 Thank you all for coming out some time for attending today's episode, the episode 11 of BX Academy Business Excellence Mentoring and Coaching. Today's episode is on how the right mentor can accelerate the growth of a business. To all the attendees out there, please type in any questions you might have in the Q&A section and we'll try to answer as many as possible at the end of this session. I would now like to welcome our speaker, Mr. Gaurav Mara, Chairman and Founder of the franchise. A very warm welcome to you sir. Thank you Sonali and welcome friends and very good morning to all of you and welcome to our Business Academy web series. So this has been running for now this is the 11th edition which we are doing but we have done another 30 editions in past which was on more for helping businesses to find how they can build value, how they can exit the business, how they can get a right investor in the business and also how they can scale. So very informed good information in those series also if you don't have you not seen that go on our Facebook page and and really visit that. So today's discussion is a lot about really choosing a mentor you know why a business should need a mentor but before I go there let me give you a little background about our company of franchising days at 24 year organization started with purpose of helping on one side businesses to grow through franchising and on the other side we helped investors to make a right decision to start their own business and today as we speak over 24 years we've helped 10,000 plus brands to really grow through franchising and helped millions of entrepreneurs in realizing their business dream. We also have a separate company which is now doing this webinar is BusinessX. BusinessX was started with the idea to help especially startups and mid-sized companies to find right scale also connect with them with the right mentors help them to even get the right kind of investors which is from you know angels or a VC funds and we also have a separate vertical in BusinessX where you're looking to exit the business we work with you on the right valuation and find you the buyer also I should highlight that we have another company of franchise India which is called Action Coach Action is a world's number one business coaching company. World's number one business coaching company operates in about 80 countries so we run Action Coach for India and also for Middle East so that also is very helpful if some of you are looking for a good business coach who can advise your business to grow and improve that also is a helpful. So this is going to be about 30-odd minute kind of webinar I'll touch upon the importance of choosing a mentor how you should choose and we'll talk about how it is different from business coaching and all the other aspects of mentorship so use the Q&A box start asking your questions I will do this you know a talk on maybe about 20-25 minutes and then maybe later half I can take some of your questions you know so we have seen a lot of people really going out and asking for a mentor especially I think when you are new to business and today because I run a largest startup ecosystem in the country I know a lot of people who get into their startups it might be you know going by themselves which means that their own startup or they are even taking a franchise most of the times they are new to business which means that they have never done that business they have no domain experience they are following an idea which they want to pursue so I feel that it becomes kind of important that you have a mentor with you and that's very very important and sometimes we confuse between a coach somebody who's going to business coach who come along with you and also a mentor there are can be similarities there can be similarities in terms of the both work on on your business to grow that but a mentor is somebody who works on your personal growth that's very very important it actually the founders development is done by that I always say that this coach can be become a mentor a coach can be somebody who can work on both aspects your enterprise growth and also your personal growth as a founder it can be done and similarly a mentor can also become a coach provided he would have that kind of a time he or she would have that kind of a time to participate in your business sometimes mentors are somebody who who are not so deep into your business operations and really don't take that objectivity they are more working on your personal development and so on so you have to one thing which is very important and before you even make a decision to really have a mentor with you you need to be very clear who you want why you want what kind of objectivity it should be always your choice as a founder of the business that you want to choose a right mentor and who can be this right mentor and he's available for for giving the kind of a you know the role you want for a mentor to perform in your business or your growth and define that role and see that availability and sometimes great names cannot be great mentors and that's true because they're not available they might be the perceived to be the best but they might not be available and I've seen this piece where people are seeking mentors or very very successful entrepreneurs these successful entrepreneurs are great when you listen to them on TED talks and listen to them on a different kind of seminars and you know webinars and so on and you always seek that they might become your mentor but they might not be the right ones because they might not have the time or availability or sensibility to do that so one of the important starting point is that mentor has to be somebody who's invested into your success I will again repeat the mentor has to be somebody who's invested into your success that's very important because if you're not invested into your success it will never come through right and it is a long journey it's a marathon right and it has to be over three four five years of a mentorship it's very very important and you have to be really particular that how do you really make that choice and so on it's very very important and mentor and a lot of people ask me and say how do you define a mentor and what do you really expect from a mentor and while you can have a lot of expectation and we'll touch upon that in our program but I think the simple answer I have found over the time is somebody who can help the quality of your thinking and issues important to you somebody who can really bring your thinking level up right somebody who can improve your quality of thinking on issues which are important to you so sometimes you know your issues you know sometimes the you know entrepreneur struggle between always I say it's been important other joint things there are things which are very important to you and somebody who can really refine your thinking is somebody who comes with a lot of wise you know why are we doing this and why not we do this and why don't we take this practice versus this practice and a lot of that is very very important so always the one of the starting points when you're looking for a mentor and say who can improve my thinking who can really question me right somebody who has that ability to really put your focus also on the important things which are very important but a lot of times we have mentors and I know a lot of startups who go and claim that I have been mentored by this or that and most of the time they go deeper into that mentoring program it's has not made an impact or it has failed so why it fails let's talk about that so one of the areas which I think is fails because it was not well defined purpose it just wanted some name to sit it's like an advisory board you want to make it fancy you want to make it big names to sit in that but really mentor is not about that mentor is absolutely not about that and that's where it comes from our education practice it comes from what we do in workplaces mentor is somebody who's just around with you somebody who's always sounding bored to you and working with you it has to have a very strong well defined purpose and a measurable objective if you do not have a measurable objectives it will eventually not make any sense right and if you cannot really do and that's why I say they have to be invested into your success if they're not invested into success even the greatest minds cannot make any impact on your business even the greatest minds people who have all that what it takes to do that but they are not invested so to say in your entire thing they can be a good broader guide you know our perspective on that but understand until somebody is is getting into very personalized issues which you have in your business it would not make sense right it would not make sense so there are no also sometimes not a clear criteria of matchmaking of a mentor and a mentee right so why are they come together what is the missing point both can fill in to each other both it is a mentor's need also to have a good mentee because that's if you are a professionally mentoring companies or enterprises or founders there is some skill set you have which can fit into certain kind of mentees which you need to really do that so that has to be very very important sometimes they're not prepared both sides you're not prepared and I've seen that I've seen sometimes mentees are not prepared in terms of what should be the expectation of that process and and you've not defined that I would say go out and write 10 pages and say this is my expectation this is my expectation which is very very important and for a mentor also to really set some rules and I think because you might not try to maybe somebody who has that kind of you know always available kind of a situation you need to really do that so it's just not about ticking the box and say oh I am starting a business and I need a good mentor and I go out and find somebody who's very known in that industry I get a lot of requests every single day from franchise industry because I have such a large 24 years of work in industry and people would come to me and say I want to take your to you as a mentor because I'm doing a franchise startup and I want to take it to next level and I would tell you out of 100 I would decline 99 not because I'm not interested in that business but I might not be able to do justice on that and I would actually recommend it a lot of other people who are there who are much more sensitive which much available I might not be available because I have other enterprise to run and might have some conflicting interests also sometimes so I am very very choosy out of 100 I would only take one where I genuinely feel that I can really contribute right and in the last four or five years I've actually advised about four or five companies in total that's what I have done and I feel that I should do even lesser maybe take one in a year or that kind of a structure which would then justify my time and structure so it's very very important that you really have to find out somebody who's doing a meaningful work with you and working with you and I call the cycle you know if you really see the cycle is all about why who how what and when that's the cycle this is how everything works in your enterprise you need to know a lot of why is why are you doing it and this is where mentors are great because they are a good at the why part of it but when it comes to the next cycle of saying who needs to be there what kind of resources you need to do that that who becomes very important difficult for them to participate sometime they have a good say on the why but they don't have who's going to run that business who's going to lead this vertical who's going to run so that's not possible for sometime mentors to do that and that's where it starts breaking but I would like a mentor to really participate here also and then go on to how you have to do that and then what are the results we are expecting and then when is the timelines how you need to follow that entire thing so if you are somebody who's participating all the five cycles from why who how and when how what and when then your cycle is really completed and sometimes you have to be honest about a mentor you're choosing how far they can participate in your structure so it's a very important that it is a combination of what I call the three things a good advisor a guide who comes with you at every stage and somebody who can inspire you that's also very important sometimes and most of the time people actually take a mentor which is more inspiring you know you see them always exciting like in universities colleges people would take their teacher as a mentor because they feel that that's very you know you are inspired by what they do and how they do and so on so but I feel that this combination of all three it needs to be a strong advisor which comes on facts a guide who really comes with you to create some kind of a day to day objectivity and then work with and continue to inspire you to do a greater work and greater role and so on so that's very very important so what is the importance what is the importance of bringing a good mentor in your business one is impartial feedback because sometimes when you are a startup or you are a business owner you are surrounded by a lot of yes people around you but you don't get really impartial feedback that's very very important and you need to have somebody who has that kind of relationship with you not as a mentor that you can expect a lot of criticism right so that's something which again the founders are not really designed to do you know they're not really they they always like a mentor to be somebody who who's inspiring but not really criticizing you and sometimes it's a fine line it's a fine line if you if you have somebody overly doing that that also breaks it so you really have to see somebody who has ability to give you rational thinking and but impartial feedback that's very very important very important part of it second is that somebody who has advice but it's not really personal advice you know it's not this is one thing which again it's a difference between people who are outsider to your business if you comment to me like I can I'm now doing this webinar I'm giving a lot of advice but I don't understand your business I don't know who is on the other side what are the challenges how they do it so these are there are many people like me who are available who are giving their own experiences their own knowledge based in that thing but might not be very practical for your business so you need to have somebody who has that advice for you but it is backed by some form of logical data you know so a good mentor would ask a lot of data from you and then call you for a good advice because he's now gone through and giving from your perspective not from his own experience and and peace mentality it's not less of emotions more of logic otherwise it's all about emotions right you know what I feel about it so that's not a you don't have to as a mentor you don't have to bring in your own personal experience or agendas or your reference points in life which you want to really over reflect on your mentee that's not good to be the right thing and experiences which you want to share but it has to be unbiased you know something might have not worked in my career but might work for your mentee right so unless and until we really look at from that perspective sometimes people are some mentors I have very you know strong viewpoint on a few things and they are not great listeners they are not people who are acceptable to fresher ideas and they just block in that sense and and that also doesn't work you know because eventually businesses would evolve and go to the next level and they need to have breathing they need to really get some fresh air and to understand fresh ideas and that's where a mentor should be somebody who has that ability so that's where he would be able to bring in what I call the honest and a fresh perspective to thinking so that's very important aspect of when are you looking to do that I see about two types of mentors in the in you need to choose one is very clearly subject matter experts people who have very clearly your domain experience right and this is where most of the people would choose a mentor right so if I'm I was in building a first supply chain startup I need to find somebody who's great in that domain and especially somebody who has over the years and connect me with the docs in that industry and that's very very important and that's what I think large part of a mentor exercise would be but the other part would be that you have a you know somebody who has a larger management capability or a leadership or a management leader capabilities and more entrepreneurial experience so somebody who's run and build a large businesses can really come and mentor a young founder to really when he's starting the journey say I was I build the startup and I at different stages I raised money I found my exit so I have a full cycle done so I know at what stage and a lot of if you really see successful founders who became big large businesses have all become mentors and they are really bringing their business acumen so to say of a live journey of a business bringing in I would still feel that a startup should choose domain experts rather than going there this is this is good another thing which is very important and you have to all understand that that mentors you would need a different mentors different stages and they somebody like it or don't like it but they get outdated sometimes you have a great mentor at a certain stage in the business but would outdate itself you might not be able to value add more than that so you really have to also see what stage you are in your business and how you want to really choose a mentor so for me a mentor if I have to define if what is my expectation from a mentor and this is pretty much my rule I call the nice rule and I see one N stands for a network I want to have somebody who can open his network who can really help me connect with a few things and so that something to me is the best one of the companies I was advising and he wanted me to really have a mentor somebody and I said go out and have somebody and I actually recommended who can open up doors for you at this day you don't need somebody who who just comes and gives you advice but you need a lot of connects a lot of connects because a business such that you need to connect a lot of people and you need to have somebody who's a super connector super connector doesn't shy away goes on and opens up a lot of relationships with you can go out and write 100 meals for you and and use his own credibility and say this is a great a founder I'm connecting and sometimes he's shameless of doing that connection for you so that between me is the first N I stands for informed decision making which sets accountability that's very very important so N stands for network I stands for informed decision making very clearly constantly question why are we doing this versus the plan B right so why are we doing this that's very very important and third C stands for credibility brings in a lot of credibility for you to really you know add a lot of value you know say if you have good mentor even for hiring a talent if somebody is available with you it gives a lot of credibility for that founder or a business to really even attract the right talent because the biggest problem actually for founders is not the great business idea or not to create capital it's all about today most biggest difficulty is to get the right talent and that's the the biggest problem and I think that's going to be the biggest problem going forward that how do you get a good talent in in that thing and E stands for the final part is the encouragement you you get this kick especially when you are early stage you almost every day losing you're losing every day you need to have somebody who's consistently giving you encouragement to go to the next level so it's a nice theory and I see a network informed decision making credibility and encouragement which is important now when I really look at these four I think the three are very obvious you get it but one thing which is most missing in mentors I think is the eye because eye is missing which means that they are not really participating and day to day in your business they don't really are involved in your decision making so hence there's no accountability so rest everything at a certain stage has starts losing his his ability no more you have a network to continue to give that so it's not no more value adding similarly your credibility I've used that's great business has reached to a certain level maybe it's not value adding anymore and also encouragement now the business has taken off it's not so really speaking out of the nice if you really take the eye out after some time it would not make any sense so after a few years it would not be so if you really want to be a somebody who wants to be a top class mentor you need to focus on the eye that's very very important because if you are participating in value adding in a constant way then only this would need to do and create a value so now let's talk about six different reasons why mentors can help you transform your business and build your mentality obviously it can the first point is it makes faster learning that's absolutely one of the points that everybody starts a mentoring program because it just really faster than your learning structure because you need to really go into the market faster and your learning curve is great and you have also a lesser risk second as I said it it really helps you refine your your strategy it's very very important it really you know continue to refine and sharpen your strategy and continue to bring your focus and question your actions that's third point very importantly question your actions is something which you always need somebody who comes and questions every action why you did this versus this why are we spending so much on marketing why are we not doing this why are we taking this as a channel strategy and why not this so this is something which really is important and sometimes founders are not used to the idea of somebody being questioning that because they have employees and investors are outsiders and the investors also question sometimes good investors can also be good mentors provided they have time and and they are not biased from their investment viewpoint so so you have to really see sometimes good investors in the business can be become good mentors but sometimes because your investment is writing you you are sometimes extremely biased towards your investment and you really don't really look at from a larger holistic viewpoint in the success of the founder you know what is right for the founder right so sometimes you push him to the decisions which is right for your investment but maybe not really at that stage good for that founder so I always take back the situation the mentor has to be somebody who's invested into your success as a founder that's extremely extremely important the next thing is helps you build your your acumen business acumen especially financial acumen this is where founders really lack because at different stages when you started it say you are a 24 year young startup you don't have those like humans which are very importantly required if you have a good mentor along with you would really be able to do that the fifth point is somebody who would question or or boost your emotional intelligence right that's very very important you know in the journey of your building up your business you almost drained emotionally and your emotional intelligence has to really come back and and and be right and also the final point which is sixth point is how do they craft your strategy from investment to exit this is a life journey of a business right somebody who's along with you to really design a journey which starts with investment which is a very different approach where you are taking the business to commercial success and and then sustainability then growth cycle then scale and then exit like so if if you really see this whole spectrum somebody is with you in that piece and that would come with the next piece is that somebody who's able to build two very important aspects in your business and this is one of the areas which I would really question and say if I want to have a mentor it's great that I'm getting a device and great as somebody was sounding board great you know credibility and all this nice point which I've told but the real thing is that if somebody can deliver two things to my business one is set accountability at every level and second is a draw processes organizational design and so sometimes because you've not seen all that it's very difficult for a founder or a entrepreneur to really draw all that how the business would look like three years from now and so on so forth how you really put your foundational blocks to do that if some mentor can mentor can come and do that part for you that becomes a very very important aspect so summarizing this whole discussion the five things which are very important for a great mentor is obviously industry knowledge I would choose the SME versus somebody who's just generally done that that's my viewpoint but this also works but I would always look at somebody who has certain model domain experience in my industry and somebody who has done and contributed in that so that's very important to me I would rather put 80 percent of this here and very only look at somebody who's just entrepreneurial success on 20 that's not sometimes great entrepreneurs great mentors second is what kind of a valuation they can really bring in your entrepreneurial skills that's very very important obviously has to be a super connector somebody you can really build a great chemistry that's also very important because sometimes you have a great mentor around but you don't build a chemistry you don't go through you know this doesn't go across and it doesn't build that and somebody is also what I call a visionary and a problem solver somebody who can always help you solve a problem because you will always talk with some answers which you don't have but somebody who has ability to understand and bring again starting point was somebody who can who can draw your thinking to important points somebody who can continue to draw your thinking and build your thinking to very very important points so it is now the the final point would be that when you choose a mentor create not only somebody who is who's trying to help you for a for a larger goodwill that's not good and that's not lasting define the relationship with a mentor and this relationship can be a fee based which means that somebody will charge you a certain fee uh define that objectivity why you have want to have a mentor and what kind of relationship you want to do that and set the expectations right what do you expect from that and second sometimes it is about small equity now that's something which one has to really understand do you are really looking for giving equity or you would like to limit it only by a fee but always have a mentor which is which has some vested interest also with you to make you successful otherwise it will not last sometimes you really reach out to people you know and they they have a relationship with you and just because they sometimes people mentors also get a kick right so they get a kick that look people are asking me to mentor them so I want to really go around it's it's like a fancy title to have but they don't really contribute so much you know they they just help you and that thing unless and until somebody is is deep down involved in your business so this was something which I wanted to share today this is 30-minute webinar it's on mentorship so so Nali if you have any questions quickly for me I will be more than happy to answer sure thank you so much Gaurav sir for another wonderful session and for sharing all your insights with us we do have quite a few questions already lined up with us so I'll just quickly take up each of them the first question is should a mentor always be someone who's an industry specific person like tech or sales etc or should he be a general advisor so as I said I mean I would prefer always industry specialization not that I would say general advisor would not be able to do that but go back why are you taking a mentor you know you you need to have somebody who can connect so if I'm industries from your industry I would be able to connect right people second why are you taking this because it shortens your learning curve so if I'm from an industry I can really get you that piece so by large I would like to see a mentor from that industry itself and that would be my safer advice but there are people who are very successful entrepreneurial journey sometimes they have done public life and very very good public life very large and I've seen now a lot of IS officers and IPS retiring and not taking any other role but they're mentoring businesses and they have great mentors because they have seen strong public lives and very come from very strong accountability you know and have a very strong professionalism they also are people who are mentoring businesses right the next question I would like to take up is asking an honest question here we are doing good with our startup and don't really need a mentor right at this moment but we feel it is rather important to have a senior renowned mentor on board as a board member since it creates a brand name should that really matter that much as you yourself said that a real mentor is not just about big names and should really just be invested in yourself so sure so so don't confuse between your board of advisors or your board itself I mean if you really want to have somebody who sits on your board and and really adds on ready expand your board expand your board and get a person who can really open some doors for you and somebody who can value add on your decision making but may not be qualified for a mentor right so and as I said mentors also get outdated you know you're good at to certain extent and you are not good at it like for example I am kind of a specialist to take a business idea from here to a certain stage but I want to leave it at that level because after that there is another stage which is scale and going into that thing and that's where I don't specialize so I have always taken businesses from a pretty ground level to come down to a certain size where they're commercially successful and so that's my specialization I have never taken any any responsibility beyond that and and that's where I realize that I'm best at so everybody has to I don't know a person has to really realize that what you're good at and I mean does also have their limitations they they are sometimes not really who can participate at all levels so I if you really see and you're honest that you don't need a mentor at this moment don't have it maybe expand your board and at this stage you're more looking for credibility to the outside world that who is part of you and you might like to have a good board absolutely the next question I would like to take up is how to reach out to you for being a mentor in my startup company I love the series and feel like I'm directly talking to a mentor it would be absolutely great to have your advice in real life as well sure I would as I said I'm not taking and I'm very honest about it I'm not taking any exercise because I feel that's because of my time availability and other things I might not be able to do justice it's different when you share knowledge because I've been 28 years in the business and worked with thousands of brands so so obviously I have a lot to share that I'm doing through these series which Sonali arrived but I write to me I will certainly pass it to somebody who do justice to it and then maybe make a right choice of who you want to be taking as a mentor doing it I only want to mentor if there is an opportunity in franchise scaling of franchise but that also I take maybe one client maximum and if I have that time at this stage because of this covid we are we are again scaling up so my time is totally involved in my own enterprise built up and things that so I'm not taking any assignment for pardon for this but I will certainly link you with somebody who's in I think Business X does that Business X actually does advise like my wife is actually editor of Anthoponore magazine she runs a very big ecosystem so she is doing a lot of mentoring on direct to consumer businesses but that's her part of it but I personally am not taking anything on that this leads me to the next question which was does Business X helps startups to find good industry expert mentors yeah so we are exchange so to say so business exchange it helps you connect with investors mentors coaches business coaches sometimes you need a coach actually you're not needing a mentor you need somebody who can work on your enterprise and produce results so we have fantastic coaches I have 50 coaches in India a top class coaches who work on different domains and one of my coaches technology based businesses somebody's distribution these are all like C level professionals who worked in industry for 25 30 years and under our action coach so I can link you with any of the coach if you are looking for some help in your enterprise side you know you want to really look at your business scalability sustainability innovation any of these pieces are part of that yeah right and another question which is not directly related to the topic but the question says according to you what would be the growth opportunity of FMCG sector in terms of exploration of business in foreign countries FMCG Indian FMCG story for foreign countries that's what the question is if I'm understanding yes growth opportunity of the FMCG sector in terms of exploration of business in foreign countries so the scope in foreign countries you know so FMCG is obviously I would say for other than foreign companies in India is itself a very big opportunity but from India any FMCG can do which is natural products you know organic products because India has looked at from that perspective you know so like French was looking looked at very differently from a product viewpoint they're very high on a beauty cushion very high on a cosmetic question and so on for India is looked at natural life just whole yoga thing from India and naturally so we have good company like Himalaya is a great example been very very successful internationally I think now Khadi is doing a lot of work internationally I know organic India is doing a lot of work in sports and international so India has an opportunity but we've really not exploited only company which I think has reasonably done well is Himalaya the next question is how to associate as a mentor in your group with knowledge provisions and the facilities so how do you so I didn't get your question sorry how to associate as a mentor in our group in our group if you want to be a mentor yeah absolutely most welcome very very welcome and please share your domain what you really specialize on and then we can connect you with a lot of startups who need help and and then you can work out between you we have nothing to do with that we we will link you with the with the startups or founders to work with them and how you want to structure your your fee or a or a equity structure that's up to you and the founder we don't participate in that and on similar lines another question is do you have any curated training for business coaches yeah we have a world-class training for business coaching we are number one in business coaching as I said action is part of franchise India action is world's number one business coaching company we have a very strong focus on business coaching in India and I'm also starting a 25 episode series myself on on a business coaching and talk about different aspects more designed to coach people it's like a group coaching kind of a structure I'm taking an approach because again the issue is that I get a lot of you know request of people help asking me to coach but I again I don't have time so I've thought that I will probably put one hour every month and do a bit of a group coaching and and that's what and this I do it for my own satisfaction actually really ask me I do these webinars and seminars which are absolutely free and I don't want to charge anything because it's my own satisfaction it's all my my own you know satisfaction to go and share whatever I've learned in business absolutely so this was all for the Q&A session we have queries from people who are asking about if you can share links about action coach or if how they can know more about it so if you would just like to share your email ID there sure I will share my email ID just write to me then I will put you with my leadership team at Action Coach this gentleman called Satyam and he can be but I will put my email ID for all of you and also my number if you want to really connect on anything which you feel we can be helpful in through franchising their group we will be more than happy to discuss that so it's 98102 double four double three zero simple to remember send me a little what's up and give me a few hours and I'll I'll certainly come back to you thank you very much thank you very much thank you really appreciate thank you thank you so much for a wonderful wonderful session as always and for very patiently answering all of our questions and thank you to all our attendees we really hope you were able to add some value to your lives through this session and as Gaurav sir said if you have any queries any questions that you would like to ask him or anything you want to know about business x you can always reach out to me as well and if you also want a recording of this session I'll be happy to provide this evening thank you so much we'll see you next Saturday at 11 a.m. with another episode in the series of Vx Academy business excellence mentoring and coaching thank you thank you