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Next Academy Wing It in

The Dragon’s Den

The culmination of Year 1 of the Leadership training scheme, the Next Academy, saw Aca-
demy students pitch potential business ideas to a terrifying panel of Executive “Dragons”.

Four teams, selected from across the business, have been developing their ideas sin-
ce March, as part of their CMI- accredited training program. The brief was to come
up with a viable concept, that would demonstrate a clear return on investment (ROI.

On the 9th October each team bravely entered the “Den” pitching for
hard cash to bring their concepts to life. They had an hour to present their
idea and respond to some tough questioning from the Executive Dragons.

If you’re interested in any further learning and development opportunities, speak to your line manager.
Delaware North actively encourages all our colleagues to gain further skills and experience to support
your career progression.

“Not as scary as the TV dragons” was the opinion of Travel GM Mark
Pincham, representing the Blue Team. London Stadium’s Head of Con-
cessions and Purple Team member, Richard Craig, said it was “character
building”.

“They were as fi erce as expected!” added Red team’s Catriona Parsons,
Head of Hospitality at London Stadium. “A great experience being grilled
by the
experts, with plenty of “Duh why didn’t we think of that??” moments!!”

Purple Team member Victoria Allen, Strategic Projects Manager at Wem-
bley, described the experience as “challenging” with “a lot of lessons
learnt from the experts”.

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