Professional MBA Grad Has No Reservations About
Technology Transfer Project
Bill Scheib (ProMBA 2006) is doing something he never dreamed he’d be doing. Or, perhaps more accurately stated, Scheib is doing something where he never dreamed he’d be doing it—and he is loving every minute of it. Scheib left the familiar territory of Oak Ridge government plants after 31 years and now finds himself applying his project management expertise alongside a team of Native Americans who are working to aid Native American communities. (Scheib is the only non-Native American on the team.)
In 2008, Scheib joined Echota Technologies, a Native-American-owned technology services company located in Alcoa, Tennessee. Scheib serves as the project manager for an ambitious effort underway to assist Native American communities in creating a self-sustaining economy on their reservations.
This is the basic premise behind the Small Business Administration’s Office of Native American Affairs (ONAA) Technology Transfer Project. The project, managed contractually by Echota Technologies, focuses on transferring technology from a variety of sources such as NASA, the Department of Defense, universities, and others to tribal colleges. In turn, the tribal colleges will equip students to create technology-based businesses. The intended results include higher paying jobs for tribal-college students and graduates, retention of qualified people for reservation-based businesses, and spin-off businesses resulting in newfound growth. In other words, the goal is to create a self-sustaining economic engine that will continue to thrive generation after generation.
When it succeeds, the program will address one of the most urgent economic crises in America. Whereas the overall unemployment rate in the United States varies between 10 and 20 percent (depending upon the source), unemployment rates of 50 to 60 percent are typical in Native American communities; in fact, on some reservations, the unemployment rate is as high as 85 percent. (Tribes prospering from casinos and oil are very much the exception, not the norm.)
This dire situation has existed for decades, despite attempts to rectify it. Many past attempts focused on starting local businesses; however, this resulted merely in money changing hands among tribal residents—no new wealth was created.
A more promising approach is to create businesses of a global nature, wherein Native Americans can export goods and services and import revenue. Once this “new money” enters the reservation, it is expected that it will transfer hands seven times, thereby creating more jobs and more opportunities within the community.
Thus far, the Technology Transfer Project has identified four tribal colleges to be involved in the pilot phase: Navaho Technical College in Crownpoint, New Mexico; Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota; Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota; and Diné College, located in Tsaile, Arizona. These colleges are located on the Navajo, Standing Rock, Pine Ridge, and Navajo reservations, respectively. Efforts are now underway to secure funding for implementation of the pilot phase.
According to Scheib, business development in governmental environments is “a whole new ball of wax.” “The reservations essentially have no collateral with which to secure capital; not even the reservation land can be used. So, to fund the project, we must create a consensus and focus among a variety of governmental agencies to focus their resources in this direction. That’s a pretty big challenge, one that will likely require strong support from the White House.”
Although delighted by this challenging turn in his career path, Scheib does not consider it a big surprise. “I’m enormously grateful to (Echota Technologies founder) Randy McGinnis and (project team member) George Morgan for sharing so much about Native American culture. One of the Native American concepts they taught me is the cyclical nature of life. When I look at my career path with that in mind, I can see where everything I’ve learned and experienced in the past—at Y-12, in the Professional MBA program at UT, and through all the community volunteer work my wife and I have done over the years—has all circled back to this opportunity to make a difference.”