Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9407220002
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the case of Innotech Inc., it had to do with the founder's business roots.
Innotech and its Excalibur invention that manufactures multifocal eyeglass lenses has been the subject of wide publicity in the optical industry and a hot topic at trade conventions. But the company has declined local interviews since 1992.
According to Ron Blum, Miles Newman and Joe Blackstock - partners in the Roanoke-based Blum Newman Blackstock & Associates optometric practice - it was an effort to protect and preserve the reputation and integrity of the 17-year-old practice while Blum set out to found Innotech.
Blum began tinkering with surface casting multifocal lenses nearly six years ago, experimenting with the process using his own patients. When his Excalibur technology became a feasible industry in itself, the three optometrists were vigilant about making Blum's transition from full-time doctor to full-time optometric entrepreneur a smooth and careful one.
``Blum Newman Blackstock is one of the best-kept secrets in the world,'' Blum said. ``Nobody in the world dispenses more in-office lenses than Blum Newman Blackstock and Ron Blum."
``Try to say that without making me sound cocky,'' Blum added sincerely.
According to Andrew Karp, senior editor of Vision Monday, the optometric industry's leading trade publication, Blum Newman Blackstock has often appeared on its annual list of the top 100 retailers in the United States.
``It's a practice with a strong national reputation,'' Karp said.
As Blum devoted more and more time to developing his surface casting system, Newman said he was ``very upfront'' about what he was doing and the amount of time it was taking.
``We needed to let him have the space he needed,'' Blackstock said.
Blum Newman Blackstock & Associates, founded in 1977, employs six doctors at nine locations in Virginia.
Although Blum is no longer actively involved in the practice, he still works several hours a week with clients to keep his skills up.
``He's a very creative person, and it was just time for him to move out of the exam room and into the optical field,'' Newman said.
As Blum limited his practice during the past two years, the doctors shared some concerns about his long-standing reputation in this area as a top optometrist.
``Doctors have other interests as well, and it wasn't fair for us to hold him back from something he was interested in,'' Newman said, ``but he was visible for so long, and it did become a problem for us when he was no longer easily accessible.''
Newman added that that concern may have been valid last year and the year before, but is no longer.
As the founder of the practice and with a 20-year reputation in the Roanoke Valley, Blum's name remaining on the practice was crucial, the partners agreed. He retains some shares of nonvoting stock, and there are no plans to change the name of the practice at any time in the near future.
``Look at law firms,'' Newman said. ``Businesses and partnerships are sold all the time but often retain the name of a senior partner, even though he may have long been out of the picture.''
Blackstock said the practice was offered the chance to invest in Innotech and share the potential profits, but he and Newman declined.
``We're comfortable with the decision not to invest,'' Blackstock said. ``We just felt we couldn't take the risk.''
Blum Newman Blackstock & Associates does use Innotech's Excalibur surface casting system, however.
``It works; it's a great system,'' Newman said.
While Blackstock agrees that the majority of people don't necessarily feel the need to have their bifocal lenses in one hour, it has become critical to independent retailers such as Blum Newman Blackstock to compete on that level.
``Partnerships are a lot like marriages,'' Blum said, ``and we've had a good partnership.''
As he worked to develop the Excalibur technology, Blum said he was careful not to create problems for the practice.
Newman and Blackstock "have been just wonderful,'' he said. ``Back in the early stages of development, I put in my regular hours, then did the rest on my own.
``Believe me, the people who suffered weren't anyone affiliated with Blum Newman Blackstock,'' Blum said. ``The people who suffered were my family. They never saw me.''
by CNB