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Blackwell father/son partnership tested their bond
Collision of styles roiled IT startup
April 07, 2003
By Julie Johnsson
 Picture by John R. Boehm
| Separate Paths: After selling his stake to his father, Robert Blackwell Sr., Left, Robert Jr. tried real state, started another IT consultancy and formed aprofessional table tennis team. |
Clashing business styles and father-son dynamics proved a potent mix when the Robert Blackwells Sr. and Jr. went into business together.
They were realizing a long-held dream of teaming the father's master salesmanship with the son's technical proficiency when they founded information technology consultancy Blackwell Consulting Services LLC in July 1992.
What they didn't anticipate was the strain on family ties as they struggled to reconcile leadership issues - both were used to being in charge - and contrasting management philosophies that reflected the different generations and economic circumstances to which they were born.
The Blackwells embody the interplay between generations that is reshaping the city's businesses, as well as the racial diversity that's slowly taking root in its boardrooms.
The 65-year-old father, a classic company man and member of the "silent" generation, learned late in his career, from his son, how to be an entrepreneur. And he showed Robert Jr., 42, how to navigate through a business world that remains predominantly white, without losing his sense of pride, or self, as an African-American.
"No matter what direction an individual takes, somehow, it gets back to the values (of the) father," says Gerald Roper, CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, referring to the Blackwells.
The gregarious Mr. Blackwell Sr. - Bob to acquaintances - worked his way up the ladder from programmer to head of IBM Corp.'s information technology services for the Midwest, a $300-million business by the early 1990s.
His career path? "I didn't have any. My father was a janitor, see? People ask about careers, but I thought I needed a job. It was after I got to IBM and saw it that I became ambitious."
Mr. Blackwell Jr. - Robert - is a serial entrepreneur who lives and breathes numbers.
"Except for a short amount of time, I'd never had a boss," he says. "I was used to living or dying based on what I did. If things worked out, I did well. If not, I slept on the floor and that was fine."
The two laid the groundwork for a company that today has 250 employees and $30 million in revenues. But there was tension from the outset. The younger Mr. Blackwell felt his father had a "big-company mentality." While the father Blackwell hired IBM alumni, the son recruited young techno-philes.
"You can see how there would be a culture clash," the younger man says.
After three years of tussles, Robert Jr. sold his stake to his father.
"The happiest person in the world was his mother," says the older man, "because she was caught in between these two guys having almost what seemed to be sibling rivalries."
Mr. Blackwell Jr. dabbled in real estate development south of Hyde Park, a contrarian play in the mid-1990s, before forming another IT consultancy, Electronic Knowledge Interchange.
Pursuing another passion, he is marketing table tennis to the masses. A professional table tennis team he formed, Chicago Killerspin Club, competes around the globe, boasting the current U.S. national champion and three prospective Olympians.
The senior Mr. Blackwell preaches that excellence is the best antidote to the subtle racial stereotypes that still pervade the business world, a belief his son has embraced in his own endeavors.
Both want the chance to compete directly for projects, rather than settling for portions of the business doled out to minority contractors. Going that route is "damaging because you don't have real ties with companies," says the younger man.
Father and son also have a strong interest in community service. Both are active in the Assn. of Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs, a forum for African-American executives, and are members of some of the city's influential boards. Mr. Blackwell Sr. is a trustee at the Illinois Institute of Technology, while his son serves on the Metropolitan Planning Commission and was recently named a trustee of the Chicago Public Library.
"Look around - there's a whole group of new people that folks just don't know," says the senior Mr. Blackwell. "Michael Krasny built a $4-billion corporation here. And I wonder, do people look at Krasny the way they once looked at the head of Standard Oil or Bank One? But they need to. The non-profits have to appeal to a different set of (leaders)."
©2003 by Crain Communications Inc.
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