It seems like everyone is an expert at something. We have automobile experts, stock market experts, antique experts… my company even has a client who’s a sheep and goat expert. In an I n t e r n e t – c e n t r i c world, though, these experts can find themselves in a tough place. Online, information is clamoring to be free (or pretty cheap) and readily available. It’s no longer enough to declare yourself an…
The three-tiered floor gives a commanding view of the flick playing on the big screen. Down the hall, other guests sit entranced behind flat-panel TVs in a spacious lounge, or check their e-mail courtesy of the building’s wireless signal. Not far away, 20 kids and their parents celebrate a birthday party. It’s not a movie theater, a Hilton or a Chuck E. Cheese’s: It’s Burd Ford’s new facility at 10320 E. Pendleton Pike. These days, almost every new or remodeled…
In the 10 years since Indiana’s property-appraisal system was ruled unconstitutional, taxpayers have spent perhaps $1 billion to remedy the situation. That’s more than $350 per household, and more than we spend on environmental protection each year. “Wowser” is the only printable exclamation I can muster. Among other things, Gov. Mitch Daniels’ tax plan proposes the elimination of the township assessors (there are 1,008 offices statewide). According to a 2004 Chamber of Commerce study, streamlining the system would result in…
On the morning of Oct. 30, just five days before the NFL’s Game of the Century, Regular-Season Variety, I imagine-but don’t know for certain-that New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick was hunkered down in some office bunker at the Patriots training complex, bags under his eyes, hooded sweatshirt pulled over his head, scowl on his face. Certainly, he was poring over game films of the Indianapolis Colts, searching for clues that would help his team continue on its scorched-earth mission…
I save newspaper items thinking they will make good columns. But with only one column per week, I end up with piles of good ideas. Here are four items I found interesting: Another sports opportunity: The National Lacrosse League has canceled its season. I didn’t know there was a league of 13 professional lacrosse teams. This was another instance of players and owners not being able to come to agreement on salaries. Both of those groups and the fans are…
“A pop-culture update for those who’ve been living in Bhutan for the last several years…..” That was the beginning of an article in a recent Indianapolis Monthly and, while I don’t even remember now what the story was about, I knew after reading those words that I had to go to Bhutan. My reasoning: If this country is so remote that it’s used as a frame of reference for being out of touch, then I wanted to go there. Turns…
How’s this for irony? The state’s nowscuttled plans to raze N.K. Hurst Co.’s headquarters to make way for Lucas Oil Stadium parking would have paved over a long-standing Colts game-day tradition. The Indianapolis-based bean company has hosted Colts tailgate parties before every home game since the 1980s. Its McCarty Street parking lot-known as Hurst Bean Field-is a short stroll from the RCA Dome and in the shadows of the Colts’ new home, making it a hit with tailgaters. “It’s a…
Groups opposing Duke Energy’s coal gasification plant proposed for Edwardsport allege the utility and Gov. Mitch Daniels tried to sway regulators with improper contact and political pressure to get the $2 billion plant approved. They “are clearly trying to back-door the public decision-making process,” said Jerry Polk, an attorney representing a group led by Citizens Action Coalition. Polk this month filed a complaint with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, citing a Sept. 25 letter an executive from Duke’s Charlotte, N.C.,…
Moondance Enterprises LLC Rental firm offers ‘marvelous’ nights Search for vacation retreat led to career change Indiana natives Doug and Nancy Tracey visited Brown County one autumn night in October 1988, looking to buy a vacation retreat. The strains of Van Morrison’s “Moondance” played on the car radio-“a marvelous night for a moondance ‘neath the cover of October skies.” So when the couple purchased their rural hideaway, they christened it Moondance. And now they run a Nashville-based vacation-home rental and…
Arcadia Resources Inc. CEO Marvin Richardson, an Anderson native and Purdue University pharmacy graduate, said Indianapolis was chosen for the company’s new headquarters because the city’s central location will create an advantage when it launches a new drug-packaging system. The system, called DailyMed, will help patients manage their prescription pills. The company plans to open a distribution center for DailyMed in the near future that eventually could employ 300 or more. Arcadia will move from the Detroit suburb of Southfield….
After unwrapping his luggage from its seal of shrink-wrap, Mark Long reviewed his notes for the upcoming seminar. He hardly needed them. Long, CEO of Indiana University’s Research and Technology Corp., has spoken many times about how academics transfer their research discoveries to the market. But this was the first time he ever delivered the speech in Siberia. The audience-a group of business and academic leaders-ultimately could help Hoosiers access a treasure-trove of Russian technologies. “They have a lot of…
Five local industry leaders conducted a serious debate over problems and issues facing our health care system during the most recent installment in Indianapolis Business Journal’s Power Breakfast series. The event took place at the Downtown Marriott hotel on Sept. 21 The panelists: Robert Brody, president and CEO of St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers, the Indianapolis-area’s fourth-largest hospital system. Brody has been chief executive at St. Francis since 1996. Dr. Robert Mouser, a primary care physician at Cornerstone Family…
Even though Sentelligence Inc. in Noblesville has only five employees, the tiny tech firm offers an appealing benefits package rivaling that of a large corporation. The designer of diagnostic sensing devices for diesel engines has not discovered the Holy Grail of human resources. Rather, it’s using what’s known as a professional employer organization. Companies contract with PEOs to handle all the headaches of human resources, including payroll, payroll taxes, Worker’s Compensation claims, health plans, and other employee benefits, not to…
Good urban design can create value for communities, individuals, the economy and the environment. The potential benefits include better public health, greater social equity, enhanced land values, a more vibrant local economy, reduced vehicle emissions and a more sustainable use of non-renewable resources. Central Indiana lacks geographical barriers to growth. Land is abundant and reasonably priced. However, the region lacks a cross-jurisdictional plan to manage growth and maximize the benefits from it. Instead, fields grow corn one season and homes…
The pulse of Indiana’s fledgling life sciences sector will be taken later this month at an annual conference featuring some of the industry’s strongest advocates. Experts will weigh in on several topics ranging from the discovery of technology to accessing capital, which is a growing concern for the earliest-stage companies that are riskier investments. In its fourth year, the Indiana Life Sciences Forum will take place Oct. 22-23 at the Westin Indianapolis and will be hosted by Indiana business-development initiative…
A week rarely passes without news of our obesity epidemic. Fattest-state rankings and the like are a staple of our news diet. These stories are often served with dire health warnings, which politicians invoke when they encourage us to eat less and exercise more. But does anyone really stop to think about why obesity has become our national obsession? Our infamous rotundness isn’t only a byproduct of poor eating habits and a reluctance to hit the gym. Chalk some of…
It probably goes without saying that New Yorkers can be, well, a bit difficult. As a fund-raiser for a NYC-based not-forprofit for many years, I encountered my fair share of these folks, which is one reason why I really looked forward to coming back to my home state of Indiana. Having grown up in Indiana, I knew of the kindness and generosity shown to me by neighbors, teachers-even complete strangers-but I’d never lived and worked here as an adult. More…
Andy Jacobs Jr. wrote in an IBJ column that smoking is an expensive and painful way to commit suicide. He’s right. But he didn’t go far enough. Breathing secondhand smoke at one’s place of employment is also an expensive and painful way to go. The world is beginning to read the smoke signals. Many countries have passed laws to protect their work force from secondhand smoke. Today, you cannot smoke even in an Irish pub. In our country, 22 states…
That’s not what many NFIB members wanted to hear. “I’ve been a member of [the advocacy group] since 1985, and since 1985 the top issue has been health care that is affordable for businesses and employees,” said Barbara Quandt of Indianapolis-based Quality Environmental Professionals Inc. The firm’s health insurance costs increased by 33 percent in 2007, and Quandt said company leaders are “quaking” with dread over what will happen in 2008. QEPI covers 75 percent of insurance costs for its…
Finish Line Inc. officials are mum these days, but you can be sure they’re exploring every option they can imagine to avoid closing on the acquisition of Tennessee-based Genesco Inc., at least at the $1.5 billion price they’d agreed to pay. Trouble is, they may not have an out, said John Shanley, an analyst with Susquehanna International Group LLP in New York City. “As far as we can determine, the deal they signed with Genesco is pretty ironclad,” Shanley said….
