Indiana's entrepreneurs of the year.

• Author: Fricks, Holly
• Position: Profile of topnotch business executives for 1998 - Cover Story

One sells cars, one pumps gas and one peddles trucks. One represents wealthy investors, another works for dead movie stars. This year's Entrepreneur of the Year award winners run the gamut from shoe salesman to software vendor to delivery man.

The awards, run by the accounting firm Ernst & Young, recognize entrepreneurs in a number of categories, as well as those who have gone out of their way to support entrepreneurship. Indiana winners this year competed in regional contests, including the "Indiana Heartland" contest focusing on much of central and southern Indiana, a northern Indiana contest and a metropolitan Louisville contest. Their stories follow:

ROBERT L. KOCH II George Koch Sons, Evansville Manufacturing

It's difficult to list everything in which George Koch Sons is involved, according to company president and CEO Robert Koch. The company, which hopes to pass $1 billion in sales in the next 10 years, is a group of individual companies involved in three different businesses - building factory equipment, manufacturing auto parts and distributing wholesale products. In each of these businesses, Koch strives for constant innovation.

"My philosophy is one of continuous improvement in making the products better, in more efficiently eliminating waste from our manufacturing systems internally and in striving for continuous growth," Koch says.

This philosophy has worked, as George Koch Sons has been contacted by Forbes magazine to be included in its list of the top 500 privately held companies.

Koch also places considerable importance on education, serving on several education committees in the community. "Companies all over the world have access to the same money, equipment, facilities and raw material resources," Koch explains. "The only difference is the people. In business, if you want to be world class, it takes a lot of preparation in team members, and that preparation begins in K-12."

MYRON C. NOBLE, P.E. PiROD Inc., Plymouth Manufacturing

"My theory is to have fun," says Myron C. Noble. "If you aren't enjoying yourself, then what are you doing it for?"

He has his fun running PiROD Inc. Noble, a 1959 Purdue graduate, bought the company in 1973 and built it into the leading designer, engineer and manufacturer of custom-designed towers and "monopoles," used primarily in radio and satellite communications.

Offering the broadest line of monopoles and towers in the industry, PiROD supplies not only the continental United States but also Central and South America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and some African and Asian countries.

The company's 14 sales engineers emphasize engineering at the point of sale, and a proprietary management-information system maintains a high level of accuracy and reduces production turn-around time.

Noble works closely with his 191 employees. In 1975, Noble began offering employees a profit-sharing plan.

L. CRAIG FULMER The Heritage Group, Middlebury Manufacturing

Started in 1980 by accountant Craig Fulmer, manufactured-housing maker The Heritage Group now employs more than 400 people in six states. Fulmer attributes much of The Heritage Group's success to the fact that it is a vertically integrated group of companies - from sales to manufacturing to finance of Holly Park brand homes.

"We keep each of our operating companies small enough so that the president or manager can have a real feel about how the company works. Each has broad authority and part ownership," Fulmer explains. "They can be their own entrepreneur."

After years of experience in the manufactured housing industry, The Heritage Group began to apply its system of vertical integration to the retail automobile industry as well. It now owns seven sales centers that also handling financing and insurance.

TOBIAS W. BUCK Paragon Medical Inc., Pierceton Manufacturing

In 1991, Tobias W. Buck started Paragon Medical Inc. because he wanted to be independent. "I wanted to find my niche in a business with very little competition," Buck says. He found that niche in the design and manufacture of customized cases that house surgical instruments.

Paragon supplies its products directly to manufacturers of surgical instruments. With 350 such clients and products that cover 11 surgical disciplines, Paragon is one of just three dominant players in its industry.

Just a year after its launch, Paragon Medical Inc. became the first Indiana business to exercise a SCORE Equity Offering, a capital-raising vehicle that allows companies to offer up to $1 million in securities to non-accredited investors over a 12-month period. The SCORE offering and other private placements have helped Paragon fund explosive growth - Buck says Paragon has had compounded annual growth averaging 44 percent.

Today, Paragon has facilities in Pierceton and Pendleton. Plans are in the works for an acquisition in Texas. Buck's goal is to hit $100 million in sales by 2003. "We are on our way and we will make it."

MARK ROESLER CMG Marketing, Indianapolis Service

Beginning with his work protecting the rights to Norman Rockwell's famous covers for The Saturday Evening Post, Mark Roesler has become a close friend and/or manager of many celebrities, both living and deceased.

With clients from Marilyn Monroe to Karl Malone, Roesler and his company, CMG Marketing, have become well known around the world. "Our company has evolved over the past two decades," Roesler says. "We started representing famous deceased people. Now we represent several famous living people." From his original administration of the Elvis Presley estate in 1981, CMG now has more than 200 clients and employs more than 50 people.

CMG handles more than 2,000 licensing contracts a year involving such companies such as Coca-Cola, Levi's and McDonald's. Roesler has connections all over the world and believes that is one of the keys to CMG's success. "We have to view things on a global perspective because most of the people we represent are known on a global basis."

He also sees the importance thinking projects through from the beginning. "Have a very clearly defined objective on what you...