Dragon’s Den is a television programme that was originally made in Japan. The format of the programme is simple – it consists of businessmen giving details of their ideas to a group of five business experts and successful businesspeople, called as the “Dragons”. The purpose of this presentation is that the would be entrepreneurs want money, from the dragons that is, with which they can put their ideas and concepts into practice.

People with a complete assuring personality and an ambition to start off a profitable business, but do not have the money to put their ideas into practice are a part of this game. The contestants are given a maximum two hours in which they have to ideas to five wealthy and highly successful business people – the “Dragons” of the show’s title. However only about five minutes of this presentation is aired and is followed by negotiations between the actual and the potential enterprisers. The contestants have to specify in advance the amount that they wish to raise through the show. The rules very specifically mention that if they do not raise this full amount then they cannot and will not receive anything that is no funds are given for investment. The dragons then seek details of the idea – this process being referred to as Due Diligence which in the corporate world’s context (since the term’s meaning differs slightly from field to field) means a process through which a potential acquirer evaluates a target company or its assets. During this phase it is often revealed that the contestants are grossly unprepared or have only cooked up an idea that is weakly supported by disturbing facts and as a consequence the dragons reject the proposal. It is but normal to view five or six ideas and only one that attracts the dragon’s money. The contestant then tries to strike a deal with the dragons, with a stake in the company, the quantity of which can be the prime area of compromise.

The original version of this show was known as the Money no Tora (Money Tiger) and was telecast on Nippon Television from 2001 to 2004 in Japan, where the format is owned by Sony. Also, it was one of the first programmes of its type in Japan and it ran for three years. In this short span it lured as many as sixteen successful business people who appeared on the show as Tigers. The series has been produced in Japan, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Canada and the Netherlands.

The UK Dragon’s Den was aired on BBC Two. It was anchored by Evan Davis - the BBC’s economics editor. Second series got over in December 2005 with a follow up episode titled “Where Are They Now” showing the result facts of some of the undertakings by the first series, shown on the following day. In August 2006, the third series started on with the follow up episode “Where Are They Now” aired in September 2006. It was selected for the RTS award and also got lucky on two BAFTA awards in the year 2007. The series is produced by Dominic Bird with the Executive Producer being Helen Bullough. The theme tune is credited to John Watt. The dragons are: Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones, Theo Paphitis (replaced Simon Woodroffe from series one), Deborah Meaden (replaced Doug Richard from series one and two), and James Caan was moved on to Richard Farleigh from series three and four. Eventually again was replaced by Rachael Elnaugh from series one and two).