Page 126 - guidance-supporting-europe-s-aspiring-entrepreneurs-policy-and-practice-to-harness-future-potential

Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

entrepreneurs who might need guidance and support. Mentoring schemes are
not available in HEIs in Malta, Romania and Slovakia.
A good practice example of a mentoring scheme for HE students is that of
the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. As detailed in the case study
(Example 28), the mentor club provides high quality free-of-charge mentoring
support to business-starters of young companies, prospective SSE Riga
students, and aspiring entrepreneurs in Latvia. Mentors help those individuals to
develop their business ideas and pursue their business careers.

Example 28. The mentor club, Stockholm School of Economics, Latvia

The mentor club was established by graduates at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) in
Riga (Latvia) in 2007. The main objective of the club is to provide high quality free-of-charge
mentoring support to business-starters of young companies, prospective SSE Riga students and
aspiring entrepreneurs in Latvia.
Staff at the mentor club are SSE Riga alumni who have gained significant business and
management experience and who are recognised as successful experts in various businesses.
They boast a wide range of expertise including knowledge of finance, venture capital management,
marketing, advertising, public relations (PR), information-communications technology (ICT), sales,
consultancy and production.
The SSE Riga mentor club provides mentoring support to individuals whose companies have
growth potential and who have the ambition to pursue their business development. Mentors are
usually experienced business persons who provide practical management and business advice,
consultation, feedback on various business development scenarios, contacts and possible solutions.
In addition to individual mentoring, the mentor club organises up to 10 meetings a year at
which mentors discuss specific up-to-date business issues. Individuals who have been accepted to
receive business mentoring support also attend: they make presentations of their companies to the
mentors, following which the mentors discuss and analyse each case and its potential development
opportunities; following the discussions, a company is matched with a mentor.
Any company interested can apply to provide mentoring. At the moment the SSE Riga mentor
club partners and supporters include Swedbank (general partner and sponsor), Eko Investors
(development partner), DDB (marketing partner), LETA (information partner) and SSE Riga
(administration partner).

In Finland, the HE focused mentoring activity is linked to the urgent need to
ameliorate the negative impacts of demographic change. The Lahti University of
Applied Sciences has created a programme called Business succession school,
linking students with business owners who are looking for a successor. This is a
training/mentoring programme for universities of applied sciences, providing the
skills to plan and run a controlled transmission of the enterprise to the student,
who will be able to continue the profitable business and ensure business
regeneration. This practice is now being extended to 10 other universities of
applied sciences in Finland. Similar mentoring practice can be found in France.
In Hungary, the Corvinus University organises a business plan competition
whose winner is provided with an experienced mentor to help to implement their
business plan (NIRAS Consultants et al., 2008).

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