Forward-thinking companies are turning to Mentor Scout, a Web-based mentor-matching tool created by Nobscot Corp. An annual subscription costs anywhere from $2,500 to $25,000, depending on the number of participants. Home Depot, Best Buy, and even Brunswick Corp.'s bowling division have adopted the technology to help far-flung operations managers.
General managers-in-training at Brunswick Bowling & Billiards can log on to the system, fill out a member profile -- including skills they want to improve -- and up pops a list of volunteer mentors from within the company that fit the bill. "I don't want to say it's like a dating service, but it kind of works that way," says Dean Schuller, a longtime general manager.
Using the service, newly minted Brunswick manager Kelly FitzGerald, based in Chicago, found a mentor in Philadelphia. "Because we connected through the Web, a mentor doesn't have any preconceived notion of what you know," Fitz-Gerald says. "You just have to ask them for help, and it's all confidential." Besides, there can be some advantages to a mentor who can't see a messy desk -- or catch you rolling a few extra frames after closing.
-- MB
Margaret Heffernan is a fastcompany.com columnist and author of The Naked Truth (Jossey-Bass, 2004). Saj-nicole Joni is CEO of Cambridge International Group and author of The Third Opinion (Portfolio, 2004).
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