Former Corporate Executives Become Entrepreneurs

Two Women Discuss Starting Successful Management Consulting Business

Oct 14, 2009

Two women leave corporate executive positions to use their skills & business experience to become entrepreneurs by starting a successful management consulting business.

According to two smart and savvy entrepreneurs who left the corporate world to start their own consulting business – SophiaThink – trust, integrity, and a similar work ethic are a critical basis for a successful working relationship. During a conference call interview with the two women, their adventure of going from corporate executives to entrepreneurs unfolds.

While working on a project together, Mari Anne Snow and Rebecca Phipps McGrail – both senior management in different divisions of a global financial services corporation – discovered they could trust each other.

Executives Leave Corporate World Behind

McGrail’s career had always been in the financial services industry. She'd been with the company for eleven years, Senior VP and COO of the global marketing team, when she decided she’d had enough of the corporate culture. McGrail said, “I felt I wasn’t learning anything and was always putting out fires and dealing with politics…it lost its appeal.” McGrail was willing to give up her high-level position, great salary and benefits to “reinvent” herself. She turned in her resignation in August 2008 and left the company just a week before the crash of the financial markets in September of that year.

Snow left the company in a very different way. She had been in the financial services industry for only four years, directing company-wide technology implementation in the corporate IT department, after having worked in several different industries. When the market crashed, the corporation made organizational changes and began downsizing. Rolling out innovative projects, which was Snow's main function, was going to be shut down. Snow said, “Anything of interest to me was not going to happen.” Two of her mentors – McGrail being one – had already left the organization. In January 2009, when she was offered a severance package and was “escorted out the door,” she was ready to go.

Collaboration Sets Stage for Business Partnership

Before leaving the corporation, McGrail and Snow worked together for two years on implementing a global redesign of the corporation's intranet. They found their collaborative style was similar. Neither was caught up in political backstabbing that can impede progress and affect efficient completion of a mandated project.

Their collaborative philosophy, pragmatism, and trust freed McGrail to be able to accomplish more because typical corporate politics were not part of how she and Snow worked together – she didn’t have to watch her back. McGrail said Snow "made what could have been an onerous project enjoyable."

What to Look for in a Business Partner

Snow was the one to approach McGrail about starting a consulting company. She had been working with an outplacement service and found she was unable to identify a company for which she would like to work. Through the outplacement exploration, Snow realized she wanted more flexibility in her schedule, and to use her diverse skill sets and proven expertise to work on what she loved – problem solving.

In May 2009, Snow approached McGrail about creating a company together. They each saw the other as someone who complements the way in which they approach the world.

Starting a Management Consulting Business in Tough Economic Times

Between May and the end of July 2009, McGrail and Snow went into their usual way of being – action mode – and did the research to create their business plan and the legal documents to start their consulting business. Both found it amazing how quickly they could make decisions and take action without the bureaucracy of a large corporation.

Soon after the formation of their consulting company, SophiaThink, they had their first clients, and continue to refine their business model and target market. Within a year they expect to have carved out a niche. These smart, confident women know they will figure it out.

After living in the high-stress, highly structured environment of corporate America, these entrepreneurs are using their creativity, experience, and considerable knowledge to approach work and career in a refreshingly new way.

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