When did you last share your business and life skills to help someone else? This is the challenge Mowgli, the pioneering mentoring foundation that supports and grows entrepreneurs worldwide, will be posing to individuals and business people when it officially launches at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina on 30th January 2009.

Rather than relying on a game-show to change the fortunes of those in the world’s poorest communities, Dubai-based serial entrepreneur Tony Bury who has provided the initial seed capital to set up the foundation, believes wealth creation can be achieved through mentoring. Bury was inspired by a meeting with CK Prahalad, whose book, ‘The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid’, suggests that the world’s billions of poor people represent a large global market and have immense entrepreneurial capabilities.

Defining mentoring as a ‘relationship which inspires, guides and empowers another in achieving their business and personal goals’, Mowgli has a team of experts in place to match mentors with mentees across international boundaries. The not-for-profit foundation was registered by The Charity Commission last year and aims to raise over £2million in donations from Corporates and philanthropists. In parallel, it also hopes to create a pool of more than 100 mentors with a minimum of 10 years business experience by the end of  2010. 

However, it’s not all about helping the less privileged. As part of its programme, Mowgli provides all of its mentors with first class training.  This is designed to help mentors see themselves and the world through a new perspective, as well as helping them understand the value of mentoring as a leadership tool. Led by CEO Simon Edwards whose own career as a social entrepreneur, management consultant and business coach has spanned over three decades, Mowgli supports all mentoring relationships, with an online ‘Knowledge Centre’ which contains training tools and case studies.

Potential mentors are able to choose a ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’ or ‘Bronze’ level of commitment to the programme. This ranges from half a day’s introductory training with a minimum commitment to mentoring of 2 hours per month to the ‘Gold’ level, where mentors, or the companies they work for, will undergo an intensive three day training course developed in conjunction with The Inspirational Development Group. The new mentors will then be accompanied by the Mowgli team on a three-day visit to their mentee’s country which includes group training on local conditions, cultures and regulatory issues as well as joint sessions with the entrepreneur they are due to support.

Meanwhile, Jordan has been chosen as the launch pad for the programme with the first mentor/mentee relationships due to commence in early March 2009.

Whilst The Young Entrepreneurs’ Association (YEA) and Optimiza Solutions are already signed up as key field partners, the Micro Fund for Women and the Queen Rania Centre for Entrepreneurship are already on board to help source new mentees.

They will join mentees from a broad cross section of sectors  who have been selected for the pilot by the Mowgli team and hail from the following businesses: a catering company with the ambition of providing employment for single mothers, an audio guide business designed to boost the huge potential of the Jordanian tourist industry, an HR company focussing on the empowerment of young people in Jordan, an IT and a consultancy business designed to improve performance management in new businesses.

Plans to expand the Mowgli mentoring programme to Palestine and Egypt are also due to be developed in the coming months with expansion to other world regions thereafter.

Says Tony Bury, “Slumdog Millionaire has captured the imagination of the cinema-going public who want to see the world’s poorest, succeed. With this in mind, we believe Mowgli’s mission to harness the power of mentoring worldwide, inspiring entrepreneurship and the building of sustainable economies through the creation of aspiration, jobs and opportunity has tremendous resonance. In the current climate where the developed world is questioning the very fundamentals of how it does business, who wouldn’t want a unique, life-altering opportunity to further develop their potential and discover the personal rewards that stem from making a difference?”

-ENDS-

For further information please call Niki Wheeler/Laurie Yeh at Launch Group on 0207 758 3900/ 07941 847 390