Question 1: Entrepreneurial Leadership
New to the den
Steven Bartlett, 28 is the youngest ever to join Dragons' Den. He is motivated as there 'has not
been a young, black man on the show. This is a role model that will be really helpful’. Bartlett
is CEO of social media marketing agency The Social Chain (valued at £300 mln) which he
started from his Manchester bedroom after dropping out of university.
‘I grew up in Botswana and moved to Manchester to study Business Management. But that
did not go well with the business vision I had on the side: the creation of a social media-
assisted platform for young people and students. When I dropped my studies, I met Dominic
McGregor. He was posting extremely funny and relatable student content with thousands of
followers on Twitter. I saw an opportunity to connect a brand with its audience and shared my
vision with Dom. He up ditched his studies too and we set up Social Chain.’
‘Our first campaign was for a gaming app. We just launched the campaign and hoped for the
best. The game stayed at the top of the app store for weeks and we knew we had something.
Currently, we are Europe’s most influential marketing
agency and have expanded into the US. I split my time
between all our offices, but Social Chain HQ, in the heart of
Manchester, is my home. It’s a really cool place too! We’ve
got a slide, ball pit, fully stocked bar, table tennis and a
puppy park. Our environment is recognised as something special, which makes work that we
produce pretty special too. We’ve come a long way since sharing a one-bedroom flat only a
few years ago! The average age of your employees is twenty-one, with 160 full time staff.’
‘People will always tell you not to do it, like my mum told me to go back to university. I had
no money; I came to Manchester with fifty quid. One of the things I have learnt, is to struggle
on purpose. This helps to overcome the feeling of anxiety of – oh god I’ve never done this
before - and run back to comfort. The struggle is key to help you learn and improve. Like a
workout will stimulate your muscle growth, perseverance can take you a long way. I have no
idea what the future will hold, which also what I tell my investors. We are open to change and
we will move along with it. So, if Facebook and all the social media platforms shut down
today, we’ll move in a new direction. Because I didn’t know three years ago where I’d be
, today, this willingness to change helps us to win. In business, the way that you win is, you
double down doing something you love doing. Don’t think so much about the immediacy of
rewards or being a millionaire this month because you won’t.’
‘The people that you surround yourself with are everything. But, as an entrepreneur, you need
to learn how to sell. You’re always selling: selling your strategy internally to your team,
selling your ideas to investors to gain their support, selling potential candidates the position to
work with you, and most importantly selling a product or service successfully to your
customers.’ Someone who experienced this is, Liverpool student, Nathan Bickerton who
googled Steven Bartlett's name one morning and noticed he did not have a Wikipedia page.
He then thought to draft one which also proved helpful for his writing portfolio. After
reaching out for permission to share the entry on his LinkedIn, Bartlett offered him a job 10
minutes later. "He identified a blind spot I had, created a solution, got it done and sent me a
nice message. This one act stood out over the 500+ CV’s I receive per week.”
A. During class the ‘wider scope for domination by a leader’ within an entrepreneurial
venture has been discussed. Explain whether this will work as a facilitator or a
constraint for the case of Steven Bartlett and The Social Chain? (25 points)
Within entrepreneurial ventures there are lots of constrains and facilitators at the same time,
this means that every advantage has a disadvantage. In regard to the so called ‘wider scope for
domination by a leader’ this may have constrains or facilitators. In the case of Steven Barlett,
it becomes clear that he has a clear vision and because of that there is room for
implementation. His vision is stated as: ‘the creation of a social media-assisted platform for
young people and students’. It becomes clear that Steven Barlett had a vision for his
entrepreneurial venture. When this is the case than the ‘wider scope for domination by a
leader’ within an entrepreneurial venture works as a facilitator.
The wider scope for domination can lead to inflexibility, a person is then driving his
business off the cliff when he has a tunnel vision. This is fortunately not the case with Steven
Bartlett.
Renko, M., Tarabishy, A. Carsrud, A. and
M, Brännback (2015
New to the den
Steven Bartlett, 28 is the youngest ever to join Dragons' Den. He is motivated as there 'has not
been a young, black man on the show. This is a role model that will be really helpful’. Bartlett
is CEO of social media marketing agency The Social Chain (valued at £300 mln) which he
started from his Manchester bedroom after dropping out of university.
‘I grew up in Botswana and moved to Manchester to study Business Management. But that
did not go well with the business vision I had on the side: the creation of a social media-
assisted platform for young people and students. When I dropped my studies, I met Dominic
McGregor. He was posting extremely funny and relatable student content with thousands of
followers on Twitter. I saw an opportunity to connect a brand with its audience and shared my
vision with Dom. He up ditched his studies too and we set up Social Chain.’
‘Our first campaign was for a gaming app. We just launched the campaign and hoped for the
best. The game stayed at the top of the app store for weeks and we knew we had something.
Currently, we are Europe’s most influential marketing
agency and have expanded into the US. I split my time
between all our offices, but Social Chain HQ, in the heart of
Manchester, is my home. It’s a really cool place too! We’ve
got a slide, ball pit, fully stocked bar, table tennis and a
puppy park. Our environment is recognised as something special, which makes work that we
produce pretty special too. We’ve come a long way since sharing a one-bedroom flat only a
few years ago! The average age of your employees is twenty-one, with 160 full time staff.’
‘People will always tell you not to do it, like my mum told me to go back to university. I had
no money; I came to Manchester with fifty quid. One of the things I have learnt, is to struggle
on purpose. This helps to overcome the feeling of anxiety of – oh god I’ve never done this
before - and run back to comfort. The struggle is key to help you learn and improve. Like a
workout will stimulate your muscle growth, perseverance can take you a long way. I have no
idea what the future will hold, which also what I tell my investors. We are open to change and
we will move along with it. So, if Facebook and all the social media platforms shut down
today, we’ll move in a new direction. Because I didn’t know three years ago where I’d be
, today, this willingness to change helps us to win. In business, the way that you win is, you
double down doing something you love doing. Don’t think so much about the immediacy of
rewards or being a millionaire this month because you won’t.’
‘The people that you surround yourself with are everything. But, as an entrepreneur, you need
to learn how to sell. You’re always selling: selling your strategy internally to your team,
selling your ideas to investors to gain their support, selling potential candidates the position to
work with you, and most importantly selling a product or service successfully to your
customers.’ Someone who experienced this is, Liverpool student, Nathan Bickerton who
googled Steven Bartlett's name one morning and noticed he did not have a Wikipedia page.
He then thought to draft one which also proved helpful for his writing portfolio. After
reaching out for permission to share the entry on his LinkedIn, Bartlett offered him a job 10
minutes later. "He identified a blind spot I had, created a solution, got it done and sent me a
nice message. This one act stood out over the 500+ CV’s I receive per week.”
A. During class the ‘wider scope for domination by a leader’ within an entrepreneurial
venture has been discussed. Explain whether this will work as a facilitator or a
constraint for the case of Steven Bartlett and The Social Chain? (25 points)
Within entrepreneurial ventures there are lots of constrains and facilitators at the same time,
this means that every advantage has a disadvantage. In regard to the so called ‘wider scope for
domination by a leader’ this may have constrains or facilitators. In the case of Steven Barlett,
it becomes clear that he has a clear vision and because of that there is room for
implementation. His vision is stated as: ‘the creation of a social media-assisted platform for
young people and students’. It becomes clear that Steven Barlett had a vision for his
entrepreneurial venture. When this is the case than the ‘wider scope for domination by a
leader’ within an entrepreneurial venture works as a facilitator.
The wider scope for domination can lead to inflexibility, a person is then driving his
business off the cliff when he has a tunnel vision. This is fortunately not the case with Steven
Bartlett.
Renko, M., Tarabishy, A. Carsrud, A. and
M, Brännback (2015
