signs…

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Based on team Venture, with Project Manager Vincent at the helm, Melody showed a slight concern when the decision to go with the brand, ‘Every Dog’ was pitched, but left the main role of objecting to Tom. Triumphantly mixing the ingredients for her dog food, she looked pleased with the result, saying, ‘We’ve made a dog’s dinner out of it’.

Melody was asked by Vincent to handle the pitch to the advertising executives, a decision that was met with much support from the other team members. She handled the pitch with total confidence, saying to Vincent, ‘It’s a pitch, it’s 20 minutes at the end of the day.’ However, she couldn’t help a teasing dig at how many times he’d been on the losing team when she joked, ‘Let’s hope we win - first one for you’.Ìý

They didn’t. When it was announced that the team had lost the task because of the lack of a unique selling point, Melody raised an eyebrow, but kept her lips firmly shut. She wasn’t brought back into the boardroom and went back to the house to practice her comedy routine.Ìý

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Episode Four: Cosmetic PurgatoryÌý

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Having lived in Birmingham, Melody knew the locations of both shopping centres very well. She advised her teamÌýLogic to go with the central location of The Bullring, despite the treatment room being three floors away from the sales stand. When Tom queried her advice she brushed off his concerns, telling him ‘it’ll be fine’.Ìý

Sadly, it wasn’t fine. With the spa room so far away, the sales team got so involved in selling their products, they forgot to book customers in for treatments. After Tom had disappeared into the mysterious ‘sales stand triangle’ Melody decided to put in a personal appearance and escort people to the treatment room herself.Ìý
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Lord Sugar wondered why Melody, Ellie and Tom had waited so long before prompting the Sales Team to send them customers. Melody defended herself by saying that she had confronted the Project Manager personally and, ‘we could have gone through the whole day had I not done that’. Melody escaped being brought into the boardroom, but will probably never look at a massage in the same way again.Ìý

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Episode Three: The greenhouse effect

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Melody first showed her disapproval of Gavin’s project management skills when the team spent three hours in the hotel trying to find leads. Attemping to hurry things along with a ‘Let’s go, let’s get moving’, she was met with a ‘…but go where?’ from Gavin.Ìý

Tasked with finding a top hat and a cloche, it was the latter of these two items that caused confusion. There was some discussion as to whether the mysterious catering cloche could actually be another word for a greenhouse, but Melody threw this idea out, saying that there were no dimensions included in the list, so it couldn’t be.Ìý

After a wild-goose chase to a dry cleaners and a brief tussle with Gavin over the greenhouse cloche, Melody worried that Gavin was getting too stressed and stated, ‘it’s just not good enough’. And it seemed she wasn’t the only one to have doubts. Gavin was fired and Melody escaped the boardroom for another week.Ìý
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Episode Two: Purrr-fect pitch

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After the product Ampi-App had been selected, Melody wasted no time at all in getting into the studio and recording various annoying sounds to populate it with, amongst her strongest were ‘the cat’ and the ‘whatever’. With her starring role in the making of the App under her belt, Melody went on to lead the sub-team in pitching to three groups of online professionals, but admitted herself ‘the pitch is only as good as the product’.

When Helen suggested Melody as the person most suited to lead the presentation at the gaming fair, Edna said she had looked at ‘strengths and weaknesses’ but had decided to do it herself. After winning only one of the pitches, albeit the major online magazine, Melody raised her doubts about the product once again, this time in the boardroom and admitted she wasn’t completely behind it.

However, the girls won the task and Melody added a meal to her growing list of treats given by Lord Sugar.

Melody was on winning team Venture.
App Downloads after 6 hours: just under 1000
Total downloads after 24 hrs: 10667

Episode One: Melody hits a high note…

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After claiming she was mentored by Al Gore and taught personally by the Dalai Lama, it was perhaps no surprise that Melody’s suggestion of Venture as the team name was instantly accepted by the other girls. Elected as Project Manager, Melody set about organising the manufacturing of fresh fruit pots and ‘healthy pasta’.

Splitting the team in two she headed up the buying of the fruit and the sales of the pots at Canary Wharf. A brief disaster was averted when she realised that the decision not to invest the whole of Lord Sugar’s money had left the team with not enough stock to meet demand. Instead, she headed back to the pasta team to help them with their sales.

In the boardroom she was praised by Felicity for her leadership skills and with a winning sales figure on the fruit pots she led her team to victory. She even enjoyed a toast in her honour, made by herself, of course.

Melody was on the winning team Venture. Their total profit was £592.

About Melody


Born in Iran, Melody lived in three different countries before settling in the UK. Melody who speaks five languages, helped set up a renowned UK youth organisation at the age of 13 and has won the ‘Woman of the Future’ award for her voluntary work. Global Youth Sector EntrepreneurÌýMelody has previously worked with 12 Nobel Peace Prize winners including Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi and was trained on climate change by Al Gore.

Check back for weekly updates on Melody during the series ...
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I want to be more than just average, average was never good enough for me


Catch Up

Lord Sugar, Series 5

Relive Series 6

Where business supremo Lord Sugar tested a group of eager candidates in a series of gruelling business tasks.

06 Oct 2010

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Series 6

Lord Sugar returns to our screens with the next batch of hopefuls competing to be his new apprentice.

06 Oct 2010

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