Dragons Den > Reviews (18)

As professional and respected as I like to be perceived, I hide a secret which I will reveal once only.... I watch Reality TV! Yes, I do watch the likes of Big Brother and X-Factor - it's official! However, my favourite genre, by far, is business related reality TV, that boasts programmes such as The Apprentice and the superbly popular Dragons Den. Dragons Den has just concluded it's fifth series on BBC2, having reformatted their line-up yet again. You will see old re-runs of Dragons Den currently on UKTV Gold and Dave.

In this age of the small business, millions of people have realised that the big money comes from working for yourself and not lining the pockets of some company's owner/CEO/MD. However, in an era where most ideas have been done to death, your business needs to have either a very innovative approach to doing something that's been done to death, or a truly new and unique idea. Consequently, the business world is now populated with odd ideas, and truly bonkers people who think their truly unique, but often banal, inventions and concepts, will be the next Google. Where is the obvious place for these people to go to make their dreams goals come alive - Dragons Den!

The Premise
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Dragon's Den sees inventors and entrepreneurs pitching their inventions and business ideas to five millionaire business tycoons, in the hope they can obtain their venture capital and gargantuan business acumen to spearhead their businesses into a different league.

The five business tycoons are as follows:

Peter Jones - a multi-millionaire telecommunications and property tycoon who initially made his millions having started up a tennis academy at the age of 16.
Deborah Meaden - a tough and shrewd multi-millionairess in the leisure and retail sector, who made her millions from a glass and ceramics export company she launched straight after college.
Theo Paphitis - the millionaire mastermind behind the success of Ryman, Partners stationary, La Senza and Contessa, who worked his way up to broker from tea boy at a city insurance firm.
Duncan Ballantyne - multi-millionaire that went from Ice cream man to founder of Ballantynes health clubs, casinos, bars and hotels.
James Caan (not the hollywood legend) - founded the UK recruitment giant Alexander Mann Group when he was 24 years old, sold it off and has made even more millions by building and selling businesses since.

Having made the pitch, these dragons will go through the process of grilling the entrepreneurs, picking holes, drilling into the finances i.e. profits and estimated profits, long term goals etc. The entrepreneur has to hold their own throughout this scrutiny, and give the dragons a strong sense of security that if they invest, they will get a significant return on their investment. When they are ready to declare their thoughts, each dragon has to decide if they are out, or if they want to invest. If they are not interested or convinced, they will utter the famous words "I'm out". If they have been won over, they will normally start "I would like to make you an offer...".

The entrepreneur has to make a pre-pitch declaration of how much investment they want, along with how much of a shareholding of their business they are willing to give the dragon, e.g. they would like £100,000 worth of investment, and, in return, give away 20% of their business. If an offer is given by a dragon, the entrepreneur HAS to walk away with at least the stipulated amount in investment. With regards to the percentage of their business, that is something that is negotiable, whether they give away less or more than intended. Normally, if they successfully obtain investment, they will give away more - the Dragons are incredibly strong negotiators and take the stance that the entrepreneur needs them more than the Dragon needs them, hence they use this position to scare the entrepreneur to give them higher equity. Once a Dragon has made an offer, it is left for the individual to accept or decline.

Aptly presented by Evan Davies, BBC economics correspondent, Dragons Den sees approximately 30 individuals pitching their ideas. Some are so unadulteratedly nonsensical, the programme dedicates 20 seconds to showing someone pitching the basics of their ridiculous idea and then being shot down in flames, normally by a "witty" one-line from either Theo or Peter. Then the other ideas, which are either a) actually quite good or b) still ridiculous but supported a credible business plan, the show dedicates roughly 5 to 10 minutes to their pitch and the ensuing grilling. Per episode, usually, only 1 or 2 of the aspiring entrepreneurs get the investment.

What makes this show work
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Despite the genre, in basic ways, Dragons Den is not disimilar to X-Factor. Firstly, we like the embarrassing, cringingly-poor and eye wateringly bad auditions. They are entertaining! The hugely bad pitches and ideas are equally enjoyable to watch. In the series that has just finished, an "entrepreneur" pitched his £10,000 marketing software kit idea. He made his pitch using this kit, where he manifested as a computer generated character on a large tv screen. His idea was totally flawed because he was saying that big retail companies could use this kit to lure customers in, but as one kit costs £10k, a company would have to spend a substantial amount buying them for various nationwide stores, and the return would probably not equal the expenditure. Peter Jones empathically came out with "Why?... WHY?!?!?.... WHY WOULD ANYBODY WANT THIS?!?!". This entrepreneur was gone in seconds, and it was hilarious.

Secondly, related to the bad ideas, there is the evil element. Historicially, the success and watchability of X-Factor has been largely attributed to Simon Cowell, for his often scathing and controversial remarks. As the term Dragon indicates, these tycoons breathe fire, big league! They are no-nonsense personalities, unsurprisingly, given what they have achieved, and they say what they think. Ideas are often very absurd, and admittedly I want to tell these people they are mad, hence I find it satisfying that the dragons put the (lack of) brains behind the ideas, in their place.

They are all very harsh when needs be, but Peter Jones is normally the most unmerciful. He may wear black pinstripe suits with non-matching green socks, but Peter is a fastidious and domineering Dragon, with very high expectations. If an entrepreneur is making a nervous pitch, you will see him shaking his head in disgust, and he will normally shout them down. Theo Paphitis can also be quite brutal, with one of his "I'd rather"'s, e.g. "I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than invest in this". Duncan Ballantyne is normally very blunt and without much justification or rationale, he will normally just utter the words, in his very inimitable scottish accent "I'm not going to invest, so I'm out". They may be cruel, but they are definitely entertaining - probably the reason why these three are the longest serving Dragons on the show.

My thoughts
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Not only do I completely enjoy Dragons Den, but I absolutely adore it! I go through a mix of emotions when I watch it. The terribly horrible ideas habitually make me shout at the scream in contempt, however, I completely sympathise when I perceive the Dragons to be unjustifiably brutal. The one liners (as mentioned above) are fantastic, and make for humourous watching. I am also genuinely happy for people when they manage to gain investment from the Dragons - these people tend to have covered all of the bases and have a clear and consise business plan for where they plan on taking the business in the future.

Dragons Den is a thoroughly enjoyable watch on the whole. You will despair at the ideas, and feel disgusted by the attacks of the Dragons, but overall, they will have you on the edge of your seat. Due to the fact that this is a reality TV programme that adds some value to the UK and potentially the world - where a service or product that has not been already thought of can make people's lives easier and/or more enjoyable, I would recommend to anybody that they should watch this and give it a try, even those that are not reality TV fans.

Thanks for reading!

Summary: Enjoyable, entertaining and innovative programme!