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The Bristol Blue Dragons

Written by: Clive Hook

Article Overview: Dragons Dens and Apprentice style situations are becoming more and more commonplace in business. Clive Hook looks at how he has used them, with great success.

The Bristol Blue Dragons

Bristol Blue will soon be in trouble if someone doesn’t come up with a strategy that will work. That’s the starting point on Clearworth’s management development programme which begins a journey of intense learning, creative thinking, presentation rehearsing and finally a brave step into the Dragon’s Den. . .

We think of Bristol Blue as a truly multi-sensory case study – they taste the products, they see the figures, they hear the MD’s strategy presentation. They may even smell fear as they put themselves in front of a chosen panel to be grilled for 30 minutes on why their idea will work.
Bristol Blue is a family owned soft drinks company that, to date, has made its money from squash or fruit cordial and has done fairly well at that with current turnover of £20m. The problem is everyone wants drinks on the move today and the idea of messing around with a bottle of squash and tap water is not for the time hungry population who want convenience, health, fashion, and much more from their chosen soft drink. Bristol Blue is based on a real-life company – and only we know who it is – with updates from the real world on market trends, current issues, new products and fashion fads which are affecting the industry.

We chose the soft drinks industry because everybody’s got some experience of it and there’s masses of change going on which creates great fascinating opportunities and strategic challenges. Almost every month there’s something new – whether it’s the childhood obesity debate, the effects of additives, the emergence of functional drinks (they do something for you not just quench your thirst), dental health, drink drive alternatives, Coke appearing as a health drink with vitamins and antioxidants, the scandal of Dasani water that was out of the tap in South London and now mineral water in plastic bottles with thousands of road miles is immoral and even prompted questions in parliament.

So against this rich tapestry of change our managers have to decide what’s really important for Bristol Blue, what needs to change and what should stay the same. Everything from the company name (does Bristol Blue have any value as a brand name?) to factory locations, workforce skills and attitudes, product lines and market positions are considered in teams of 3 or 4 managers over a 6-8 week period. To support their efforts there are workshops on strategic models, understanding the figures, developing a coherent strategy and making an influential presentation.

All of this leading to the 30 minutes that will test their ability to choose the most significant factors and solutions and sell them to the dragons. Only one team’s answer will be chosen as the one for Bristol Blue’s future and the questioning is ruthless, incisive and exposing. No chance of winging it with some fancy slides and a strap line.

We think the success of Bristol Blue is a reflection of what many in industry have realised. The more real you can make the experience the better and the old role plays with people pretending are no substitute for real experts with extensive knowledge and experience and the ability to dismantle (or sometimes dismember) a poorly thought through strategy.

This is, of course, the essence of both the TV programmes like Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice which have inspired a current trend for “real plays”. No-one doubts the years of bitter experience that have got the experts to where they are. This, combined with the opportunity to capture some of that wisdom if you’re willing to listen (Note to some of the failed Apprentices and Entrepreneurs: read last four words before brackets if you want to stand a chance) and you’re prepared to show the right mix of bravery and humility (note to some business leaders: this means you too) there’s masses to learn from the experience.

Our dragons are from academic and industry backgrounds and have included the directors of some new players in the soft drinks industry which are already becoming leaders in their fields. But we also include directors and managers from the delegates’ own company so they can see how their managers perform and make their own judgements on whether strategic thinking is alive and well in their management population or it’s still “last year +10%” as the strategic plan. Loads of learning, and for some it’s painful but no-one in all the time we’ve run this has forgotten their experience of when the last slide faded, the room temperature dropped and six pairs of dragons’ eyes focused with a quizzical look before the dreaded words “Tell me again how you came to this conclusion….”

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Article Tags: additives, brave step, bristol blue, childhood obesity, creative thinking, current issues, dental health, fashion fads, health drink, management development programme, market trends, mineral water, move today, plastic bottles, rich tapestry, soft drink, soft drinks, south london, strategy presentation, tap water
Referred by: http://www.doyourownpr.com



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