Chamber mentoring for international growth

“Chamber Mentoring for International Growth” is a project launched by Unioncamere aimed at creating a network of managers and Italian entrepreneurs (MENTOR) who live abroad and want to utilise their experience in supporting and guiding Italian enterprises (MENTEE) who are interested in becoming more competitive within foreign markets.

The project was established to create an international network of Italian mentors who live abroad and are able to contribute to the Italian SMEs growth through training and assistance made possible by the foreign Italian Chambers of Commerce and the Chambers of Commerce in Italy.

WHO IS THE MENTOR?

He/She is a manager or an entrepreneur who lives abroad, with strong Italian roots and high knowledge of the market. He/She is required to have a decade of professional experience, particularly in innovative industries.

The Mentor must make available his/her knowledge in exchange for an increase of his/her own professional relations given by the contact with new entrepreneurial ideas.

WHO IS THE MENTEE?

The Mentee is an entrepreneur or a manager of an Italian company interested in increasing his/her own entrepreneurial background. The Mentee should be willing to develop his own business with foreign markets and also increment possibilities to innovate their business.

The Mentee must be open to receive advice in order to achieve a good level of professional growth through training with high-skilled stakeholders (Mentors).

Phases of the Initiative:

1. Identification of Mentors by the foreign Italian Chambers of Commerce

At the same time in Italy:

2. Identification of the “Mentee Enterprises” by the local Chambers of Commerce. Priority will be given to highly innovative companies.

3. An Italian project Committee (composed of Unioncamere, Assocamerestero and other Italian stakeholders) will choose the Suitable Mentors.

4. Mentors/Mentee matching chosen by the Committee, taking into consideration mentors and mentees’ preferences. (The Mentors who don’t find an appropriate correspondent will be able to choose to be taken into consideration for future editions).

5. First contact between Mentor and Mentee, which could occur via skype, conference call, video conference (and so on), or through already scheduled economic-commercial missions in Italy or in the United Kingdom.

6. Mentor-Mentee relation: will run for 8 months. The Mentor will spend his/her time teaching the Mentee on a voluntary base in order to advise him/her and share his/her own experience about the country in which he/she lives and the sector where he/she operates. The Mentor will be a kind of advisor within the field of “access to the market” policies.

Main goals of the Project:

To create an international network of managers with high experience in their job sector, in order to help Italian SMEs in their international development.

To create a cluster of Italian companies with a high potential for internationalisation, in order to empower their own economic development.

To foster a dialogue among Mentors, Italian institutions, trade associations and other business support organisations, in order to improve not only the company’s performances but also to identify opportunities and critical issues in which to implement new services.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK will keep and monitor the Mentor’s network. Furthermore the Chamber will supervise the Mentor/Mentee relationship receiving feedbacks from them and giving assistance for any critical issues.

At the end of the project, the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK in accordance with the Project Committee and the other Italian Chambers abroad (which have implemented the same project in other countries) will organise the “Italians in the world network to support the Italian Small and Medium Enterprises” day, in which the project methodology, the outcomes and follow-up actions will be presented. After which an evaluation will be made on the effect of the network on the national economic system.

Enquiries: Carolina Ghittino cghittino@italchamind.org.uk