Dissemination of knowledge, culture assimilation, leadership development and career path counselling are some of the core goals of mentorship, Sundram Fasteners Managing Director Arathi Krishna said here on Thursday.

She was speaking at a webinar organised by FICCI FLO, the women’s wing of FICCI, Chennai chapter, to announce the launch of its mentorship cell, ‘EMPOWER - Accelerating Women Empowerment.’

After digitally unveiling the mentorship cell, Krishna said, although mentorship in a formal fashion was started only in 2004, like any other TVS group companies, Sundram Fasteners also had its informal mentoring since 1966 where the founders of the company took time to address all the employees at least 2-3 times a year to update them about the prevailing economic conditions.

Recalling that Sundram Fasteners had one mentor to 12 mentees in 2004, Krishna said, “so far we have had over 2,000 successful mentor relationships in Sundram Fasteners.

Mentoring relationships

“Today, we have 387 active mentoring relationships. When we started, the mentor-mentee ratio was at 1:12. Today, for every mentor, we have two mentees and we are moving towards the goal of 1:1.”

On the need for mentorship for start-ups, Krishna said, “Whether it’s start-up or any other business, sometimes when you are in the middle of a journey that’s when you actually need a mentor. I think a mentor in that sense gives without thinking about taking and that’s the speciality about that relationship,” she added.

The launch was followed by a panel discussion with Hemu Ramaiah, MD, Shop4 Solutions and Founder and Ex-CEO of Landmark; Lakshmi Potuluri, CEO, DCF Ventures and Co-founder Jabong.com; and Nirmala Sankara, Co-founder, Hey Math.

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