The Final Two

Today, fans of the third season of "The Apprentice" will find out which of the remaining Apprentici will be anointed by Donald Trump as heir to a small organizational corner of Trump's corporate world. The only question left is will it be the frequently flustered Kendra (YES) or the exquisitely evil Tana (NO)?

As we've seen in the past seasons, the final decision basically comes down to how the final two contestants organize a party. Kendra was given the task of orchestrating Best Buy's "Video Game Championships" while Tana was given the Olympian task (literally, not figuratively) of putting together an exhibition aimed at helping New York City land the 2012 Olympics.

To help them in their respective missions, both Tana and Kendra received "help" from the shallowest talent pool possible: previous rejectees from the show. While real business people would never restrict themselves in this fashion (and that includes the show's rejected contestants who at least have proved some level of real-world business competence), it does make for an interesting case study in how managers must often get things done with less than optimal resources.

Between the two, Kendra made more right calls than did Tana. Kendra monitored her people as they performed their delegated responsibilities, while Tana delegated the responsibilies she did not see fit to track, and did nothing to shepherd her errant flock.

The difference between the two approaches in management showed through in the results. Kendra's team came through for her, and her event's sponsors even suggested they might offer her a job if Trump did not. Tana's team failed to come together, with several items that needed to be taken care of left incomplete or unusable. This was directly due to Tana's extreme hands-off management approach with her staff, whom she derided as "The Three Stooges" and "Dumb as Dumber."

That's why management matters. Management really is the art of getting things done through other people. And that's why in the real world, and even in Donald Trump's version of it encapsulated in "The Apprentice," Kendra wins.