Abstract (Summary)
A national governmental mentoring programme for new entrepreneurs was launched in Sweden in 2005. This programme has so far been very successful and experience gained in this process has been reported successively at ICSB conferences. The purpose of this paper is to report of mentor and mentee attitudes towards participation in this mentoring programme. Data is based on extensive nationwide telephone interviews with 200 of the mentors and mentees involved. Measuring the value of mentoring is a complex matter. Following interviews with both mentors and mentees, the answer is unambiguous. Mentoring creates value for mentees who are involved. It is thus evident that mentoring of new entrepreneurs carries very high value. Value that must be recognised and used to its full potential. In Sweden there are now just over 2,000 mentors and mentees involved in the national programme aimed at new entrepreneurs, in a country with around nine million inhabitants and about 44,000 newly-launched companies a year. We are firmly convinced that it would be possible to set up at least four times as many mentoring pairs a year because of the tremendous demand and the voluntary resources available in society. These results indicate that mentoring can be used to a much greater extent than was previously considered possible. We intend to continue sharing what we learn from managing the mentoring programme in Sweden through our papers. We hope that other countries will also review their potential supply and demand for mentoring. Sweden is not unique in our opinion. If we harness the power of mentoring, we will see our new entrepreneurs developing much healthier and stronger enterprises. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Full Text(5909 words) |
| [Headnote] |
| ABSTRACT |
| A national governmental mentoring programme for new entrepreneurs was launched in Sweden in 2005. This programme has so far been very successful and experience gained in this process has been reported successively at ICSB conferences. |
| The purpose of this paper is to report of mentor and mentee attitudes towards participation in this mentoring programme. Data is based on extensive nationwide telephone interviews with 200 of the mentors and mentees involved. |
| Measuring the value of mentoring is a complex matter. Following interviews with both mentors and mentees, the answer is unambiguous. Mentoring creates value for mentees who are involved. It is thus evident that mentoring of new entrepreneurs carries very high value. Value that must be recognised and used to its full potential. In Sweden there are now just over 2,000 mentors and mentees involved in the national programme aimed at new entrepreneurs, in a country with around nine million inhabitants and about 44,000 newly-launched companies a year. We are firmly convinced that it would be possible to set up at least four times as many mentoring pairs a year because of the tremendous demand and the voluntary resources available in society. |
| These results indicate that mentoring can be used to a much greater extent than was previously considered possible. We intend to continue sharing what we learn from managing the mentoring programme in Sweden through our papers. We hope that other countries will also review their potential supply and demand for mentoring. Sweden is not unique in our opinion. If we harness the power of mentoring, we will see our new entrepreneurs developing much healthier and stronger enterprises. |
| Keywords: mentor, senior executives, mentee, adept, protégé, start-up, new starter, entrepreneur, mentoring, mentoring programme, business, enterprise, supply, demand, theory, practice, attitudes |
INTRODUCTION
In recent years mentoring for entrepreneurs has become a hot topic of debate with many people implementing it at a regional level. At a national level there is still a lot to be desired all around the world.
Within the framework of the EU Commission's initiatives for entrepreneurship, in terms of both innovation and entrepreneurial policy, there is an unutilised, dormant potential.
But more and more governments all over the world are acting and starting to set up their own national mentoring programmes for their new starters. The USA was the first to produce a national mentoring programme with SCORE [www.score.org], which has an association with the Small Business Administration (SBA), which started up a voluntary mentioning programme for the country's new starters in 1963 with the aid of 2,500 voluntary mentors. SCORE was very early on the scene, and it is really only after the turn of the century that other countries started to use mentoring on a somewhat larger scale as an operational element of business policy.
In 2005 Sweden launched a national mentoring programme [Mentor Eget Företag/Mentor Your Business, 2008] for prospective new starters, financed by NUTEK [NUTEK, 2008]. The mentors consist of senior executives from the business world who put themselves forward as mentors for one year on an entirely voluntary basis. At present the programme is active in all counties all over Sweden, involving around 2,000 people (1,000 mentors and 1,000 mentees).
The high level of participation has meant that at present Sweden has the biggest mentoring programme in the world in terms of new starters per capita. In terms of size, Sweden is in second place after SCORE in the USA, which has around 10,500 mentors. The mentoring programme is run by ALMI Företagspartner and Jobs and Society/Nyföretagarcentrum.
In this paper we will be using a number of terms, and it may be appropriate to present these at an early stage of this article.
The following are short definitions of terms frequently used in this paper:
Mentors are retired or active senior executives with a background as self-employed entrepreneurs or in senior management positions, who are willing to provide free mentoring to start-ups.
Mentees also referred to as adepts, entrepreneurs, new starters, start-ups and protégés. These are defined as small to medium-sized entrepreneurs who are in their first three years since the start-up of the business.
Mentoring is a relationship process between an adept and a mentor, independent of age and gender, where the mentor motivates and guides the adept forwards to a contracted stated goal, based on the mentor's accumulated knowledge and experiences. The mentor is helped in this by his/her experiences, knowledge and a network that the mentor possesses and knows how best to use in various situations.
Mentoring programmes in this paper refer to formal mentoring programmes for new starters, where mentors and adepts are paired by a third party.
Mentoring
The term 'mentoring' has its origins in Greek mythology. Mentor is a character in the literary work The Odyssey. Mentor is Odysseus' best friend, and when Odysseus has to go to war he asks his friend Mentor to bring up his son Telemachos and tells him to teach my son all you can and make him into a good person. [Homer, 800 BC]
A lot has been written about mentoring, and it can often be difficult to sift through the information available. A search on Google [www.google.com] using the keywords: mentor + entrepreneur produces 1,200,000 hits. If the keyword programme is added, the search is narrowed down to 159,000 hits. It can thus be confirmed that mentoring programmes for entrepreneurs is an extremely topical subject with a vast range of information.
Mentoring is a methodology that can be applied in all fields and sectors. We would like to emphasise that it is only a methodology that is essentially the same for all users. The difference lies in the purpose of the mentoring. Successful mentoring requires a clearly defined purpose, as the purpose and the methodology complement one another.
One can reflect and philosophise a lot about why mentoring programmes are starting to appear on such a large scale just now. Things have gone so far that the word mentor has been almost totally diluted. Nowadays teachers at many schools are called mentors rather than teachers. It is therefore extremely important that everyone involved in mentoring define precisely what they mean by the term mentor and the purpose of the mentoring process.
The methodology for mentoring, i.e. learning from another person's experiences and knowledge within a given area, has presumably existed since the dawn of man and even before then. If we look at the animal kingdom, we see this behaviour of watching and learning from the example of an elder. Essentially it is a matter of survival, and nature has made this methodology the most important one, as it is the clear methodology for learning and surviving in the long term. A methodology that has survived until the present day.
If we look at society in general, there is much talk in political and media circles about the importance of having both male and female role models while growing up. The reasoning is that the person in question will build up a broader perspective and make the right choices when making tough decisions.
As mentioned above, the methodology of mentoring has always existed. If we continue to philosophise, we might consider why mentoring has become so topical right now. Have we missed something that we have become eager to recover? Since the age of industrialisation, companies have been continuously rationalised at a very high tempo. This may have led to companies starting to rely increasingly on technology and less on people. This has meant that when someone retires, they are givens thanks in the form of a gift, a bunch of flowers and a piece of cake. After the retirement party the person leaves the company, taking along that person's experiences and knowledge. Long before a person leaves a position, that person should be linked up with other people so that experiences and skills can be passed on in an ecological system.
It is important to emphasise that it gives a lot of satisfaction to an older person when they can offer assistance, even on a voluntary basis. The easy option is to spend time in the summerhouse or go off and play golf for a year. But then a large number of people who have retired start to become restless, and a degree of regret at not being a key person in society starts to be felt. Mentoring is something noble. It is an opportunity for an older person to realise a purpose in life, a chance to pass on a lifetime of learning. Such a role creates a high degree of job satisfaction and also the ability to feel involved on an operational level once more, where your knowledge is highly valued.
Nowadays there is more investment in service companies than in manufacturing companies. This has meant that the spotlight has once more fallen on the person or the individual. It has thus been a completely natural step to reinvigorate what we now refer to as mentoring. We can find mentoring everywhere today, in all different fields of both public and private sectors [SKF 2008; Volvo 2008; Sahlgrenska Hospital 2008].
Service companies carry a far greater element of risk than a manufacturing company. The entire balance sheet goes home every day at five o'clock when the working day is over. This means that the company's product consists of the personal knowledge of its employees. Employees who can hand in their notice or move to a competitor whenever they want. It is not possible to avert the possibility that key people might disappear at short notice. The awareness that knowledge might disappear overnight has perhaps also led to an increase in mentoring. This is because it is important to pass on the knowledge of key people as far as possible so that some of their knowledge and experience remains even after the key person has left the company. Service companies also struggle with other problems such as arranging loans and security. A service company borrows to bring in knowledge that cannot be realised to generate liquid funds if required. A manufacturing company can always realise the value of its stock, machinery, etc.
A mentoring programme can be compared to a trainee programme that takes in young people and gets them into good shape. These people have the chance to try out various jobs around the world in a one-year scheme with an extremely structured format. These companies use such schemes to create their managers of the future. These people also get to meet key people and a personal mentor to inspire and teach them. It is all about giving and sharing knowledge for the benefit of people who are happy to receive this knowledge for the benefit of both the individual and the company. With voluntary mentoring we can now also offer similar trainee programmes to new starters in society with the aid of mentoring programmes. Those who have completed a mentoring programme as mentees will have more under their belt as they fight off the competition and will also be able to get out more quickly and make their mark on the international stage. In a world that is becoming increasingly interlinked.
How to measure mentoring
The benefit is easy to comprehend, but difficult to measure; by "benefit" we mean the positive value of the scheme for the recipient. How can you measure the benefit of a mentoring initiative? It is impossible. To be able to measure it, we must be able to see the consequences of first of all going in through Door 1, and then measure what happened, and then going through Door 2 and doing the same thing. If the mentoring initiative was Door 2, we would hope that that was the door that created the best growth for the entrepreneur. We can only draw hypothetical conclusions about the scale of the benefit. Having had a mentor and not having had a mentor - which produced the best result? What's done is done, and cannot be changed. You cannot go back in time and make a different choice. We will always revert to hypothetical reasoning. Mentoring brings out a qualitatively strong dimension.
As we discussed previously, mentoring has been around for a very long time, and the methodology exists in the animal kingdom. The benefit is there, but is difficult to measure. If we undertake a mentoring initiative today and then follow up on the initiative in three years' time, a lot will have happened in those three years. How many of these events are not a consequence of the mentoring programme? We must use mentoring to develop reliable targets such as a higher survival rate and better growth.
It is also the complexity of mentoring that makes it difficult for decision-makers to make decisions on whether to invest in mentoring or in some other kind of initiative. Mentoring also contributes towards greater prosperity and better finances for both entrepreneur and society.
CONSIDERATION OF THE PROBLEM:
It is easy to understand the benefit of mentoring. But much more difficult to measure it. Mentoring is and always has been difficult to measure. What does a specific initiative involve and mean for the recipient? Does the initiative mean that things will go better for the recipient after the initiative than if the initiative had not been undertaken? For all kinds of initiatives, the hope is that they will produce an increased, positive value. Two methods above all can be used to attempt to produce measurements: attitude surveys and measurements of effects.
To be able to achieve as much benefit as possible, there must have been optimal matching between mentee and mentor. The strength of a good match is based on there being people who can recognise and assess people's qualities and needs, and can bring them together on a sound basis.
The attitude survey and the measurement of effects complement one another as research tools. The attitude survey provides us with the respondents' opinions and the measurement of effects provides us with key ratios.
The aim of the attitude survey is to highlight the benefit of the mentoring initiative for new starters. How can we measure or confirm the benefit in an attitude survey? It is unfortunately not possible to measure the benefit in an attitude survey, but rather to confirm that there is or is not a benefit and the scope of this benefit according to the respondents.
In order to be able to confirm whether there is any benefit in Sweden's national mentoring programme, Mentor Eget Företag/Mentor Your Business, we have chosen certain specific values in order to be able to determine the benefit. We want to know whether:
* the mentees' entrepreneurial qualities were developed
* mentees and mentors set up targets and action plans
* mentees and mentors are working according to a defined action plan
* the mentees' business concept has been changed/developed
* mentees and mentors believe that a new starter with a mentor can be developed more quickly than a newly started company without a mentor
* mentees and mentors are happy with the contribution of their mentor/mentee
* mentees and mentors are happy with their own commitment
* what mentees and mentors believe are the benefits of the mentoring programme
To be able to get the best possible answers, we decided to put the same questions to both mentors and mentees. This would enable us to find out whether the perceptions of mentees and mentors correspond.
The purpose of this paper is to assess whether there is any benefit in the mentoring programmes for new starters by investigating and analysing mentors' and mentees' experiences of and attitudes towards the Mentor Eget Företag/Mentor Your Business programme.
METHOD:
This paper is based on three earlier papers in the field of supply and demand for mentoring new starters, with senior executives acting as mentors.
In our first study, we looked at the potential supply of senior management mentors and our targets were self-employed entrepreneurs and senior executives in Sweden. As a result, we developed cooperation with StyrelseAkademien, which is an association for board members in Sweden. The members of this association have the right background. The association is widespread in Sweden, located in both large and small cities in seven regions. We did not gain access to all the association's members but to members in five of the regions. In order to achieve a high response rate, the chairman of the board for each region in StyrelseAkademien helped us by sending an email, with a link to the online questionnaire, stating the importance of answering the survey. After two weeks, a reminder email was sent to those who had not yet replied. The total survey population with email in the five regions was 1,269, while the total number of members in all seven regions was approximately 1,800. The survey had a response rate of 32%. [Henningson; Wikholm; Hultman, 2004]
In our second study, we looked at the potential demand for mentoring from new starters and our targets were new starters in different sectors located throughout Sweden. The definition we used for a new starter was a business in its first three years since the start-up. We received the names of potential respondents from Statistics Sweden, which is the central government authority for official statistics and other government statistics. The target population was a new business that had been registered as a start-up in 2001 or later. When filtered this gave us a survey population of 1,022 , of whom 496 responded, representing a response rate of 48.53%. In order to achieve a high response rate, we followed up with three email reminders to non-respondents. The reason for this was that we assumed that a survey email was not of immediate importance for a business and might easily get mislaid, due to all the new emails arriving in the inbox. [Wikholm; Henningson; Hultman, 2005]
The results from these two studies indicated that almost 50% of senior executives would consider becoming a mentor, free of charge, for a new starter and 80% of the new starters would like a mentor.
In our third paper we moved on from theory to practice, following the process from the first study to a national mentoring programme in Sweden. [Wikholm; Henningson; Hultman, 2007].
In this paper, which is the fourth in our series, we present an attitude survey on the value of mentoring. The attitude survey was conducted in the form of 200 telephone interviews. When the programme has been running for four years we will also conduct follow-up in the form of a measurement of effects, in which we will compare the year-end accounts of those who have been involved in the mentoring programme against a control group that was not involved in the mentoring programme.
The telephone interviews were conducted in the period June-August 2007 by CMA - Centrum för Marknadsanalys AB on behalf of ALMI Företagspartner. The results of the survey are based on telephone interviews with a total of 200 people. 100 of these are entrepreneurs who have started up their own company and 100 are mentors to entrepreneurs. The material collected was processed in SPSS.
About the respondents
A total of 400 people responded to the survey; of these, 100 are prospective entrepreneurs, 100 are mentors to prospective entrepreneurs, 100 are entrepreneurs who have started up a company and 100 are mentors to entrepreneurs.
Within all groups service companies are the most prevalent, followed by trading companies, while the lowest proportion constitutes industrial or craft-based companies.
Among prospective entrepreneurs, 53% live in a town with more than 50,000 inhabitants, and 59% of entrepreneurs live in a town with more than 50,000 inhabitants. 61% of the mentors to prospective entrepreneurs and 69% of the mentors to entrepreneurs live in a town with more than 50,000 inhabitants.
The majority of respondents have been involved in the mentoring programme for 4- 6 months. Among mentors to entrepreneurs, a higher proportion than others, 39% (39 mentors), have been involved in the programme for more than 6 months. Prospective entrepreneurs have been involved in the programme for a shorter time than the others.
Among entrepreneurs, 34% (34 mentees) had been running their companies for 0-1 year before the mentoring programme started and 59% had been running them for 2-3 years. Among mentors, a higher proportion, 49%, had contact with companies that had been running for 0-1 year before the mentoring programme.
Among entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs there are slightly more women than men, while among the mentors there are more men.
Most entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs are in the age range 19-55, while the mentors are as a rule aged 41 or over.
11% of entrepreneurs and 13% of prospective entrepreneurs were born in a country other than Sweden. Fewer of the mentors were born abroad.
EMPIRI
The mentees' views:
The mentoring programme
Most (91%) of the entrepreneurs state that the mentoring programme is currently running, 1% that it has been completed and 8% that it has been discontinued.
37% of respondents believe that their entrepreneurial qualities have definitely developed as a consequence of the mentoring programme, and the same proportion believe that these qualities have been partly improved. 52% of entrepreneurs have, together with their mentor, defined targets and an action plan for the mentoring programme. Of these, 85% are working according to the defined targets and action plan. 35% need checklists and material relating to the mentoring programme.
The business concept
42% of respondents believe that their business concept has changed/developed as a consequence of the mentoring programme, 52% believe that the business concept remains unchanged, while 6% did not express an opinion. 48% of those who believe that their business concept has developed believe that they have better knowledge and understanding, and 19% believe that they have been given tips/ideas/advice. A smaller proportion have gained a wider network of contacts or a broader field of business.
Attitudes - Mentees
On the whole, 87% of the entrepreneurs are satisfied with the Mentor Eget Företag/Mentor Your Business mentoring programme. 9 out of 10 respondents believe that a company with a mentor can develop more quickly than a newly started company without a mentor. More than 8 out of 10 respondents are on the whole satisfied with their contact with ALMI Företagspartner and with their mentor's contribution.
73% are satisfied with the information meetings arranged, and those who are not satisfied explain this by stating that they had higher expectations or that they were given irrelevant information. A smaller proportion, 59%, are satisfied with their commitment to the mentoring programme. Those who are not satisfied with their commitment reply that this is due to a shortage of time and that they are unmotivated/uncommitted.
96% of entrepreneurs would consider recommending the mentoring programme to a colleague or another entrepreneur. 28% of respondents think that the best feature of the mentoring programme has been the support and guidance, and 27% think that the best feature was the mentor's sharing of knowledge/experience. In general quite a lot of respondents believe that the best features were contact with the mentor, swapping ideas with others and making new contacts.
The mentors' views:
Almost all (93%) mentors state that the mentoring programme is currently running, while 7% state that it has been discontinued.
The mentoring programme - Mentors
21% of mentors definitely believe that their mentee's entrepreneurial qualities have developed as a consequence of the programme. 56% believe that they have developed to some extent, 14% that they have not changed at all and 9% did not express an opinion. 77% of mentors have, together with their mentee, defined targets and an action plan for the mentoring programme, and of these 78% are working according to the defined targets and actions plan. 32% believe that they need checklists and material relating to the mentoring programme. 92% of mentors would consider continuing to be a mentor in the mentoring programme.
The business concept - Mentors
54% of mentors believe that the business concept has changed/developed as a consequence of the mentoring programme. 44% believe that it has not changed, while 2% have no opinion. 37% of those who believe that the business concept has developed think that they have achieved a clearer concept/objective/vision, and 28% think that they have achieved better knowledge/understanding/insight. In general mentors believe, among other things, that they have achieved a broader field of business and more structure/focus.
Attitudes - Mentors
Most mentors (94%) believe that a newly started company with a mentor has an opportunity to develop more quickly that one without a mentor. More than 80% are on the whole satisfied with their contact with ALMI Företagspartner, with the information meetings and with the mentoring programme in general. 72% of mentors are on the whole satisfied with their mentee's contribution, and the same proportions are satisfied with their own commitment to the mentoring programme. Common comments from those who are not satisfied is that there is not enough motivation/commitment.
Almost all of the mentors (98%) would consider recommending the mentoring programme to a colleague or another entrepreneur. 2 out of 10 mentors believe that the contact with the mentee/new entrepreneur has been the best feature of the mentoring programme. Almost as many believe that the best feature was the opportunity to get involved, develop new contacts/networks and to share experiences.
DISCUSSION
The mentees develop as entrepreneurs
As many as 74% of mentees believe that their entrepreneurial qualities have developed as a consequence of the mentoring programme. 77% of mentors believe that their mentee's entrepreneurial qualities have developed as a consequence of the programme.
The above figures show that a mentee becomes better at business if he/she takes part in a mentoring programme. As each mentoring relationship is unique, it is difficult to state specifically which qualities have developed. It should reasonably lead to the mentee gaining a greater degree awareness of himself/herself as an entrepreneur and of his/her company. A first stage in the mentoring process is that the mentee finds his/her place in the market with the right products/services, prices and customers. After discussions with his/her mentor, the mentee achieves this and can then start to develop more long-term strategies. When the mentoring programme is over, the mentee will retain his/her developed entrepreneurial qualities in his/her continued work.
By running his/her company with greater knowledge, this will hopefully lead to the survival rate of participating mentee companies increasing compared with control groups. The mentoring programme will also hopefully lead to increased growth, interest from investors, better risk analyses, a desire to employ and better business in general.
Just over half of the mentees are working more systematically by drawing up an action plan with defined targets towards which they work and on which they base their decisions. This leads to more, and better, control of the company and where the company is heading. Most of the mentees did not have a business plan or an action plan before they jointed the mentoring programme. All of the information was kept inside the entrepreneur's head. This means that there was no proper analysis of competitors or the outside world, which meant that the company embarked on the market without any definite strategies.
Both mentors (94%) and mentees (90%) are convinced that a new starter with a mentor develops more quickly than a newly started company without a mentor. These people are involved in an active mentoring programme, and if anyone should have a reliable view of how much a mentor affects development, they should. It is difficult for outsiders to form a reliable perception of the value of mentoring if the person in question is not in a mentoring programme environment. This is because mentoring can appear somewhat abstract. There is nothing tangible about it, the effects take time to calculate and the results obtained cannot be attributed 100% to the consequences of a mentoring initiative.
Most mentees change their business concept
As many as 42% of mentees and 54% of mentors believe that the mentee's business concept changed/developed as a consequence of the mentoring programme. These are rather high figures, as before the mentoring programme these mentees considered that their business concepts were good enough to beat the competition. Through discussions between mentor and mentee, the mentee has primarily obtained better understanding of, knowledge of and insight into his/her business concept.
Changing a business concept is a major step based on a mutual belief that this is the way forward. The mentee must then move from discussion to action and truly believe in his/her "new" business concept, and not slip back to the old business concept. A high degree of resolution and faith is needed on the part of the mentee and tremendous knowledge and experience on the part of the mentor to dare to implement these changes.
If almost half of the mentee company's business concepts have changed/developed, it is easy to imagine what happens in newly started companies that are not involved in a mentoring programme. If almost half of these companies outside the programme are based on a concept that really needs developing to beat the competition, this is rather worrying. It does not necessarily mean that these companies will go bankrupt, but rather that their startup process will be unnecessarily long and expensive, and perhaps in some cases will lead to bankruptcy.
Own contribution and commitment
As far as the mentees are concerned, 82% are satisfied with their mentor's contribution to their relationship. This can be compared with the fact that 72% of mentors are satisfied with their mentee's contribution to their relationship. There is a rather large difference between the views of mentors and mentee of each other's contributions. One explanation may be that 72% of mentors are satisfied with their commitment to the mentoring scheme, while only 59% of mentees satisfied with their commitment to the mentoring scheme.
In most cases the mentors with their knowledge and experience do not have any difficulty in seeing the potential in a person and his/her business concept. Then, when the mentee has to commit to fulfilling his/her full potential, according to the mentees themselves they do not succeed in full. However, the mentors are just as satisfied with their own and their mentee's commitment.
Why do mentees have a lower perception of their own commitment than their mentors? Most mentees want to get a lot out of their mentoring when they see the incredible potential. They know that they themselves are the bottleneck. If the mentee wants to develop more, he/she must put in more time and commitment. The benefit becomes so tangible for the mentee that he/she could effectively spend all of his/her time on this. But reality soon bites for a new entrepreneur. It is difficult to find time to implement all of the new changes and tasks to be undertaken between all of the meetings, as well as attending information and networking meetings that have been arranged.
The mentee must generate money to survive, so when faced with a choice of meeting the mentor or a customer he/she has to choose the latter option. This also means that mentees often take on a wide range of tasks, not all of which are part of the core business on which the mentees should be focusing according to the strategy agreed with the mentor.
For this reason it is not difficult to identify with the mentees' frustration at or low perception of his/her own contribution. The mentors are clearly satisfied with the mentees' efforts, while at the same time the mentees feel that there is so much more than they can do with the aid of their mentors.
CONCLUSION
Measuring the value of mentoring is a complex matter. Following interviews with both mentors and mentees, the answer is unambiguous. Mentoring creates value for mentees who are involved. But what is the value created by voluntary mentoring aimed at new entrepreneurs in a national context where the programme is financed with the aid of government and regional funds? What is there to say that the value of mentoring is higher than any other initiative aimed at new entrepreneurs? Which initiatives give us the best value for each krona invested? As many initiatives are projects, they are time-limited and often span rather short periods such as 1-3 years. An approach that means that major measurements of attitudes and effects cannot be performed on these projects to the same extent as is the case with longterm investments. It is far easier for a company, as each krona invested must generate as high a return as possible. Companies invest in whatever generates a high yield and do not undertake investments that cannot be measured against the yield requirements.
It is our firm conviction that mentoring initiatives generate a very high yield per krona invested. In a discussion in 2006 with Enterprise Ireland, which runs a mentoring programme aimed at companies with export potential, they told us that they have about 80 services on offer, and that mentoring was number 2 among all services demanded. We are also experiencing a very strong demand in the Swedish national programme.
For us it is thus evident that mentoring of new entrepreneurs carries very high value. Value that we must recognise and use to its full potential. In Sweden we now have just over 2,000 people involved in the national programme aimed at new entrepreneurs, in a country with around nine million inhabitants [Statistics Sweden, 2008] and about 44,000 [ITPS, 2008] newly-launched companies a year. We are firmly convinced that we would be able to set up at least four times as many mentoring pairs a year because of the tremendous demand and the voluntary resources available.
FUTURE RESEARCH
In 2005 we launched our pilot programme in Örebro County. The mentors and mentees that started then completed the programme in 2006. This means that in 2009 we will be able for the first time to measure the effects of the mentoring programme for this group. Measuring the effects means that three years after completion of the mentoring programme we will review these mentees' latest yearend accounts and compare them with a control group that did not take part in the mentoring programme. This will enable us to identify the survival rates and growth factors.
| [Reference] |
| SOURCES |
| Written: |
| Henningson Thomas; Wikholm Jimmy; Hultman Claes M.; (2004) "Mentoring New |
| Entrepreneurs - a Course of Action to Retain Knowledge and Experience in Society", Presented at the ICSB World Conference 2004, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Homer, The Odyssey, 800 BC |
| Wikholm Jimmy; Henningson Tomas; Hultman Claes M.; (2005) "Demand for Mentoring among New Starters", Presented at the ICSB World Conference 2005, Crystal Gateway Marriott Washington, Washington DC, USA |
| Wikholm Jimmy; Henningson Tomas; Hultman Claes M.; (2007) "Supply and demand for mentoring: implementing theory in practice", Presented at the ICSB World Conference 2007, Turku, Finland |
| Electronic: |
| ALMI Företagspartner - www.almi.se |
| Enterprise Ireland - www.enterprise-ireland.com |
| Google - www.google.com |
| Institutet för tillväxtpolitiska studier (ITPS) - www.itps.se |
| Jobs and Society / Nyföretagarcentrum - www.jobs-society.se |
| Mentor Eget Företag - www.mentoregetforetag.se |
| NUTEK - www.nutek.se |
| Sahlgrenska Hospital - www.sahlgrenska.gu.se |
| Small Business Administration (SBA) - www.sba.gov |
| Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB) - www.scb.se |
| SCORE - www.score.org |
| SKF - www.skf.com |
| VOLVO - www.volvo.com |
| [Author Affiliation] |
| Jimmy Wikholm |
| ALMI Företagspartner / ALMI Businesspartner |
| Klarabergsviadukten 70, PO Box 703 94, SE-103 27 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Email: jimmy.wikholm@almi.se |
| Thomas Henningson |
| ALMI Företagspartner / ALMI Businesspartner |
| Köpmangatan 23-25, PO Box 8023, SE-700 08 Örebro, Sweden |
| Email: thomas.henningson@almi.se |
| Claes M. Hultman |
| Swedish Business School at Örebro University, ESI, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden |
| Email: claes.hultman@oru.se |
| Subjects: | Mentoring programs, Mentors, Startups, Small & medium sized enterprises-SME, Supply & demand, Studies |
| Classification Codes | 9175, 8306, 9520, 1130, 9130 |
| Locations: | Sweden |
| Author(s): | Jimmy Wikholm, Thomas Henningson, Claes M Hultman |
| Author Affiliation: | Jimmy Wikholm ALMI Företagspartner / ALMI Businesspartner Klarabergsviadukten 70, PO Box 703 94, SE-103 27 Stockholm, Sweden Email: jimmy.wikholm@almi.se Thomas Henningson ALMI Företagspartner / ALMI Businesspartner Köpmangatan 23-25, PO Box 8023, SE-700 08 Örebro, Sweden Email: thomas.henningson@almi.se Claes M. Hultman Swedish Business School at Örebro University, ESI, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden Email: claes.hultman@oru.se |
| Document types: | Feature |
| Document features: | References |
| Section: | Training and Development of Entrepreneurs |
| Publication title: | International Council for Small Business (ICSB). World Conference Proceedings. Washington: 2008. pg. 1, 27 pgs |
| Source type: | Conference Proceeding |
| ProQuest document ID: | 1709854351 |
| Text Word Count | 5909 |
| Document URL: | http://proquest.umi.com.libproxy.nlb.gov.sg/pqdweb?did=1709854351&sid=3&Fmt=3&cl ientId=13402&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
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