Competitive Response to Globalization

The Center for Competitive Response to Globalization is a Levin Institute program that was funded by a 2009 Congressional appropriation through the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Center aims to help New York-based small companies preserve manufacturing and services jobs by providing them business tools, skills, and knowledge to better respond to global competition, particularly from emerging economies such as China.

The Center supports the education of entrepreneurs through three distinct programs: JumpStart NYC, FastTrac, and Going Global.

The Center will also engage small business owners through New York in the World, a research project about the impacts of globalization on New York City and State.

JumpStart NYC was designed by Levin to help 50 qualified yet unemployed financial services workers to retool their talents and approaches to take positions in small entrepreneurial firms. In the first round, over 80 small businesses applied to sponsor ten-week projects with these talented individuals. Jumpstart NYC was publicly announced in spring 2009 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and developed with financial support from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). Participants spent one week in an intensive educational bootcamp at the Levin Institute, which has received very high praise and feedback (4.7 out of 5 overall) for its overall approach. The participants then take up ten-week consultancies, without pay, at one of the sponsoring companies in entrepreneurial sectors like digital media, IT, financial services, and others. At the conclusion of a successful pilot program, the NYCEDC contracted Levin to deliver six more JumpStart NYC sessions beginning in October 2009 through June 2011. JumpStart NYC received significant media coverage as an innovative solution to help both small entrepreneurial businesses and New York’s unemployed professionals.

FastTrac is a two-track program to help entrepreneurs launch and grow their companies. NewVenture helps individuals to launch a new business; and GrowthVenture helps existing companies grow. Developed under support from the Kauffman Foundation, FastTrac uses a facilitated peer-to-peer learning experience, which draws heavily on the mentoring of experienced coaches, and practical contributions from experienced small business entrepreneurs. Levin was selected by competitive bid by the New York City Small Business Services in March 2009 to deliver FastTrac programs to 700 New York City entrepreneurs to stimulate the formation of new companies and the creation of jobs. In March 2010, this contract was extended for another year. At this point, about 1,000 New Yorkers have already benefited from the practical and excellent program delivered by FastTrac.

Going Global is a new professional education program (currently under development) to educate small business persons to more effectively grow businesses internationally by exploiting markets, knowledge, and talent. While The Levin Institute has delivered similar programs to larger firms, we are customizing the program to meet small business concerns. We plan to pilot test the program for a group of 10-15 small business persons. In doing so, Levin will engage SBA offices in New York City, and reach out to other organizations that serve small business to help in recruiting participating small business persons, and in designing the program that will offer value.

The Center will engage small business owners in an important new research and engagement program, New York in the World, to study the local impacts of globalization.This two-year effort at Levin Institute has been partially funded by a substantial 2009 grant from the Carnegie Corporation.

For more information about the Center for Competitive Response to Globalization, please contact the Center’s Director, Thomas Moebus, at 212-317-3570.