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By Joe Boomgaard | MSS
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Michigan Shifting Gears meshes big corporate talent with small business needs

YPSILANTI — Veterans of the corporate world have skills that small businesses and startups desperately need, yet few people successfully navigate that transition between those two drastically different environments.

Michigan Shifting Gears, a new statewide program born from an initiative started at Ann Arbor SPARK, aims to ease that career shift. Since its launch in 2009, the program has graduated six cohorts of business professionals in Southeast Michigan.

“We have incredible talent in this state from corporate professionals in big companies who could actually contribute to small companies,” said Diana Wong, Ph.D., CEO and president of Sensei Change Associates LLC, the program designer of Michigan Shifting Gears and associate professor of management at Eastern Michigan University. “Large corporate talent faces many obstacles in adapting to the environment of small business. … People coming from a strict corporate structure have a deep knowledge of a function and within a sub-area of a function, but it can be difficult to adapt in a small environment. It demands more of their functionality. The opportunity of the new economy is where the small businesses are. They’re generating more of the new jobs. And if people want to transition out of large businesses, they must adapt.”

Wong said that small businesses operate with few resources, require employees to be flexible and wear many hats with the organization, and necessitate that people deal with ambiguity, all of which can be in stark contrast to the corporate environment.

Michigan Shifting Gears steps in and provides professionals with a career transformation assessment, career coaching, workshops, networking and hands-on experience in the new economy. The participants are first counseled to ensure they’re a good fit for the program. Working with coaches, they get an assessment of their career assets and help in reframing their experiences and skills to fit the needs of small businesses.

Often when experienced professionals set out on the job hunt, either by choice or by necessity, they’re red flagged as too expensive because they have so much experience or they present such a “dense resume” that a small business wouldn’t even know where to start. The program provides them experiences with mock job interviews, resume reviews and business simulations.

“What the program does is it helps them get out of their own way,” Wong told Main Street Strategies in an exclusive interview. “People can create obstacles to their skill sets.”

The participants are also immersed in the classroom for several days of training on the new economy and the small business environment. In conjunction with those sessions, the program leaders also hold mixers in which the participants are given the opportunity to network with small business owners and entrepreneurs in need of help. From those connections, everyone in the cohort must complete 80 hours of pro bono internship work with a small business. The focus can range from developing business or marketing or communication plans to setting up production processes.

“The corporate professionals know how to do that stuff, but they need to adapt to working with the owner of the company. By contributing to the entrepreneurial community, they can become much more adaptable,” she said, adding that the businesses also get to connect with and try out local talent.

The Shifting Gears program provides plenty of opportunities for professionals to network and interact with small businesses in need of talent, as well as with mentors in the business community. COURTESY PHOTO

Each of the participants is paired with a local mentor for personalized recommendations and further coaching. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, prior to being elected, was a mentor in the program’s first cohort in 2009.

Wong said the program has been successful in that 35 percent of Shifting Gears participants land new jobs within three months of completing the program, some even before the program is over. After six months, 55 percent have jobs, while 80 percent are successful within nine months. Others even chose to start their own businesses as a result of the training.

“Part of (the success) is that they build a very powerful network. They’re meeting people who want them and are in a position to make a decision to hire. They have to close for themselves, but we get them to the table,” Wong said. “With Michigan Shifting Gears, we go way beyond job tactics. It’s a complete community wrap around of support.”

Moreover, talented individuals are finding jobs and new careers in which they can apply their experiences and passions in making a real difference in small businesses. Not only do people start to understand their value, it helps them realize they can have a worthwhile life after big corporations, she said.

Shifting statewide

The seventh cohort, which started on July 12, is the first to be made available on a statewide basis. All but one previous group came through Ann Arbor SPARK, the exception being a cohort that was done in conjunction with Detroit Tech Town and supported by partners at Oakland Community College, Automation Alley, and the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center.

Some of the participants have been laid-off from their previous jobs, while others are employed but want to make the transition or be proactive and avoid a layoff.

Wong said the program is taking a hub-and-spoke model by offering the workshops and simulations in Lansing, while the mentors, peer networking and pro bono internship will be sourced by local economic development partners around the state. The effort is being led by Wong and Amy Cell, SVP of talent enhancement at the MEDC and formerly of Ann Arbor SPARK. Wong acknowledges it can be a challenge to get people to make the drive to Lansing, but those who participate are showing the initiative in doing what it takes to make the transition.

While the MEDC picks up a portion of the tab, participants must each pay $500 to enroll in the program, which is valued in the thousands of dollars. Wong said the program is expensive to run because of the caliber of people involved in it and the amount of coordination the sessions require, but no granting agencies have stepped forward to cover the true cost of running it, largely because they see this community of business professionals as a privileged population that doesn’t need help. Yet at the same time, many of them are facing the same financial and other challenges as blue-collar workers.

The MEDC funding makes the program viable in the short term, but Wong said it’s not yet sustainable. Most likely, that will take corporate partners to help foot the bill.

“Our program has had enough of a track record now that employers ask for our folks because they’ve stepped up and are working and being much more proactive,” Wong said. “They’re much more open to being adaptable versus someone not engaged in a career transition program.” MSS