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Stories
More Than a Business
When you call Black Enterprise's corporate offices in Manhattan and ask for Earl G. Graves, you have to specify which one. There's Earl Senior, the chairman, editor, and publisher, who, since founding the magazine in 1970, has turned it into the premier business publication of the African-American community. There's also Earl Junior (MBA '88)-known more familiarly as Butch - the president and COO of the family's company, Earl G. Graves, Ltd., which includes the magazine, a private equity fund, and a Pepsi bottling operation.
Growing up, Butch Graves always knew he'd play a role in the family business, he just didn't know when or how. "Dad was good about exposing me to business-never pressuring me into it but always making it seem attractive and interesting," he recalls. After becoming a star basketball player at Yale as an undergraduate in the early 1980s, however, the younger Graves attempted a career in professional sports, playing for a year with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But the lure of business ultimately proved stronger, pulling Graves to HBS, where he explored his interest in management with the idea of pursuing a career in investment banking. Then, when an advertising director position became available at Black Enterprise the summer after he graduated, Graves threw his own résumé into the ring. "My father had always lamented that he couldn't find good salespeople, and although I didn't know much about advertising, I knew I could sell," he recalls. Indeed, Graves the younger was soon hauling in hefty ad revenues from the likes of telecommunications giants, major banks, and scores of other prominent firms.
Over the past decade, Graves's two brothers have also come on board the family enterprise. Johnny, the middle sibling, is the publishing company's senior vice president and general counsel, and Michael, the youngest, is president of the family's Pepsi bottling operation in Washington, D.C. "One of the real keys to our success is that we have healthy personal relationships," notes Graves. "Family businesses are doomed from the start if the members don't share respect, love, and, certainly, trust."
The father of four young children, Graves hopes some of them will also eventually join the company. "Black Enterprise makes a positive contribution to the African-American community," he says proudly. "My father taught us that this magazine is more than just a business, and I'd like to see my children carry it on in that spirit."
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