If you’ve read my profile on the Mowgli website you will have seen that I was already part of the Mowgli community, as a mentor in Lebanon. I absolutely support the Mowgli concept – entrepreneurial businesses as an engine for opportunity and growth, and mentoring as a driver for success and sustainability – ideally delivered with social as well as financial outcomes in mind.
As I come to the end of my third week – and just before I leave for a pre-planned holiday – I thought it would be good to make contact and share my early impressions. As we look to the future together, I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts, and your responses to my thoughts expressed below.
Firstly, I want to be clear that I am committed to building on the foundations that have already been laid. As well as the commitment of our Founder and the Board, we have a good staff and volunteer team, a programme that delivers value, and strong working partners and helpful relationships in a number of MENA countries and in the UK. And as a result we already have a group of mentors and entrepreneurs who are working together to, I hope, mutual benefit. We have learnt a lot in Mowgli’s start up phase.
We now need to move Mowgli from start up to consolidation and growth, and I’m looking forward to working with you to define and deliver the future. It is early days for me, but at this stage I see the priorities as being:
- Clarifying the proposition. A deeper understand of what we are trying to change, and how we define, assess and measure success. We know what we do – join up entrepreneurs with mentors. But why do we do it? What outcomes – in particular, what social outcomes – are we hoping to enable?
- Local presence. Working through the legal and practical implications of establishing sustainable local partnerships, with Jordan likely to the first “official” Mowgli Chapter (as we are calling them).
- Effective programme. Continuing to develop and deliver the mentor/mentee programme, with the next event in Syria in October, and the first UK event in Manchester in November. We need to learn from what we have done so that we are as effective as possible in delivering the outcomes we aspire to.
- Developing waiting lists. Wouldn’t it be great if we had waiting lists of potential mentors and entrepreneurs, all of whom were qualified and ready to go, and waiting for us to set up events where we could join them together?
- Building sustainability. Balancing the development of commercial and philanthropic funding to create a sustainable business model for Mowgli as a whole, and ensuring that Mowgli as an organisation is itself healthy and sustainable.
Do you agree with my list of priorities? If not, what would you change or add? I’d really appreciate your input.
Thank you for the part you play in making mentoring available in places where it can really make a difference.
With my regards,
Ian
