Let me stress that this is a personal view (so I don't know if Simon and Stuart at Softalk will agree with me) but my least favourite Dragon's Den star was always Rachel Elnaugh, the founder and former chief executive of Red Letter Days.
It's not that Red Letter Days went bust. That's not actually a bad thing and in the UK there is far too much stigma attached to it compared to the US where it is almost a badge of honour to have failed and picked yourself up to try again.
My problem with Rachel was always that her questions to the entrepreneurs were all a bit - well daft. She appeared to operate on how she felt rather than the facts. My favourite was Doug Richards who gives an impression of someone who knows what they are doing. I used to like Simon Woodroffe as well as he appeared to combine fact and feeling.
That's a long way of explaining why I found this story of Rachel Elnaugh's latest venture to be amusing. I can't imagine anyone less likely to motivate or inspire me.
Okay, deep breath!
She was my least favourite dragon because her firm went bust. I wouldn't have had much confidence in her business acumen if I was stood in front of her at that stage of her career.
But I don't think it's always necessarily daft to tune into 'feelings' when it comes to a business decision - especially when it can come down to that old cliche 'people buy off people.'
How many times as a novice businesswoman did I nod in agreement when I heard fellow directors of small concerns complain that they hadn't developed a 'sixth sense' or didn't have a crystal ball at their disposal to predict who'd prove a 'problem' client? Plenty I can tell you!
Hindsight is a wonderful thing (as is a credit check!) but I do believe that often trusting your gut instinct about a potential employee/associate/supplier/client can pay off big-time.
Isn't there some research somewhere that says one of the biggest deciding factors in choosing an agency, is whether people feel they actually like the team they are possibly going to be working with?
Rachel E made some interesting points to Michael Buerk in his 'Don't get me started' programme when he was railing against women taking power away from men in business. She said that women often had the buying power in households and decisions were often more intuitive.
I think I agree.
Deborah Meaden, by the way, is now my favourite.
Oh and what struck me as daft in this piece was the reference to 'top hypnotherapist' - just how much competition is there? Still, it's better than the ubiquitous "leading", I suppose.
Posted by: Linda | September 01, 2006 at 02:14 AM