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Planner sinks his teeth into dentists’ finances: Four Quadrant builds business around one industry

Dentists know a lot about operating a dental drill, but sometimes not so much about operating a business. That’s where Four Quadrant Wealth Advisors likes to comes in. Indianapolis-based Four Quadrant provides its dental clients with financial advice on everything from running the money side of their practices to building their retirement funds. As one of a fairly small number of financial advice firms that focus on a single type of client, Four Quadrants limits its clients to dentists or…

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Program hopes to boost women in science: IUPUI to put female science students under one roof to nurture their interest in field often dominated by men

The “girls aren’t good at science” myth still exists, according to many science educators. That is why a new School of Science program at IUPUI hopes to do its part to dispel the label many say is created as early as elementary school. IUPUI’s Women in Science House will literally house together women studying science, providing a nurturing environ ment for female students who often feel isolated, a factor that can cause them to change majors, said Pam Crowell, director…

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VIEWPOINT: Hoosiers gave tech transfer a big boost

Today, we take for granted that our state universities play a role far beyond their traditional educational mission-especially in the economic arena. University-sponsored research is being licensed to the private sector, or used to form new companies. Universities are managing business incubators. Consulting partnerships between academia and industry are commonplace. It wasn’t always this way. Not long ago, university officials were skeptical of becoming too involved with the private sector. Business leaders and investors didn’t recognize the value of innovation…

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Music events seeking rhythm: Midwest Music Summit picks up the beat for industry convention expected to draw 23,000

The Midwest Music Summit is approaching its fifth year bigger than ever as organizers fine-tune an event they hope will find harmony with a massive convention planned for the same weekend. More than 400 artists are slated to perform at 35 venues throughout the city during the July 21-23 summit-scheduled this year to coincide with International Music Products Association’s NAMM Summer Session, an annual gathering expected to draw 23,000 music aficionados for its first stop in Indianapolis. The timing is…

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Diversity marketing gains steam in central Indiana: Ad agencies helping convey cultural revelancy

Ethnic or diversity marketing, once confined to major cities such as Dallas, New York and Los Angeles, is taking hold in Indianapolis. “We have seen a gradual but growing response among clients to communicate to a multicultural audience,” said Clyde Bodkin, president of locally based Bodkin Associates Inc. “Not everyone is in the same place, but smart companies are finding culturally sensitive, culturally relevant ways to communicate to their target markets.” Diversity marketing is the fastest-growing sector of Bodkin’s 14-person…

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Degree combines medicine, business: IU grads put in 5 years to earn combo MD/MBA

Tell people you have your MD and they’ll likely be impressed. Tell them you also have an MBA-well, now you’re just showing off. For four recent Indiana University graduates, however, impressing others had nothing to do with their decision to pursue simultaneous medical and business degrees. It’s all about making their way in the increasingly complicated field of health care, where being a good doctor is about more than having the highest grades in medical school. The four students received…

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Historic battle settled: Prairie pact lays out plans without judging past practices

But whatever Earlham College puts in the 41-year history of credits and debits, it will have no bearing on the resolution of a decades-long dispute over control of the Hamilton County attraction. That deal is largely done. Carter and Earlham board Chairman Mark B. Myers ended nearly two years of negotiation July 5, putting quill-topped ballpoint to paper in front of a cheering crowd in the museum’s Welcome Center. The agreement-which frees Conner Prairie from Earlham’s control and calls for…

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Education programs provide job opportunities: Career Connections aims to curb turnover at entry level

When Luvinia Hollis moved to Indianapolis from Kentucky about five years ago, the then-42-year-old had few skills, so landing a job was difficult. She lived with her sisters and got some help from her ex-husband, but trying to make ends meet on $100 a week was nearly impossible. “It was so horrible for me, you wouldn’t believe,” Hollis said. She worked odd jobs for the next few years, making barely more than minimum wage. Eventually, she found her way to…

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SPORTS: NBA’s delayed-entry rule, Michelin’s move and more

So much news, so little space. Item: The NBA and its players’ association enter into a new collective bargaining agreement that will increase the age for draft eligibility to 19, or to one year after an athlete’s high school class has graduated. Reaction: Perhaps the NBA and its players’ association believed they were tossing those involved in college basketball a bone by raising the age limit. If so, it is a bone that likely will stick in the throats of…

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ITT paid for feds’ aggression: Sweeping probe didn’t lead to charges against firm, top execs

On a chilly winter morning 16 months ago, federal investigators converged on ITT Educational Services Inc.’s Carmel headquarters and 10 of its 77 campuses, gathering documents in a high-profile raid that rattled investors and sent the company’s shares into a free fall. Now, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston, which obtained the search warrants authorizing the raid, acknowledges its sweeping criminal probe failed to turn up evidence that would justify charges against the company or its top brass. The turnabout,…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Guidant’s woes turn J&J deal into game of chance

Just a few months ago, some analysts were grumbling that Guidant Corp. was selling to Johnson & Johnson for too low a price. Why did Guidant accept $76 a share, they wondered, when on its own the company might be on its way to $80 or even $90? Guidant CEO Ron Dollens’ response: That’s possible, but the medical device field is fraught with risks and uncertainties. Given that, he told IBJ in December, $76 a share, or a total of…

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Universities reach out to improve diversity: Purdue, IU use local offices to lure minority suppliers

Purdue University’s most recent step includes opening an office in Indianapolis that will serve as a contact point for minority-owned companies that are interested in doing business with the school. Purdue also is becoming one of the major sponsors of the annual Indiana Black Expo. These two projects are being headed by Jesse Moore, who became Purdue’s manager for supplier diversity development in February. Moore previously led the Indianapolis Black Chamber of Commerce for nine years. Officials say it’s important…

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NOTIONS: Does principal or principle matter more?

A few weeks ago, my friend John and I treated our three 17-year-olds to a boys’ night out. We started off at Bazbeaux downtown, inhaling guy pizza (read: pepperoni and sausage) and dissecting the big news of the day-Michael Jackson’s acquittal on charges that he shared alcohol, porn and a little night groping with a teen-age boy. Our teen-age boys, news junkies all, then rattled on about kids getting paid to play online video games and the proliferation of “cheats”…

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Taking the pulse of life sciences: Experts weigh in on whether Indiana is keeping up in the economic development race

IBJ: Is Indiana gaining ground against other states in the race to grow as a life sciences hub? What are some specific benchmarks that underscore your opinion? JOHNSON: Indiana is gaining ground, but Indiana already starts on really very substantial ground. There are a lot of outside validations of that and I think it’s important for this audience to hear a couple of them because there is nothing like having people on the outside pay attention to what we’re doing…

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Schools follow different flight paths: Aviation programs see contrasting demand

Two aircraft maintenance programs in close proximity to each other are far apart when it comes to successfully filling classrooms with budding mechanics. Times are so tough for Vincennes University’s struggling aircraft maintenance program at Indianapolis International Airport’s Aviation Technology Center that it asked for permission to conduct three non-aviation degree programs there. The aviation program, which enrolled about 300 students in the mid-1990s, now has about 75. Vincennes officials blame the United Airlines Maintenance hub closure, which displaced 1,200…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Patrick Barkey: Intelligence isn’t only factor that sets earnings potential

Do we have a passion for economics? Judging from the numbers of economics majors at colleges and universities across the country, the answer is probably no. The world of graphs and statistics we inhabit is not everyone’s cup of tea. But if few of us like to study the economy, we all have to live and work within its borders. And the most important interaction most of us will ever have with the economy occurs when we venture into the…

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SPORTS: The game is on: Academics vs. big-dollar sports

Give NCAA President Myles Brand and his Task Force on the Future of Intercollegiate Athletics their due. If you will pardon both the pun and the cliché, they’re going to give it the old college try. Putting the paste back into the tube won’t be easy. It will require a dramatic change in our sports culture-American in general, on campus in particular-to view intercollegiate athletics by any measure other than the one posted on the scoreboard. That is especially true…

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Charitable sector rides on road to recovery: Giving makes big jump for the first time since 2000

Americans gave more money to charity last year than ever before, signaling a return to the pre-9/11 philanthropic heyday. Contributions were up 5 percent, to $248.5 billion-the first significant increase after adjusting for inflation since 2000. “Things have been kind of flat,” said Eugene Tempel, executive director at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. “This … tells us things are getting a little stronger. This is a good sign.” Researchers at the center compile data each year and write…

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NOTIONS: Standing face to face with the end of the universe

Editor’s note: Bruce Hetrick this month won first place for best bylined commentary in a national competition conducted by the Alliance of Area Business Publications. The winning entry, about Hetrick’s wife, Pamela Klein, was first published in IBJ on March 1, 2004. It is reprinted here. Klein died March 5, 2005. It’s Saturday morning. I’m sitting on the window ledge in my wife, Pam’s, room at Methodist Hospital. Outside, the February sky is as gray as my spirit. While Pam…

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Airport seeking more air cargo operations: Carriers that fly to Asia among hot prospects beyond FedEx at nation’s 7th-largest cargo airport

When all exports are considered, by air and sea, China is Indiana’s eighthlargest destination, growing 25 percent last year to $294.4 million, according to the Center for International Business Education and Research at Indiana University. Air cargo to China is 10 times greater than a decade ago, Michael Ducker, an executive vice president of FedEx, said in a presentation about China. Airport officials won’t say whom they’ve courted in the cargo realm. “We’re casting a pretty broad net,” said BAA…

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