No celebrity hype trade-off in reality TV business shows

Hate reality TV business? Richard Dean hopes format gathers momentum in a region crying out for tens of millions of jobs and inspiration.

James Caan, the Pakistani-born British entrepreneur, is a star panelist on the UK version of Dragon's Den. Antonie Robertson /The National

Reality business television shows can get a bad press.

Finance:

Industry Insights Exclusives you can bank on from The National's premium content. Learn More

Critics of The Apprentice, Dragons' Den, Hydra Executives and their ilk argue they dumb down commerce, reducing it to a shallow personality contest. The flamboyant millionaire hosts are made into celebrities, while contestants are humiliated as stupid, deluded wannabes.

Valid points, to an extent. But overall I'd argue these shows have done far more good than harm in the decade or so since they hit our screens - first by inspiring, and second by educating.

These feelings were confirmed this week when talking to James Caan, a Pakistani-born British entrepreneur and star panellist on the UK version of Dragons' Den.

Did he inspire me? Absolutely.

For those who don't know his story, Nazim Khan arrived in the UK at the age of 2, when his parents emigrated from Lahore. He left school in London at 16 with no qualifications, taking odd jobs before landing a position in one of the recruitment firms he registered with.

After changing his name to James Caan (he liked the Godfather movies, and felt it made him sound more respectable) he launched his own recruitment firm, which he sold when revenue hit £130 million (Dh737m). One UK survey ranks his personal fortune at £70m.

Producers at the BBC couldn't resist his rags-to-riches story, and in 2007 he became one of five panellists on Dragons' Den. (In the show a succession of contestants pitch their business ideas to the panellists, the Dragons. If the Dragons like the ideas, they invest their own money to buy a stake in the start-ups and agree to mentor the contestants.)

"I didn't start with a silver spoon in my mouth, I didn't have a great education, I started with virtually nothing, and yet still was able to create something," he says.

"Anything that I can do to share my experience or my journey that enables somebody to believe all they need is drive, determination and willingness to achieve, can only be a good thing."

There's little doubt that Mr Caan has inspired many, particularly among the UK's Asian community. His iPhone app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, while his website gets even more traffic. This is just a hunch, but my guess is most of them are not your average Financial Times readers.

So much for inspiration; what about education? Do these shows really teach us anything useful? Perhaps surprisingly, fledgling academic research on the subject suggests that yes, they do.

Raymond Boyle, a communications professor at Glasgow University, led a two-year study into the role of what he calls the business entertainment format.

In a paper summing up the findings, Prof Boyle concluded: "These adaptations have managed to combine the entertainment focus of the original formats with an educational or learning aspect that takes much of the mystery out of business while revealing the process of pitching for investment and the challenges of being an entrepreneur."

Simon Down, a management lecturer at Newcastle University Business School, is also a fan. In his book Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, he writes: "Reality shows such as Dragons' Den … are essentially etiquette guides, about how to be and behave in particular social contexts. Dragons' Den shows people - both participant and viewer - what, and what not to do in order to be a successful entrepreneur."

So it seems like a win-win-win, right? Entrepreneurs get fame to go with their fortune; contestants get advice and even cash; and the audience gets a nicely packaged crash course in business.

To an extent, that's true, although Mr Caan's story reminds us fame can bring costs as well as benefits.

Last year he visited Pakistan to help victims of the floods that hit the country that summer. During his visit he offered to buy a baby and give it to his brother for adoption.

The negotiation was captured on camera, leading to widespread criticism of Mr Caan. He acknowledged it was the wrong thing to do, saying he'd got caught up in the emotion of the situation.

Mr Caan has since left the Den and is now promoting his new venture, 90 North Real Estate, which brokers UK property deals for wealthy Gulf investors.

Here in the Middle East, reality business shows are still in their infancy. Sulaiman Al Fahim's "impress me" catchphrase from The Hydra Executives caught on for a while, but the show, based in Abu Dhabi, didn't survive the recession.

I remember being giddy with excitement when Mohammed Alabbar, the chairman of Emaar Properties, staged a glamorous press conference in 2005 to announce he was to front the Arab franchise of The Apprentice. The show never aired.

We've tried a couple of versions on my radio show, with another in the works, and they've always been a hit, commercially and with the audience.

I hope the format gathers momentum in the region. With the region crying out for tens of millions of jobs, every little bit helps when it comes to inspiring and educating potential entrepreneurs.

Richard Dean hosts Tonight on Dubai Eye 103.8 FM and is the author of Sink or Swim? How to Stay Afloat in Tough Economic Times: Business Lessons from the UAE

twitter: Follow and share our breaking business news. Follow us