Business Connection February 2013

FEBRuaRy 2013

administrative Resources association advises small cities

Open to opportunity

a puBlicatiOn OF

2 The Business ConneCTion feBruary 2013

Comments should be sent to Doug showalter, The republic, 333 second st., Columbus, in 47201 or call 812-379-5625 or [email protected]. advertising information: Call 812-379-5652. ©2013 by home news enterprises all rights reserved. reproduction of stories, photographs and advertisements without permission is prohibited.

also insideenergizing indiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Learning about budgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

around the watercooler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Columbus area Chamber of Commerce . . . 12

Challenges for hewlett-Packard . . . . . . . . . . . 14

on the move. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

apple Ceo Tim Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Mark Mcnulty column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Business leads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Business indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Morton Marcus column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

contents

On the covereric frey and Trena Carter of administrative resources association. Photo by Carla Clark. story page 4.

Business side of conservation page 16 Helium supply dwindles page 20

trucking is family business page 6

When you want to make a point in print, call us. Print is powerful and productive! From the smallest needs

to the biggest ideas, our expertise, technology andenthusiasm make things happen for your business.

Call today for powerful ideas to make your point in print.

ISO Certified: 9001-Quality and 14001-Environmental

Sharp Color.

feBruary 2013 The Business ConneCTion 3

By Greg Seiter

Energy conservation is an increasingly popu-lar topic of discussion these days, and while more individuals are searching for ways to reduce their utility bills at home, many are also hoping to do the same for the businesses they own or work for.

Recognizing this trend while simultaneously hoping to create jobs, improve the state’s economy and protect the environment for all Indiana residents, some utilities and residents launched Energizing Indiana about a year ago. The program offers rebates on meeting certain criteria.

“The idea came about as a result of sev-eral groups identifying a need for more energy initiatives throughout the state,” said Norm Campbell, commercial and industrial program director for Energizing Indiana. “Basically, the thought was to have a vehicle where you can have a consistent set of rebates available for certain energy conservation practices. We also knew it had to be easy to understand.”

Partners in the program, which offers assis-tance to residents, students, teachers and busi-ness owners, include the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the Citizens Action Coalition, Duke Energy, Indiana Michigan Power, Indiana Municipal Power Agency, Indianapolis Power & Light Co., NIPSCO and Vectren.

As far as businesses are concerned, Energizing Indiana’s Commercial and Industrial Prescriptive Rebate Program focuses on helping facilities lower electric energy consumption and decrease overall energy costs by encouraging vendors and contractors to actively promote and install energy-efficient technology for their commercial and industrial customers.

In short, Energizing Indiana representatives use an established network of HVAC, lighting and appliance suppliers and electrical contrac-tors to help participants achieve their energy-saving goals.

“It’s all very straightforward,” Campbell said. “After a customer performs certain improve-

According to Campbell, five trade alliance coordinators promote the programs available through Energizing Indiana. They also inspect potentially rebate-eligible jobs after they have been completed and help interested parties apply for rebates, which vary from project to project.

“Rebates are figured in many different ways,” Campbell said. “They can be done per bulb, on a per-fixture basis or even per ton. It really depends on the equipment. There’s actually a listing on our website.”

With a goal of reaching more than 2 million Indiana homes and thousands of businesses in order to save enough energy to power more than 100,000 homes for 12 months, Energizing Indiana officials have been somewhat aggres-sive in promoting their programs.

“Our marketing group promotes the residen-tial and commercial side, but we’ve also done a lot through various types of media, with our trade allies and through online partnerships with different community groups,” Campbell said. “We’ve even done direct mailings.”

And while group officials are pleased with the program’s first-year accomplishments, they also acknowledge that Energizing Indiana has a lot more work to do.

“The response has been good, but we would certainly like to improve,” Campbell said. “We’ve seen approximately 2,000 applications come in, including some very nice projects.

“We realize that when you ramp up a pro-gram, it takes some time for it to pick up momentum. We’re really hitting full stride now.”

“Every day, somebody is looking for ways their business or company can cut back on energy usage,” Eads said. “There are man-dates coming down the road, so why not take advantage of Energizing Indiana programs and rebates now, while they’re available?

“The rebates are out there so those who are doing the programs now will benefit most.”

Information on Energizing Indiana: energizingindiana.com.

ments at a facility and they meet the required criteria, all they have to do is complete their documentation, provide copies of invoices and submit an application. We’ll process it from there.”

Rebate-eligible programs can even be cus-tomized.

Kirby Risk provides a wide range of services, including electrical supplies, electrical appara-tus sales and repair services, wiring harness/cable manufacturing and industrial component manufacturing.

“As a distributor, if we find a customer who wants to be more economical with their energy consumption, we work with our vendors to

provide them with the same type of finished product they currently have while ensuring that product will save them money at the meter,” said Mike Eads, a Kirby Risk account manager in the Columbus market. “It may be something as simple as a light fixture that will put out more light at a cheaper cost.”

Kirby Risk is incorporating Energizing Indiana recommendations in its own facilities, too.

“We’ve relit our warehouses with energy-efficient lighting, motion sensors and LEDs, where we can use them,” Eads said. “We know that whatever we do today will pay for itself within a year.”

‘Green’ program nets cost savings

“We’ve relit our warehouses with energy-efficient lighting, motion sensors and lEDs, where we can use them. We know that whatever we do today will pay for itself within a year.”

— Mike Eads Kirby Risk account manager


backgroundAdministrative Resources association helps find funding

and offers guidance for improving communitiesBy BaRnEy Quick

working in the

PhoTos By CarLa CLark

Eric Frey, executive director, and Trena Carter, manager of municipal programs, discuss small business loan programs at Administra-tive Resources association.

The players in economic development and community development projects known to the public are, by definition, the high-pro-file ones. Others play an equally important

role, however. One such group, the Administrative Resources association, has been a pervasive presence in myriad southern Indiana endeavors for 40 years.

“We don’t have to provide our service in a visible way,” says Trena Carter, ARa’s manager for municipal programs. “We can be quite effective working in the background.”

ARa is an association of smaller cities in southern Indiana whose mayors comprise its board of directors.

It is a governmental entity, subject to audit by the State Board of Accounts. The basic function carried out by its staff is the obtaining of federal and state funds for member communities, and providing guidance to them regarding using the funds according to the benefactor’s stipulations.

“Where we shine is on the back end of the grant process: regulatory compliance and implementation,” says Executive Director Eric Frey. He says the associa-tion has a dual image within the communities it serves. “Mayors think of us as the group that writes the grants. Department heads think of us as providers of technical services.”


ARa was founded in 1973 by Bruce Wallace, a Kansas native who had made a career of improving communities. His purpose was to address the fact that smaller municipalities in southern Indiana were lacking in the kind of economic development prowess seen in larger cities. The original money came from a Lilly Endowment grant. ARa has always been located in Columbus, due to its centrality in the region served. It has been located in a number of office spaces over the years. Its current site is at the southwest corner of Eighth and Franklin streets in a distinctively designed historic structure that has served as a home and various types of businesses.

The cities comprising ARa are Austin, Batesville, Bedford, Columbus, Greensburg, Lawrenceburg, Mitchell, North Vernon, Rushville, Salem and Seymour. Area towns including Crothersville, Elizabethtown, Hope and Nashville are associate members, enjoying the group’s services but not having board representa-tion.

ARa has a 78.9 percent success rate in landing grants in the last two years. Its projects in recent years have ranged from flood response to automotive industry job creation to the remaking of a downtown area.

In 2008, ARa helped Columbus get a grant from FEMA to buy flood-damaged houses in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood. Homeowners who wished to sell were offered the pre-flood value of their houses. The area was turned into a grassy site.

In 2011, the group helped North Vernon attain and make use of its designation as a Stellar Community. The Stellar Communities program is a joint effort of the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, the state’s Housing and Community Development Authority and the Indiana Department of Transportation. The grants resulting from the designation are being used to create new facades and a streetscape downtown, revi-talize housing, and upgrade streets and sidewalks in a neighborhood adjacent to downtown.

ARa has worked with the Lawrenceburg Regional Grants Program on a number of economic develop-

ment projects. In that capacity, it was part of the team that created the infrastructure needed to bring the Honda plant to Greensburg.

While the organization does get involved in grant assistance to nonprofit agencies, it generally does so as a sub-grantee under the umbrella of a town or city. Such was its role in the rehabilitation of the transitional housing facility of Turning Point, the domestic violence shelter based in Columbus, as well as similar work at Volunteers in Medicine.

Much of the ARa staff has been there 15 years or more. Carter, an Iowa native, came on board in 1991.

Frey came to the group by way of a degree in public finance from Indiana University, an internship with the city of Terre Haute, a grant-writing stint in Delaware County and work for the state of Indiana. In that capacity, he says, “I got to work with Columbus, and I became fond of it. It was a city that was doing every-thing right. That’s how I met Bruce Wallace.”

Carter says, “You find fun in this work because no two projects are ever the same.”

Adds Frey, “Even if they look exactly the same on paper, there are considerations that will make each one unique.”

The work entails staying on top of federal and state regulations for all aspects of the projects, from envi-ronmental concerns to labor standards. Not only do the regulations actually change, interpretations of them change as well.

“You don’t learn that in a year, but we have a won-derful baseline of historic knowledge because so much of our staff has been here a long time,” says Frey.

Carter says, “We’re always on the lookout for oppor-tunities for the communities we serve.”

Frey notes that “Columbus having an arts district designation should help it get some grants.”

They take before-and-after pictures of projects. “We like to have a visual record of our impact,” says Carter.

Still, it’s not about asserting a central role for ARa. As Frey sees it, “The generals need to get the credit, and the soldiers need to keep plugging away.”

PhoTos CourTesy of ara

ARa personnel take before-and-after photos of their projects, such as these of the Greensburg Downtown Streetscape project.


In some families, younger generations use their upbringings to launch into careers in far-flung places. In others, a way of life has been established around a business, and roles as siblings, offspring and parents meld with those of various

aspects of management. So it is with the trucking companies based in Columbus.

Wade Day, co-owner of Hoosier Air Transport, for instance, is in the middle of three generations that seem to have the trucking life in their blood. His father, Doug, started out driving dump trucks in Kentucky’s coal mining country when he was a teen-ager. He moved to Columbus as a young man and worked for many years on the second shift at Cummins Inc., but ran dump trucks during the day.

“As time went on, he bought some over-the-road trucks he leased to Stoops Express,” Wade says. “In the mid-1970s, he got his own authority to operate.”

By BaRnEy Quick

Successive generations ensure their businesses keep on truckin’

Driven to Deliver

PhoTos By aaron ferguson

top: Gina West is general manager of West Trucking in Columbus. above: Wade Day and his sister, Karen Day, recently assumed ownership of Hoo-sier Air Transport in Taylorsville from their parents.


That original trucking company folded in the 1980s, but Doug founded Hoosier Air Transport in 1991.

Wade graduated from Indiana University in 1980 with a degree in business and moved to St. Louis to work for TLC Lines.

“TLC was purchased by Landstar,” he says. “I moved back to Indiana to be an agent for them, but I figured I might as well just go to work for Hoosier Air Transport.”

Now his son, Steven, who is finishing his own IU business degree, is working a couple of days a week there and anticipates coming on board full time when he graduates.

“I may put him on the road to get his feet wet in sales,” says Wade. “He’s also going to get a commercial driver’s license so he can understand the business from that perspective.”

Wade’s sister and co-owner, Karen, oversees operations.The company currently has 80 trucks and 150 trailers, and

operates in 48 states. It has a big presence in retail, with custom-ers such as Wal-Mart, Macy’s and Kohl’s. It also has some furni-ture customers in southern Indiana, as well as some manufactur-ers of forklifts.

“We find, being this size, that we can be very flexible,” says Wade. “We can respond quickly to needs that arise among our customers.”

The drivers are all company employees. They mainly do the recruiting of new hires. “That’s why it’s important to keep them in good-looking, safe equipment.”

Other staff functions include dispatch, payroll, billing, mainte-nance and safety.

Safety management has become an increasingly important posi-tion since the implementation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety and Accountability Program, which rates drivers and companies according to a point system.

“Drivers need to be more particular than ever about what vehicles they drive,” Wade stresses.

Hoosier Air Transport belongs to the Indiana Motor Truck Association, which, according to Wade, has “a strong lobbying arm with a presence in Washington.” It is also a member of the American Trucking Association for the same reason: “Our laws could be a lot more stringent if it weren’t for their efforts.”

Even so, the company takes proactive measures to ensure safe-ty, such as governors on its trucks that top out at 65 mph. “That also helps with fuel mileage,” says Wade. “Margins are very thin in the trucking business. It really comes down to the pennies you can save.”

His father and his mother, Doris, are still involved. “When they go to their house in Florida, they drive a load down there,” says Wade. “They’ve talked retirement for years, but it hasn’t happened.”

Original thinkingWest Trucking has its origins in an agreement local entrepre-

neur Larry West reached with Arvin Industries in the 1980s. That former local manufacturing concern wanted to buy some of West’s rental houses on Cottage Avenue for development of its world headquarters.

He quoted Arvin a very favorable price for the properties in exchange for the company making use of West’s INDOT trucking authority.

Faurecia, which is one of Arvin’s descendants, is still a West customer. Others include Kroot Corp., Toyota and AK Steel Corp.

Larry’s daughter, Gina, is the firm’s general manager. In keep-

see tRuck on page 8

West Trucking has 70 employees in Columbus.

Richard Hunt is the dispatcher for West Trucking.

Hoosier Air Transport in Taylorsville opened in 1991.


www.hrcroofing.com2845 Roadway Drive

Columbus, IN • 812-372-8409ROOFING & SHEET METAL

SINCE 1947

FOR

INDUSTRIAL • RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL ROOFING SPECIALISTS

Re-Roofing McDowell School.

Investment Insight for Every Generation Since 1854sm

Conservators of your wealth,not the status quo.

ing with her family’s entrepreneurial spirit, she had started busi-nesses ranging from a scrapbook store to a drug-testing service.

“My dad thinks outside the box,” she says, noting his real estate, container repair, towing and warehousing activities, as well as a patent he received for a method to secure steel coils on truck beds. “I like the logistics of getting the processes in place, whereas my dad is good at recognizing opportunities.”

Gina speaks of the low turnover and loyalty among the com-pany’s drivers. She also mentions the civic spirit they exude. “Our float in the Festival of Lights Parade won Best Overall Entry one recent year,” she says. “One of our drivers loves floats.”

As is typical of trucking firms, safety activity is a major area of focus at West. Safety director Michael Hooten, along with Gina and a safety specialist from the insurance company that serves West, conducts quarterly safety meetings to inform staff of updates to state and federal regulations. “Our CSA scores are really good,” says Hooten.

The company currently has 70 employees and over 60 trucks. “Then we have other vehicles my dad finds,” says Gina.

While she acknowledges the differences in her business style and that of her father, she clearly respects the unique array of activities he has spawned. “The reason he’s been successful is that he’s a problem-solver.”

That is, after all the essence of the trucking life: providing those who make things with a solution to the need to move what they’ve made.

tRuck continued from page 7

Shop supervisor Mike Dixon performs a computer diagnostic check on a truck in the maintenance bay at Hoosier Air Transport.

By Joyce M. RosenbergaP Business Writer

NEW YORK — Many brand-new entrepreneurs learn quickly that they have to create a budget for their new companies. It can be a daunt-ing experience for someone who doesn’t have an accounting background or never maintained a personal budget.

Business owners who don’t create a budget and stick to it are likely to find they don’t know how much money is coming in and how much is going out. If they keep trying to run the business that way, they’re likely to run into trouble.

There is plenty of help for budget neophytes. If you’re one of them, it’s a good idea to give yourself a quick education about budgets and to meet with an accountant or other financial adviser to learn about what items you need to have in your company’s budget.

To get a grounding in budgets, you can start with the Internet or a bookstore. There are websites that explain the basics and guide you through creating a very simple plan. There are books that explain the process, too. If you buy accounting and recordkeeping software, you can get a feel for what budgeting requires.

When you start a budget, at the very least you need to list your income and expenses — what you expect each to be and then the actual num-bers. Subtracting one number from the other will let you know if you’re staying within your budget. You can keep a weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly budget. The more you work on your budget, the better a handle you’ll have on your business.

But you also need to consider what to put into your budget — in other words, you need to know all the costs of running your business as you put your budget together. For example, do you know all the taxes you have to pay for running a business in your state? If your business is the sort that’s licensed, have you included that fee in your budget? Did you budget for insurance?

Many small business owners realize that while they’re great at running the substance of their business — operating a restaurant or a design firm — they know little about how to conduct the financial side of things. Many decide to get some schooling.

Small Business Development Centers provide training and advice to small business owners. Many of these centers, sponsored by the Small Business Administration, offer low- or no-cost courses on financial management, including budgeting. There are SBDCs across the country, many of them at colleges and universities. Colleges that offer continuing education classes are another resource. These may cost more than SBDC classes, but can also be fairly low cost.

The service known as SCORE offers one-on-one help for small busi-nesses. The organization consists of retired executives and business own-ers. You can find a SCORE counselor who can help you with budgeting by visiting www.score.org. You can work with a counselor online or find one whom you can meet with in person.

After you’ve met with an accountant and created a budget, you need a bookkeeper to keep track of your income, receipts and expenses. You also need a report — weekly is best, but certainly monthly — that lets you know whether you’re staying within your budget or are running into trouble.

If you’re insisting on doing the work yourself, invest in software. Your accountant can suggest some. Or ask other small business owners about the program that works for them.

learning about budgets is vital


VOElz BODy SHOp EaRnS aaa aWaRD

Voelz Body Shop in Columbus has been awarded Approved Auto Body (AAB) status by AAA Hoosier Motor Club. The facility, which works on all makes and models and offers on-site rental vehicles, has met strict AAA guidelines in order to qualify for this classifica-tion.

AAA’s AAB and Approved Auto Repair (AAR) programs examine all aspects of a given repair shop’s operation — from the appearance of the facility to the competence of the technicians. Since 1975, AAA has affiliated more than 10,000 repair facilities throughout the United States.

MainSOuRcE BuilDinG in SEyMOuR

SEYMOUR — MainSource Bank held a groundbreaking cer-emony on Dec. 11 for its new Seymour office, designed by Ryan Bank Concepts and Columbus-based architect Nolan Bingham.

It will be built by locally owned Goecker Construction Inc. with a scheduled completion date in 2013.

The new banking office will feature a glass entrance and lobby, and a community room equipped with state-of-the art audiovisual equipment and seating for 30 peo-ple. The community room will be open to any resident or organiza-tion in the Seymour area to use free of charge.

the overall price of business travel. In 2012, business travelers spent $254.9 billion, up 1.6 percent from the prior year. This year, the travel association expects another 4.6 percent increase to $266.7 billion. That’s down slightly from the $268.5 billion predicted back in July.

Worries over the tax and budget battle in Washington were blamed for some of the 2012 declines. Now that tax changes have been approved, the business travel group is cautiously optimistic that travel will improve. Michael W. McCormick, executive director of the group said in a statement that he expects conditions to improve in the second half of the year, when “pent-up demand to get back on the road should hopefully fuel accelerating growth in busi-ness travel spending.”

nEW FERtilizER plantROCKPORT — A businessman

has picked a southern Indiana site for a nitrogen fertilizer plant that’s projected to cost about $950 mil-lion to build.

Ohio Valley Resources President Doug Wilson of Fairfield, Ill., says he picked the 150-acre site near the Ohio River town of Rockport. Wilson tells the Evansville Courier & Press that two nearby interstate natural gas pipelines will reduce the cost of obtaining the gas need-ed for nitrogen production.

Wilson says construction should take three years. About 80 people are expected to work at the plant

inDy GOinG GREEnINDIANAPOLIS — A city

spokesman says Indianapolis plans to replace its entire automotive fleet with electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2025.

Mayor Greg Ballard signed an executive order mandating the city replace its current sedans with electric or plug-in hybrids. The city then plans to replace its heavy vehicles such as snow plows and fire trucks with vehicles that run on compressed natural gas.

New vehicles would be phased in as older vehicles are retired. The city replaces about 50 cars every year. City officials also will ask automakers to develop a plug-in hybrid police car, something that currently doesn’t exist.

Officials believe Indianapolis is the first U.S. city to take such a step.

FEWER BuSinESS tRaVElERS

NEW YORK — Fewer business travelers are likely to hit the road this year as the travel industry is challenged by corporate America’s persistent economic fears. Business travelers are expected to take 431.8 million trips in 2013, according to the Global Business Travel Association. The estimate would mean a 1.1 percent decline from the 436.5 million trips taken in 2012.

Fewer people traveling, how-ever, doesn’t mean lower costs. Airfare, hotel rooms, meals and car rentals have helped to push up

after production starts.Wilson tells The Indianapolis

Star he’s still completing financ-ing for the project. He says this is his first industrial project after working as an independent trader for 16 years at the Chicago Board of Trade.

clOSED plant GEttinG FacEliFt

CLARKSVILLE — The owner of a closed Colgate toothpaste factory along the Ohio River says major renovations are planned there next year in hopes of attract-ing more businesses to the site where several hundred people once worked.

Only one business occupies a small part of the 54-acre site in Clarksville, although investment firm managing partner Jayesh Sheth says a health care company will move in this year. Sheth tells The Courier-Journal the long-term goal is to rehab about 85 percent of the about 1 million square feet of space available in the plant.

Colgate in 2007 closed the factory known for its landmark 40-foot-diameter clock facing Louisville. Clarksville redevelop-ment director Rick Dickman says he’s frustrated that more tenants haven’t moved to the site and believes it has astronomical poten-tial.

alcOa SHutDOWnAUBURN — Alcoa Inc. has

decided to shut down a northeast-ern Indiana factory after cutting

arounD The WATERCOOLER


hundreds of jobs there over the past decade.

The company announced that the Auburn factory will end opera-tions in March. The factory has 25 hourly and 18 salaried workers. The Pittsburgh-based company says the closing decision is part of its efforts to streamline opera-tions.

United Steelworkers local presi-dent Chris Spillers tells The Star of Auburn that workers expected the factory might be closed because it was a large facility with little work.

The Journal Gazette reports the auto and defense parts plant had nearly 400 workers in 2005. Alcoa acquired the factory in the city about 40 miles north of Fort Wayne as part of a 2000 merger with Reynolds Metals Co.

FROM WEapOnS tO DOG tREatS

NEWPORT — A pet food com-pany says it will open a manufac-turing and distribution warehouse at a former Army chemical weap-ons depot that’s being redeveloped in western Indiana.

Scott Pet Products announced it would move operations to the Vermillion Rise Mega Park near Newport. The Rockville-based

from the production of coke, a hardened fuel formed by baking coal at high temperatures.

Cleanup of the rest of the 52-acre property will be complet-ed later.

pOSSiBlE iVy tEcH ExpanSiOn

BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana Commission for Higher Education has recommended the Indiana General Assembly approve funding for a $20 million expan-sion of the main building on Ivy Tech’s Bloomington campus.

The expansion would add an 85,000-square-foot addition to the building, which currently mea-sures 148,000 square feet.

Ivy Tech pared down its plan for a 115,000-square-foot addition at the request of the Legislature in 2007. During the recession, all higher education funding propos-als were sent back to the commis-sion for review.

Bloomington Chancellor John Whikehart says the addition like-ly wouldn’t be ready to occupy until fall 2016. The building was designed for 5,000 students and now serves about 6,300.

company says the new facil-ity, which opened in January, will house its beef and pork dog treat operations and could have 80 workers there by 2014.

The business will have a nine-acre campus at the former Newport Chemical Depot about 25 miles north of Terre Haute. Organizers have designated some 3,400 acres at the site for business development.

Destruction of the deadly VX nerve agent stored at the 7,100-acre depot finished in 2008, and it was closed by the Army.

clEanup cOntRactTERRE HAUTE — The cleanup

of a contaminated former indus-trial site in western Indiana is expected to begin following years of study.

City officials have awarded a $2.7 million contract to HIS Constructors Inc. of Indianapolis for the removal of soil to a depth of 10 feet on much of a 20-acre site where Terre Haute Coke and Carbon operated from 1926 until 1988.

The cleanup is expected to be completed by November. The site is contaminated with arsenic, lead and other hazardous substances that officials said were byproducts

FactORy BuyER GEtS MORE tiME

CONNERSVILLE — Officials are giving the potential buyer of a large vacant auto parts factory more time to close on the pur-chase.

The city of Connersville bought the site from Visteon in 2009 while wooing Carbon Motors Corp. and its planned 1,500-worker high-tech police car plant. Those plans have stalled since Carbon’s bid for a $310 million federal loan was rejected in March.

The Connersville Board of Works has set a new March 31 closing deadline. Mayor Leonard Urban announced in September the company he wouldn’t iden-tify had offered $4 million for the factory. Urban says the buyer is actively negotiating with a poten-tial tenant.

Board member Jane Oakley says no other purchase offers have been made.

cOnn-SElMER MOVinG WORk tO inDiana

ELKHART — Musical instru-ment maker Conn-Selmer Inc. is closing an Illinois plant and mov-ing its work to northern Indiana.

suBMiTTeD PhoTo

MainSource Bank broke ground for its new Seymour office in December. Pictured from left are Bill Bailey, Greater Seymour Chamber of Commerce; Chad Goecker, Goecker Construction; Cliff Brock, Charlie Farber and Galen Krumme, all of MainSource; Seymour Mayor Craig Luedeman; Kevin Gabbard, D. Bruce Wynn and D. Blake Fish, all of Main-Source; Robert Goecker, Goecker Construction; Jim Plump, Jackson County Industrial Development Corp.; and State Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour.

see WatERcOOlER on page 15

chamberconnectionMonthly publication of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce • 500 Franklin Street • Columbus, IN 47201 • 812-379-4457february 2013

www.columbusareachamber.com

Register for all Chamber events at www.columbusareachamber.com/events or call 812-379-4457.

feb. 4, 11, 18 & 25 — Third house sessions. 7:30 to 9 a.m., City Hall. No charge to attend.

feb. 8 — TeN Networking roundtable. 8 to 9:30 a.m., Columbus Visitors Center. Reservations requested.

feb. 26 — chamber annual meeting. 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Clar-ion Hotel & Conference Center.

calendar

Networking roundtables8 to 9:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 8Barbara Stewart Room, Columbus Area Visitors Center

Join us for a fun and structured event where you will participate in an interactive roundtable discussion designed to help you make the best con-nections for your business and to start building new strategic business relationships.

Registration is required. Due to the uniqueness of this event, we need to know the attendees’ names ahead of time.

Peter Kageyama, author of “For the Love of Cities,” will deliver the keynote address at the Chamber’s annual meeting Feb. 26. He will touch on the following topics:

— How we create more engaged citizens without major resources.— The role of technology, particularly social media in our relationship

with our city and each other — and how it actually builds social capital.

— What are the “most lovable” cit-ies and how we can learn from them.

— How we fall in love with our cit-ies; what works and what we don’t respond to.

— How a small number of people who are “in love” with their city can have major impacts and what little things matter in the relationship with place making.

Those who would benefit from at-tending this keynote address include government leaders, planners and city managers, arts and cultural leaders, entrepreneurs and business leaders, education leaders and most importantly, concerned citizens who want to improve their com-munity.

Besides the keynote presentation, the annual meeting is where the Chamber bestows some of its most prestigious awards, including the Business of the Year Award, the Project of the Year Award and the Com-munity Service Award.

This event is open to anyone in the community. Registration is re-quired (www.columbusareachamber.com/events). The cost covers the program and lunch. Company tables can be reserved by emailing Kami at [email protected] or calling 379-4457.

chamber annual meeting

chamberconnectionMonthly publication of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce • 500 Franklin Street • Columbus, IN 47201 • 812-379-4457 GrowiNG busiNess. GrowiNG people.

www.columbusareachamber.com

aflac – rachel webbRachel Webb 4750 Blue Cedar Court Columbus, IN 47201 [email protected]

cinlee services llcWayne DeFreitas (812) 350-8721 [email protected] Columbus Cleaning Services

on The spot cateringBillie Chisman (812) 350-7386 PO Box 133 Nineveh, IN 46164 Caterers www.onthespotmobilecatering.com

hendrix pool & patio inc.Dwight Hendrix (812) 522-7387 [email protected] 495 N. Burkhart Blvd. Seymour, IN 47274 Retail www.hendrixpools.com

New members

Welcome Bannockburn Securities and Colette A. BoykoBannockburn Securities LLC is a boutique capital markets trading firm

specializing in currency advisory and execution services. The firm is pure-ly client-oriented, and our basic model is to combine expert counsel and pre-trade analytics with low-cost execution. Our mission includes being the most trusted foreign exchange partners for companies doing business internationally. For more information see our website at www.bannock-burnsecurities.com. Collette Boyko joined Bannockburn Securities LLC in March 2012 as a partner. She is responsible for the overall business de-velopment of the firm and for managing the company’s existing portfolio of clients.

member spotlightPeter Kageyama, author of “For the Love of Cities,” will deliver the keynote address at the Chamber’s annual meeting Feb. 26. He will touch on the following topics:

— How we create more engaged citizens without major resources.— The role of technology, particularly social media in our relationship

with our city and each other — and how it actually builds social capital.

— What are the “most lovable” cit-ies and how we can learn from them.

— How we fall in love with our cit-ies; what works and what we don’t respond to.

— How a small number of people who are “in love” with their city can have major impacts and what little things matter in the relationship with place making.

Those who would benefit from at-tending this keynote address include government leaders, planners and city managers, arts and cultural leaders, entrepreneurs and business leaders, education leaders and most importantly, concerned citizens who want to improve their com-munity.

Besides the keynote presentation, the annual meeting is where the Chamber bestows some of its most prestigious awards, including the Business of the Year Award, the Project of the Year Award and the Com-munity Service Award.

This event is open to anyone in the community. Registration is re-quired (www.columbusareachamber.com/events). The cost covers the program and lunch. Company tables can be reserved by emailing Kami at [email protected] or calling 379-4457.

chamber annual meeting


© 2012 MCTSource:

Hewlett-PackardGraphic: Bay Area

News Group

HP printers make less of an impression

Ten years ago, Hewlett-PackardÕs annual sales of printers and related products Ñ including ink cartridges, toner and paper Ñ was 31 percent of its total sales. That share shrank to 20 percent this year.Printer-related sales Overall HP sales

In billions

NOTE: In fiscal years$22.6 $73.0

24.2

25.2

26.8

28.6 104.2

29.6

24.0

25.8

25.8

24.5

80.0

86.7

91.6

118.3

114.6

126.0

127.2

120.4

Õ03

Õ04

Õ05

Õ06

Õ07

Õ08

Õ09

Õ10

Õ11

Õ12

By Steve Johnsonsan Jose Mercury news

As if Hewlett-Packard Co. didn’t have enough problems with its lagging person-al-computer business and its admission it paid billions of dollars too much for software firm Autonomy, sales of print-ers — long one of the Palo Alto, Calif., tech giant’s main revenue sources — are shriveling.

HP executives insist printers, ink and related products will remain essential for businesses and many individuals. But peo-ple aren’t printing as much as they used to, in part, according to some experts, because of smartphones and tablets, which enable vast amounts of information to be easily accessed from anywhere. And the experts predict the trend will increase, which could further threaten HP’s bot-tom line.

“They are in trouble over the long term,” said Federico De Silva, a principal analyst at the Gartner market research firm. “It’s a big business, to be sure, but it’s not growing. It’s in a slow decline, and we don’t see it coming back.”

Gartner foresees global sales of print-ers and copiers — which had been $50 billion in 2010 — dwindling to $47.8 bil-lion in 2014. International Data reported global shipments of printers had dropped nearly 26 percent in the third quarter of last year. It blamed the soured economy, reduced business purchases and “the shift in consumer spending to other products like mobile devices and tablets.”

Some people — including 28-year-old Ai-Lien Le of San Jose, Calif., an early intervention specialist for developmen-tally challenged children — hit the print button as much as they ever did. Although she owns a smartphone and iPad, she said, “When I go into meetings, I have to print out documents to the participants. I still like paper.”

But James Jeffery, a 46-year-old sales engineer from Reno, Nev., said he mostly emails information to his clients.

“In business, my printing is down over 90 percent,” he said, “It’s just becoming antiquated.”

That’s just what HP doesn’t want to hear. The company’s stock already has

been in a tailspin, largely because sales of its primary product — personal com-puters — have slowed dramatically. In addition, the storied Silicon Valley cor-poration recently announced it had been tricked into paying more than $5 billion too much for Autonomy. It can ill afford to have its printer business — which CEO Meg Whitman has termed “the lifeblood of HP” — also go south.

So far, the evidence isn’t encouraging. Sales of printers and related products at HP — which owns about 40 percent of that market worldwide — have fallen from nearly $30 billion in 2008 to $24.5 billion in fiscal year 2012. And those products, which represented 31 percent of its total revenue in 2003, now account for just 20 percent.

“We certainly see pressure on the con-sumer printing market,” particularly with people printing fewer photos at home, acknowledged Steve Nigro, an HP senior vice president. But he insisted “printing is not going away.”

With the volume of information grow-ing on the Internet and other sources, HP officials say, some of that is always going to get printed. Moreover, they foresee the printer market for businesses and some parts of the world growing, which is why the company is focusing more on those areas.

In October, it introduced what it called “the largest upgrade of HP’s commercial printers in almost a decade.” It’s also pushing products that make it easier to print from mobile devices.

Noting people have predicted the demise of printers for years, Brent Bracelin, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said the business is “still gener-ating a good bit of profitability.”

But Jack Narcotta, an analyst with Technology Business Research, con-tends the printing business is undergo-ing “a wholesale change.” Others point to numerous signs that society is going paperless.

Companies like DropBox let users store and access information from the Internet. Instead of printing out maps, many people now rely on navigational gadgets. Airlines are phasing out printed boarding passes

in favor of digital versions. Some people also want to reduce paper use to help the planet.

Even among businesses, which are widely expected to keep some printing, many have reduced the number of print-ers they have to cut costs and Gartner’s De Silva said workers on average print half as many documents today as they did in 2005.

The trend is only going to accelerate, according to Cindy Shaw, an analyst with Discern, an investment research and ana-lytics firm.

“Grandma and Grandpa may still prefer hard copies,” she observed in a recent note to her clients, “but over time, Grandmas and Grandpas will have grown up in the digital age.”

Hewlett-packard further beset by decline in printing

“Grandma and Grandpa may still prefer hard copies, but over time, Grandmas and Grandpas will have grown up in the digital age.”

— Cindy Shaw, an analyst with Discern, an investment research

and analytics firm


The Indiana Economic Development Corp. announced that Conn-Selmer was closing a percussion instrument plant in LaGrange, Ill., and moving the work to a woodwinds plant in Elkhart, where the company is based. It plans to add as many as 20 jobs to the 350 it now has at four Elkhart locations.

The move will cost the compa-ny about $2.2 million. The IEDC says it offered Conn-Selmer up to $120,000 in training grants, and the city of Elkhart approved additional property tax abatement at the request of local economic development officials.

The agency says Conn-Selmer

marketing Zyvox, an antibacterial agent, and promoted off-label uses for Lyrica, which is used to treat fibromyalgia.

Under the settlement, Pfizer is not admitting wrongdoing but says it will reform how it markets the drugs.

cHRySlER cOnSiDERS pRODuctiOn BOOSt

KOKOMO — Chrysler Group is planning to potentially add 400 jobs at three existing central Indiana factories while also start-ing a new plant nearby with per-haps 850 workers.

The Kokomo City Council has voted to approve property tax

plans to begin hiring workers early next year.

DRuG SEttlEMEntINDIANAPOLIS — Indiana

will receive $1.1 million in a set-tlement with Pfizer Inc. over its marketing of the drugs Zyvox and Lyrica.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said that the $1.1 million is Indiana’s share of a $42.9 mil-lion settlement Pfizer reached to resolve allegations that the com-pany unlawfully promoted those drugs.

Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia claimed that Pfizer used deceptive practices in

breaks requested by Chrysler for $212 million in new equipment for its factories in the city. Tipton County officials also endorsed a similar request on Chrysler’s $162 million plans to complete a vacant factory along U.S. 31.

Chrysler Vice President Brian Harlow says the projects are planned because its Kokomo transmission plants have reached production capacity. The company isn’t giving specifics on the proj-ects, saying final decisions haven’t been made.

Chrysler’s request to Kokomo officials says the investment will help retain 3,400 jobs in the city.

— Staff and Wire Reports

WatERcOOlER continued from page 11

Dr. Melissa Webb has been elected to the American Optometric Society’s Board of Directors. She will serve as a voice for her fellow optometrists and help to provide direction in the profession. The AOS, formed in 2009, has become widely recognized and respected throughout the optometric profession.

Webb graduated from the IU School of Optometry in 2005 and is CEO, owner and optometrist at The Eye Place: Where Our Focus is You. She is active in Columbus, participating in various community and business organizations.

Hannah perkey has been named president of Language Training Center Inc. in Indianapolis. She will focus on overseeing daily activities along with implementing strategy and business development ini-tiatives to align with LTC’s growth. Originally from the Columbus area, she has been with LTC since starting as a sales executive in 2009.

kendra zumhingst of Seymour has been named to the Jackson County Visitors Center Board of Directors.

A Seymour native, she is a graduate of Seymour High School and Indiana University and earned a master’s degree in management from Indiana Wesleyan University. She is employed as an IT specialist with Kremers Urban Pharmaceuticals in Seymour, where she has worked for 13 years.

Stacey crothers has been promoted to banking center manager, assistant vice president of the Old National Bank Columbus Downtown Banking Center at 501 Washington St.

She is a graduate of Miami Jacobs Junior College in Dayton, Ohio, and most recently was an assis-tant banking center manager at Old National. She has been with Old National for five years and has worked in the banking industry for 22 years.

— Staff Reports

on The mOvE


easements to retire development rights on pri-vate land has exploded. The easements, which cost a fraction of what it would cost to buy the property, allow landowners to continue work-ing the land.

In areas where nearby urban development has pushed up land values, conservation ease-ments can provide an alternative solution to ranchers who might be tempted to sell their holdings, said Daniel Press, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Conservationists “have found that allowing, or even encouraging or designing some way of making money off of properties is the only way to keep them from being degraded further or developed outright,” Press said.

At the Conservancy — which owns about 6,500 acres of land in Fresno, Madera, Merced and Mariposa counties and manages another 20,000 acres for ranchers with easements and for public agencies — allowing ranching on its

Across the nation, conservation groups in partnership with ranchers are using cattle to restore native plant species by grazing invasive grasses. Other groups are working with fish-ermen to fish sustainably, and using logging and mining profits to pave way for forest and salmon restoration.

“There’s been a shift to working more with industries,” said Lynn Huntsinger, professor of rangeland ecology at the University of California, Berkeley. “This is a human land-scape. We need food, we need wood, people are crazy about eating salmon. Working closely with those who produce on the land offers opportunities for ... teaching them about con-servation.”

In the past, conservationists relied on pur-chasing land and setting it aside, away from human activity. Logging, ranching or mining were seen as harmful and incompatible with preservation.

But in recent years, the use of conservation

By Gosia Wozniackaassociated Press

FRIANT, Calif. — Two cowboys on horses pushed cattle across an expanse of golden hills overgrown with tall grasses and oak trees, up an unpaved road toward another pasture.

From the Sierra Nevada foothills, the cattle will be sent for processing into beef, prized by consumers looking for locally raised, grass-fed meat in California’s Central Valley.

But this isn’t a ranch. It’s a nature preserve managed by the Sierra Foothill Conservancy, a Fresno-area land trust that protects ecosys-tems. The Conservancy says it is breaking new ground by raising its own beef herd, using cattle to benefit the environment and to improve its bottom line.

The beef operation is one of several novel approaches — cost-effective, though paradoxi-cal — that marry conservation work with industries often held in low esteem by environ-mentalists.

assoCiaTeD Press

Cattle graze on the Finegold Creek Preserve near Friant, Calif. The preserve is owned by the Sierra Foothill Conservancy.

conservationists team up with

ranchers, loggers


Locally-owned & operated | Fully licensed & insuredwww.cciroofingsystems.com

COMMERCIALMETAL ROOFING SYSTEMS TPO & EPDM SINGLE PLY

MOD. BIT & ROOF COATINGSAPARTMENTS &

INSURANCE WORK

Stay dry with1-888-439-8987

Divisions in Bloomington, Jeffersonville

& Columbus

(812) 372-7829

Mike [email protected]

Dan [email protected]

land was once controversial.But over the past decade, studies have shown

that cattle grazing can help the land, espe-cially vernal pools, temporary collections of water that provide crucial habitat for native plants and invertebrates, said executive director Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis.

“If we don’t graze the foothills, then the European grasses end up choking out a lot of the native plants, and it really decreases the biodiversity of the habitat,” Tuitele-Lewis said.

So-called conservation grazing is increas-ingly used by land trusts and public agencies on preserves and on private ranches throughout the U.S., she said. Most lease land to ranchers, but the Conservancy took the practice a step further. Two years ago, it started its own beef herd under the label Sierra Lands Beef.

The group now runs about 300 cows on 1,800 acres of land. The beef operation pro-vides an additional revenue stream, Tuitele-Lewis said, and allows greater control over grazing management.

The conservancy’s herdsmen transport the cattle, five head at a time, to Fresno State University’s slaughterhouse to be butchered, processed and boxed. They then deliver the grass-fed beef to customers.

“We’ve come to the realization that you don’t try to do everything yourself. You catalyze the adoption of practices by having ranchers, fishermen and logging companies adopt them, so that you can have widespread impact,” said the group’s North and Central Coast Director Brian Stranko.

But ecologist George Wuerthner says such approaches do more harm than good.

“Given all the impacts associated with these operations, it’s troubling to call it conservation,” said Wuerthner, who works for the California nonprofit Foundation for Deep Ecology.

Wuerthner said using terms such as “conser-vation grazing” gives people the false impres-sion that the practices lack negative costs or impacts. These include damage to riparian areas and to soil, ranchers killing predators, and water pollution from animal waste, he said.

The Sierra Foothill Conservancy says it man-ages grazing to minimize impact on species, leaves some areas ungrazed, and keeps cattle out of riparian habitat. The group hopes to bring other ranchers under its beef label — and in line with its conservation efforts. If these ranchers can get higher premiums for grass-fed meat, it translates into less pressure to sell land to developers.

Other conservationists are teaming up with private timber investors such as the Lyme Timber Co. based in New Hampshire. The company acquires quality habitat that doubles as timberland, gives up development rights by selling conservation easements to land trusts and public agencies throughout the U.S., then logs the land in a sustainable way to generate an income.

Timber is harvested at or below the annual rate of growth, said Peter Stein, the company’s managing director, and harvesting methods are third party certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

The approach is key, Stein said, as conser-vationists aim to preserve larger tracts of land — in the hundreds of acres — which are too expensive to buy outright.

The Nature Conservancy is also partner-ing with the timber industry in California and Alaska to restore salmon by felling trees to cre-ate stream habitat.

The group has also partnered with the fish-ing industry. It bought out fishing permits in California and in Maine to protect millions of acres of ocean habitat, then leased the permits back to fishermen who agreed to fish sustain-ably.


By chris O’brienLos angeles Times

After tiptoeing out of the long shadow of Steve Jobs last year, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook took a giant leap into the spotlight in December.

In a kind of transparency rarely practiced by his enigmatic predecessor, Cook granted a pair of candid interviews that underscored the difference in both style and substance between the two men.

They also served as the latest sign of how Cook has embraced the Apple motto to “Think Different” as he methodically and quietly reshapes the culture and business of the com-pany he inherited.

“He’s the kinder, gentler Apple,” said Carl Howe, a longtime Apple analyst for market advisory firm International Data Corp.

“This is a big, multinational corporation. I think Tim has done a better job of recognizing that,” Howe said. “Jobs could remember when it was just three guys in a garage. When you get to be one of the largest companies in the world, you need a different skill set.”

Cook has dramatically expanded the pace of Apple’s product introduction, rolling out in the last few months the iPhone 5, a new iPad, upgrades to the iPod line and the new iPad Mini at a size that Jobs once dismissed as too small.

But Cook also addressed the tone of Apple when he restructured management by dismiss-ing an executive who had been a favorite of Jobs to emphasize collegiality over confronta-tion.

Such a break has drawn some applause. But it has not been without risks, analysts said. And there have been stumbles, as witnessed by the Apple Maps controversy that raised questions about whether the company’s design instincts had weakened without the heavy hand of Jobs to guide them to perfection.

Analysts also acknowledge the general con-cern that Cook still may not have the chops to push more new products down the pipeline — electronics that change the way people work and live.

Still, in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Cook insisted that the blessing to change direction and chart his own course came from Jobs himself in the weeks before the company’s co-founder died.

“He goes, ‘I never want you to ask what I would have done,’ ” Cook recalled. “ ‘Just do

have a responsibility to create a certain kind of job, but I think we do have a responsibility to create jobs. I think we have a responsibility to give back to the communities, to pick ways that we can do that.”

Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, said the amount of manufacturing moved to the U.S. was likely to be small. Though it might bolster Apple’s reputation, he said, that prob-ably wasn’t the main motivation for Cook.

Still, Cook’s comments were unlikely ever to have come from Jobs, who bristled at such notions as the company’s social impact and charitable giving.

One of the first big departures for Cook was the way he handled mounting criticism of the labor practices of Apple’s overseas manufactur-ing partners, particularly the Foxconn plants in China that faced accusations of overworking and underpaying underage employees.

After touring Chinese factories, Cook raised the standards that partners were expected to meet. He signed on with the Fair Labor Association to conduct independent inspections of Apple suppliers.

Cook’s experience building and running Apple’s supply chain put him in closer touch with those who make the company’s products, Howe said. Indeed, the creation of Apple’s world-class manufacturing system had been Cook’s crowning achievement.

But his changes haven’t gone far enough or fast enough to suit many critics. Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director of corporate responsibility group SumOfUs, said the return of some manufacturing to the U.S. was too small to do anything more than buff Apple’s image.

“It does not change the fact that their entire business model relies on the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers,” she said. “Apple has an obligation, and Tim Cook personally has an obligation, to address this problem. He knows better than anyone how these people are treated since he was in charge of the supply chain.”

Jobs hired the 6-foot-1, soft-spoken Alabama native in 1998 from Compaq Computers. It was a big risk for Cook because at the time Apple was still struggling for survival. But Cook told Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he couldn’t resist the chance to work with the

what’s right.’ He was very clear.”Longtime Apple observers said Cook has

taken that advice to heart, though at his own pace.

“He didn’t simply want to start as CEO by making radical changes,” said Regis McKenna, the Silicon Valley marketing legend who began working with Apple in its earliest days. “He doesn’t do precipitous acts just to be differ-ent. He is thoughtful and methodical. He does things because he thinks they’re right.”

The latest and most surprising change that resulted from Cook’s deliberative process was revealed when he announced that Apple intended to move some of its manufacturing back to the United States.

Cook said the company would invest $100 million to begin building some Mac comput-ers domestically, though he didn’t specify the location. Apple assembles some products in the U.S., but it doesn’t disclose how many or where.

Just as remarkable to many observers were the reasons: Cook said he believed that the company did have an obligation to play a social role above and beyond the goal of fattening the bottom line.

“I do feel we have a responsibility to create jobs,” Cook told Bloomberg. “I don’t think we

apple cEO tim cook moves out of Steve Jobs’ shadow

© 2012 MCT

iTunes 64% Google 54%

iPhone 34

RIM 8Others 4

iPad 54%HP 27%

Dell 21

Mac 14

Lenovo 9Others 29

Android 43

Others 3

Amazon 16

All others 20

Mac’s share of the PC market

iPad’s share of the tablet market

iTunes share of the online music market

iPhone’s share of the smartphone market

Source: Gartner, NPD Group, IDC, comScoreGraphic: Los Angeles Times

NOTE: Market share data are from the third quarter of 2012 for PCs, a 2012 forecast for tablets, second quarter of 2012 for music, and three-month average ended in October for smartphones; all numbers are rounded; PC, music and smartphone market are U.S. only; tablet market share is worldwide

Slice of the pieSince taking the helm at Apple, Tim Cook has been reshaping the culture and business of the company amid increasing competition from rivals on all fronts.

see applE on page 19


Is your business a great place to work?

COACh’s CORnERmARk mCnuLTy

I talk to many business owners who are excited about the pros-pects for their business in 2013, with local and regional economies improving, consumer attitudes holding steady and the uncertainty of the elections over with. The number one thing they are looking for is that little edge that will help them outshine their competition.

For them, and every other busi-ness that wants to grow revenues and profits, my recommendation is to look inside your business and see what you are doing with your biggest asset — employees. Your employees can make or break your business in the coming year, so what are you doing to create a great place for them to work?

In their book “First, Break All the Rules,” Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman used extensive research data to identify 11 sim-ple, common questions to ask your team to determine if you have cre-ated a workplace that allows them to excel, which in turn allows you to grow profitably. The first four questions are a great start to creat-ing an environment that will allow

their friends and family the same thing. Unfortunately, they rarely tell their teams how much they appreciate them.

I coach my clients to try to catch their employees doing something right. People like to be recognized for their efforts, even when their efforts don’t achieve the results we hoped for. Make sure that you and the rest of your leadership team are paying attention to the efforts and results your team is getting for you and your clients, and let indi-vidual team members know that their efforts/results were noticed and appreciated.

4 — Does my supervisor, or someone else, seem to care about me as a person? In addition to the need to be recognized for our efforts and results, we also have a basic need to matter. Do you treat your employees as merely cogs in the wheel, or do you actually rec-ognize that they have basic needs as human beings that you should be meeting?

What do you and your leader-ship team do to let your employees know that you care about them?

your team to work with you to excel in 2013.

1 — Do i know what is expect-ed of me? The number one prob-lem that employees have today is not knowing what is expected of them. They do not understand what results they are expected to achieve, nor do they understand how these results are measured. What are you doing to ensure that your team knows what you expect, and how you measure it, in terms that they understand?

2 — Do i have the materials and equipment i need to do what is expected of me? Once your team knows what is expected, do they believe that they have every-thing they need to actually per-form to your expectations? Have your expectations for productivity changed over the years without updates to the tools and equip-ment you provide your team?

3 — in the last seven days, have i received recognition or praise for doing good work? Business owners often tell me how much they appreciate their teams. They also tell other business owners,

Do you stop and ask them how their weekend was? Do you know what is going on in their lives? Remember the old saying, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Don’t just tell them how much you care, show them as well by doing the little things that make them feel like they are important to you as more than just a number.

So what would happen if you gave your team these four ques-tions as a little survey, with ques-tions rated from 1 to 5? What could you learn about your team? What could your team learn about you, just by asking them? What will you then do with the results?

If you want a great 2013 and beyond, you need to master the process of creating a great place to work, and asking your team what that looks like to them might be a great start.

Mark McNulty is a business coach with ActionCoach Business Coaching. He can be reached at 372-7377 or [email protected].

dynamic Jobs.“Five minutes into my initial interview with

Steve, I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind and join Apple,” Cook told Isaacson. “My intuition told me that joining Apple would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for a creative genius.”

Cook set about overhauling Apple’s manu-facturing and supply chains, which were in dis-array. He is the architect of a system that is the envy of gadget-makers around the world and was a crucial part of Apple’s revival. But it was also a shift that relied heavily on outsourcing

And that means that Cook, who once told Isaacson he’d “prefer my name never be in the paper,” will have to continue to embrace a larger role as a public figure.

“I think we all miss Steve,” McKenna said. “He was such an unusual dynamic character that it seemed that Tim would always be in his shadow.

“But when you start running a billion-dollar company, you have a responsibility to meet with analysts, journalists and a public to keep the company’s image alive and strong,” he said. “Tim Cook is his own person, and we’re all starting to finally see that.”

almost all of Apple’s manufacturing overseas.When the temperamental Jobs grew so sick

he could no longer run Apple last year, he pushed the board to make the more mellow Cook his successor.

Jobs told Isaacson he did have one reserva-tion about Cook: “Tim’s not a product person, per se.”

Howe said the best way for Cook to calm investors was to continue to deliver stellar results. But Howe said it’s also important that investors and customers continue to get to know the man who carries the burden of Apple’s success.

applE continued from page 18


By anna M. tinsleyfort Worth star-Telegram

Francey Freeman has seen the cost of doing business go sky-high.

Prices for buying helium to fill balloons and rental tanks at her Balloons Fantastique in Fort Worth have dramatically increased in the past year, because of a worldwide shortage of the lighter-than-air gas.

“Prices have quadrupled,” said Freeman. “And the price just went up again a couple of weeks ago. The more prices go up, the less people are able to get it. Thank goodness I can still get it. I don’t know what I would do if they told me one day I couldn’t get any more.”

Freeman is among the many florists and bal-loonists nationwide finding it harder to do busi-ness because the supply of helium — a tasteless, odorless, colorless gas that inflates balloons and cools MRI machines — is not just getting more costly, but also harder to find.

Texas is home to the country’s only Federal Helium Reserve, a site outside Amarillo where more than one-third of the world’s helium sup-ply is produced, and the federal government has worked for years to deplete that supply.

Congress more than 15 years ago created a law requiring reserve officials to sell off their helium — thereby privatizing the helium indus-try — by 2015. Now a handful of congres-sional leaders are trying to prevent the reserve from depleting its helium supply and closing its doors.

program in 1925 to make sure they had adequate supplies of the gas for medicinal pur-poses, research and defense.

Although various sites throughout the state supplied helium through the years, the remain-ing site — an underground geological forma-tion that stores crude helium — is about 15 miles northwest of Amarillo. Workers there retrieve helium and pump it to customers connected to a nearly 450-mile pipeline that stretches from the Texas Panhandle through Oklahoma and to Kansas.

“Helium is the second-most abundant ele-ment in the universe, but here on Earth, it’s rather rare,” said Dr. Peter Wothers, a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a University of Cambridge chemist, who recently warned that the end of helium may be near. “Most people guess that we extract helium from the air, but actually we dig it out of the ground.”

Some projections show there are about 11 billion cubic feet of helium at the North Texas facility — less than half what was once there. Workers there have said they likely won’t be able to sell off all the helium by 2015, but 2020 might be a reasonable target.

“Aside from being used to fill balloons, both for our entertainment, and for more serious purposes, such as for weather balloons, helium is used in other applications which depend on its unique properties,” Wothers has said. “Being so light, and yet totally chemically inert, helium can be mixed with oxygen in order to make breathing easier. This mixture, known as heliox, can help save newborn babies with breathing problems, or help underwater divers safely reach the depths of the oceans.

“At minus 269 degrees centigrade, liquid helium has the lowest boiling point of any substance,” he said. “Because of this, it is used to provide the low temperatures needed for superconducting magnets, such as those used in most MRI scanners in hospitals.”

U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., released a discussion draft of the Responsible Helium Administration and Stewardship Act — geared to put in place “a common sense plan” to sell helium from the reserve “in a responsible man-ner.”

“This bill is an opportunity for both sides of the aisle to come together and fix a problem that will have serious impacts on American jobs and the economy,” Hastings said.

“Reforms are necessary to inject competition and obtain a more accurate price for helium that gets a fair return for taxpayers.”

This measure would put in place a system to operate the reserve over the next decade, or until it runs out of helium; set fair prices; and ensure that retailers and the government alike get a fair share of the remaining gas.

Although it’s the second-most abundant ele-ment in the universe, helium is running out.

The bulk of the world’s helium supply — which also is used in medical scanners, LCD screens, welding, electronics, metals, fiber optics, high-tech computer chips, aerospace and research — is created through natural radioac-tive decay and can’t be artificially created.

Federal officials created a federal helium

HeliumWhat is it? a colorless, tasteless, odorless gas. it’s the second most abundant element, after hydrogen, in the universe. it doesn’t react with other elements.

chemical symbol: he

atomic number: 2

Melting point: -457.6 degrees fahrenheit

What is it used for? Party balloons, blimps, cooling Mri machines, pressurizing the inside of liquid fuel rockets and even helping deep-sea divers, who breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen while underwater, avoid disorientation. other applications include welding, electronics, metals, fiber optics, aerospace and research.

— U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Chemicalelements.com

as supply shrinks, price of helium soars

MCT

The price of helium has affected business for Francey Freeman at Balloons Fantastique in Fort Worth, Texas.


— Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University

Business indicators for Bartholomew county pERcEnt cHanGES nOV 12/ nOV 12/ DEScRiptiOn nOV 12 Oct 12 nOV 11 Oct 12 nOV 11

Labor force 41,628 42,058 39,262 -1.0 6.0

household employment 39,151 39,769 36,502 -1.6 7.3

unemployment rate (pct) 6.0 5.4 7.0 — —

BusInEss LeaDs dECEmBER

cOMMERcial BuilDinG pERMitS15531 N SR 9 NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING $200,000 HAW CREEK MENNONITE CHURCH OWNER JESSE HORST CONTRACTOR NEW HAW CREEK MENNONITE CHURCH

3116 20TH ST DEMOLITION JACK IN THE BOX OWNER JERRY L JOHNSON TRUCKING & EXC CONTRACTOR DEMO BUSINESS

2020 NATIONAL RD DEMOLITION $1,400 JACK IN THE BOX OWNER JERRY L JOHNSON TRUCKING & EXC CONTRACTOR DEMO

2040 NATIONAL RD DEMOLITION JACK IN THE BOX OWNER JERRY L JOHNSON TRUCKING & EXC CONTRACTOR DEMO FOR JACK IN THE BOX

2725 W 450 S NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING $160,000 CUMMINS INC OWNER TAYLOR BROTHERS

CONTRACTOR NEW COM BLDG/WAREHOUSE 6250 SF

RED FOX TR NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING $10,000 CORNERSTONE DEVELOPMENT OWNER GREENLEE, BRIAN CONTRACTOR FOX RIDGE/ACCESORY BUILDING

RESiDEntial BuilDinG pERMitS4678 BAYVIEW DR $125,000 NEW 3044 SF RES/BMT/GAR MILLER, BILL/MILLER HOMES OWNER C.L. MILLER HOME BUILDERS

7535 E 525N $290,000 NEW 3755 SF RES/BMT/GAR PETERS, AARON OWNER BANISTER CONSTRUCTION BUILDER

1942 HEATHROW DR $200,000 NEW 2769 SF RES/GAR PHILLIPS DEVELOPMENT INC OWNER/BUILDER

3440 LAKE STREAM DR $115,680 NEW 2175 SF RES/GAR BEAZER HOMES OWNER/BUILDER

CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTOR BLDG FOR GENERATOR

7715 S INTERNATIONAL DR COMMERCIAL REMODEL $98,912 BRIAN MEYER OWNER PROLIFT INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT CONTRACTOR INTERIOR REMODEL

3271 W 650 N COMMERCIAL REMODEL $15,000 AMERICAN TOWER CORP OWNER/CONTRACTOR CELL TOWER REMODEL

525 JACKSON ST COMMERCIAL REMODEL $833,700 CUMMINS INC OWNER FA WILHELM CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTOR CUMMINS REMODEL 16247 SF

7660 S INTERNATIONAL DR COMMERCIAL REMODEL $111,552 CUMMINS INC OWNER FORCE CONSTRUCTION CO INC CONTRACTOR CUMMINS REMODEL 857 SF

4570 PROGRESS DR NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING $160,000 FASNACHT, JEFF OWNER BUILDING CONCEPTS OF INDIANA

1985 LAKECREST DR $155,900 NEW 3181 SF RES/GAR BEAZER HOMES OWNER/BUILDER



12844 N GERMAN DR $175,000 NEW 3401 SF RES/GAR CORONADO CUSTOM HOMES OWNER/BUILDER

6134 PELICAN LN $263,000 3174 RES NEW M/I HOMES OF INDIANA OWNER/BUILDER

11515 S 25 W $390,000 NEW 5710 SF RES/BMT/GAR SMITH, PATRICK OWNER JONES CONSTRUCTION BUILDER

2288 SHADOW BEND DR $120,000 NEW 2261 SF RES/GAR BEAZER HOMES OWNER/BUILDER

see lEaDS on page 22


A realistic view of Indiana’s economy

EyE On ThE pIEmORTOn mARCus

You cannot blame Mike Pence for delivering an upbeat inaugural address. Let’s just hope he has a clear understanding of Indiana’s real economic circumstances.

Take a look at the contrast between 2011, the last year for which we have full data, and eight years earlier. This is not to say that the Daniels administration is responsible for the problems we face. No state administration is capable of offsetting the trends of the times.

In fact, it is best, from a purely political point of view, for gover-nors not to raise economic expecta-tions in areas where they are most-ly powerless. For example, Daniels set a goal of raising Indiana’s per capita personal income (PCPI) closer to the national average.

In 2003, Indiana’s PCPI was 9

the nation. More important, it was a mere one percentage point great-er than the increase in consumer prices. One percentage point of real increase in compensation per job over an eight year period!

As we step back and look at the state’s economy, we see that Indiana’s Gross Domestic Product went from 15th largest in the country to 17th as we were passed by Maryland and Minnesota. Our total output of goods and services was 7 percent less than it would have been if we had but grown at the national rate of increase.

In manufacturing, there is a deceptive bright point. Indiana moved from producing the eighth largest value of output to sixth place. This occurred because Pennsylvania and Michigan slipped drastically during those eight years.

percent below the national aver-age. We ranked 33rd among the 50 states. Eight years later, we ranked 40th in the nation, 14 per-cent below the United States aver-age. Our average annual growth rate was 2.4 percent, the fourth lowest in the nation.

PCPI is the result of dividing personal income by population. It turns out our personal income growth rate was the third lowest in America, just below Ohio and Michigan. If it were not for the slow rate of growth in population (0.6 percent annually), Indiana’s PCPI could have been even lower.

In 2003, the average com-pensation per job in Indiana was $42,489. This grew to $51,297 by 2011. Sounds good, but over the course of eight years that 21 per-cent growth was second lowest in

While our average annual growth rate was 2.5 percent, the nation advanced by 3.7 percent and Indiana’s share of all manufac-turing in the U.S. shrank.

These are but a few of the eco-nomic facts of the past eight years. The self-congratulatory notes struck by the outgoing and the incoming administrations concern-ing our fiscal circumstances high-light their values. They believe it is appropriate to sacrifice services to the disadvantaged, the poor, and the state’s students in order to protect private consumption.

While Indiana enjoys a fiscal surplus, we suffer from a deficit of social responsibility.

Morton Marcus is an independent economist, writer and speaker. Contact him at [email protected].

2323 SHADOW BEND DR $117,815 NEW 2570 SF RES/GAR BEAZER HOMES OWNER/BUILDER

2027 SHADOW CREEK BLVD $118,700 NEW 2506 SF RES/GAR BEAZER HOMES OWNER/BUILDER

661 SMITH ST $120,000 NEW 1790 SF RES/GAR MCCRORY, JERRY OWNER MCCRORY CONSTRUCTION INC BUILDER

671 SMITH ST $120,000 NEW 1825 SF RES/GAR

AUBREY JONES DBA SILVER STATION VIDEO PRODUCTIONS, 2234 HOME AVE., COLUMBUS

PHYSICIAN’S PRACTICE ORGANIZATION INC. DBA NEUROLOGY AND SLEEP SCIENCES, 1655 N. GLADSTONE AVE. SUITE C, COLUMBUS

PHYSICIAN’S PRACTICE ORGANIZATION INC. DBA PROMPTMED IMMEDIATE CARE, 2502 25TH ST., COLUMBUS, AND 3875 W. PRESIDENTIAL WAY, EDINBURGH

PHYSICIAN’S PRACTICE ORGANIZATION INC. DBA SOUTHERN INDIANA HEART AND VASCULAR, 2325 18TH ST., COLUMBUS

MCCRORY CONSTRUCTION INC OWNER/BUILDER

14021 W MT HEALTHY RD $239,000 NEW 4336 SF RES/BMT/GAR MORRIS, DONALD OWNER ROBINSON, LARRY E CONSTRUCTION BUILDER

4961 WEST QUINCY CT $221,500 NEW 2470 SF RES/GAR SKAGGS BUILDERS INC OWNER/BUILDER

cERtiFicatES tO DO BuSinESS unDER aSSuMED naMEELIZABETH AND CURT RUTAN DBA R&R LAWNCARE, 312 DELLA ROAD, COLUMBUS

ANDY AND ANNETTE HARDIN DBA HARDIN TOOLING AND MACHINE, 8829 GRANDVIEW ROAD, COLUMBUS

KATRINA TOVEY AND JENNIFER STIDHAM DBA ASSET SUPPLEMENTS LLC, COLUMBUS

EZEKIAL D. ALLMON DBA ALLMON COMPUTER & TECH SERVICES, COLUMBUS

PAUL D. BOYLE, LLC DBA LEARNINGVIEW

DEBORAH J. BURBRINK AND JODI ENGELSTAD DBA OUR BRIDES LLC, COLUMBUS

SIRENA STAMPER DBA S&S CLEANING, 8550 W. 930S, COLUMBUS

lEaDS continued from page 21

Start fi nding better today.http://www.columbusindianajobs.com/

Documents

Business Connection February 2013