A marketing professor at the Kelley School of Business used to proclaim he could teach all one needed to know about economics in a week. That was back in the days when faculty would spend a few minutes of the morning hours in the coffee room engaged in friendly banter as well as serious discussion. The coffee room and my friend are both gone, but to me, a teacher of economics, the insult remains. Imagine-denigrating my calling, my faith, with…
At least 10 local Starbucks stores are slated to close by early next year as part of a 600-store nationwide purge. The chain
has named only 50 of the stores it plans to close, including two in Indiana, but it has notified the others. Those include
at least six in Indianapolis and stores in Carmel, Greenwood and Beech Grove.
The $80 million-plus Carmel Performing Arts Center, a neo-classical-styled concert hall designed to be an acoustical masterpiece, is still two years from opening. But it’s already the source of some dissonance in the Indianapolis arts community to the tune of Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19, in C major. On one hand, Indianapolis-area performing arts groups would sacrifice to theater god Dionysus for a chance to perform at the 1,600-seat music hall or at its adjacent 500-seat theater. But others fret…
You might have seen the startling news this morning about inflation. The cost of living exploded by 1.1
percent in June, which is a sobering annual rate above 13 percent.
One of the Indianapolis areaâ??s leading financial planners says…
Local big-draw events are itchy to make their first-ever runs in the $675 million Lucas Oil Stadium, in hopes the roomier venue will let them draw more attendees who want to kick the tires and enjoy the new stadium smell. But there’s a trade-off-a bigger price tag to cover security guards, ushers and cleanup. And at least one event is weighing higher ticket prices as a result. “I don’t think there’s any doubt [Lucas Oil Stadium] will cost more based…
Summer is at its midpoint, and with it comes the end of youth baseball, scout camp and a seemingly endless string of swim meets for the Hicks household. Like many of you out there, I welcome a few more quiet evenings at home. But during those long third-inning stretches and sleepless evenings in a tent, I spent some time calculating how much we value these youth sports and activities. You might be surprised what this math tells us about ourselves….
Ever heard of Kempton? Itâ??s a burg between Indianapolis and Kokomo that just happens to be the second-fastest
growing town in the state.
Kemptonâ??s population last year was 716, an increase of 27 percent in just one year, according to an…
Competition for jobs and investment has become so fierce that companies with a good growth plan are firmly
in the driverâ??s seat.
A local example is Bowen Engineering Corp., which is asking for $290,000 in incentives from Indianapolis to
move its…
Finish Line Inc. always has been a volatile stock. Jump in at the right time and make a bundle. Pick the wrong time and take a bath. To be sure, investors who had the foresight to invest during Finish Line’s darkest days early this year-when it seemed inevitable that the company would have to close on the $1.5 billion acquisition of Tennessee-based Genesco Inc.-fall in the former category. Since hitting an all-time low of $1.48 a share Jan. 10, the…
Brita Horvath celebrated her first year on the job late last month as Baker & Daniels LLP’s diversity and pro bono coordinator. Even in a part-time capacity, paying someone to tackle diversity issues within the workplace would have been unthinkable 30 years ago, recalls Greg Utken, a firm partner who co-chairs its diversity committee. “When I got out [of law school] in 1974, the firm I was with had no women and no people of color; it was white male,”…
Identifying corporate villainy is a delightful pastime that virtually all of us have reveled in at some point or another. There are only two problems with this form of entertainment. A description of the first comes simply stated to us from the Gospel of John as “he who is without sin cast the first stone.” The second problem is a general lack of intellectual rigor in the debate. The heavily funded attacks on corporate America come primarily from organizations with…
Detroit keeps turning out bad news, what with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler losing market share and Volkswagenâ??s
announcement last fall that it would abandon the city and move its U.S. headquarters to Virginia.
Now Volkswagen is days away from unveiling…
Indianapolis-area executives are struggling to keep their compensation at last yearâ??s levels â?? which were
no
improvement over 2006.
Thatâ??s the observation of compensation specialist Debi Muelller, a partner in the human relations firm HR
Dimensions.
â??At best, itâ??s flat,â?? says Mueller…
Marketing firm owner Lorraine Ball knows how to promote a business-a valuable commodity among cashstrapped entrepreneurs looking to bolster their bottom lines. So it’s little wonder that she is able to trade her expertise for services she needs, whether it’s help with an online video or time with a personal trainer. Ball is among a growing group of small-business owners embracing the age-old barter system, methaphorically scratching one another’s backs to save on cash and credit. Although Ball prefers to…
No doubt, the Daniels administration will trumpet the fact that Indiana was the ninth-fastestgrowing state in the first quarter of this year. That’s right; personal income in the Hoosier state grew at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, while the nation advanced 4.6 percent. But, as noted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which generates these data, Indiana was among the fastergrowing states because of dramatic increases in the prices of corn and soybeans. North Dakota came in first,…
One of our sister Midwestern cities is locked in a fight for its corporate identity. A n h e u s e r- B u s c h , maker and distributor of Budweiser brand beers-and the corporate icon of St. Louis-is engaged in a $46.3 billion takeover battle for its survival as a U.S.-based company. The would-be acquirer is Belgium-based InBev, the second-largest brewer by volume in the world. London-based SABMiller, who in 2002 bought Miller Brewing in Milwaukee,…
On June 19, The New York Times business section led with an article titled, “Regional Banks are Rocked.” The accompanying graphic indicated that National City Bank lost 86 percent of its market value since the beginning of this year. No wonder. The news has not been good. On June 10, Peter Raskind, chairman and CEO of National City, acknowledged publicly that on Feb. 5, the bank had been placed under a memorandum of understanding by the comptroller of the currency….
Compendium Blogwareâ??s announcement today that it raised $1.6 million in private funding is another brick in
the wall as the Indianapolis area and the state continue their push to build a culture of entrepreneurship.
Investors are showing more interest…
Thereâ??s nothing like travel to change oneâ??s perspective on the world.
Graham Toft, perhaps the stateâ??s most experienced economic development expert, has traveled a lot in the past
couple of years, consulting to state governments worried about rebounding from their doldrums.
The…
The phrase “Let’s do lunch” has taken on a new meaning over the past five years in the Indiana life sciences community. Since 2003, a who’s who of the biotechnology, medical device, pharmaceutical and other fields have gathered at the downtown law offices of Barnes & Thornburg LLP to meet and eat at the Life Sciences Lunch Series. A collaborative effort of the law firm and the Indiana Health Industry Forum, the monthly event provides a networking and education platform…
