The Holy Trinity of Business TV
The Profit, Hotel Impossible, and Shark Tank
The last decade has seen a new breed of reality television. Mark Cuban has called it — the New Age Lemonade Stand. It is group of television shows where business men not only talk but teach many of the basics of business, management, and investment. It is a formula that is drawing viewership, especially from families.
Most heartening, in my humble opinion, is the reliance on infographics, key performance indicators, and other analytic staples. These shows are introducing a new generation to meaningful economics and management principles.
Shark Tank
The Old Man of this genre is NBC’s Shark Tank. The show features a panel of five investors who hear pitches from entrepreneurs hoping to get an investment deal. The show is deep in business principles, lessons in passion, and work ethic. It also features routine discussions of valuation based on sales figures, production efficiency, and market penetration.
Shark Tank has been around since 2009 and uses a successful formula based on the Japanese series Dragon’s Den. Much like the Iron Chef series, Shark Tank has been tweaked a bit for an American audience. Unfortunately, the those tweaks did not include the addition of an Alton Brown-style analyst/commentator.
Hotel Impossible
Anthony Melchiorri is host of the Travel Channel series — Hotel Impossible. There have been many similar concepts using the ‘Impossible’ label, but Anthony’s had been unique in its frequent explanations of major KPI in the hotel industry. When the series originally aired, he went so far as pricing the cost of the renovations and estimating their impact on total revenue.
Alas, the show has pivoted quite a bit lately. While Anthony will often discuss metrics like rate and occupancy, the show now leans more heavily on personal drama between owners and employees, owners and their families, and owners and Anthony. Perhaps the show was too heavily reliant on analytics and business principles for the Travel Channel demographic?
The Profit
Marcus Lemonis is The Profit. His series is probably the most quantitative. It heavily utilizes infographics and other techniques to walk the audience through the profit and loss dynamics of small to midsize businesses. And it does so in a very simple, clean, and entertaining fashion.
The Profit, now approaching season four, has shown some signs of chasing greater personal drama over its initial premise. Personally, I hope the producers rethink that path. Watching the impact these shows have on teenagers and, as a result, families — it is hard to believe that increased drama is going to do much to increase appeal.
These shows are doing a great deal to educate the next generation. They are creating a connection for families. They are teaching many about the ins and outs of business management and business analytics. Here’s hoping this brand of reality TV has another decade or two of time in the spotlight.
All these shows are widely available On Demand, in syndication, and even online. Check them out. Watch them with your family. You will likely be surprised how engaged they will be.
