Why mentorship endures

Jun 01, 2026

This month, we will welcome a new cohort of scholars for the Scholar Mentoring & Development Program (SMDP). For more than two decades, the program has paired university students and early-career scientists with executives and professionals working across the biotech, medtech and consumer healthcare industries. It has helped participants explore careers, build confidence and expand their professional networks.

As we prepare for this year's program, I find myself thinking about a question that extends well beyond biotechnology or medical technology. In recent months, I have spent time examining why some programs endure while others quietly disappear.  As part of that reflection, I have looked at our own work and the factors that allow institutions to remain relevant over time. One pattern appears repeatedly. Many programs are built around content. Information is delivered, lessons are shared and participants move on. Success is often measured by what happens during the event itself.

Mentorship works differently. Its value is rarely visible in real time. A conversation that lasts thirty minutes may influence a decision years later. An introduction made during a networking session may become a future partnership. Advice offered by a mentor may only become meaningful when a participant encounters a challenge much further down the road. This is one of the reasons mentorship requires patience.

No one knows which conversation will matter most. No one can predict which relationships will endure. The outcomes are often impossible to measure in the moment they begin. And yet they continue to shape careers, organisations and communities long after the formal program concludes.

Later this month, we will also host an alumni networking gathering for former participants of SMDP. What makes these gatherings meaningful is not nostalgia. It is the reminder that the most important outcomes are often visible years after the original investment was made. Increasingly, former participants return not simply as beneficiaries, but as contributors. They stay connected. They support one another. They strengthen the network that once supported them. That is when a program begins to resemble an institution.

Knowledge can be transferred quickly. Trust cannot. It is built over time, through relationships, consistency and shared experience. The most durable outcomes are often the ones that take the longest to become visible.

That is why mentorship endures.