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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis needs more spark plugs like Doug Logan.
Since taking over USA Track & Field a year ago last
summer, Logan has added members, raised more money, and broken china ripe for the hammer.
IBJ reporter
Anthony Schoettle reports on page 1 that Logan plans to boost the organization’s budget by nearly half within just two
years—in times that aren’t exactly favorable for raising money.
He’s also gunning to avoid a
repeat of the U.S. Olympic team’s embarrassing performance in the 2008 games, when dropped batons cost the country medals.
There’s something refreshing and inspiring about individuals who set ambitious goals and throw themselves into
meeting them.
• David Simon is ramrodding his family’s shopping mall company to empire status after
setting that goal when he took over in 1995.
• Bryan Bedford’s Republic Airways is inhaling companies
and turning into a carrier to be reckoned with.
• Brian Payne, head of the Central Indiana Community Foundation,
conceived of the Cultural Trail and is seeing his vision take shape.
• Gov. Mitch Daniels has taken enormous
political risks to shake up a state that’s gradually falling behind much of the rest of the world.
•
Another politician, state education Superintendent Tony Bennett, is wrestling entrenched interests to the ground in order
to hit a self-imposed goal of 90 percent of students passing ISTEP tests.
If only there were many more examples.
Had someone like Logan been watching out for the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, the event might not be moving to Atlanta.
Hoosiers too often shoot arrows at people with big ideas and the drive to accomplish them. Instead, we should encourage
those already pushing toward their goals and urge others to set their own bars high.
Wish for a speedy
rebound
One of the city’s minority-owned businesses has fallen on hard times, and we wish its founder
and CEO, Gene McFadden, the best in pulling back onto open roads.
Freight Masters Systems, a logistics firm, has
filed to reorganize its debts under bankruptcy protection. As Chris O’Malley reports on page 3, the filing is the result
of problems at Chrysler and other Freight Masters clients further up the food chain.
Bankruptcy is never a welcome
site, but it’s even less so when the company is owned by a minority. The Indianapolis area doesn’t have enough
minority companies, and the ones that do exist aren’t large enough.
The biggest on IBJ’s 2009 Book
of Lists is Bucher and Christian Consulting Inc. The computer consulting firm, renamed BC Forward as part of a just-announced
expansion, has 550 full-time-equivalent employees and aims for 200 more by 2012.
By contrast, consider some of
the other biggest privately owned companies. The Lacy family’s LDI Ltd. has 2,300 employees and Bob Rohrman Auto Group,
nearly 1,400.
With 18 full-time employees and 90 who operate as independent contractors, Freight Masters is a small
firm even by minority-owned standards.
Here’s to hoping for a fast recovery and a resumption of growth.•
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