3 Business Reality TV Shows that Should Succeed in India

Around the world, a number of business reality TV shows have enjoyed success because they put people in situations many of us can relate to; we all have jobs and we all have bosses. Here are three such shows that could succeed in India.

Shravan Bhat
Updated: Jul 13, 2013 09:30:32 AM UTC

Indian reality TV to me means Roadies, Emotional Atyachaar, Splitsvilla and Bigg Boss. The shows have huge fan followings and, obviously, make for good TV. We love seeing large bald men shouting at hapless small-town aspirants, cringe-worthy audition failures and the changes in expressions when more than one contestant is to be eliminated in an episode.

But I think reality TV can serve a better purpose. Around the world, a number of business reality TV shows have enjoyed success because they put people in situations many of us can relate to; we all have jobs and we all have bosses. There’s a lot to learn from a well designed business TV show.  Here are three such shows that I think could succeed in India if executed well.

Dragon’s Den.

This is perhaps the ultimate adrenaline rush for hopeful start-ups: pitch for an equity investment into your business to five multimillionaire investors on live TV. No pressure! The hugely successful show has been reincarnated with prominent local businesspeople everywhere from Afghanistan to Australia, though the original idea came from Japan. Hopeful entrepreneurs have a few minutes to try to convince sceptical tycoons that their business is worthy of a capital injection straight out of their pockets. Though more often than not, the more zany businesses get destroyed by the ‘Dragons’ (which make for “good TV”), every episode a couple of real gems are unearthed.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8iZLL6fgNg[/youtube]

I remember watching the UK edition, where Theo Paphitis, the retail (stationery) mogul, invested in an outstanding high school student who created an innovative file using a single piece of plastic and two magnets. The kid has already found a supplier to mass produce in China and talked to high-street retailer about stocking. After grilling him for 15 minutes, Paphitis shook hands on a deal that saw him inject tens of thousands of pounds into the fledgling entrepreneur.

What sets the show apart is the range of backgrounds in the Den. Each of the investors have an area of expertise and depending on which sector the entrepreneur comes from, they ask tough questions to get to the bottom of the business idea. Things really get interesting when Dragons get into bidding wars with each other and make multiple “take it or leave it” offers to the entrepreneur on the spot. With the number of start-ups coming out of India—especially the number of social ventures—led by confident, well educated people, I have no doubt a few good entrepreneurs would get connected to senior mentorship. And the rest, well, would get cut down to size.

The Apprentice

Possibly the best known business reality TV show, The Apprentice already has an avatar with Indian contestants – The Apprentice Asia, hosted by Tony Fernandes. It’s another hugely successful show that has seen localized formats from Brazil to Belgium. Young—and often highly educated—professionals battle against each other in teams each week to execute task assigned to them. Each week, one is eliminated until only one remains to ‘apprentice’ for the mogul in his/her own company.

It is a rather intense, melodramatic job interview and the more outlandish tasks make for great viewing. It also gives producers a chance to cast some colourful characters to the driven but sometimes bland group of suit wearing sharks. In the UK edition, hosted by Lord Alan Sugar, during an assignment to sell gourmet pizzas the project manager decided to buy 100 whole, large chickens to use as toppings for 100 pizzas. You can do the math in your head. It was ridiculous overestimation that came back to bite him in the boardroom later.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHZKU58G0I4[/youtube]

By the end of the process, successful candidates have organized fashion shows and sold Lamborghinis – the more outlandish the tasks, the bigger the spills.

The show has been attempted in India before but never took off. It hinges, of course, on a charismatic, flamboyant business tycoon to host it and ‘fire’ contestants each week. Any of you who’ve seen the suave Tony Fernandes on AXN, cutting through contestant’s excuses and picking the bones out of a business plan will know what I mean. I suppose in India the person who fits the bill best is Vijay Mallya; getting him or someone like him on board is crucial.

Undercover Boss

This would be, without a doubt, the best of the three shows in terms of PR for the corporates involved. Undercover Boss has been done in Europe, the USA and Australia and, I think, would lend itself very well to an emerging market like India if it made some subtle changes. The show takes the owner/CEO of a large corporation, gives them a make-over so they are unrecognizable and places them in entry level or blue collar jobs within their own company. The camera crew follows the boss around under the pretence of filming a training video. The exercise is designed to help them understand their business from the ground up, engage with employees on the ‘floor’ and give them a sense of perspective.

I remember an episode where the head of Burger King was taught how to make a Whopper and realized how hard it is to churn out burger after burger in a hot kitchen. The enduring lesson from most episodes is that CEOs need to understand their employees problems and take care of their needs. The undercover bosses do three different jobs within their companies where they meet managers and employees both good and bad. There are heart warming tales of single mothers who’ve sacrificed everything and there shocking store managers who sexually harass their workers – including, inadvertently, the multimillionaire head of the company.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZYvt_pEolo[/youtube]

For the show to work in India, I suspect one would need to forego the promoter for a younger VP or function head, someone who could blend in to a factory environment with other, young or middle aged workers. Every episode ends with the boss exposing his true identity at a large company gathering and embarrassing the employees he’d worked with. What usually ensues is a cheesy montage where he calls in good workers to reward them with holidays or gifts and bad employees who he fires. It’s a chance for corporations to show they are human and genuine, even though the exercise seems fairly scripted.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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