The purpose of the National Entrepreneur Mentoring Program was to increase the competitiveness and efficiency of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through professional mentoring, raising awareness and shaping financial, entrepreneurial and sustainability attitudes. In the planning and implementation of the program, our team collaborated personally and closely with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which provided the program. Several articles about the successful program were published in Figyelő, Portfolio, Piac és Profit and many other Hungarian media.
Our managing director, Dr. Balázs Mezősi, who is also the leader of the National Entrepreneur Mentor Program, said the following about the program in an interview given to figyelő.hu:
“The mentoring program is basically a catch-up and support program that was created to address a market asymmetry. The goal is to reduce the difference between the knowledge level of businesses and to prepare smaller companies to move forward independently or to use professional help on a market basis. SMEs typically cannot jump a level of development independently with their own resources and knowledge, or to enter as a customer on the expert and consulting market, even though they would need information and knowledge. On the other hand, it is usually not worth it for consultants to serve the many different and fragmented, not well-defined SME customer needs. Although supply and demand are present, they do not meet, which causes market asymmetry. Therefore, we need someone who helps SMEs take their first steps, holds them by the hand and accompanies them on this journey. This is us, with the support of our mentors.”
——
The program elements included foreign market and supplier mentoring, financial and entrepreneurial attitude development, and sustainability development, the contents, results and successes of which can be read in more detail in the portfolio.hu article “Thousands of businesses received free financial advice”
——
According to the article published on piacesprofit.hu, the National Entrepreneur Mentoring Program has also achieved significant results.
“The goal of the mentoring program is to shape attitudes and share knowledge,” says Dr. Balázs Mezősi on behalf of the Chamber, who says that although the work has started now, the results will really pay off in the longer term. The acquisition of knowledge consists of interdependent processes, in which the basis is not necessarily objective knowledge and expertise, but rather a conscious approach that strives for efficiency and at the same time quality. Companies that are open and intending to develop could go through a process during which they could get to know the approach, knowledge, the role of tools and well-functioning combinations. Nearly 3,000 companies have graduated from us in the past year and a half – we are confident that in the coming years, we will be able to serve the interests of the national economy and policy objectives with similar magnitude, quality and outstanding company satisfaction (our current indicator is 4.8/5.0) with its massive development.”
We, at DevEco, consider mentoring to be extremely important and support the development and operation of large-scale development programs – just as we are happy to support domestic small and medium-sized enterprises and other target groups in need of further development in catching up and increasing their competitiveness.
We are positive that mentoring, as an approach, model and toolkit, is a solution not only for small and medium-sized enterprises, but also for other players in quality knowledge transfer.
— DevEco Consulting team
(illustration: pexels.com)
