Mentoring Program

It’s a well-known fact that women in business and women entrepreneurs make a great contribution to the economic growth of the country. Their contribution continues to rise as more women come into business and as the existing women-owned businesses expand.

Both experienced, successful women entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs often ask the same question: How can entrepreneurs learn from the experience of others? The answer is mentoring.

The Committee of 20 carries out Mentoring program since 2002. At the First U.S. Russia Women’s Business Leaders Summit Courtney Price — President and CEO of «VentureQuest», Consultant of C200 — made a report «Impact of Mentoring on High-Growth, Women-Owned Businesses». In her presentation Mrs. Price spoke about Mentoring program of the Committee of 200 and the results that had been achieved. It was convincingly proved that thanks to participation in mentoring programs growing entrepreneurs managed to:

• Significantly increase the sales;
• Improve their management skills and increase awareness of strategic planning process;
• Accelerate business development and achieve its constant growth;
• Build business networks and relationships.

From the very start the Committee of 20 has chosen Mentoring as one of its foreground programs. The work on the Program included:

1. Study of best practices in Mentoring;
2. Research on the program’s impact on business development;
3. Preparation of the report based on the results of the survey conducted;
4. Adaptation of best practices to the specific Russian conditions; elaboration of the concept and implementation plan of the C20s Mentoring program;
5. Organization of Round tables with the participation of women entrepreneurs from the Russian regions;
6. Follow-up activities to help the participants of the Program to develop their businesses;
7. Establishment of long-term cooperative relationships with the participants.

More than 70 women — entrepreneurs from 22 regions participated in the Round tables organized by the Committee of 20. The most active of them were invited to participate in the Second Russia-U.S. Women Business Leaders Summit. Besides Conference sessions the Program included site visits to businesses run by C20’s members, a lot of formal and informal networking events.

Photos of the events

At present the Committee of 20 is committed to corporate mentoring programs to promote women to top management levels.