“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” — Whoopi Goldberg

A thousand years ago, the human tribes survived and developed by elders of the tribes leading and teaching the younger generations. The young leader’s curiosity and ambition would often lead to better, more effective practices. The combination of experience, curiosity and ambition resulted in the development and success of legendary civilizations.

In current times, those “civilizations” have become businesses, and they face a dark and uncertain employment future. International leading and developed countries like Germany has a working force of 45.5 million people. However, within the next 15 years 12.9 million people in Germany will have surpassed the retirement age. That is just short of 30% of the active work force. Businesses are thus faced with the issue: Their most experienced and trustworthy employees are going to be lost within the next 15 years, leaving their replacements in the dark, especially if the company is multi – or international.

The solution… Mentoring programs. These elders, we are soon loosing, have valuable, cardinal knowledge that needs to be passed on to the new generations, for the success and survival of the business. Mentoring programs do not only cultivate and develop a workplace environment of learning, trust, respect and communication, but allows the mentees to see their career path within the company and work towards it. It shows the mentees what they are capable of and what is expected of them. The mentee grows, not only personally, but professionally as well. The mentor, on the other hand, gets exposed to new energy, ambition and current, modern solutions. The relationship that is built between the two becomes a cohesive bond and knowledge is transferred through a generational gap, that becomes a little easier to bridge. The result is: a business with deep rooted culture, experience and quality.

Let the elders lead us through the coming dark times with their torches of knowledge and experience, paving a road on generational light to a successful future.