“I am not a very good manager. I get distracted easily and want to move on to do other things,” says Duncan Bannatyne, when I ask him where his weaknesses lie. He’s not the first entrepreneur to admit to exactly the same failings that you might have yourself. In fact, you may discover that you share a lot in common with Bannatyne. He has many of the characteristics of a Branson or Sugar. He’s restless, direct, brutally honest and thoroughly determined – the archetype of an entrepreneur.
The fact that his is the classic rags-to-riches story does this image of him no harm either. Here’s the boy from a hard council estate who grew up to become one of the nation’s best known entrepreneurs, who can now count the prime minister as one of his friends.
“I think if you look at the really successful entrepreneurs, there a lot more of them with no qualifications than there are those with a string of GCSEs,” he says, suggesting that there will always be more ‘boy done good’ tales to be told.
The Bannatyne story is well known and won’t be re-told in full here. For those of you who don’t know it, here’s a summary. After several wasted years and a stint in the navy, he bought an ice cream van which he turned into a fleet and later sold. His next business was in the care home sector, where again he sold out and made a fortune. Since then he has moved into health clubs and, more recently, started casino and hotel businesses.
But, of course, we all know him for his time on Dragons’ Den, and he is currently recording another series.
Ethical Values
Watching Bannatyne on Dragons’ Den could leave you with the impression that he is a cold-blooded, ruthless capitalist, with a streak of ice running down his backbone. In reality, he is warmer, polite, but still direct and to the point. His TV persona also belies the fact that he spends a considerable amount of time and money on charitable causes. But, like many entrepreneurial philanthropists before him, Bannatyne is a very hands-on contributor, impatient for results and wanting direct involvement. “I no longer feel good about sending big cheques to charities. I want to be able to see what’s happening,” he says.
Bannatyne began working with UNICEF in the early 1990s and is an Honorary Fellow to this day. But after visiting Romania and seeing the appalling conditions in which the poorest children lived, he wanted to offer direct help – something UNICEF doesn’t provide. This led to the creation of Casa Bannatyne in 2004, an orphanage that looks after about 20 children with AIDS or HIV and costs him about £30,000 per year. “It’s not that much,” he remarks, “but without it they wouldn’t be alive.”
Direct involvement and a fast turnaround is a key characteristic of Bannatyne’s approach. He became involved with Sir Richard Branson, and together they formed Entrepreneurs Unite, with the intention of doing work in Africa. However, he has already pulled out.
“We were planning on going to Africa and seeing how business skills could benefit people out there,” he says, “but it was moving too slowly for me, so I am no longer involved.”