Rachel Elnaugh has recently discovered blogging and so far 40% of her posts are about Peter Jones’ Tycoon. In her first post Peter Jones’ New Show ‘Tycoon’ she had this to say:

The problem with the show is that it quickly becomes apparent that Jones hasn’t a clue about brands or marketing, constantly misguiding the businesses in his charge.

I’d tend to agree with her on that, I’m not convinced about the ‘Sod’ brand myself, but she goes on to say:

… Jones clearly sees TV production as his latest way to make some much needed money.

A quick peek at the latest Phones International accounts shows why the diversification is needed - £4 million profit on £186 million sales is a nice business to have, but hardly puts Jones in the ‘Tycoon’ bracket of a Branson, Dyson or Sugar. Especially when up the road at Red Letter Days (the business I started, which Jones acquired out of administration in 2005 in a flourish of ‘I’m-a-Dragon-and-I-know-a-Great-Business-Opportunity-When-I-see-One’ publicity) has just filed a loss of £7.1 million.

Which seems to be getting a little personal. Elnaugh has followed it up with a second post on Why Products Fail in which she says:

Since writing my blog below about Peter Jones’ new show Tycoon, I set up a Google Alert which has since sent me every online piece documenting - in excruciating detail - the failure of Peter’s latest TV project.

I can’t help thinking she really does have a personal issue with Jones.

Elnaugh’s business advice on why products fail isn’t however any better than Jones’ as of Dragon’s Den she says:

…threw out all conventional TV wisdom - and took the risk to create something brilliantly innovative and original, which would change the way business TV programmes were conceived forever…

Which she turns into this advice to would be entrepreneurs:

Playing safe and following what others have done before may seem like a solid option to achieve success, but in business it is actually often the riskiest approach you can take.

I think that’s terrible advice, it’s far less risky to take a proven model and improve on it than do something new and unproven. Indeed despite what Elnaugh may think that’s exactly what the BBC did with Dragon’s Den, as the format originated in Japan under the name of Money no Tora (Money Tiger), which was created by and aired on Nippon Television from 2001 to 2004.

So I wonder, who does the public see as the more successful entrepreneur Peter Jones or Rachel Elnaugh?

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