So, I got done watching The Benefactor. You know - that mark cuban show that got pretty bad talk prior to today? Let me tell you something, I think it’s cool. In the begining mark says some very interesting stuff. He gives out 3 factors for grading

  1. First Impressions.
  2. Setting Expectations and meeting them
  3. Handling Pressure.

So Rating the show on the 3 criteria that he set, I would say the

  1. The first impressions were good. It’s a show that kept my attention, was different, and showed some harsh business realities. I was thinking of how layoffs work when i saw the mark trying to pick a 2nd person to cut. He had the luxury of giving a test that determined the winner. Often times, in a lay off situation, that’s how managers are. They know have to cut a fixed number and the decisions are not easy.
  2. My expectations of a mark cuban show were met. I was expecting some crazyness, jumpiness - which I got. I know for sure that mr.cuban is a man of substance, he demonstrated success repeatedly in real world. He delivered on that expectation as well. He set out the criteria for success very clearly, and followed them. This has been my one peeve with Apprentice. The decisions to cut were not really following the precedents set on the show a lot of times.
  3. Handling pressure. I think he handled the pressure of the show very well. The expectation was that this will be a total copycat show of Apprentice. Given the press build-up and the success of apprentice, the pressure was ON to make this show compelling, yet differentiated. If the first episode was any indication, he did good.

Now, coming down to more critical analysis, the criteria set were very sales focused. Now, sales is a critical part of every business. You have to always keep in mind the first impression you create, your product creates. You have to make sure that you and your products exceed expectations.

What’s real is that sometimes there are good businesses who’s strength is not sales. It’s not that the business/product is not good, it’s just that they don’t make a strong first impression, or exceed the hype the marketing creates. Those businesses also succeed.

The thing that both apprentice and benefactor donot focus on is - value creation. Apprentice is always focused on winning, or doing better than a competing company in a short turn around situations. Looks like benefactor is focusing on sales, relationships, etc. I believe that real businesses (the ones that long for 100s of years) are built around creating value for customers.

So when i have my own show, i’ll make sure that it focuses on the right business principles. It’s their show, so they can talk all about what they think is important.

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