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Having survived
rooming together in college, alumni twins Ken and Kevin
Blackwell have moved on to lesser challenges, such as
developing profitable internet strategies and business
software for a host of companies. Ken Blackwell is co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Bristol Technology Inc., a Danbury, Conn., company that provides market-leading eBusiness and cross-platform software to international clients. In 1997, Inc. magazine cited Bristol as one of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. Kevin Blackwell is President and Director of Kenosia Corpo- ration, a Bristol spin-off company (also in Danbury) that provides enterprise software to retail product manufacturers and retailers. As busy as they are with their companies, the Blackwell twins still make time for their alma mater. Ken maintains the Millsaps alumni e-mail directory, and Kevin has offered valuable assistance to the College in its efforts to develop a more robust and interactive website. In the following interview, these 1986 Millsaps graduates share their business philosophies and views on higher education. Did you want to attend the same college? Kevin: We both started our own college searches. We were looking for good schools. Location didn’t exactly matter, but it didn’t hurt that Millsaps was close to home. So it was not our intent to go to college together. Ken: Right, we weren’t hung up on it. We made our own independent decisions. What were the advantages of going to Millsaps together? Kevin: Sharing a car [laughs].We had different friends, and we didn’t hang around each other all the time. We roomed together and that was an advantage because you didn’t have to worry about whether you disliked your roommate – you knew you didn’t like him, which made it easier on you [laughs]. We chose the same major, computer science, so usually only one of us went to class and the professor wouldn’t know which. You both did the 3-2 program with Millsaps and the Vander- bilt engineering school. Right? Kevin: We were in computer science at Millsaps and electrical engineering at Vanderbilt. Ken focused on the computer science part of electronics, and I was in the mechanical part. The 3-2 program takes an extra year, of course, but you come out with two degrees. The intensity that we had in math courses and basic sciences at Millsaps prepared us for when we got to Vanderbilt, so we sailed through those things. If we had gone straight to Vandy, we could have done it, but being a little better prepared, it was an easier transition. We value our liberal arts foundation because many people come out with hi-tech degrees and can’t express themselves very well or write and communicate well with others. Your core business is deploying eBusiness solutions. Are we in an internet bubble or revolution? Ken: It’s both. We’re in a major bubble right now. It’s a land rush. The analogy that we use here is that the main people who made money in the California gold rush were the people selling pans and levis, not the people panning for gold. So that’s what we’re trying to be in the business – providers of infrastructure, tools, which is where the real business is. The nonsense that’s happening out in the market – stupid stock valuations – is just silly. But there are real businesses and real economic efficiency gains that are happening because of internet technology. What must students do to enter the business world successfully? Ken: Take more foreign languages, that’s one recommendation. Kevin: My biggest concern about students is that so many work for the grade, not for the knowledge. For instance, a computer science student might have good grades in school but can’t pass our entrance test. We want someone who shows promise. We don’t ever hire undergrads looking at what they can do today – we envision what they can do two years in the future. Ken: That’s why the Millsaps experience was probably best for me, and Kevin too. Not so much what you learn, but how you learn to learn. Compared to what I know now about this industry and computers, it was trivial what I knew coming out of Millsaps – but I did learn the process of how you keep up with these things. Are your entrance tests technical or more about thought process? Ken: We test their technical skills, but we also test their ability to think. It’s amazing how many people we interview who, when presented with a very difficult problem to solve, sort of throw up their hands, like “Well, I don’t really want to do this.” Obviously, they’re not the type of people we’re interested in. But we always push candidates past their capabilities because that’s the only way to know what their true potential is. It reminds me of – and maybe this is an influence – the comps at Millsaps. When I went to take my comprehensive exams, I was expecting the computer science professors, but then George Beardsley showed up from the physics department and grilled me on physics stuff for 20 minutes in the middle of my comps. I wasn’t expecting that! I have no doubt that he enjoyed that tremendously [laughs]. That’s what Millsaps is about – thinking on the spot. PREVIOUS PAGE | PAGE 1 OF 1 | NEXT ARTICLE |
