Gas prices have been up for quite a while now, so are buyers of the H2 Hummer, the king of sport-utility
vehicles, pulling back?
Not as much as one might think, says Corey Lockhart, Hummer general manager at Lockhart Hummer in…
Ron Pearson said business at his Indianapolis-based advertising agency over the last year has been “stellar.” Exaggeration or not, any growth at Pearson Partners is a 180-degree reversal from the dire situation the firm faced just a year ago. In April 2007, Pearson’s firm-then called Pearson McMahon Fletcher England-lost its biggest client, HHGregg. Last summer, Pearson cut nearly half its work force, paring the agency down to about 20 employees in the wake of losing the $20-million-plus account. Pearson’s capitalized…
It was a scary scene, reminiscent of the Great Depression: Customers lined up outside California’s IndyMac Bank branches to withdraw deposits after a bank run led to the bank’s failure. The images have driven some central Indiana customers-businesses and individuals-to take a more critical look at the strength of their banks and the safety of their deposits. Even as financial stocks rallied in mid-July, the risk remains for more bank failures. Dismal earnings reports and massive write-downs continued in recent…
In the early 1970s, employees at Xerox Corp. developed a breakthrough version of the desktop personal computer called the Xerox Alto. The innovation was quickly shelved by the company-everyone knew there was no market for a personal computer! It was later licensed to Steve Jobs along with a few other “orphan technologies” for $1 million in stock in his young company, Apple. The rest, as they say, is history. Xerox is still a solid company, valued at $17 billion. Of…
At a time when Starbucks is closing hundreds of stores nationwide, he and other local independent coffeehouse owners say they’re doing just fine, largely because they’re infusing their stores with personality and offering consumers an experience chain stores can’t replicate.
A new study shows newspapers continue to lose advertising dollars and circulation to the Internet, and theyâ??re
slicing ever deeper into newsroom budgets to try to stay in the black.
Stories are shorter and devote less attention to international…
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…
