For the last eight months, Indiana’s resident high-tech guru has been quietly developing a new IT firm. Few details have been leaked to the public. But in September, a national media blitz will announce the launch of ChaCha Search Inc., Jones’ new human-assisted Internet search engine.
No matter how many bold and italicized words scholars cram into textbooks, nothing compares to students rolling up their sleeves and testing a theory themselves. For years, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business has offered its Bloomington MBA candidates real-world experience through so-called “academies” focused on specific industries. Now Kelley Indianapolis’ evening MBA program is set to launch a scaled-back version for its students. This fall, it will offer three such “enterprise” programs, including one with an entrepreneurial emphasis. The…
Landing the Honda plant is a great coup for Indiana. Gov. Mitch Daniels deserves congratulations. Not only will Honda employ an estimated 2,000 Hoosiers, it appears the governor secured the facility at a bargain price for Indiana’s taxpayers. While the plant brings much-needed employment, future wealth created from Honda’s production accrues to its primarily Japanese shareholders. This is only fair, as Japanese automakers have innovated, invested and expanded over the past 30 years. They have earned their success and deserve…
We know that, relative to the United States, Indiana is neither a rich state nor one growing with vigor. Two weeks ago in this space, I discussed our more recent employment experiences. A friend read the column and asked, “How much of our lack of job growth is due to the slump or collapse in manufacturing jobs?” Nationally, only three states (Nevada, and the Dakotas) had any gain in manufacturing jobs between May 2001 and May 2006. Alaska and Wyoming…
Honda Motor Co.’s decision to build a massive auto manufacturing plant near Greensburg has the small Decatur County town abuzz with excitement. But a company already entrenched there is making some noise of its own. MainSource Financial Group Inc. has increased assets an impressive 50 percent during the past year largely due to four acquisitions made by the publicly traded bank holding company. “We’re a little opportunistic,” admitted MainSource President and CEO James Saner. “We really want to grow, give…
Black business owner Bob Logan is one of four entrepreneurs chosen by the Indiana Business Diversity Council as inaugural tenants of its unusual new incubator, which caters solely to minority-owned businesses.
Linda Malkas’ arrival at the Indiana University School of Medicine four years ago is beginning to look like a coup for the city’s life sciences initiative. Armed with promising cancer research, Malkas helped found CS-Keys Inc., which last month received a $285,000 infusion from BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund and is poised to net a similar investment July 17 from Triathlon Medical Ventures in Cincinnati. The additional capital is critical to the startup’s continuing development of a biomarker that detects breast…
On June 1, Gov. Mitch Daniels and officials from the Indiana Public Employees Retirement Fund announced the Indiana Investment Fund, a $100 million investment vehicle. The fund will invest in early-stage startups and loans to mature firms. It will invest in Indiana-What’s wrong with local investment pros? based agriculture, manufacturing, information technology, transportation and life sciences companies. Credit Suisse was selected to manage this new fund. As a global investment bank, Credit Suisse certainly has skilled bankers who can evaluate…
The lesson Amy Kurzekwa taught the folks at the downtown Gregory & Appel Insurance agency reaches far beyond what they learned about premiums and deductibles. Since 1992, she has taken the bus to her job there as a clerical assistant, performing such tasks as sorting and delivering the office mail and filling the copy machines. While most anyone can do that, Kurzekwa, 37, is irreplaceable to her co-workers. Her role in opening their eyes to the fact that people with…
GREENSBURG-Companies from Cincinnati to Indianapolis hoping to drive home business from Honda Motor Co.’s 2,000-employee plant might want to watch for an economic pothole hiding up the road. Giant auto plants plopped onto the prairie, while buying hundreds of millions of dollars in goods and services from companies in the state, also tend to swallow workers from established employers. That likely will force some Indiana employers to jack up wages and benefits to retain and attract workers pining to wear…
A small Indiana firm is looking to become a big player in the emerging radio-frequency-identification market. Carmel-based BlueBean LLC is one of a small but growing number of firms nationally that provide consulting services to companies trying to set up systems using radio frequency identification-commonly called RFID-tags and readers. BlueBean in April acquired Mishawakabased www.rfidsupplychain.com, which sells RFID hardware and software online. The acquisition also provided BlueBean rights to a bevy of other domain names, including www.rfidhealthcare.com, www.rfidpharma.comand www.rfidfood.com. The…
I admit I don’t understand the world in which I live. For example, a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology reports that 24 percent of Americans age 18 to 50 have one or more tattoos. That rises to 36 percent when we look at just those 18 to 29. I don’t get it. Is this body art, a message to the world, a commitment to oneself or someone else? Tattoos do fill in all that empty…
A deal with the big-three U.S. automakers has positioned an Indianapolis manufacturer to be one of the leading battery providers for domestically made hybrid vehicles. EnerDel Inc., which employs 35 at its 8740 Hague Road headquarters, recently signed a deal to provide technology for hybrid-vehicle batteries to a consortium formed by DaimlerChrysler Corp., Ford Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. EnerDel is a joint venture between two publicly traded firms, F l o r i d a – b a…
Forrest Gump owned a shrimp boat. Tim and Julie Connor have a shrimp farm instead. The couple, who live on 22 acres near Monrovia, are in their third season raising prawn, or large shrimp, from a pond on their property. The $4,000 they earned last year from selling 350 pounds of the crustaceans to the public is hardly enough to cause Tim, 47, to retire from the job he’s held at Allison Transmission for 28 years. But if the sideline…
Economic development leaders and corporate executives thought Roger Brummett was spinning his wheels when he launched a classic car show in Indianapolis four years ago. But Brummett and partner Tim Durham find themselves at the wheel of such a fastgrowing enterprise that they hope to expand it into a multiday event, with an auction and classic-car race, that they believe would draw 100,000 attendees. The pair also plans to replicate the show in other markets, starting in Naples, Fla., in…
Would landing a new Honda plant be a plus for the Indiana economy? You bet it would. In fact, it’s hard to think of any similar-size investment that holds the same immediate potential for supporting additional jobs beyond those inside the plant walls. The project scores well on just about every objective measure you can come up with to assess its attractiveness. It draws on skills and occupations Indiana already has. Its activities hold great promise for new business for…
Growing global competition is bringing local manufacturers together. And the definition of local is changing from around the corner to within 500 miles. Officials from Purdue University have conducted a series of manufacturing summits encouraging Indiana plants to tear down their separatist walls and become an integrated part of regional supply chains. “Supplier-based manufacturing is based on long-term relationships in a 500-mile radius, so we need to think about Indiana manufacturing regionally,” said John Sullivan, director of Purdue’s Center for…
By restricting the new $105 million Indiana Investment Fund I to deals within state lines, Gov. Mitch Daniels hopes to simultaneously spur economic development and earn a spectacular return for Indiana’s retired public employees. But venture-capital experts warn it’s nearly impossible to have it both ways. “You need to be very, very clear what your objectives are when you invest [pension] money. Is it for economic development or to help the pensioners earn better pensions?” said John Taylor, vice president…
“Don’t write about this,” Sid Simpleton told me. He is the state’s social policy director. “People who have recently experienced the loss of a loved one do not like death discussed without appropriate gravity.” “I’ll warn them not to read the column if they have recently had such a loss,” I said. Sipping gin and tonics on a warm spring afternoon does make the troubles of the world seem less serious. “OK, if you think it’s safe,” Sid said. “This…
Only 64 percent of Indiana’s fifthgraders passed the latest ISTEP+ test in science. A little better-76 percent-passed the math component. Unfortunately, as children advance in grades, their ISTEP+ math scores worsen. By eighth grade, only 64 percent passed the math portion of the test. Yet, economic development officials in Indiana-and much of the country-want young students to choose to study in college areas of advanced manufacturing, life sciences, informatics, agribusiness and an array of disciplines that require a strong foundation…
