Shelbyville leaders and residents are grumbling about restrictions the Indiana Economic Development Corp. just slapped on
Intelliplex, their $22.8 million certified technology park.
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…
Indiana University and the state’s Office of Technology have sought an emergency order from regulators to halt a Colorado
company’s further assimilation of an Indianapolis fiber provider it bought Oct. 1.
An intellectual property tussle dating back to the origins of Suros Surgical Systems Inc. is threatening to become more than a headache for the local medicaldevice maker. Founded in 2000, Suros was one of the fastest-growing high-tech startups in Indianapolis history. Its machine for minimally invasive breast biopsies now rings up more than $43 million in annual sales. Such success attracted deep-pocketed suitors, and Suros was acquired in July 2006 for a whopping $240 million by Bedford, Mass.-based Hologic Inc….
I can still remember when vacation movies were captured on 8mm film and had to be shown on jerky little projectors with hot bulbs that gave off ozone by the bucketful. Fascinating to the family that took the movies, but deadly dull to everyone else. Then along came video cameras that were much more portable and could show their movies on the family VCR. They had many advanced features, such as zoom, stop action, and even dubbing. And they were…
What do most people concerned with economic development want to see? More jobs at better pay. How can we tell if we are getting there? Simply by looking at what is happening to earnings. Earnings divided by the number of jobs equals average earnings per job. Hence, with elementary school arithmetic, we can say that earnings equals the number of jobs multiplied by the average earning per job, exactly the two indicators of economic development that most folks want to…
Drug-coated stents, which are used to open clogged arteries, can be life savers-if they’re implanted correctly. The $6 billion global stent market has come under scrutiny lately from doctors and researchers concerned that poor technique by cardiologists may contribute to rare but dangerous blood clots that can form after a stent is inserted. Stents that aren’t placed properly over the affected area may enable clots to form. But a device developed by an IUPUI researcher could prevent mishaps by helping…
The recent Indiana Logistics Summit framed a number of issues that matter to Hoosiers young and old. I’ve done a fair amount of transportation and economic development research, but this conference held in Indianapolis was a chance for me to listen and learn. Here’s my take on some of the issues: Nationally, a significant piece of the public transportation infrastructure (roads and bridges, for example) has already outlived its anticipated life span. Solid engineering and construction coupled with continual maintenance…
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…
Experts are doing their best to convince us everything is right with the world again. A few hundred billion dollars in liquidity here, a few cuts in the discount and fed rates there, and we’re back in Shangri La, right? My question to all of the experts then is this: Why isn’t it working? On the surface, things seem like they are getting back in shape. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 are within 1 or 2 percent of new…
Jerome Peribere has a 10-year plan to diversify Dow AgroSciences LLC, Indiana’s largest agricultural chemical company. Biotechnology is the blueprint. And through a series of aggressive international deals, Dow AgroSciences is building the framework for its future. By 2015, Peribere hopes to oversee a balanced portfolio of agricultural chemical and biotech products. “We’re in the stone age of biotechnology,” he said. “Tomorrow, it’s going to be used to create products we have no clue about.” Formed in 1989 as a…
When Dane Hudson sold his health benefits consultancy on Aug. 1, he hoped it was only his first of many mergers. Hudson, the founder of Strategic Health Plans Corp. in Carmel, sold his company to Illinois-based Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. for an undisclosed amount. Gallagher, a quiet company that is one of the nation’s largest health benefits firms, wants Hudson to buy up another three or four health benefits brokers in the next five years. Hudson also said he’ll…
Fast-growing local marketing software-maker Aprimo Inc. already has done much of the heavy lifting to ensure its $50 million initial public offering is successful. Now comes the most grueling part. Over the last four years, the company nearly quintupled its sales. In 2006, Aprimo turned its first profit. After lining up Morgan Stanley & Co. to serve as lead underwriter, Aprimo on Sept. 10 filed a preliminary prospectus for the IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Next up: the…
Midwestern cities are unlikely to top the list of vacationing hot spots, but they are a popular destination for relocating employees. That’s the consensus from the latest Corporate Relocation Survey conducted annually by Evansville-based Atlas World Group, whose largest subsidiary is Atlas Van Lines, the second-largest interstate motor carrier in the United States. The study revealed that nearly a third of firms, 29 percent, are sending more employees to the Midwest than any other part of the country. Surprisingly, the…
Job searches nowadays aren’t what they used to be, on both sides of the hunt. Looking for a job is a global endeavor now. And looking for employees produces more candidates, but is more complicated. As with so many other business matters, the Web has changed everything. At first glance, it would seem the old want ads page just moved into databases. Monster (www.monster.com) was one of the first companies to offer cyberlistings. The employer pays for the listing. The…
Lumasis.comFinding its niche Focus on small business pays off for Web design firm When Zionsville native Jamie Brown graduated from Purdue in 1995, most consumers were still in the dark about the possibilities the Internet could offer. Having been immersed in the Web while studying electrical engineering technology at Purdue, Brown linked up with a local Internet provider and started his first company, Computer Specialists. In 1997, the business morphed into Lumasis, a full-service Web site design and hosting company…
As the 14th-mostpopulous state in the union, Indiana generates a gross state product that is 16th-largest of the 50 states. Unfortunately, despite significant investments in equipment and processes by manufacturers and public-policy efforts to encourage the attraction and growth of knowledgeand technology-focused industries, our economy remains energy-inefficient. In 2003, Indiana was the country’s sixthlargest consumer of energy per capita, according to the Indiana Energy Report. Ninety-seven percent of Indiana’s electricity is generated by coal. Indiana is the fifthlargest emitter of…
Buildings, just like people, have lives. They’re born, they do their jobs, they take on new roles and, after about 75 years, most of them reach the end. Sadly, some beautiful ones die too soon, while a few ugly ones live too long. How should we decide when to save a building or when to tear it down? And have the reasons changed? The terms of renovation are well-known (adaptive re-use, mixed-use development and historic preservation). When our actions meet…
Purdue University is mapping out a controversial strategy to produce more land surveyors amid growing demand for graduates entering the profession. The number of Purdue students interested in pursuing a surveying career has dwindled to just a dozen out of roughly 500 enrolled in the university’s School of Civil Engineering. M. Katherine Banks, head of the school, attributes the dearth to a lack of visibility the surveying program endures tucked within the larger department. “We need a fresh start,” she…
