Business Connection January 2015

A publication of

JANUARY 2015

Clear vision

Kenny Glass values collective effort for customer service JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection 1

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THERE’S AN

APP FOR THAT!

Now you can download The Republic on your Apple smartphone or tablet.

Subscribe to receive the E-edition regularly or purchase a single copy using your Apple account!

Go to TheRepublic.com/apps or call 812-379-5601 for more information.

JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection

3

editor’s note We are making some exciting changes to The Business Connection for 2015. In the 14 years since we published our first edition, we’ve tweaked the format a few times, most recently adding a slick cover in 2014.

For 2015 we’re going to a full glossy format that will publish four times a year. Our first issue will publish in early March. You will find all the content you’ve come to expect from The Business Connection, all in a sleek new package. And it’s free!

But there’s more. In addition to our normal lineup of news and features, On the Move, Around the Water Cooler, Chamber of Commerce news, columnists, etc., each issue will also include a special section focusing on one topic. In the March issue, that special section will focus on women in leadership, as we highlight several local women in business, health care and education.

You won’t want to miss it. And here is what you need to know to make sure you don’t.

We are creating a new mailing list for The Business

Connection. Starting with the March issue, the publication will be mailed to Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce members, using a list provided by the chamber.

If you are not sure whether or not this includes you, and you want to continue (or begin) receiving The Business Connection at no charge, you can ensure you don’t miss an issue by sending us an email at BZCT@ therepublic.com with your name and the mailing address where you would like your copy mailed.

Thank you for supporting The Business Connection for the past 14 years. We hope you’ll find the new and improved version essential reading. We’d like to hear what you think.

Also, feel free to send us your story ideas. We’re always looking for businesses and business people with an interesting story to tell. Send your comments and ideas to me at dshowalter@therepublic.com.

And don’t forget to email us to ensure you continue to receive your copy.

Doug Showalter

4 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

Contents

On the cover

Kenny Glass owner John McCormick with some of the work in progress at the company’s shop. Photo by Greg Jones. Story on page 6.

State chamber priorities page 10

Overcoming a bad brand page 16

Also inside

Language business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chamber Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Around the Water Cooler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Mark McNulty column. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 On the Move. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Business Leads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Morton Marcus column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Business Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Comments should be sent to Doug Showalter, The Republic, 333 Second St., Columbus, IN 47201 or call 812-379-5625 or dshowalter@therepublic. com. Advertising information: Call 812-379-5652. ©2015 by Home News Enterprises. All rights reserved. Reproduction of stories, photographs and advertisements without permission is prohibited. Stock images provided by © Thinkstock.

JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection 5

Eric Humes of Kenny Glass cuts stock sheets of glass to size as required for each project.

A business philosophy

Kenny Glass prides itself on teamwork and accountability

By Barney Quick n photos by Greg Jones

Businesses focused on specialized products and services are generally managed one of two ways: as an outgrowth of a skilled tradesperson’s experience with that field or as an opportunity to express a mission of service in the form of running a company. John McCormick manages Kenny Glass in the latter fashion.

In conversation and in the company’s printed materials, he is big on speaking about his vision of an effective team. To McCormick, it is composed of equal parts personal accountability and team members having each others’ backs.

“Glass installation is one of those businesses in which you can’t hide from the results,” he notes. “Glass itself is of no value without the delivery process, and by that I mean not only getting product to a site, but understanding and providing exactly what the customer wants.”

The Stow, Ohio, native and Kent State finance major had previously been the plant manager for a plastic-molding facility in Shelbyville.

“I had looked at probably half a dozen businesses to buy when I saw an ad for this one,” he says. He acquired its assets, inventory and name in 1995.

The firm had been founded in 1945 by Kenyon Kimbrough. It operated in two consecutive downtown locations until moving to its current space on the city’s north side. An interim ownership team ran it from 1973 until the sale to the McCormicks.

“I’d developed a philosophy based on working with a small group of highly talented people who were self-directing,” he says. “Everyone would be highly valued and compensated on results. I didn’t really know the glass industry. I was interested in the team-building process, determining where a person’s strengths are best utilized.”

The company currently has around 30 employees. McCormick is 6 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

grooming a group of longtime team members for leadership roles.

“They manage operations now,” he says. “My job is to stay six to eight months ahead of them and make sure new business is coming in.”

The glass business focuses on four main aspects: retail, commercial service, residential service and contract glazing. It serves a 100-mile radius that McCormick breaks down into three rings.

“Fifty percent of our business takes place within a 20-mile radius,” he says. “The 60-mile radius, which takes us to the north sides of Louisville and Indianapolis, accounts for an additional 35 percent. Out from there, we serve existing customers day in and day out and go wherever they go. We sometimes get as far away as Tennessee.”

The groups within the company that focus on the various aspects of the business each have their own estimating functions.

Overall, each instance of quoting a job turns out to be unique, according to McCormick.

“When working with an individual owner, you’re often a participant in the design process,” he says. “At the other end of the spectrum are jobs such as government projects. For those, there’s a massive set of requirements to go through before you even open up the drawings.”

Recently, the company has developed a full-fledged engineering department and hired a full-time architect. It has acquired the building south of its present site to accommodate its recent focus on the Colby brand of windows. McCormick says business volume has grown around 20 percent in the last year.

While he certainly had a learning curve to deal with, he says that even those staff members immersed in glass work are constantly being exposed to new situations.

“There’s not a day when we don’t all learn something new,” he

Above: The leadership team: seated, Jason Harrison, left, and Lonnie Fischer. Standing, from left, Dave Bush, John McCormick and Dan Law. Left: Using a template, Doug Lininger drills holes for cross-members in the long extrusions that will allow the parts to be fastened together to form window frames. says. “We’re dealing with glass, metal, hardware, everything associated with the exterior envelope of a building, as well as various internal structures. There’s medical glass, blast-resistant glass, acoustical glass.

You get a set of drawings or specs and see something you’ve never seen before.” He recalls customers who have asked for glass staircases, “and I mean steps and railings.”

He says his is a rapidly changing industry. “Building codes and energy codes keep evolving. There are structural changes in the context for glass, as well as coatings for, and compositions of, the glass itself.

Legislation has necessitated more focus on energy efficiency.”

The staff stays abreast of current knowledge through its membership in the National Glass Association, supplier-sponsored training, trade magazines and the Internet. Mostly, though, according to McCormick, it’s a matter of looking into the details of the current project before them.

McCormick reflects on some of the most interesting projects Kenny Glass has undertaken in his 17 years of stewardship. Perhaps most noteworthy was the walrus exhibit at the Indianapolis Zoo. “We were installing large panels that weighed 2,000 pounds apiece,” he recalls. “The walruses would break the glass with their tusks. The public was never in any danger because these panels were two and a half inches thick.” see Kenny Glass on page 8 JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection 7

Kenny Glass continued from page 7 He also mentions the sign at the Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans at the courthouse, which touched him because of what it signified. When Cummins Inc. was refitting the 301 Washington St. building, he says it was important to “stay true to J. Irwin Miller’s design, to retain that architectural integrity.” He says his team is particularly excited about helping to build the Cummins Wellness Center downtown.

Kenny Glass is civically involved. It contributed to the building of the new Commons and Mill Race Center, even though it did not do the glass work on those projects. It also sponsors Christmas gift drives for Turning Point Domestic Violence Services and a local radio station.

United Way and Volunteers in Medicine also receive its help.

McCormick feels that if a team is focused on the twin values of cooperation and personal accountability, it gains a collective sense of just how it should serve. “Our criteria for seeking business are right customer, right location, and whether the scope of work is within our ability to be profoundly competent.”

In speaking of his staff, he says that “they’ve made my dream possible. They’ve also built lives for themselves. I’ve seen people come here and really turn their circumstances around. A big reason for that is that they care about each other.”

McCormick says that the company’s sustainable competitive advantage is based on “doing what we say we will do. In the construction business, that’s not common.”

Upon completion of a job, a Kenny Glass customer gets a survey, with questions about promptness, workmanship and professional interaction. The feedback is taken quite seriously. “We want to leave every customer with a wow experience.”

Top: The exterior of WellConnect in downtown Columbus was a recent Kenny Glass project. Right center: A detail of a wooden residential window highlights the variety the company can offer its customers. Right bottom: The engineering and design team of Tom Newlin, left, and Carl Brown.

8 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

Internationalism prompts boom in language business

By Patrick Gillespie n Tribune News Service

WASHINGTON — It’s a high-stakes, multibillion-dollar industry with tight deadlines, demanding clients and lives at risk. Any miscommunication could cause a deep financial loss or death. Some in the industry work in war zones while others have cozy home offices.

“The stakes can be huge,” said Lillian Clementi, 55. “There’s tons of time pressure.”

The business is language. And it’s booming.

The number of jobs for translators and interpreters doubled in the past 10 years while their wages steadily grew before, during and after the recession.

Jobs are expected to grow 46 percent between 2012 and 2022, according to the Labor Department, making it one of the nation’s fastest growing occupations.

During a period of stagnating wages across the labor market, the language-service industry with its 50,000 jobs is a bright spot in the jobs outlook.

Clementi is a French translator who works in corporate communications from her home in Arlington, Va. She is routinely on tight deadlines to submit translated material.

One of her former clients, a French company, would send her legal documents to translate at the end of France’s workday — about midday on the East Coast. Clementi would translate the material and email it to another translator in Australia to double-check it. Then the Australian translator sent the translated documents back to France before the company’s offices opened the next day in Paris.

“It had literally gone around the globe,” said Clementi, who translates French into English.

“This has been going on forever in this industry.”

In some cases, a proper translation or interpretation is vital. If a user’s manual for medical equipment is not translated well, it could lead to confusion during an emergency.

Soldiers in conflict areas require excellent interpreters to speak with community members. Any change of tone or context could put lives at risk.

Translators’ and interpreters’ relative immunity to the nation’s economic downturn also highlights the growing demand for multilingual speakers in an increasingly globalized economy, experts said.

“Good translators who specialize in a particular subject and become really good at it can really make six-digit figures annually,” said Jiri Stejskal, spokesman for the American Translators Association. “The professional translators and interpreters ... they are pretty happy right now because the economy is good and the

Lillian Clementi of Arlington, Va., translates legal and financial documents from French into English for French corporations. | Photo by Patrick Gillespie/TNS jobs are there.”

Multinational corporations, U.S. demographic changes and the Internet economy raise the need for translated and localized information.

Companies increasingly want their content tailored to the tongue of the town, even between dialects of the same language. For instance, trousers in London are pants in Miami. And of course, words like pop and soda can seemingly vary by the neighborhood.

The number of translator and interpreter jobs went from about 25,000 to 50,000 between 2004 and 2012, according to Occupational Employment Statistics, a Labor Department subsidiary. The OES figures do not include self-employed workers.

But another Labor Department survey, Employment Projections, counts self-employed workers. Altogether, there were over 63,000 translators and interpreters in 2012, Employment Projections reported last year.

Ted Wozniak expected to earn a lowermiddle-class wage when he started as a freelance translator 15 years ago. Wozniak, 57, translates German financial documents, such as Adidas’ earnings report, into English. For the past 10 years his salary has hovered around $100,000, he said.

Companies in Western European, such as Germany, are required by law to translate their financial documents into English, Wozniak said. That requirement creates a demand

for his services.

Adjusted for inflation, the median annual salary for translators and interpreters rose from $44,500 to $53,410 between 2004 and 2012, according to Labor Department data. The majority of full-time workers are freelancers, and they are paid by the word, ranging from 7 cents a word to 30 cents, depending on the language and specialization, according to association.

“It can be rewarding both intellectually and financially, but it’s not a free lunch,” said Clementi, the French translator.

Qualifications for translators — who work with text — and interpreters — who work with spoken language — are not as simple as they may seem.

Speaking two languages does not mean a person can work in the language-service industry, experts said. Learning how to translate or interpret is a separate skill beyond knowing the language.

Furthermore, the most successful translators and interpreters maintain a specialty, such as legal documents, quarterly earnings reports or an industry expertise.

Technological advances may cut jobs in some industries, but online translation services like Google Translate actually raise demand for human translators and interpreters, experts said.

“Even Google doesn’t use Google Translate for their business documents,” said Clementi.

JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection 9

A message for the General Assembly State Chamber of Commerce outlines legislative priorities

By Barney Quick

Indiana’s business community has a number of issues it would like to see the upcoming Indiana General Assembly address. The issues span several realms, including education, infrastructure and tax policy.

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has distilled its wish list into seven top legislative priorities, as well as a list of additional areas of focus. The top seven items are a “de minimus” exception for small businesses filing personal property tax returns, publicly funded preschool initiatives, use of existing consortia tests for K-12 academic standards, making the public instruction superintendent position Kevin Brinegar governor-appointed, dedication of more of the gasoline sales tax to road upkeep, a work sharing program and a balanced budget.

Additional areas of focus include regulation of lawsuit lending, a statewide water policy, repeal of the smokers’ bill of rights, a wellness tax credit and wage assignment reform.

10 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

Dedication of more tax revenue to road maintenance, publicly funded preschool initiatives and a statewide long-term strategy to ensure a reliable water supply are three of the top seven legislative priorities set by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. | The Republic and Daily Journal file photos

With regard to filing personal property tax returns, the chamber is particularly concerned for the bottom half of the state’s small-business sector. Those businesses’ resources are strained by performing meticulous inventories and hiring accountants, and they often wind up having to pay very little.

Will elimination of the requirement for small firms be easy to accomplish? “It should be,” says chamber President Kevin Brinegar, “but ultimately, it will depend on how far the legislature chooses to go with this. For example, the very bottom 30,000 small businesses pay less than $5 in personal property tax. Everyone can agree that this is nonsense and they should be exempt. But the question becomes where to draw the line.

We would suggest that the General Assembly at least exempt the bottom 150,000 businesses who collectively only pay $10 million. In the context of $1.1 billion of personal property taxes paid statewide each year, $10 million is insignificant, and we would provide an exemption for over half of all businesses in Indiana.”

He would eventually like to see even more movement on this front, so as to make Indiana more competitive with other states: “A significant majority of states do not tax business machinery and equipment at all, including three of our surrounding states.

Taxing machinery and equipment is taxing business investments, which is bad tax policy.”

Bill Waltz, chamber vice president for taxation and public finance, concurs: “It’s counterproductive and a true deterrent to capital investment. Many Western states have never been very reliant on this tax, and states that do tax it have been moving away from it.”

Regarding the public funding of pre-K, the chamber leans toward maximizing parents’ choices for how to use the money. “Our preference is that the pre-K funding be made available to the parents for them to use for a preschool program of their choosing, provided there is a bona fide education component, be it public or private,” says Brinegar.

There will be challenges in the chamber’s pursuit of the use of existing consortia tests for Indiana’s K-12 academic standards, according to Brinegar. “Both the governor’s office and some legislative leaders have spoken of developing an Indiana specific test. This would be much more expensive — as much as $50 million to $100 million — than using and, in the few places necessary, modifying existing consortia tests that already match our standards well.”

The chamber’s position for over 25 years has been that the superintendent of public instruction should be appointed just like the heads of other departments. Brinegar says that the State Board of Education could unburden itself of the kind of feuding it currently engages in with current Superintendent Glenda Ritz.

The work-sharing program envisioned by the chamber would allow companies to keep employees at reduced hours during downturns by supplementing their pay with unemployment insurance. “When we move back toward full employment, employers will increase the hours of their employees and pull any employees on work share off of it and back to full-time (or more) employment,” says Brinegar.

Regarding smoking, the chamber feels that the basic right to choose whether to engage in an employment relationship lies with the employer. Brinegar says that “our view is that smoking should not receive/does not deserve the same employment law protections as race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion and disability. It doesn’t make sense. And given that there is a wealth of research to show that employees who smoke cost their employers significantly more in terms of health care costs, employers should be allowed to ask whether a prospective employee smokes and should be able to charge them higher deductibles and co-pays for health insurance.”

Brinegar asserts that long-term strategy is needed to ensure a reliable water supply. “Current sources are insufficient to meet the state’s needs in 2050. We need to develop new sources, and we need to take a hard look at the current governance structure.

Having over 800 separate municipal water systems/districts who don’t coordinate services and share resources is a very inefficient and costly way to provide water to Hoosiers. This will need to change over time.”

Would there be any problem fully funding the General Fund if the full 7 cents of the gasoline sales tax went to road upkeep?

“Well, yes and no,” says Waltz. “It can be done, but not without some consequence, meaning those tax dollars — around $200 million — would be diverted from other state programs. Most agree that it makes complete sense to apply the gasoline sales tax to road and infrastructure maintenance, but the tradeoffs will have to be considered.”

The Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce does not take positions on issues, according to chamber President Cindy Frey.

Its members are free to support or oppose legislative initiatives as individual entities.

JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection 11

chamberc JANUARY 2015

Monthly publication of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerc

Meet your legislators at the 2015 Third House Sessions It is critically important for our business community to stay engaged in the legislative process at the state and national level. Some chambers across the state endorse a specific legislative agenda that they push on behalf of their members.

However, that’s never been the approach of this organization. Instead we host weekly forums, called Third House Sessions, while the Indiana General Assembly is in session, so that you may advocate on behalf of the issues that concern you and your business.

As a new year dawns, plan to attend these sessions to have faceto-face interactions with your elected officials. Third House Sessions take place on Monday mornings, starting at 7:30 in the Cal Brand Room at City Hall. The early start time enables our legislators to meet constituents prior to commuting to the Statehouse for the week.

This year, the state legislature will hold the long session, as is the custom every other year. Therefore, we’ll begin our programs starting

12 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

on Feb. 2 and end in late April. Indiana’s budget will be at the center of the debates. Resources are tight, and the demands are unending.

Here are a few of the hot topics that likely will be discussed this year: • The definition of marriage.

• Wage regulations for construction workers on public projects.

• Drug testing of welfare recipients.

• Regulating tax increment financing districts.

• Educational reforms, focusing on vouchers, charter schools and the powers of the state’s superintendent of public instruction.

• Gun laws.

• Public funding of preschool.

• Expansion of health care coverage.

• Changes in the gambling laws.

• Marijuana and alcohol regulations.

Chances are there is something on this list that inspires passion in you, your co-workers or your employees. The Third House Session is designed to give you all a voice. Come exercise your freedom of speech this year.

Cindy Frey President

Ribbon Cuttings

Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Indiana Realty – Columbus 1015 Third St.

Pawlus Dental 4001 W. Goeller Blvd.

www.columbusar

connection

ce • 500 Franklin Street • Columbus, IN 47201 • 812-379-4457

Franciscan Physician Network, Columbus Primary & Specialty Care 123 Second St.

Growing BUSINESS. Growing people.

Indiana Smokehouse 2825 Middle Road

Third House begins in February Third House is a weekly forum with local legislators from the Indiana General Assembly designed to generate dialogue between citizens and elected officials. The 2015 sessions will begin at 7:30 a.m. Feb. 2. Sessions will be held in the Cal Brand meeting room at City Hall. They are free and open to the public.

TEN Roundtable Tri-State Artisans 422 Washington St.

areachamber.com

Friday, Jan. 9 8 to 9 a.m.

Columbus Visitors Center Free for members, $5 for non-members Register online at www.columbusareachamber.com.

JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection 13

Around the WATER COOLER Kimball sets factory consolidation

JASPER — Office furniture maker Kimball International says it plans to sell a metal-fabrication facility in Idaho and move that work to existing company factories in southern Indiana.

The Jasper-based company says it will spend about $9.5 million to transfer the production to three Indiana factories over the next two years. Kimball officials say they are actively trying to sell its Post Falls, Idaho, facility.

The company says it expects to add up to 160 jobs at the southern Indiana factories with the increased production. Kimball now has about 2,000 full-time employees at 17 locations in Indiana. It expects to save money after the consolidation by having production facilities closer together.

Old-growth forest gets protection

SHELBYVILLE — Indiana’s last unprotected stretch of oldgrowth forest is now safe from development and will open to the public in 2016 for hiking and nature walks.

The Indiana Bicentennial Nature Trust provided $274,000 to help the Central Indiana Land Trust buy the 60-acre Meltzer Woods in Shelby County. That forest was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1973 and includes trees that are more than 200 years old.

Central Indiana Trust executive director Cliff Chapman says Indiana has few places like Meltzer Woods, which boasts huge old trees that predate Indiana becoming a state in 1816.

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The Herbert Simon Family Foundation contributed $60,500 toward the land purchase, the Blue River Community Foundation added $30,000 and the Indiana Heritage Trust contributed $14,000.

Auto parts plant to open

EVANSVILLE — A Michigan-based automotive supplier has announced plans for its first Indiana operation. Fisher Dynamics said it will create 169 jobs within two years of the opening of a 113,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Evansville.

The privately owned company that makes automotive seating components plans to invest $13 million in the operation. It plans to manufacture and assemble front-row seat structures at the new plant.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Fisher & Co., which owns Fisher Dynamics, as much as $1.2 million in conditional tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants based on job creation plans. The Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville has also offered support through the proposal of an incentives package that includes an eight-year tax phase-in on personal property.

The average wage at the Evansville plant is expected to be about $19.61 per hour. The company plans to begin operations in May. Fisher has operations in the U.S., Mexico, Germany, Poland, China and India. It currently employs about 1,700 people across the globe.

Assembly Hall renovation ok’d

BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana University board of trustees has approved design plans for a $35 million renovation of 43-year-old Assembly Hall, clearing way for construction to begin April 1. The project is expected to be completed for the 2016-17 basketball season.

The design calls for the south lobby to have a glass wall for a view onto the court as well as interactive displays where fans can learn about past Indiana University athletes. The arena also will have an event suite that can fit 275 people and box seating for 112 in groups of six. The box seats will have TV monitors on the railings in front of them that architect James Schellinger says won’t block the view.

Outside of the south lobby will be a plaza area replacing the current circle driveway. The plaza will have green space and connect Assembly Hall to neighboring Cook Hall.

The trustees previously approved renovations to IU’s basketball arena at their June meeting after a $40 million donation from Indianapolis philanthropist Cindy Simon Skjodt, the daughter of late Indiana Pacers co-owner and shopping mall magnate Melvin Simon, in December, 2013. The donation is part of an ongoing $150 million athletics capital projects campaign. The building will be re-named Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Busy year at Lake Michigan port

PORTAGE — Officials say increased shipments of grain and steel are leading to the busiest year in more than a decade at Indiana’s main Lake Michigan port.

The Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor surpassed its previous fiveyear average of total annual shipments by the end of September.

Port director Rick Heimann says much of its increased traffic involved manufacturers in northwestern Indiana and Chicago, along with metal processors who’ve expanded operations.

Officials expect the amount of cargo handled at the port should be up 25 percent this year over 2013.

Office furniture maker shuts down

JASPER — A southern Indiana company that makes wooden office furniture has closed after more than six decades, costing more than 80 workers their jobs. Inwood Office Furniture Chairman Glen Sturm said the Jasper plant ceased operations Nov. 26. He blamed the move on a continuing drop in demand “for quality wood private office furniture.”

Inwood had 85 employees and was incorporated in 1948 as the Jasper Table Co. in the city about 50 miles northeast of Evansville.

Sturm says changes in the economy, work styles and technology have reduced demand for Inwood’s furniture products and that demand had not rebounded despite the economic recovery.

State contracts for veterans

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana has exceeded a goal of awarding at least 3 percent of state contracts each year to veteran-owned businesses. Last fiscal year Indiana awarded just over 4 percent of state contracts to veteran-owned businesses.

Indiana Department of Administration data show that those 13 contracts were worth $8 million.

Shortly after Pence took office in 2013, he signed an executive order setting a target of 3 percent of state contracts being awarded to veteran-owned businesses. That goal was then endorsed by the Indiana General Assembly and is now state law.

Insurer buys Arena naming rights

INDIANAPOLIS — The renaming of the renovated Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum comes with a fat cat on the building’s roof.

The arena will be known as Indiana Farmers Coliseum after Carmel-based Indiana Farmers Mutual Insurance Co. signed a 10-year, $6 million naming rights contract. The deal includes installing a sign on the roof of comic-strip cat Garfield, which was created by Indiana cartoonist Jim Davis and is part of the company’s marketing campaign.

The 75-year-old arena was known as Pepsi Coliseum from 1991 until the soft-drink company’s contract ended in 2012. The arena reopened in April after a $63 million renovation.

The Indy Fuel minor league hockey team, which started playing at the arena this season, negotiated the contract with the insurance company and will get to keep the money under its lease.

— Wire Reports JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection 15

Businesses with the name ‘Isis’ are fighting bad brand image

By TOM MURPHY n AP Business Writer

Aeran Brent is tired of visitors asking about her store’s name or snapping pictures of the sign outside.

Unfortunately, that’s life for a small business owner whose shop — Isis Bridal and Formal — shares a name with ISIS, the acronym of a notorious Islamic militant group that the United States is fighting in Iraq and Syria.

“I’m just like, ‘Come on!’” she says. “I get what’s going on, but can you see it’s a store?”

Brent denies any connection with the other ISIS, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and says she wants to rename her store.

“Isis” is part of more than 270 product, service or business names among active federal trademarks, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. But businesses are not required to register their names, so it is difficult to say how many companies use “Isis,” which is also the name of an Egyptian and pagan goddess.

For those companies, the “Isis” name can be damaging. Branding experts say an unfortunate association with a name can scar a company’s reputation even if the connection is coincidental.

Take Isis Collections Inc., a New Jersey company that makes weaves, wigs and hair pieces.

CEO Phillip Shin says stores have told him that customers will put his company’s products back on the shelf after noticing the Isis label.

“It’s so stressful,” Shin says, noting that he has spent 20 years building the company’s reputation.

“I’ve lost all the benefit of the brand image.”

Shin, who named his company after the Egyptian goddess, started removing the Isis label from some packages. But he’s reluctant to give up on such an established brand. He says he wishes the U.S. and European media would stop referring to the militant group as ISIS. Isis Collections has had no sales problems in South Korea, where the media only refers to the group as the Islamic State.

Another company, technology startup Isis Wallet, announced in September that it would change its name to Softcard. The joint venture involving AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless launched late last year with an app that allows people to use their smartphones while checking out at a store to get discounts and use credit or loyalty cards.

By June, company leaders were thinking about rebranding to avoid confusion with the militant group, which had taken over large swaths of Iraq and later filmed the beheadings of journalists and aid workers.

“However coincidental, we have no desire 16 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

Isis Wallet, now renamed Softcard, allows consumers to tap and pay. | PRNewsFoto/Isis

to share a name with this group, and our hearts go out to those affected by this violence,” CEO Michael Abbott said in a Sept. 3 blog post announcing the new name.

Softcard, which also picked its original name to reflect the Egyptian goddess, partners with major companies like American Express.

The startup’s executives were worried about asking those partners to continue promoting a product named Isis.

“We didn’t want to put anybody in a bad situation,” says Cie Nicholson, senior vice president of marketing.

Changing a brand or an established company name can be a costly and complex move. Just finding a memorable name can be hard because the best ideas are often taken or trademarked, says Allen Adamson, managing director of the branding

firm Landor Associates.

“It’s not just have a pizza lunch and quickly come up with an alternative,” he says.

Softcard’s name change makes sense to Joseph Lewis, a partner with the law firm of Barnes & Thornburg who specializes in trademarks. He noted that the company is new and still building its image. With the old name, they would have had to take the extra step of explaining that they weren’t tied to the Islamic State group.

“Brands are owned by companies, but it’s all in the public’s mind and you can only control so much,” he says. “They can control how it is presented, but they can’t always control how it’s perceived.”

More established brands that don’t deal directly with consumers may not take as much of a hit.

Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. has no plans to change a brand it has built over 25 years. The California company develops drugs and then partners with other companies to sell them.

It doesn’t sell products directly to consumers, and its name doesn’t even appear on any of the products it helped develop.

So far, only a few investors have asked company officials about the name.

“We’ve been around for a while,” says D. Wade Walke, vice president of corporate communications. “They can easily distinguish between us and a Middle Eastern terrorist group.”

coach’s corner

Mark McNulty

Goal setting: Divide to conquer Now is the time of year when every business owner should have already created annual business goals for 2015. If you have already done so, congratulations. If you haven’t, then do not fret; it is never too late to plan for success.

The power of goal setting is well documented, and there are hundreds if not thousands of books and articles out there on the topic, so I’m not going to try to convince you here if you still need that. What I want to do now is share some of my top tips for creating a great plan that you can actually accomplish.

First and foremost, make sure that your goal setting and planning include both business and personal items. As a business owner, you need to be planning for balance in your life, so I would suggest starting with your personal goals. The categories to consider for personal goals are health/fitness, financial, family, spiritual, education and fun. Never forget to plan to have fun.

The categories for business are sales, marketing, team, operations, finance and products/services. Be sure to consider goals in each area.

The next step is to be certain to break up your sales goals into smaller chunks. Since you are in business, I am already assuming that you will have a sales/revenue goal (if you don’t we need to talk). Too many business owners just say they want to increase sales by 10 percent or some other generic number. My recommendation is to look at the components of sales and set targets for those items, which will result in a much bigger sales increase when you put them back together.

For example, instead of increasing sales by 10 percent, let’s increase your number of leads by 5 percent, your conversion rate by 7 percent and your average sale amount by 5 percent. Since these components of sales multiply together to generate revenues, you would increase your sales by 18 percent if you accomplished these three smaller goals.

Just as important as sales goals are your profit goals. I assume that the purpose of sales is to end up with a net profit at the end of the day/week/month/year, so why aren’t you setting goals and planning for profit instead of hoping for profit?

There are two types of profit in every business – gross profit and net profit. If you don’t know the difference, call me quickly, as you may be losing out on a great opportunity to make more money. I have some clients raise their prices, sell a little less (and work a little less) yet make more money.

The last recommendation I have for you is to share your goals with others. Share them with your spouse/significant other, your team, your coach, your CPA, your banker, your financial planner, your peer mentors. The more people who know about your goals, the more they can ask you how you are doing with them. Peer pressure is one of the greatest forms of accountability, so the

more people you share the goals with, the more help you will get to achieve them.

However you choose to implement goals and planning, the simple truth is that writing them down, reviewing them regularly (at least weekly; I prefer daily) and sharing them with others who can help you achieve them are the best ways to help you get everything you want in your business and your life.

Mark McNulty is a business coach with ActionCoach Business Coaching. He can be reached at 350-4903 or mark@coachmark.biz.

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on the move

Tracy Embree

Mark S. Elwood

Cummins Inc. has named Tracy Embree as president of its Components Group, effective Jan. 1.

Embree becomes a member of the Cummins Leadership Team, reporting to Chief Operating Officer Rich Freeland. She is currently president of Cummins Turbo Technologies.

She replaces Anant Talaulicar, who has been serving in the dual role of president of the Components Group and leading the India Area Business Organization. Talaulicar will continue on the Cummins Leadership Team shaping and guiding future global decisions for the company. Effective Jan. 1, he will serve as chairman and managing director of the India Area Business Organization, focusing on strategy to maximize Cummins’ investments in India.

Embree graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a minor in music and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

At Cummins, Embree has worked in the MidRange Engine Business, where she was responsible for the on-highway line of business. She has also held marketing and sales positions in the Emission Solutions and Filtration businesses and was executive director of the Chrysler business. Embree spent two years in the Power Generation business as general manager for Cummins’ Energy Solutions Business based in Kent, U.K. Elwood Staffing CEO Mark S. Elwood has been selected by the editorial team of Staffing Industry Analysts for its 2014 Staffing 100 list of individuals whose business practices have affected or influenced the staffing industry as a whole. It is the second time in the award’s four-year history that Elwood has been chosen.

Elwood Staffing was founded in 1980 and employs nearly 1,000 team members in offices that span the United States and extend into Canada.

John Elwood, president of Elwood Staffing, has been elected chairman of the board of directors of American Staffing Association, a national trade organization representing the staffing, recruiting and workforce solutions industry.

Dr. Paula Villarejo and Dr. Leesa McCauley have joined the active medical staff at Columbus Regional Health. Villarejo is a hospitalist with Hospital Care

18 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

Physicians at Columbus Regional Hospital. She is a graduate of Universidad Nacional de Cordoba in Argentina, completed a residency in internal medicine at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in Chicago and a fellowship at F. Santojanni Hospital in Buenos Aires, where she was chief fellow of cardiology. McCauley is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine and completed a residency at Ohio State University.

She practices at Sandcrest Family Medicine.

John M. Belden

Jes Waller

Suzie Singer

Matthew B. Probst

John M. Belden has been named community president at Salin Bank and Trust Co. and will lead commercial and business banking efforts for the Columbus and Indianapolis markets.

He is a graduate of Indiana State University, with a degree in finance, and for the past seven years has served as business banking relationship manager and vice president at Regions Bank, developing, expanding and managing commercial banking relationships.

Jes Waller is now a real estate agent/broker at F.C. Tucker/Scott Lynch Group in Columbus. She attended Tucker School of Real Estate and is T3 technology certified. She earned her bachelor’s degree at IUPUI. She has been the office manager at F.C. Tucker/Scott Lynch Group since November 2013.

Suzie Singer is the new manager of marketing and planning at Our Hospice of South Central Indiana. She is responsible for the development of marketing materials, programs and policies to support the strategic direction of the organization. She will develop and lead the organization’s marketing and branding efforts, communications planning, business strategies and development and community outreach. She most recently worked at Cummins Inc. in corporate communications and prior to that led the early education initiative for the Community Education Coalition. She received her Bachelor of Arts in communications from DePauw University and has spent her professional career in Columbus.

Matthew B. Probst has been appointed vice chancellor of academic affairs and retention for the Columbus/Southeast region of Ivy Tech Community College. The region includes the campuses of Columbus, Lawrenceburg, Madison and Batesville.

He will serve as the chief academic officer and

Indiana Provider Network and starting a second Tax Credit Housing Project in Greensburg and a home health care LLC. Other awards presented include: Cara Valdivia of Seymour received the John McCauley Community Awareness Award for helping citizens with disabilities become more accepted by and involved in the communities in which they live. She is a board member of Mental Health of America of Jackson County and a member of the local Arc. She has organized weekly bowling outings for consumers as well as a social advocacy group for DSI clients to help them build peer-to-peer relationships.

Rightway Fasteners Inc. in Columbus was named DSI Industry of the Year. The company has provided ongoing work opportunities to Columbus industries since 2007 and increased its work contract with DSI by 60 percent last year. This generated important revenue for programs that help individuals with disabilities learn to become more independent at home, at work and in the community.

Wal-Mart on Columbus’ west side was named Employer of the Year. Last year Wal-Mart hired five DSI clients.

Professional of the Year honors went to Judy Jones of Greensburg. The Decatur County case worker oversees the development of programming for DSI consumers and has been described by DSI staff as being a “tireless advocate” for people with disabilities.

Greensburg resident Ashley Van Horn received the Direct Service Professional Award. She is responsible for finding coverage for open shifts in DSI residential homes, making sure that all doctors appointments for consumers are made, training new staff and reviewing home finances.

administrative leader for the region, providing leadership for all academic divisions, learning resource centers, student success centers and testing centers. He will also represent the college to students, parents, professional organizations, secondary and post-secondary articulation partners, business and industry, and other relevant constituencies. He has been with Ivy Tech since 2001. Most recently he served as interim vice chancellor of academic affairs for the Southeast region.

Jane Bowman, owner of J Bowman Hearing Service, attended the International Hearing Society Convention in September in Palm Springs, California, where she received the title of audioprosthologist for continuing education, an additional two-year degree.

Jane Bowman

Jeff Nolting

Austin Schultz

Kathy Oren

Jackson County Bank recently announced the promotion of Jeff Nolting to vice president, retail lending leader, and the appointment of Austin Schultz to fill the assistant vice president, commercial bank role.

Nolting, a graduate of Valparaiso University, with a degree in business administration, will assist the chief lending officer with responsibilities for expanding the bank’s consumer, home equity and mortgage loan portfolios.

Schultz, a native of Richmond, is a graduate of the University of Indianapolis, with a degree in marketing and finance, and has more than 10 years of banking experience in the Shelbyville area. He most recently served as business/commercial banking officer with Chase Bank.

Kathy Oren, executive director of the Community Education Coalition, has been appointed to the Ivy Tech Community College Columbus Board of Trustees as a member at large. Segments of the community represented on the board are labor, commerce, manufacturing, agriculture and education.

The Community Education Coalition is a not-forprofit organization committed to the development of an aligned, high-quality community and regional learning system supporting learners of all ages. Oren’s responsibilities are focused on education, economic growth, workforce development and quality of life initiatives. Prior to her current role, she worked for Cummins Inc. in the Engine Business Unit as leader for marketing and sales functional excellence. She has served as executive director of the Community Education Coalition since 2013. Oren received a B.S. in industrial engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University.

Bill Hadar of Columbus received a career of service award for his tenure as DSI’s chief executive officer at the organization’s 39th annual banquet and recognition ceremony held recently in Seymour. He is stepping down from DSI’s top post – a position he has held for 28 years – Jan. 16. He was the impetus for significant growth at DSI, including helping the organization expand from seven to 42 counties.

His other significant contributions include growing DSI revenues five-fold, helping create the Strategic

James Worton

Brad Wethington

James Worton, judge of Bartholomew Superior Court 1, was awarded the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus. The award is given to an alumnus or alumna who has had considerable personal, professional accomplishments, community service and involvement with the school and alumni.

Worton received an associate degree from IU in criminal justice, a bachelor’s in general studies with an emphasis on social and behavioral science and a minor in psychology from IUPUC, and a doctor of jurisprudence from IU School of Law in Indianapolis.

Today he is an adjunct instructor at IUPUC and Ivy Tech, teaching a variety of criminal justice courses.

Before being elected judge, he was a managing partner of the law firm Worton and Rohde and served with the Columbus Police Department for 20 years, including four years as chief.

Brad Wethington, vice president of SIHO Insurance Services, has earned the registered health underwriter professional designation from the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Candidates for the RHU designation must complete three courses and six hours of supervised examinations and fulfill stringent experience and ethics requirements.

— Staff Reports JANUARY 2015 The Business Connection 19

BUSINESS LEADS COMMERCIAL BUILDING PERMITS 2700 MCKINLEY AVE NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING $13,000 BARTHOLOMEW CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL CORP, OWNER DRIFTWOOD BUILDERS, CONTRACTOR 100 SF STORAGE BLDG 6290 S INWOOD DR NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING $225,000 RONSHEIM, STEVE, OWNER STOUT TOWER SERVICE, CONTRACTOR CELL TOWER 2394 25TH ST COMMERCIAL TENANT UP FIT $1,850,000 KMART CORPORATION, OWNER VERSATILE CONSTRUCTION, CONTRACTOR DUNHAM’S SPORTING GOODS 6440 S INTERNATIONAL DR NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING $2,600,000 TALLMAN EQUIPMENT CO. INC., OWNER DRIFTWOOD BUILDERS, CONTRACTOR NEW COM BLDG 38,0000 SF/ TALLMAN EQUIP 2223 POSHARD DR COMMERCIAL REMODEL $91,981 COLUMBUS HOSP/COL BEHAV HEALTH, OWNER 20 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

CRG RESIDENTIAL LLC, CONTRACTOR COL BEHAVE HEALTH/ ROOF 2725 W 450 S COMMERCIAL REMODEL $300,000 CUMMINS INC, OWNER TAYLOR BROTHERS CONSTRUCTION, CONTRACTOR CUMMINS REMODEL 3275 N SCOTT DR COMMERCIAL REMODEL $20,000 AT&T, OWNER/ CONTRACTOR CELL TOWNER ADD 5560 S 175 W COMMERCIAL ADDITION $97,973 TOYOTA TSUSHO AMERICA, INC, OWNER FORCE CONSTRUCTION CO, CONTRACTOR REMODEL TTAI QC WASH ROOM ADD 3465 STATE ST FOUNDATION ONLY $0 MACALLISTER MACHINERY RENTAL, OWNER HAYDON EQUIPMENT & SALES, CONTRACTOR NEW COM BLDG/ FOUNDATION ONLY 430 5TH ST COMMERCIAL REMODEL $25,000 KRW PROPERTIES, OWNER BUILDING CONCEPTS OF IN, CONTRACTOR COMM/REM 1643 CENTRAL COMMERCIAL REMODEL

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Eye on the pie

Morton Marcus

E-CASH is what we need Good education is expensive. To control costs and maintain or improve quality, today’s leading hobby is to develop and advocate plans to reform education. Many people see reform as necessary to make education the route to wealth rather than the pathway to citizenship. In this way America has departed from its origins.

We’ve had numerous select committees study issues from pre-K to post-graduate programs to detail the problems. Without admitting the irony, they also assert that tomorrow’s world will require a workforce certified to be job-ready and experienced in fields we cannot imagine today.

Then, luckily, they discovered the shield of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering And Math) as protection from the foreign forces seeking to replace America as the world’s leading nation. However, this drive to perfect society could not retain its verve and virtue against erosion by the tears of those excluded from STEM. That’s why we now have STEAM, which includes the Arts.

In response to this campaign to transform education, I have become an advocate of E-CASH, which stands for Education in

Communication, Arts, Science and History.

E-CASH prepares people for citizenship, not for being diligent automatons in the workforce.

As I see it, tomorrow’s successful citizens will be strong communicators, able to understand nuances in language, written or oral, presented in person or at a distance. They will be familiar with the foundations of culture in the music, arts, crafts, theater, poetry and folklore of many nations.

They will see science, in its many forms, converging as it deepens. The lines between biology, chemistry and physics are blurring as we learn more about each. So, too, I believe, the divisions between economics, politics and sociology will be obscured by an aggressive, comprehensive development of cultural anthropology.

Although mathematical formulations may give greater precision to the social and natural sciences, they often miss the context necessary to understand each field. That’s why the study of history is a vital, stabilizing leg to any educational platform.

So far the technocrats pushing STEM (or

STEAM) are winning more converts than those in the camp of E-CASH. This is to be expected when traditional education is devalued by an occupation-obsessed society. This will change as existing occupational classifications wither under the pressures of new ideas about economic structures and dynamics.

Today, we collect information on income that we link to occupation. That’s an 18thand 19th-century notion. Tomorrow, we may recognize the application of knowledge and skills as the foundation of income. Then we’ll need better information on what people know and can do. We’ll need to collect more intensive data than just the number of years of schooling a person has completed.

Certainly, life is improved immensely by advances in and applications of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

However, living is made worthwhile through communication, arts, science and history.

Morton Marcus is an economist, writer and speaker who may be reached at mortonjmarcus@yahoo.com.

Business Indicators for Bartholomew County

Jul 2014

Aug 2014

Sep 2014 Oct 2014

Labor Force % Chg from Year Ago

42,643 42,680 42,499 43,109 2.14% 2.71% 3.52% 5.08%

Employed % Chg from Year Ago

40,837 40,960 40,880 41,384 4.02% 4.42% 5.03% 6.5%

Unemployed % Chg from Year Ago

1,806 1,720 1,619 1,725 -27.41% -26.09% -23.99% -20.4%

Unemployment Rate 4.2 4.0 3.8 4.0 Chg from Year Ago -1.8 -1.6 -1.4 -1.3 — Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University 22 The Business Connection JANUARY 2015

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business, considers its history and ometimes a new owner acquires a rather than abruptly change reputation, and opts to build on that Curt Aton purchased Noblitt its direction. Such was the case when Fabricating in 2010. short-run production of The company, which provides prototypes, has original equipment manufacturers, components and special projects to for that it was already a go-to house been around since 1965. Aton saw as unique. Since then, he has added manufacturing work that qualified marketplace. the in image that capabilities that enhance the assets of Columbus Tube Form.

In 2011, Noblitt Fabricating bought the that types assembly the range of That move significantly expanded did the June 2012 purchase and installation company could offer customers, as control) mill and lathe. of a Hyundai CNC (computer numerical warehouse, with In 2013, Aton and crew added a 5,000-square-footin the previously processes the intent to consolidate all manufacturing also acquired the ability to existing space. That year, the company to its versatility. make flexible hoses, once again adding offer everything under one “What we’ve really tried to do is of capacity kind the have “We Aton. says roof,”

Systems Sharp Business

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Family Chiropra and Wellness

ConneCT 12 The Business

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up for a challenge Noblitt Fabricating proud of its manufacturing precision and versatility

Sam’s Club

Canteen Services of Kentuckiana

PEOPLE. ESS. GROWING GROWING BUSIN

an assortment of bottom: Derieck Hillenburg welds a sheet of steel plate. opposite page a Bridgeport milling a laser cut part that was nested on one of the oldest tools in the shop, opposite page top: Curt Aton lifts the CNC lathe. Below: Carl Lucas uses complete part. above: Blanks from individual components to create a machine, to countersink parts. period as needed, which we did during a that allows us to set up a second shift of peak demand last year.” to A PUBLICATION OF milestones, it’s reasonable of pace of accomplishing With this kind looking at building a finished-goods ask what’s next on the horizon. “We’re shipping and receiving,” says Aton. warehouse, from which we’d do our are nt role in manufacturing. “Not only Precision plays an ever-more-domina specifications,” Aton customer ever-tighter meeting we ISO certified, but we’re layout, material certifications, the notes. “Customers now want a prototype noVeMBeR 2014

WWW.COLUMBUS

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The Business ConneCT

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NOVEMBER 2014

whole nine yards.” a 9-foot Faro Edge Measuring Arm, To that end, the company acquired Other lab equipment includes which allows it to perform laser inspections. system and a coordinate a hardness tester, a six-axis tube measurement measuring machine. with cutting a blank on the laser cutter, Typically, a Noblitt project begins and to an inch thick, and stainless steel which can handle 22 gauge steel up the Forming might be done on one of aluminum up to a quarter-inch thick. presses. stamping or presses brake department. Al the welders are Aton is particularly proud of his welding and gas aluminum, metal inert gas (MIG) certified in mild steel, stainless steel, tungsten arc welding, known as TIG. sawing. and painting, machining Other secondary operations include the shop floor is meticulously documented.

Routing of part numbers through is some niche is specialized projects, there Even though Noblitt Fabricating’s but you be the only one bidding on a job, competition. “Sometimes you might may even be bidding against an international don’t know that,” says Aton. “You

array of companies.” is a high priority for the Noblitt crew.

Staying abreast of industry trends an annual trade show held in various Staff members generally attend Fabtech, Technology Show, held yearly at cities, and the International Manufacturing see noBLitt on page 16 15 noVeMBeR 2014 The Business ConneCTion

noVeMBeR 2014 14 The Business ConneCTion

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