What is the strategy for Indy?

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Zuber on April 19, 2009 at 10:31pm

Jon,
I guess that logistics isn't sexy to you. The facts are that some of the biggest breakthrus in RFID technology, Automated tracking and robotics have come from highly educated people writing code in good ole' Indy. Innovative? Purdue University has developed many programs in this field and has launched many small companies here and in West Lafayette in their small business incubators. Industries such as biotech, manufacturing, and electronics all depend on the technology that has been developed here and is in use here in Indy. High tech isn't just Flash PHP and HTML web sites. I say that and some of my clients are web designers and high end marketers. But for the last sixteen years in addition to CD/DVD replication, emarketing and streaming media, I also sold warehousing and fulfilment.

My point is that sports has not brought the ROI that other fields have. Louisville easily outpaces us in terms of convention and exposition business. They have many corporate headquarters and as many if not more marketing, PR and video and web production companies as we do in Indy and they have done it without the NFL, NBA and the MLB.

By the way, the NCAA who we subsidized their move here spends little in the way of technology here in Indy. Their web site, their streaming downloads and production are done out of state.

Biotech, high-tech manufacturing and logistics are the future of our area. As a former executive in sales with a company here in Indy, I have traveled the country in sales and have always promoted our area. But I truly believe that we need to promote the technology we already produce and the industries that we excel in.

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Permalink Reply by Jack Pincus on April 17, 2009 at 10:11pm

You raise some good points. I think one problem is people in Indy are satisfied with being average. They dont' strive to excel whether it is in sports, business, or other areas. Being satisfied with the mean holds Indy back when other regions work to excel.

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on April 17, 2009 at 10:44pm

Jack - So true! I get tired of people accepting mediocrity.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Baggott on April 16, 2009 at 2:40pm

Funny that this should be so popular a topic today :-) Norm Heikens asked me a similar question this morning for his IBJ blog: http://newstalk.ibj.com/

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Permalink Reply by Aaron M. Renn on April 16, 2009 at 4:55pm

For what it's worth, I'm with you on the internet marketing thing. The other positive thing coming out of this is serial entrepreneurship after a success (e.g. you), something not that common in the Midwest. What's the degree of talent circulation like between the various companies? That would be another example of "cluster" behavior.

BTW: The other cool thing about this is that it is centered downtown. I see you in Starbucks on the Circle from time to time.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Baggott on April 17, 2009 at 8:54am

That was one thing that didn't make it into the article. I can count at least 5 startups that have come from ExactTarget alone...not to mention the DNA as different employees move around between these companies. Doug Karr (ExactTarget, PatronPath, Compendium) Ali Sales (ExactTarget, ChaCha, Compendium) Amol Dalvi (Mezzia, ExactTarget, Five Buckets)

Another point on this is that most of these jobs are not necessarily "Tech" jobs. 80% or more of the employees of these companies never touch code. They deal with customers and prospects....something that really takes advantage of our strengths in Indianapolis.

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Permalink Reply by Aaron M. Renn on April 17, 2009 at 11:26am

Chris, you hit another critical point. There are plenty of jobs in sales, customer service, accounting, etc. that come with high tech businesses. It isn't always clear to people in Indiana why these businesses are good for the state because they seem to appeal only to a narrow slice of the specially educated. But those skills leverage many others that Hoosiers have in abundance, such as your Centex person now selling corporate blogging services.

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on April 17, 2009 at 10:50pm

Chris,
Entrepreneurship is a great asset for a community. Even better are serial entrepreneurs and spin-offs. This is a true building block that Indy should be leveraging. How can we bring this to light and repeat this a hundred times over?

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on April 16, 2009 at 8:42pm

I know and/or have corresponded with all of those that have commented so far. What do you want to do about this? Can we come up with Indy strategies?

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on April 16, 2009 at 9:07pm

I'm not a hamster either.

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Permalink Reply by Michael R. on April 17, 2009 at 3:21am

And now, Michael Rousseau presents his animated short: "The Hampster that had an idea...but no place to go with it".

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Permalink Reply by Bruce LaDuke on April 19, 2009 at 12:13pm

The 'next big factory' model of economic development isn't going away any time soon, nor should it. Likewise, focus areas like sports marketing, creating a cultural hub could be an important part of the Indy strategy. The first step in setting this is to define who sets it. The mayor? Venture capitalists? Economic developers? Citizens? All of the above? In Indianapolis, not unlike many other cities, the city strategy ownership is fragmented the plugins to state and regional strategies are fragmented. Moving forward, an integral strategy from local to global and including a comprehensive look at all aspects of life will be required for success. Here's a basic example of a framework for this kind of approach. Various groups and data from them plug into this framework.

In line with this shift to integral strategy, knowledge, innovation, and economic development are almost imperceptably moving into the civic space and the networked organization of the future will be formed and launched from there. As such, the purposes of education and public libraries are undergoing a radical upheaval. http://www.indianainnovationalliance.org/ is an example of an educational partnership we can expect to see more of in the future. We can also expect increasing cross-pollenation between all governments, institutions, and enterprises.

Future Indiana was formed because we see a strong need to organize and broker this shift. And we are purposefully meeting in public libraries to this end. Next meeting details.

In my opinion, it's going to take a new kind of leader to lead this transition and many of the key leaders of the future are in this discussion thread.

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