Most entrepreneurs are driven to start their own business because they desire a deeper level of freedom and control. For
Tina Chang, chairman, CEO and owner of Brookfield-based IT firm
SysLogic, starting her businesses gave her the freedom and control to pursue a deeper passion: catalyzing change in her community.
Now nearly three decades into her career, Chang has led the spin off of three startups,
SysSpark LLC,
Cyberspect LLC and
WillBridge. Most recently, in 2023, she co-founded Madison-based cybersecurity consultancy
Ghostscale.
WillBridge, a public benefit corporation, is the unification of Chang’s passions for technology and nonprofit work. Launched in 2022, the company is designed to help organizations leverage data to create greater social impact. It provides a secure platform for nonprofits, health care systems, educational institutions and government entities to safely share data about the populations they serve and then utilize that cross section of shared data to work toward better outcomes. WillBridge’s DataCommunity platform is currently being piloted with a StriveTogether network member in Muscatine, Iowa.
"My goal of being an entrepreneur wasn’t just about building a company that has value, but also having that company, or a portfolio of companies, be great community stewards," said Chang.
Impact driven
Chang considers herself part of an old-school generation of entrepreneurs – those who built their companies from the ground up without any outside funding or support. She left her corporate career at Anderson Consulting, now called Accenture, in her early 20s because she wasn’t getting experience working with up-and-coming technologies.
“I wasn’t necessarily positioned to achieve my goals of wanting to change the modern world with technology for the better,” she said.
Guided by the belief that she could have a larger, continuous impact on her community through entrepreneurship, Chang co-founded SysLogic in 1995. At just 24, she thought she could easily return to corporate work if her own venture didn’t succeed. That idea was quickly dispelled when she realized how closely her employees’ livelihoods were tied to SysLogic’s success.
The challenges the company has faced over the years have shifted as SysLogic has grown from a small startup to a well-established company. Earlier on, Chang’s biggest struggle was winning enough clients to survive with a little-known business name.
Now, selling multimillion-dollar deals that have a larger impact on both SysLogic and potential clients – all while winning confidence from that client’s executive team – are among Chang’s most challenging tasks.
"It's easy to be young and ask for help. When you’re 52, like I am, you're now at this age and have a company profile where you're there to compete," said Chang. "You've got to watch out, because you're actually a threat to your competition.”
When she’s in need of business advice, Chang relies on a portfolio of mentors as opposed to leaning on one single person.
"If you’re going to lead with your own strengths, by being your own authentic self, you've got to find a portfolio of people across the horizon to round you out," she said.
Leading with vision and balance
Throughout her 28 years as a leader and entrepreneur, Chang says she hasn’t changed her leadership style too much, but has worked to improve her own execution. Keeping her leadership style consistent has been the key to maintaining company culture, she said.
"I grew up influencing by painting a picture of opportunity," said Chang. "Now, I'm influencing through vision. If I tried to be visionary when I was 24, some great, experienced person might look at me and say, ‘You're crazy. What do you know?'"
One thing she has perfected during her career is the constant balancing of her work and personal engagements. As the amount of time she’s needed at work – both her own businesses and nonprofits she serves – hits different highs and lows, she schedules her own personal time to fill whatever space remains. She protects her eight hours of sleep at all costs.
As for her nonprofit work, Chang chooses what organizations she dedicates portions of her time to based on which will have the biggest foundational impact on the issues she wants to tackle. She currently serves on the boards of Children’s Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation, the YMCA of Metro Milwaukee and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, among several others.
Being a successful business leader also means being able to promote work-life balance for your employees, Chang said.
She’s made several changes to her work habits – like scheduling emails for early the next day instead of sending them late at night – to make sure she’s not altering the timeline of an employee’s work schedule.
“In today's digital world, when we are always on and expected to be available, a great leader, if we truly believe in work-life balance, is someone who knows how to not just have it for themselves, but how to drive it in others," she said.
Another one of Chang’s strongly held business philosophies is continual succession planning, no matter what phase a business leader’s career is in. She feels at ease having a strong leadership team around her, but she has no intention of ever retiring.
“The idea that I will ever retire is nonexistent in my mind,” said Chang. “I might take a different role within my company. Maybe I’ll be a great salesperson and find a new CEO. I’m humble enough to recognize that when we get larger, I might not be the right person to lead my company.”
[caption id="attachment_595545" align="alignnone" width="1280"]
Tina Chang. Credit: Valerie Hill[/caption]
