When theory met practice: looking anew at small firm mentoring

1. When theory met practice: looking anew at small firm mentoring Dr. David McKevitt Dublin City University

2. The problem • Mentoring in large firms • Scope • Role • Theory versus practice • Mentoring in small firms • Scope • Role • Theory versus practice

3. What we do know… • Small firms are different • Mentoring has not been conceptualised as beginning with the needs of small firms

4. What we don’t know … • What are the needs of small firms, how does the mentor process support these needs and what are the outcomes of the process?

5. Research question • How do mentoring relationships support small firms? • How do mentoring processes differ between small firms?

6. Method • 18 relationship case studies over two year period • Enterprise Ireland ‘Mentor Programme’ • Mentors and mentees

7. High 3 1 Business development Opportunity identification Uncertainty about the outcome ‘the ends’ 4 2 Business continuity Opportunity enactment Low Uncertainty about the process ‘the means’ Low High

8. Opportunity identification • She helped us articulate it and a lot of the time it’s not a case of ‘this is what you should do’ a lot of time it’s a discussion so it’s us asking her questions and her asking us questions and then everyone coming to a understanding of what it is, a shared vision and when it happens then it makes logical sense, you see the alternatives and you see the path that you on and you see okay, this path has the best chance strategically and the right way to go” [Case 5, mentee]

9. Opportunity enactment • the financial projections were all over the place; they weren’t formatted correctly, they were inconsistent, they were wrong…they had tried to cobble together a balance sheet that just didn’t make sense at all. Sometimes people get confused by capital equipment and capital expenditure and operating expenditure. [They] showed on their expenses that they bought a piece of equipment as an expense on the one hand but they’ll also show it as a capital item and depreciated it, but you don’t do both you either one or the other. And that just clearly indicates to someone that these guys really don’t know what they’re talking about” [Mentor, case 6]

10. Business development • “I felt we were just doing a lot of box ticking rather than doing the real thing, that’s the disadvantage; the advantage was that there was a clear goal there and if you followed the path that was laid down and tick the box you ended up with a result… ‘what would you do in this situation’ and it was boom, boom, boom answer, and what would you do in this situation, he’s a fixer. I ran with it, a couple of them. He had all of the answers and he was a fixer-guy” [Mentee, case 12]

11. Discussion • The transition of identification to enactment suggests more direct role for mentors • Non directive guidance is necessary but not sufficient for success • Small firms fall short of legitimacy- external stakeholders need to be convinced • Pragmatic versus paternalistic approach to small firm mentoring.

12. Further research

13. “Mentor Finder” Instructions Cards contain statements which you can rank in order of importance • Read 44 cards • Divide cards into 3 groups: • Important • Neutral • Unimportant • Rank each card according to the instructions on the board • Complete short form

14. Further information Dr. David McKevitt Q135 Dublin City University Dublin 9 david.mckevitt@dcu.ie + 353 1 700 6841