Successful Black Entrepreneurs

7Black Turnaround Entrepreneurs

“Early on in my business career … had to very quickly assess what the situation was, what the key issues were and what the key levers were that you could pull that would change the performance of a particular business…”¹

— Ken Chenault, American Express

FOR SOME PEOPLE it might be hard to fathom the idea that there is a segment of entrepreneurs who are only interested in working with underperforming companies. These individuals are called turnaround entrepreneurs. They usually buy poorly run companies that may or may not be profitable. Expressed another way, the profit of such companies is either miniscule or significantly below the industry average. Accordingly, these entrepreneurs are driven to improve the company's performance and, in turn, it's value. To achieve such an end, they seek to increase the company's revenue, decrease its expenses, or a combination of both.

Don Cornwall is one such Black entrepreneur. In his business plan he outlined explicitly that his start-up, Granite Broadcasting, had the objective of creating a media conglomerate by buying and combining underperforming television stations.² In 1992, he took Granite Broadcasting public and the stock was traded on the NASDAQ. Three years later, Black Enterprise magazine named it Company of the Year to recognize and celebrate the fact that this Black-owned company was the top performing media company in the U.S.³

While Cornwall intentionally sought to be an entrepreneur engaged ...