Business mentoring is a widely known and extended practice among Anglo-Saxon countries. It consists of a voluntary and time-limited accompaniment process by a mentor —a professional with accredited experience—, who guides and advises the entrepreneur in the decision-making process that is key to the future.
The recipients of mentoring programs are mainly entrepreneurs, self-employed individuals, micro-enterprises, companies with job creation potential and newly created companies, SMEs, startups, associated work cooperatives or service cooperatives.
Mentoring programs have always been of great help in improving the competitiveness of small or newly created companies and in increasing the survival rate. But, now, in a context of economic crisis derived from the Covid pandemic, they represent an even more valuable tool to strengthen the Catalan business fabric and make it more resilient to uncertainty.
A mentor can help companies face challenges (such as, for example, access to financing, restructuring of commercial and work models), innovate and grow. In addition, the act of sharing the personal, professional and business experience of mentors helps mentored individuals to develop new personal skills and competencies. In this sense, it should be noted that some mentoring programs offer other complementary activities such as training and networking.
New informative website
Studies show that mentoring programs have a direct impact on business survival rates: companies participating in these programs have a survival rate ranging between 70% and 87% after the first five years of life, double the rate presented by the rest of companies as a whole.
At the end of last year, the Directorate General for Economic Promotion, Competition and Regulation of the Generalitat decided to reinforce the promotion of mentoring with a dissemination campaign and with the creation of a specific space on the website of the Department of the Vice-presidency and of Economy and Finance: mentoriaempresarial.gencat.cat.
This new website details the mentoring programs currently offered in Catalonia. The funders of these programs are diverse. From the various departments of the Generalitat ---Presidency (Catalan Women's Institute), Business and Knowledge, and Labor, Social Affairs and Families---, to the provincial councils, the Barcelona City Council, or private entities and companies.
In addition, the new website includes a prominent section for those who wish to become mentors.
According to estimates from the Department of the Vice-Presidency, only 1,835 companies are mentored annually on average, which represents 0.2% of the total companies and self-employed workers in Catalonia, and which, according to Idescat data, totaled 1,173,439 in 2019.
Regarding the profiles of mentors, they tend to be active entrepreneurs and executives, active senior professionals, top executives, entrepreneurs from large companies, cooperative members with experience on the Governing Council, former entrepreneurs and former executives, consultants, or retired executives.