Enter the dragon who escaped – with a bit of fun for you,

Do you watch Dragon’s Den? Here’s a reminder.

I do occasionally, but am not that keen. It’s not as absurd as “Lord” Sugar’s proving ground for illiterates – which I always see as a humiliating demonstration of the failure of British education – but I’ve never really taken to it.

Maybe it’s the man who looks like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings. Maybe it’s the loony values people ascribe to their loopy ideas. Or maybe it’s just the sheer nastiness of that women with a face like a boot.

I don’t know, but anyhow I had lunch today with Doug Richard who used to be on it, so before we met I looked him up on the internet. He is “economically conservative and socially liberal”. I like that.

But I also found something that summed up the complete uselessness and waste perpetrated by governments when they try to help business.

In a report he worked on for the Tories he found the Labour Government had spent £12bn on support schemes for business,with absolutely zero evidence of any results; in fact he unearthed 3,000 schemes run by 2,000 public bodies.

His report was, of course, just a stratagem for the Tories to attack the then government Now that they’re in they’re pissing away money faster than even the great Bloated McToad did.

No worries, though. At least we have a Minister for Cycling. I wonder, does he cycle to work every day? Does he have staff? If so, why? What the hell do they do all day? Watch porn?

I hope to be doing something with Doug to help small businesses, unless one lunch put him off for life. It has been known to happen.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

1 Comments

  1. Steve Gibson

    There have only been 2 panellists on Dragons Den I liked – Doug Richard was one, the big Aussie guy was the other.

    Neither of them lasted on the show.

    I guess being a reasonable, decent person who can turn down people politely doesn't make interesting TV.

    On the other hand, being an arrogant, insecure wanker who abuses his power and publicly humiliates others is just what the BBC is looking for these days…

    Steve

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