I hope I am not simply drinking cool aid, but I believe that the TV show "Shark Tank" is correctly hyped to reflect America's interest in entrepreneurship. Indeed I have read articles in Forbes and Fast Company --and in other publications-- about how the show effectively provides critical lessons to those in the viewing public interested in starting businesses. I am personally addicted to the show because of my own interest in learning about entrepreneurship.
When I first watched the show, my initial instinct was to think that if the show advances the public's interest in entrepreneurship and financial betterment, it would take the public's attention off of civic engagement and issues of public concern. However, upon further though, I have a new perspective: entrepreneurship can advance civic engagement and engagement.
Entrepreneurship is effectively creating and selling a product or service.To do so, one must identify a marketplace for that product or service, which means one must become familiar with the needs and desires of his or her fellow. Then, one must convinced his or her fellow of a creation that addresses that need or desire. This is a critical communication process, and in some sense, may be similar to the communication process of the candidate for electoral office selling his or her ability to address those concerns in the community. An entrepreneur in consumer goods must show how his or her product addresses needs of the consumer, and an entrepreneur in electoral office must show how his or her placement in public office should address the needs of the consumer.
The civic engagement side is two-fold. First, good entrepreneurs learn about their potential customer's needs. They are focused on understanding legitimate ways to make the lives of others easier in an affordable manner. Second, through the process of developing a relationship around the value of particular type of product, valuable interactions occur. From the show, I have the perspective that the most skilled entrepreneurs are not those whose communication about community needs is not exclusively focused on the product and services in hand, but in the course of marketing communications, do indeed communicate about community needs as a whole, thus advancing the social bonds needed for community engagement in a host of arenas.
As an aside, we often don't think about the ways that entrepreneurship advances the goals of democracy, but the pitches on Shark Tank make it quite evident that the interactions that are part of the development of family businesses are the same interactions that connect neighbors to address emergencies. The entrepreneur needs to understand the marketplace and in doing so, needs to understand the legal scheme and in doing so, needs to think about the impact of certain kinds of laws on his or her business.
The proof will be in the pudding. If the show's audience decides to sit at home and watch endless reruns, and then there are spin-offs that focus attention on making fun of bad products and how to screw up in business, the show will be useless. I believe the show will continue to inspire folks to build businesses and interact as a result.
ps: if nothing else, it is great that there is an ability for a show like this to shine, rather than another show making fun of people.
No comments:
Post a Comment