May 2010

Cain Quoted in Crain's Chicago Business Article, "Nature or nurture? Entrepreneurial genes can be inherited, but that's no guarantee of success"

Barry Cain, former Managing Director of Blackman Kallick's Strategic Services group is quoted in Crain's Chicago Business, dated May 10, 2010. The article, "Nature or nurture? Entrepreneurial genes can be inherited, but that's no guarantee of success," explores conflicting ideas about the "inheritance" of entrepreneurial genes. Below is an excerpt from the article.

Barry Cain, managing director of the family business center at Chicago accounting firm Blackman Kallick LLP, grew up listening to dinnertime conversations about Harrison Sheet Steel Co., the Chicago business his father and uncle bought in 1940.

While he chose law school instead of his father's company, which was sold in the late '60s amid differences between the owners, Mr. Cain, now 67, says his upbringing helped shape his career as an attorney working with family and closely held businesses.

"At 6 o'clock dinner, most of the conversation was about the company and what was happening in manufacturing or labor relations, or how family and business values come together," he says. "It was like a mini-MBA course, listening to what's going on."

Read more.

Read the Blackman Kallick Strategy Insights blog