Petsmart, CEOs establish distinguished faculty chair at Kelley School of Business\nThe former and current chief executives of Petsmart Inc. and the company together have established a new faculty chair at the Kelley School of Business, where both executives earned advanced degrees. \nSamuel J. Parker, a 1969 graduate of the school's master of business administration degree program and Petsmart's second chairman and chief executive officer, and Philip L. Francis, a 1971 MBA graduate and the company's current chairman and CEO, their wives and the Phoenix-based pet retailer together are giving $1.5 million to the Kelley School to establish the professorship to be a leading researcher on retail marketing. \n"We are proud to be honored with an endowed chair that bears the Petsmart name and are deeply grateful to Phil and Juanita Francis and to Sam and Sandra Parker for their generosity," said Dan Smith, interim dean of the Kelley School. \nTo fill the new position, the school will conduct a national search in 2005-06 to locate a scholar of critical issues in retail marketing. The scholar also must be a "pet parent," as stipulated by the donors.
Airbus won't deliver direct flights, cheaper fares, more comfortable seating\nAviation expert Clint Oster, professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, is skeptical about the highly-touted Airbus A380, unveiled last week in Southwest France. \nOster says consumers want more direct flights, cheaper fares and more comfortable seating, and the A380 is expected to deliver none of these.\n"Technological advancements aren't always commercial successes, or else there would still be Concordes flying," said Oster, who's a leading specialist on aviation.\nAbove all, the A380 doesn't fulfill consumers' top needs: cheaper fares and more direct flights. "Passengers don't want to change planes. They want to go from their origin directly to their destination. The Airbus doesn't do that. And it's not going to have enough lower costs to make much of a difference in ticket prices," Oster said.
One-time charges give Lilly quarterly loss of $2.4 million\nINDIANAPOLIS -- Eli Lilly and Co. reported a fourth-quarter loss of $2.4 million and broke even on per-share earnings despite a 5 percent increase in sales over the year-ago period, primarily due to one-time restructuring costs and taxes on overseas earnings.\nExcluding about $990 million in those and other one-time charges, the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant reported net income of $814.3 million, or 75 cents a share, for the three months ending Dec. 31, beating analysts' predictions by one cent.\nSales of the anti-psychotic Zyprexa, the company's best seller, were $1.085 billion for the quarter, down 5 percent compared with the year-ago period. U.S. sales of Zyprexa declined 19 percent, primarily due to increased competition from rival drugs such as Pfizer's Geodon and Novartis' Clorazil.
