The first book to tell the story of one of the world\'s most influential media businesses, The Family Business draws on more than 70 interviews with company insiders as well as book-industry luminaries to present the Ingram story and how a little-known Nashville-based company grew to play a pivotal role in transforming book publishing around the world. book publishing into a truly national business for the first time Ingram using fast-growing video, software, magazine, and international wholesaling operations to create a phenomenal record of expansion, growing from a million-dollar company into a billion-dollar giant in just two decades Two of book publishing\'s most powerful organizations--Ingram and Barnes & Noble--almost coming within a hair\'s breadth of merging, and how the deal fell apart at the eleventh hour Ingram\'s unparalleled ability to rapidly fulfill product orders empowering Amazon\'s unique customer service model and enabling its explosive growth Lightning Source, a t.
In its pages, readers will learn about: The introduction of the Ingram microfiche reader in 1972 and how it catapulted book retailing into the electronic era Ingram\'s network of coast-to-coast distribution centers turning U.
S.
Now, for the first time, The Family Business captures the whole story.
Led by these two brilliant managers, Ingram has used its unparalleled industry-wide connections to help transform book publishing from a tradition-bound business into a dynamic, global twenty-first century powerhouse.
Two members of the founding Family have led the way: Bronson Ingram, a tough-minded industrialist who instinctively recognized a golden opportunity to apply modern efficiencies to antiquated logistical systems, and Bronson\'s son John Ingram, an intrapreneur with a keen understanding of both the opportunities and the risks created by the new digital technologies.
Over the past 50 years, from its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, Ingram has played a pivotal role in modernizing the book business.
It grew into the world\'s largest book wholesaler, then into the most influential and innovative supplier of infrastructure and services to publishers around the world.
Launched as a favor to a Family friend, it started as a local textbook distributor--one tiny division within a thriving corporation focused on oil, construction supplies, and shipping.
The history of the Ingram Content Group is one of the most important and remarkable business stories that almost no one knows.
The first book to tell the story of one of the world\'s most influential media businesses, The Family Business draws on more than 70 interviews with company insiders as well as book-industry luminaries to present the Ingram story and how a little-known Nashville-based company grew to play a pivotal role in transforming book publishing around the world
