Moving from third sector to private sector

Having made the transition from public, to charity, to private sector, I can't add much to Elizabeth's tips (to be honest, my success was down to luck: finding an SME that was a little bit of a basket case, looking for a clear head and a robust temperament - my MD understood my limitations pretty well and has been mentoring me to learn my way into the peculiarities of the private sector SME).

However, I can now offer some thoughts on what was different, and it wasn't what I expected.

A good deal was similar, which I think was because the organization's size was very similar to the one that I left, and that meant that it wasn't too hard a transition. But what was really far more different than I expected was the people. In the third sector, most people were motivated by the fact that they were engaged in a project to improve the world. Sure, they would grumble about their pay and their colleagues and the management and their workload. And sometimes people left and went on to a different charity or (more rarely) a commercial organization with a similar interest. But mostly, the fact that we were, ultimately, all working towards the common good was a binding factor, and that was what kept everything basically working even under the worst of circumstances.

In military parlance, we understood the "Main Effort" - the thing we were supposed to be trying to do - so in the absence of clear direction we had a light by which to steer.

Moving into a commercial SME, the only Main Effort that was evident to 100% of the workforce was to maximize profits for the benefit of the company owners. The business of business is, after all, business; and I didn't (and don't) sense that people resented this fact. But it's not much of a light to steer by, which means that, in the absence of clear management, the default is to revert to habit. And not all habits are good habits.

I'd not say that everyone working for a charity is a good person (sadly, there's too much evidence that's not true, especially lately), but they all know what behaviours are expected of good people, particularly with clear sight of the Main Effort.

Nor would I say that a person working for a commercial enterprise is a bad person, but the lack of a clearly illuminating Main Effort makes it far easier to slip into bad habits.

On the plus side, though, it was hard - in a charity - to justify expenditure on anything other than our Main Effort. So investment in HR systems, training and development was pretty depressing. But in a commercial enterprise, those things can be clearly aligned with the making of profit (spend a little now to recoup a lot more next year). So I have found it is easier to extract the money to begin acquiring systems to do the other things that matter.

Having made the transition from public, to charity, to private sector, I can't add much to Elizabeth's tips (to be honest, my success was down to luck: finding an SME that was a little bit of a basket case, looking for a clear head and a robust temperament - my MD understood my limitations pretty well and has been mentoring me to learn my way into the peculiarities of the private sector SME).

However, I can now offer some thoughts on what was different, and it wasn't what I expected.

A good deal was similar, which I think was because the organization's size was very similar to the one that I left, and that meant that it wasn't too hard a transition. But what was really far more different than I expected was the people. In the third sector, most people were motivated by the fact that they were engaged in a project to improve the world. Sure, they would grumble about their pay and their colleagues and the management and their workload. And sometimes people left and went on to a different charity or (more rarely) a commercial organization with a similar interest. But mostly, the fact that we were, ultimately, all working towards the common good was a binding factor, and that was what kept everything basically working even under the worst of circumstances.

In military parlance, we understood the "Main Effort" - the thing we were supposed to be trying to do - so in the absence of clear direction we had a light by which to steer.

Moving into a commercial SME, the only Main Effort that was evident to 100% of the workforce was to maximize profits for the benefit of the company owners. The business of business is, after all, business; and I didn't (and don't) sense that people resented this fact. But it's not much of a light to steer by, which means that, in the absence of clear management, the default is to revert to habit. And not all habits are good habits.

I'd not say that everyone working for a charity is a good person (sadly, there's too much evidence that's not true, especially lately), but they all know what behaviours are expected of good people, particularly with clear sight of the Main Effort.

Nor would I say that a person working for a commercial enterprise is a bad person, but the lack of a clearly illuminating Main Effort makes it far easier to slip into bad habits.

On the plus side, though, it was hard - in a charity - to justify expenditure on anything other than our Main Effort. So investment in HR systems, training and development was pretty depressing. But in a commercial enterprise, those things can be clearly aligned with the making of profit (spend a little now to recoup a lot more next year). So I have found it is easier to extract the money to begin acquiring systems to do the other things that matter.