Dragons' Den - video transcripts

Session 2 - Let's get our heads into business gear

Hello everyone. My name is Rumnique and welcome to our first session, which is all about getting into the business mindset. This session is split up into different sections. Firstly we'll be thinking about the different skills that we need in the business world. And one of these skills is creativity. So we will be focusing on that a lot further. We'll then talk about some well-known entrepreneurs and think about what has made these people so successful. We’ll then follow on from that and talk about what makes businesses so successful. This finally leads to doing a group activity, or what we call the banana challenge, which is when you will put this all together to come up with some interesting ideas that solve a challenge.

Now, just to remind you that these sessions are building you up to taking part in Dragon's Den pitch. So if any of you have seen Dragons’ Den, you'll already know the format, which is that entrepreneurs get 3 minutes to pitch a business idea to multimillionaires, the dragons as we call them. The dragons are willing to invest cash in a business that they liked the sound of. So they'll listen to the pitch and then they'll also ask some questions, and whether they like the pitch or the answers or the business, they'll then decide whether they're going to invest or not. That's what we'll be doing - a nicer version of - what we're building towards later on.

Now, as we go through today's session, you're welcome to pause the video wherever you need to. When we do an activity, I'll say this is where you pause and then I only pause for a second, so I'm relying on you to pause the video before we continue.

If there's a clip of Dragon's Den that you're going to watch, now's the time to pause for that.

Let's kick off.

This slide shows the essential skills that are important in all settings. So not just work, but also school activities, outside of school as well. And there are eight key skills that we all consider everyone needs to have. So please do pause the video if you wish to briefly look at them because I'm going to be focusing on creativity.

Creativity is the yellow one with the box around it. And that's what we'd be taking forward to the rest of this session. I'll give an example of how I use creativity. Now I wouldn't say I work in a creative environment because I work in finance, which people probably think is not very creative. However, I do use creativity quite a lot. For example, I'm having to do a presentation about how we get our finances to grow and managing our finances. So I have to think about, well, how do I make that engaging for the staff? Should I use a speaker just talking to them, or is that not very engaging? Should I do an activity to get everyone engaged? Maybe I could do a Q&A session on everyone's phones. So I'm doing the second one in that yellow box there, which is developing ideas. And I'm using this creative mindset to think about how I get the best outcome.

But let's bring this to life for yourself as well. So we'll do an activity. I want you to discuss in your classroom, what does creativity mean to you? When have you used it before, and what does it actually mean? So please pause the video here and discuss with your classmates.

Welcome back. So at PwC, we do have a definition for creativity, which is quite a simple one, probably the same as what you've discussed, which is use of imagination and the generation of new ideas. How do we think outside the box, come up with new things? And how do we make sure that we are constantly trying to think of new ideas rather than just getting stuck on one idea.

So that’s an introduction to creativity. Now we're going to be doing the next section which is talking about famous entrepreneurs. First I’ll just give a definition of what entrepreneur means. Entrepreneur is someone who sets up a business. For example, the people on Dragons’ Den who are pitching for an investment in their business. So they’re setting it up from scratch. For the next activity, which can be in pairs, you're going to choose a well-known entrepreneur. Now, that could be anyone you want. For example, you might choose Oprah, you might choose Jamie Oliver, just any entrepreneur you want and discuss for 3 minutes the questions on this slide. Once you've discussed that, please share your discussions with the class, and then come back to the video. So please pause the video here.

Welcome back. I hope you've had some good discussions. And maybe you noticed some key things about what's making these entrepreneurs so successful. I've gone into the next activity, let me go back. So what makes them so successful? So for example, making an entrepreneur successful, that could be something like they're good at making decisions or quick at making decisions, or know who to speak to to get the decision. They could be taking ownership of their idea. They might campaign to get a really big public image, e.g. Jamie Oliver, he campaigns quite a lot about healthy school meals. We hear about him a lot. And they might have diversity in their teams and will be focusing on the diversity within their entrepreneurial idea. But hopefully you also discussed that they probably are all using creativity to be successful, e.g. they'll need to be designing either a new product or service, or making a product or service that’s already out there even better. And the reason they're doing that is that they're solving a problem that they see, that they can think of an idea of how to solve. So that's how we link creativity to entrepreneurs. Also, hopefully while discussing the entrepreneurs you came up with, you'll see that they all have different backgrounds. They all have different goals. They've had different challenges that they've worked hard to overcome. So they're just like you, me, entrepreneurs could be anyone. They've just found something that they were good at doing and they've then worked hard to get to where they are. So anyone could really be an entrepreneur.

So onto the next section which I briefly showed earlier. So we're moving on from entrepreneurs. So we've spoken about what makes entrepreneurs successful. Now we're going to talk about what makes brands or businesses so successful? So a very similar activity in your pairs. Choose a well-known brand. For example, you could choose Apple. We've had Haribo before. Discuss the five points on this screen. Once you've done your discussion, take a few minutes to then feed back to the classroom. Again, please pause the video here and then come back once that discussion is done.

So welcome back everyone. I hope you had a good interesting discussion about that. What I’ve got on the slide here is my five points for what makes a business so successful. Yours don't have to be the same at all. There are many answers out there, but I've just done five common ones that I generally see quite often. So firstly, is strong marketing and branding. So what does the image of the company look like? What's their logo? Do I like their logo? How does it make me feel? But also what's their reputation and how did they market that? E.g. Ikea markets being really stylish and affordable furniture. So that's how I then think of them.

The second thing I've got is that a successful business can adapt to consumers' needs. So if I think of Apple, they are constantly bringing out new up-to-date features. That's something that I probably have been thinking I wanted, but it wasn't available yet. So they're constantly staying up to date with what they know that people are after. If consumer is a new technical language for anyone, consumer just means like you and me, so the person using the product.

The third thing that successful businesses do is appeal to their target audience. So e.g. Haribo has a tagline. It goes “kids and grown ups love it” - they sing it, but I won't do that. And that means that they are directly saying who they're targeting. So if you're a kid or a grown-up, you automatically start listening so they’re appealing to their target audience.

The fourth thing that a successful business has to do, this is quite a tricky one, is balance between the cost and quality. If you have a low cost, then your chances are you probably have lower quality products. But if you want to have a higher-quality product, chances are it's going to cost you more to do that. So you need to make the balance there. And some companies, e.g. Burger King, they have a cheaper saver menu, so that's lower cost to them. Then it's also probably slightly lower quality than the other things that they could have, which would cost more for them to make so they balanced out there.

Then the fifth thing that makes a successful business is you need to find a gap in the market. So we need to come up with something new or improve an existing product. And that's where creativity is so important because you need to be coming up with something new.

Onto the next activity. So we're going to practise generating ideas. What's going to happen is the next slide, I'm going to present you with a challenge or what we call a brief. And you need to come up with ideas to meet that brief. So when I say the word brief, and it is on the slide there in the second sentence, a brief is a problem or a challenge that you have to come up with ideas to solve. A brief normally has a success criteria attached to it. So it will literally tell you what your idea needs to be able to do. When you're coming up with ideas, this is stage one right at the beginning of the creativity process, so it's important to just come up with any ideas you have and not worry yet about whether it meets the brief or whether it's a good idea or not. No idea is silly. Just come up with the ideas first and then you can go through the ideas and choose which ones meet the brief and which are your favourites.

To help before we get into the actual challenge. To help us get us into the mindset. Have a think about and discuss in your classrooms about when you've had to generate ideas before and how you went about doing it. So please pause the video here and discuss as a group and come back once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back. Hopefully you are now prepared. You know how you're going to generate the ideas. I'm going to now show you the brief that you need to generate ideas for. How can you use a banana to make revenue? By revenue, I mean, money that you get from the sale of a product or it could be a service as well. So I want you to come up with ideas of this, how you can use a banana to make revenue. And don't worry about the ideas. No idea is a silly idea. You will have 2 minutes to come up with as many ideas as possible. Is everyone ready? 2 minutes to come up with as many ideas as possible as to how a banana can generate revenue. Your teacher can pause the video here, and good luck.

Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed that task and realise you're already being entrepreneurs by generating so many different ideas. So just to recap, that's the end of our session today. So it's the start of this, generating this idea, generating being entrepreneurs. We've discussed what makes entrepreneurs so successful and pinpointed a couple of them, thought about what makes businesses so successful and you have now used creativity to think about how we generate revenue.

So before we wrap up, let's think about how you've demonstrated creativity during this task. So there's a couple of questions on the slide here. And pick one or two questions from this list below and discuss them as a group. Please pause the video and come back when you're ready.

Welcome back. So that's officially the end. Thank you very much. I hope you've enjoyed that and I look forward to seeing you at your next session. Thank you.

Session 4 - Setting the problem

Hi, my name is Nichola, and welcome to your next session. In this session, we're going to start thinking about creating solutions to our chosen problem.

For this section, we're going to focus on problem-solving. Problem-solving is important in my role as I often get involved in resourcing, and need to explore the problem and possible solutions to ensure our stakeholders have the right level of support in place.
What does problem-solving mean to you, and when have you used problem-solving before? Pause the video here and discuss it with your classmates. At PWC, we define problem-solving as the ability to find a solution to a situation or challenge.

There Is a difference between simple problems which have one correct answer and those that we call complex problems, which have many different possible solutions. The problems your teams are working on are all complex problems, as they have a range of possible solutions, and do not have one obvious answer. So how do we solve a complex problem that has more than one answer? Well, it will entirely depend on what the question is as to how you come to a solution. But there are some steps you can follow which will help you when thinking about complex issues.

Steps towards solving a complex problem:

Firstly, make sure you have a good understanding of what the problem itself is. Quite often we’re tripped up by not solving the problem we're actually facing. It’s a good time to research things if you need more information or want some new ideas. At this point, if you're unsure, then you can get some clarity from someone else, be it a teacher, a mentor, or a manager. Next, you need to think about what possible solutions there might be. As humans are quite bad at this step, as we tend to take the first option we think of, and treat it as the best. However, we really benefit from taking the time to think of different ways to solve a problem. There are lots of different ways to go about this but. Brainstorming or listing possible solutions is the most common way to think about your options, just like we did for the banana challenge. Next, you need to look at the range of options you've come up with. Think about the pros and cons of each of those options, and why might you want to choose one over the other. Remember that complex problems are rare;y self-contained and exist on their own. When thinking about pros and cons of your options, think about what possible effects a given solution might have on something else. So now you've got your list of ideas and you've weighed up the pros and cons of each, you will likely be left with a smaller list of options to choose from. Then we go on to building a plan. Use the research you've done and the pros and cons of the options. Pick your preferred option and make a plan for how you can implement this. Keep the goal in mind and work out the steps you need to take to get there. Over time things will change. And when we start solving a problem, we may encounter new information, or other things might change. It's a good idea to keep evaluating how well our solution works and changing our plan if we need to. During this session, you will be generating lots of solutions to your problem, considering their pros and cons and choosing your third option. Next session, we'll build the plan. When have you solved a complex problem before and how did you do it? Pause the video here and have a short discussion within your group.

The first step to solving a complex problem is understanding what the problem is. Use these questions to help you explore your chosen problem. This will help you when you start generating solutions to the problem in the next step. For example, if we think about the problem of oceans becoming polluted by plastic waste, consider what are the three causes of the problem. Who is impacted by the problem and how are they impacted? Your teacher might like to pause the video now so that you can work together as a class on this example. When you’re done it’s your turn to work in your teams to explore your problem in more detail.

You already have a good understanding of your problem; your next step is to come up with ideas, and the more the better. Humans are quite bad at exploring problems, we tend to take the first idea that comes into our heads and to imagine that is the best answer that there could be. Actually, our first idea is rarely our best idea. It's also important to have a positive and open view when solving a complex problem. Be open to new ideas and think outside the box. The best ideas are often those that are not fixed from the start. Solving problems by creating different solutions is sometimes called blue-sky thinking, and you're going to use this approach today. How can you come up with lots of possible solutions? Pause the video here and have a short discussion, in your group.

Now it's time to tackle some of the problems you have identified in the earlier sessions. You'll be able to put the skills you have learned around exploring problems by exploring different solutions into practice. Follow the instructions on the slide and start thinking.

When we're thinking through the different possible answers or solutions, we have to find a way of choosing between them. One of the simplest approaches to this is to think about the pros. This is the positive side of a possible answer or solution, which could also be called the advantage of the solution. And then the cons. This is the negative side of a possible answer or solution, also known as the disadvantage of the solution. Spend five-minutes now in your teams thinking about the pros and cons of each solution and make sure everyone gets the chance to contribute.

Now that you've brainstormed ideas and considered the pros and cons, it’s time to choose the best idea to take forward. The simplest way of using pros and cons is just to make a list of each, and then see which possible solution has the most pros and the fewest cons to it. The problem with this approach is that it presumes that all pros and cons are equally important. In reality, we might care a lot more about some things than others. Pros and cons can help us to understand what the advantages and disadvantages are of different potential solutions to complicated problems. But to make the right choice we need to know what we care about most. This is why we use this success criteria: criteria that the chosen solution must meet in order to be successful. For this task, the success criteria are that your idea is innovative, practical, and uses emerging technology. With these in mind, first, review your solutions and only keep those that meet all three criteria. Then use the pros and cons of the remaining ideas to choose your best solution. Let's get started.

Before we finish this session, consider how you've demonstrated problem-solving during this task. Then discuss the reflection questions as a group.

I hope you've enjoyed today's session and thank you for listening and taking part.

Session 6 - Develop your solution

Hello, My name is Lindsay and welcome to the developing your pitch session, where you will have the opportunity to pull your ideas together to sell your product or service to the dragons. You have completed your listening session. Now, this section will focus on speaking. Speaking is important in my role as I often have to take the lead on team meetings and regularly speak to directors and partners in the firm where I need to be clear and concise in providing them with information. So what does speaking mean to you? When did you use Speaking before? Please pause the video here and discuss with your classmates. At PwC, we define speaking as the oral transmission of information and ideas.

Let's move on to preparing your presentation. One way to speak engagingly is to use facts and examples to support your points. Facts are things that are known or proven to be true, statistics are pieces of numerical data, e.g. the size of our country, the proportion of people who like pizza, and the number of fish in the average lake. Facts and statistics are important when speaking because they provide evidence that adds truth to your argument that you're making. To be effective, facts and statistics must be relevant to the argument that you're making or what you're saying. Otherwise it just becomes a distraction, so please choose the right moment to use them and don't use too many. A simple sentence structure you can use is [provide the opinion] because and [then provide the facts or statistics]. Let me ask you a question. When have you seen facts and examples used effectively during a speech? What made them effective? Please pause the video here and have a short discussion in your group.

Using the presentation sandwich approach should help make sure that you capture the key information you will need to share with the dragons through your pitch. You should kick off the pitch by introducing yourself, explain what the problem is you're trying to solve and why and who will benefit from the product or service you've come up with. You can then present your solution and its branded logo. Explain how it will help solve the problem you've chosen. The cost to start up and the cost to the customer, if any. Please remember to support the points with facts and examples. Remember to finish by reminding the dragons why they should choose your idea and include your unique selling points. Make your pitch memorable.

You have now 20 minutes to prepare your pitch. We’ll then have a think about how you can deliver it.

Moving on to how to deliver. Effective non verbal communication is very important when presenting your pitch as you can see from the pie chart, the actual words you say and are presenting are less important, compared to your body language and tone of voice. There are several elements to nonverbal communication. The tone, we can refer to this when something is being said. The tone varies by several dimensions. Pitch, pitch is about how high or low someone is speaking, the tempo, how quickly someone is speaking, the volume, this is how loudly or quietly someone is speaking. The intonation is about where the emphasis is placed on different words. Expressions, how your face communicates information to whoever you're speaking to, by moving our face in different ways. We can have a range of emotions from joy to disgust. A gesture is a movement of the body, which means something. Your tone, expression and gesture often give a more accurate understanding of someone's emotions, than the audio clues. This means you should be aware of what your body's doing and how you are saying things, not just the words you're saying. Practice can help with this. Your teacher might want to pause the video here for you to discuss how you can use your tone, expression, and gesture to engage listeners.

If you've had a group discussion, you may have discussed things like having open palms, making and keeping eye contact, facing the listener, standing up straight, but being relaxed, being careful not to swing or move too much when speaking. Smiling and using varied tones.

Body language can affect how we feel about ourselves. A quick exercise, it only takes 2 minutes and is especially useful if you're a bit nervous about presenting or public speaking. It's called the Power Pose. The idea is that by assuming someone is powerful. Posture and holding it for 2 minutes, the subjects can induce positive hormonal and behavioural changes that make them feel confident. Your teacher may choose to pause the session here and play a short clip on power pose with a quick practical activity afterwards. When you're ready, let's move on to some top tips for delivering your pitch.

Nonverbal and verbal communication are important in your delivery. Here are four top tips to consider. Be aware of your body language, show confidence by having a good posture, using open gestures and making eye contact. This not only will make you feel more confident, but will make you look more confident to your audience. Engage with your audience, keep your facial expressions interested and enthused to engage your audience. If you can remember, please smile. Speak slowly, clearly and loudly for all to hear. Remember that everyone needs to be able to hear you, including someone who may be sitting at the back of the classroom. So look forward, project your voice and include pauses when you speak. Know your presentation and your visuals, this ensures you're not staring at them when talking about them.

You now have 10 minutes to practise your pitch and readiness for your presentation to the dragons. Let's get started.

Before we enter the Den, consider how you have demonstrated speaking during this task. Choose some of the questions from the list and discuss them as a class. Thank you.

Session 8 - Reflection

Hi again. I hope you enjoyed your previous session. Welcome to session eight on reflection. This is the final session of our Dragon's Den workshop.

During the workshop, we have practised skills such as speaking, problem-solving, creativity, and teamwork, particularly on the steps below.

I would like you to take part in a short exercise, which should take you no longer than 5 minutes. What I would like you to do is write down two essential skills which you've enjoyed using and discuss what you have learned from them. Then I would like you to write down one essential skill which you believe you can improve on and discuss what you have learned from that skill. Then finally, discuss amongst yourselves what has been your favourite part of the sessions and why.

I hope you enjoyed that short exercise. Before we finish. How confident are you now to use the focus steps below? There's no right or wrong answer. I would like your teacher to pause the video now for you to discuss the focus steps and discuss what you have learned.

If you've enjoyed developing your skills today, you can go to the Skills Builder online and access free modules to be able to develop more essential skills. You can access the Skills Builder Launch pad on your computer, mobile devices or tablets.

Thank you for taking part in our Dragon's Den workshop. We hope you've thoroughly enjoyed it and that you've learned something new. I hope to see you again. Goodbye.