TV’s dragon is talking a lot of sense

May 14 2008 by Andrew Hebden, The Journal

BEWILDERING, confusing and out of control – that was the verdict delivered yesterday by the chairman of a taskforce established to investigate the Government-backed support on offer to businesses in the UK.

Doug Richard, the American entrepreneur best known for his time in TV’s Dragons’ Den, says he found 3,000 separate schemes operated by more than 2,000 different agencies during his exhaustive investigations. They cost a total of £2.5bn, according to his calculations – but two-thirds of this cash was spent simply telling firms where to find advice and what grants are available. The conclusions are of little surprise given that Doug Richard was asked to carry out the review by the Conservatives.

But they will also ring true for entrepreneurs who have been frustrated at the complexities of the business support network.

Richard said the solution was to make all of these 2,000-plus agencies prove their worth – or to close them down.

The taskforce report also calls for the creation of a single, national, web-based business information system to give firms a single access point.

At first glance the numbers quoted by Richard do seem huge. But look more closely and they include some extremely small-scale operations operating in very specific areas. Simply pulling the plug on these organisations, many of which are undoubtedly doing valuable work and helping to support businesses in their local area, may not be the answer. The value of local knowledge must also not be dismissed.

That said, it is hard to argue against a rationalisation of the wealth of service providers. The Government acknowledges this, saying it wants to reduce the 3,000 schemes to 100 by 2010.

Sceptics would point out that there has been a proliferation of such projects since 1997.

Here in the North East, we have recently seen the Business Link model significantly changed to provide one organisation that serves the whole of the region. This has been a difficult transformation at times, but one that ultimately makes a lot of sense. It could be a model for other services and other regions.

For Richard, it seems that his initiation into the world of British publicly-funded institutions has been eye-opening to say the least – and a world away from life in the Dragons’ Den. He seemed frankly exhausted when he was interviewed about the project yesterday. Some of you probably know how he feels.

At first glance the numbers quoted by Richard do seem huge. But look more closely