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‘BUILD YOUR BUSINESS by investing in it’:

Creative Street Media Group has come a long way-literally and figuratively-from its humble beginnings 23 years ago. The small video production company has become a corporate conglomerate, with 67 employees in five facilities who handle everything from promotional materials to interactive education. Oh yeah, and they also crank out some award-winning TV shows-like the Emmy Award-winning “Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany.” For all its progress, Creative Street is not done growing. Any day now, the company will expand its reach…

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Niche firms thrive despite anonymity: Some small businesses don’t need storefronts to keep customers coming

Whimsical Whisk isn’t your neighborhood bakery. Pastry chef Clare Welage never wanted it to be. She started the patisserie in 2004 with plans to differentiate herself from the competition by making desserts from scratch using all-natural ingredients, designing items specifically for the customer and-just as important-going without a storefront. “I’ve always felt that if you open up a storefront and you have a specialty product, something somewhere gets compromised,” Welage said. “Ultimately, it’s the quality of the product or it’s…

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Commentary: Of Blue Cross and Blue Chip

WellPoint CEO Angela Braly must be thinking to herself, “Enough with the most powerful and influential stuff already!” In the course of the last several months, Braly has been named the 16th-most-powerful woman in the world-that’s in the world-by Forbes magazine, one of the 19 mostinfluential women in central Indiana by IBJ, and the top woman to watch by the Wall Street Journal. That’s heady stuff, to be sure, but I know for a fact that her two school-age daughters…

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Commentary: Let’s welcome Hilbert back

You gotta love Steve Hilbert. He conceived of an idea and had the strength and focus to achieve an extraordinary result that he sustained over a number of years. … He will undoubtedly return to the grand game of entrepreneurship. If given the opportunity, I would be inclined to invest in his next venture. -July 10, 2000 I penned the above prediction in this column on the anointment of Gary Wendt as CEO and savior of Conseco Inc. After Stephen…

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‘Mini meds’ latest medicine for rising health care costs: Employers begin to embrace limited-benefit plans

Two years ago, Indianapolis insurance broker Greg Wright started hawking an old kind of health insurance in a new way. He calls it a mini med. Others call it a limited-benefit health plan. It allows employers or their employees to pick coverage from a menu of items and receive insurance for only those items. If they don’t pick emergency room visits, for example, they’re not insured for them. It’s the kind of bare-bones benefits some retailers and restaurants, such as…

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Group aims to turn data into better care: Lilly’s Larkin joins Health Information Exchange

The Indiana Health Information Exchange recently hired Dr. Greg Larkin to be its chief medical officer. Larkin, who is the longtime head of Eli Lilly and Co.’s employee clinics and health plans, will focus on the exchange’s Quality Health First program, which aims to use a local database of doctors’ records and insurance claims to help doctors improve their quality of care. The program includes health insurance plans-such as Anthem, UnitedHealth and Medicare-that cover on average 70 percent of local…

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Bariatric product key for software firm’s growth: Former WellPoint execs heading up young company

Medical Animatics LLC hopes its latest product helps double its size while helping patients shrink theirs. The small Indianapolis firm plans to roll out bariatric-education software by yearend. By tapping the popular surgery procedure, Medical Animatics’ officers hope that product grows sales enough to double its nine-person work force in a year. The new product launch is the first major initiative for Medical Animatics since it secured angel investments from two former WellPoint Inc. officers earlier this year. Jane Niederberger…

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Expanded center luring new conventions: City visitor’s association lining up groups, events for new stadium, bigger center

Work on the Indiana Convention Center expansion is at least six months away, but numerous organizations already have reserved their space in anticipation of the larger venue. Construction on the $275 million project is expected to begin next summer and last until 2010. After completion, the center will have 747,370 square feet of tradeshow space, about 253,000 more than it has now, in addition to 183,000 square feet available at the new Lucas Oil Stadium. The Indianapolis Convention & Visitors…

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Sluggish housing market a blow to some contractors: Residential crews seek commercial jobs to stay busy

The number of crews Robert Hoffman employs to frame new homes has dwindled from 14 to four, and could drop even more if the residential construction market continues to sputter. But the owner of Hoffman Framework Inc. in North Salem, a tiny town in western Hendricks County, is not about to let his 12-year-old business wither away. Instead, he’s expecting to recover by making the leap to the much more vibrant commercial sector, where he can use his experience framing…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: It’s time to use mass-appraisal model on state’s homes

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…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Is your Web site a cost or an investment?

I don’t particularly like to shop, but I like seeing how other people shop, especially online. There are always so many surprises. Of course, the big research is in e-commerce, where buyers spend money online. Studies show the number of people willing to buy online is growing steadily. The Census Bureau shows a consistently upward trendline through August 2007 (www.census.gov/mrts/www/ecomm.html). Most experts seem to believe that not only are more people throwing down their plastic electronically, but established shoppers are…

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Bank’s plans unclear after LaSalle buy: Bank of America unlikely to grow local retail biz, but lending office should stay, industry observers say

But here in Indianapolis, where LaSalle’s lone location is a downtown commercial lending office, banking observers don’t expect Bank of America retail outlets to follow. “I don’t think [Indianapolis] will be a primary focus, at least not in the near term,” said Tom Kersting, an Edward Jones analyst in St. Louis who follows the bank. “Their main purpose in making the purchase was getting the Chicago presence. That was the last major market they were lacking.” Even so, observers say…

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Local corporations maintain FFA convention funding: Main goal: getting attention of future leaders

Indianapolis-area companies are ponying up $1.15 million to help put on this month’s National FFA convention, an event expected to draw more than 55,000 members and their chaperones to the city. They’re backing the bigbudget affair largely because of the access it gives them to future leaders-from tomorrow’s policymakers to those who could someday work at these local firms. And the city is putting on quite a show to get the attention of the roughly 46,000 12-to 21-year-old members and…

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Beware stock investors: Credit problems remain INVESTING:

Seemingly unbeknownst to the stock market, problems continue to lurk in the credit markets. Regulators are concerned about the market upheaval caused by structured investment vehicles. Large banks set up SIVs as off-balance-sheet investments to leverage their investment capital and earn higher returns. There are reportedly some 30 SIVs with $400 billion in assets. SIVs employ a simple strategy to make money: They borrow short term (at low rates) and invest in longer-term securities (at higher rates), thereby earning the…

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Can multilevel marketing cure high drug costs?: Texas firm passing out free drug discount cards in Indiana

Here’s a new strategy to control spiraling drug prices: multilevel marketing. That’s right. A new company called NuLegacy International LLC is deploying the tactics of Amway Corp. to give Americans-particularly those without health insurance-a break on prescription drug costs. The Texas-based company’s key selling points? Its cards are free. And they’re good for potentially large discounts off the full price of prescription drugs. Drugstores, in theory, get a higher volume of customers because of the discounts. “The timing is now,”…

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Firm sees growth for on-site clinics: Novia thinks workplace care can cut costs, help employees

Doctors who make house calls are about as obsolete as polio. But a fledgling local company is taking a page from the past and reintroducing the practice to the workplace instead of the home. Rising medical costs and the companies desperate to contain them are driving interest in the emerging model of on-site clinics. Large employers such as Toyota Motor Co., Pepsi Bottling Group, Credit Suisse and Sprint Nextel have embraced health clinics in recent years, in hopes of promoting…

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Exotic dancer’s comp claim upheld by Indiana court:

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed an injured exotic dancer is entitled to worker’s compensation benefits and remanded with instructions to the Full Worker’s Compensation Board to determine if she is eligible for double compensation and attorney fees because her company did not have worker’s compensation insurance at the time of her injury. In Wholesaler’s Inc. d/b/a Shangri-La v. Angela Hobson, Hobson worked as a dancer at Shangri-La in Fort Wayne. She injured herself Dec. 20, 2001, while performing a…

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Experts look into the future of health care: Industry panelists disagree on whether current system needs radical changes

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…

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PEOs bouncing back following shakeout: Professional employer organizations enjoying growth as companies seek better ways to manage benefits

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…

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Mental health parity gets closer to reality: Bill requires equal coverage in health insurance

Local mental health advocates are applauding a U.S. Senate bill passed last month that would require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical ailments when policies cover both. The bill, which passed unanimously, moves advocates one step closer in their long-fought quest for a concept known as mental health parity. Mental Health America, formerly known as the National Mental Health Association, praised the passage as an opportunity to end discrimination against people with mental health disorders. Steve McCaffrey, president…

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