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Several months ago, I broke bread with two editors of this esteemed journal. Over soup and salad, we concluded I’d said enough in this space of my bout with Grief. We figured you readers had grown weary of the topic, as had we. But Grief has a way of lingering. She shows up, unannounced, for cameos. As you stand at the shore, the wave of your future finally, joyfully rolling in and crashing ’round, Grief plays the undertow, luring you…
A $34 million loan from the NFL that the Indianapolis Colts are counting on to fund part of their share of stadium construction could get sacked, at least temporarily, in an NFL labor dispute. Teams with pending stadium loans-including the Colts, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants and Jets-hoped to get final approval of their loans at the March owners’ meeting. That is now in serious doubt, league sources said. NFL owners last June approved a $34 million loan for…
PETER SCHNITZLER Commentary Embrace India while you still can India will fool you, if you don’t pay attention. The term “developing nation” doesn’t begin to do it justice. Having traveled internationally a number of times before, I thought I was prepared for whatever culture shocks awaited more than 8,000 miles away. I anticipated the heaving crowds, the livestock in the crumbling streets, even the abject poverty. I didn’t expect innovation. And especially not entrepreneurship on par with the kind found…
Until recently, SonarMed Inc., a startup developing a new type of breathing tube, was just a mailbox at Purdue University. But having recently been awarded the first investment from the BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund, SonarMed plans to move into office space in Indianapolis, hire 15 to 20 employees before the end of the year and begin seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its device. The Indiana Seed Fund was formed last summer and now has $6 million to…
No one wants to say it, but Fishersbased Irwin Mortgage Corp., one of the area’s biggest financial-services companies, is almost sure to lose hundreds of jobs, and may disappear. Parent company Irwin Financial Corp. last month put Irwin Mortgage on the selling block, a move that imperils many of the unit’s 450 local jobs. Hoosier bankers have been through enough sales to know that out-of-state buyers almost always trim jobs. But this could be something else entirely-a wholesale gutting of…
Over the past few months, Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar has been vocal in touting the benefits of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. It would be wise for the state’s government and business leaders to heed his message. The renewable fuel industry is gathering momentum and has a high probability of growing into a substantial industry. The energy bill President Bush signed into law last summer mandates the use of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol each year by 2012,…
BANGALORE, India-Petty bureaucrats are more than a nuisance in India. Some like to line their pockets. And if minor officials don’t get what they want, they might shutter a U.S. company’s operations. Given enough time and money, disputes can be settled in India’s infamously slow courts. But V. Umakanth, a Bangalore partner with the Indian law firm Amarchand Mangaldas, counsels clients to simply make the small grease payments some administrators expect. “There is still corruption. Foreign businesses need to deal…
Opportunity or threat? Indiana businesses brace for growing global competition Next month, President Bush will make his first official visit to India. To most of the American media, it’ll be just one more round of global terrorism discussions with a distant foreign nation, perhaps worthy of a brief. The Indian press knows better. Six weeks ahead of Bush’s trip, banner headlines about it ran in every newspaper. Al Hubbard knows better, too. Friends with Bush since their days at Harvard…
Conventional bank loans Banks provide conventional financing, evaluating loan requests against the socalled “five Cs” of credit. They must feel comfortable that borrowers have: capacity to repay the loan; capital of their own invested in the business; collateral to offer as a secondary source of loan repayment; creditworthiness, based on personal and business borrowing history; and character worthy of the bank’s trust. It’s in banks’ best interest to minimize risk. Loans are made only where the likelihood of being repaid…
When one considers the new company pays about 40 percent more for its raw product than do its non-fairtrade competitors-and it gives roughly $1 from every bag it sells back to the farmers who produce the coffee beans-it might seem like the McLeans are destined for drinking macchiatos in the poorhouse. But the couple didn’t build Advance Interface Solutions into a successful business by accident. And Beans for Better Life, their foray into the cappuccino craze, is hardly reckless. Local…
“Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?” – from the song “Charlie Brown,” by The Coasters I count myself among many, many Indiana University alumni, supporters and basketball fans in general who wanted to see Mike Davis succeed as the Hoosiers’ coach. I admired his demeanor, humility and honesty. I respected the incredibly difficult situation he inherited, first as the interim coach, then as the man designated to sustain IU’s tradition in the wake of Bob Knight’s firing. And certainly, no…
Not so long ago, the heart of Hancock Telecom in the tiny town of Maxwell was a concrete bunker ticking with the solenoids of telephone switching equipment. But about a year ago, the devices were moved to a corner to make room for rack after rack of satellite receivers-fed by a 32-foot dish big enough to cap a corn silo. The product: 176 channels of network and local TV programming that leave headquarters in the form of pulsing light via…
Less than two months into the new year, Duke Realty Corp. has already made three major moves designed to fuel the company’s growth long beyond 2006. The Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust has announced or completed acquisitions in the Washington, D.C., area; Savannah, Ga.; and Baltimore worth more than $1 billion. In the case of Savannah and Baltimore, the deals give Duke prime positions near city ports-locations company officials believe will be key to the distribution business in coming years….
BANGALORE, India-HealthAsyst CEO Umesh Bajaj remembers when the only computers allowed in India were self-assembled. As recently as 20 years ago, the Indian government’s protectionist measures prohibited foreign companies from directly selling PCs. Instead, Indians imported microchips and built the computers themselves. In his first job as an electronics engineer for an Indian conglomerate, Bajaj crisscrossed the country marketing versions of mainframes and desktops made in India. Today Bajaj, a 55-year-old born in New Delhi, owns his own Bangalore-based health…
By now, everybody knows obesity is a huge health problem in our country. The Centers for Disease Control reports that obesity is linked to 112,000 deaths per year and leads to an extra $75 billion in direct medical costs annually. We Hoosiers can hold up a mirror. Depending on which study you look at, Indiana ranks either fourth or fifth as the most obese state in the nation. Our local daily newspaper just published a series of articles on how…
The value of Don Marsh’s stake in the Indianapolis company that bears his family’s name has diminished more than $1 million a month since the company declared Nov. 29 that it was seeking a buyer. Don Marsh, the CEO, owns almost 750,000 shares of Marsh Supermarkets Inc.’s Class A and Class B stock, making him the company’s largest individual shareholder. The price of both stocks has plummeted since the announcement, making his stake worth less than $5 million. It was…
A proposed development that would bring a Starbucks and a Union Federal Bank branch to the east side of Irvington presents a conundrum for folks there thirsting to revitalize the historic but neglected neighborhood. Local developer Tharp Investments Inc. wants to demolish a NAPA auto-parts store and a vacant building on adjoining properties it owns on East Washington Street to make way for the coffee shop and bank. Residents welcome the investment as a first step in a broader plan…
Passage to Bangalore Hoosiers seek outsourcing and investment opportunities BANGALORE, India-The deal was falling apart. Despite a week of flirtation and friendly negotiations, the two young Indian entrepreneurs rejected the offer from the group of Hoosier investors. Frustrated, the investors walked out of the hotel conference room. The chance to speculate on an Indian software startup called Picsquare.comhad fizzled. But none of the six Indiana business leaders was demoralized. After all, they’d crossed the globe to pursue business opportunities in…
Subodh Karnik slowly backed up to his chair at ATA Airlines Inc. and slumped into it. His 46-year-old back was killing him. One of his elementary-age sons back home in Atlanta used him like a trampoline over the weekend. The injury got worse when Karnick ran through the airport, like O.J. Simpson in an old Hertz commercial, to catch a flight back to Indianapolis. “I was born a masochist,” said Karnik, a 6-foot-4-inch native of Mumbai, India, who sports a…
As city and airport officials begin to develop a marketing strategy for 104 acres just north and east of the Indianapolis International Airport, they will likely focus on the land’s best attributes: access to the airport, Interstate 465 and a rail line. Buyers will need to examine the fine print to learn why the land isn’t likely to become a smaller version of the bustling Plainfield industrial and retail areas to the west. Chief among those less-than-desirable features: The land…
