The Apprentice is an entertaining, adrenaline fuelled fight to find a business partner for Lord Sugar. Dragons' Den is effectively a pitching contest where budding entrepreneurs try to entice successful investors into funding and supporting their business endeavours. Both are ratings winners, both are entertaining but which one enriches viewers with the most Business knowledge?
For me Dragons' Den wins this one. The five Dragons dish out plenty of advice as they dissect, interrogate and mercilessly grill potential business partners with rigorous analysis and precise business acumen. Viewers are treated to a master-class in negotiation where the percentage of equity on offer for a given amount of investment is haggled over,sometimes to the last 1%. After watching a few series you get a feel for what is a good idea and what is a waste of time. The importance of knowing your numbers and being able to quote profit, loss, turnover and margins at will, are championed and promoted as an essential skill by the Dragons. The achievements of Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Debroah Meaden, Theo Paphitis and James Cann (who is now to be replaced by Hillary Devey) are inspiring and educational to watchers, many of whom have aspired to running their own concerns but have never had decent role models to learn from.
Dragons' Den may win the educational battle but The Apprentice wins the entertainment battle. Followers young and old love to point out the failures of candidates and suggest better ways of doing things while watching the show. The 'You're Fired' moment is as exciting as any cliff hanger from the soap operas of the day and offers a fine conclusion to the day's business lesson. No viewer can say that they have never picked up some business pointers from Lord Sugar, who never misses a chance to emphasise the importance of common sense and lateral thinking in making any business decisions.
Both Shows are great and are playing their part in encouraging entrepreneurs of the past,present and future.
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