The Family Business

How Ingram Transformed the World of Books

Keel Hunt, Tim O'Reilly

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Hardback

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English

Graphic Arts Books
03 June 2021

Publishing industry

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.

The history of the Ingram Content Group is one of the most important and remarkable business stories that almost no one knows. 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. 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.

Over the past 50 years, from its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, Ingram has played a pivotal role in modernizing the book business. 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. 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.

Now, for the first time, The Family Business captures the whole story. 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. 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 technological marvel spawned by Ingram, converting the “long tail” of niche books from a costly headache for publishers and retailers into a steady source of profitable sales Ingram’s transformation of the book supply chain enabling countless booksellers and publishers to survive and even thrive in the disruptive era of Covid-19

Today, with Ingram’s expanding portfolio of service and infrastructure businesses playing an ever-growing role in the world of publishing, the company stands ready to help lead the industry into an era of even more dramatic change.

The Family Business is the first book to recount the story of this strategic powerhouse that everyone in the publishing industry does business with, and that practically everyone admires—but that few people really understand. A must-read for people in the book business and the world of media, and anyone else who wants to understand how this vastly influential industry really works, this book fascinates with the story of the ways today’s electronic information technologies are transforming the world.

By: Keel Hunt
Foreword by: Tim O'Reilly
Imprint: Graphic Arts Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 19mm
ISBN: 9781513267210
ISBN 10: 1513267213
Pages: 226
Publication Date: 03 June 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Keel Hunt is the author of two books on Tennessee political history and has been a columnist for the USA Today Tennessee network since 2013. In his early career, he was a journalist and Washington correspondent. He has been an adviser to the Ingram family and Ingram businesses since 1995 and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media in addition to being a businessman, speaker, writer, and trailblazer in the field of computers and technology. He has written and published technical books to inform business strategy with the evolving world today.

Reviews for The Family Business: How Ingram Transformed the World of Books

We often take companies like Ingram for granted, they are a mostly invisible part of how the economy operates. Yet the role they play is crucial for entrepreneurs and large companies alike. Ingram turbocharged our entry into an existing distribution ecosystem. All of this makes me appreciate Ingram even more deeply. Ingram is a company that has always served its partners, growing as we grow and never at our expense. Reading this history I learned how Ingram's process of constant reinvention began long before the current era. This is a story rich in both inspiration and practical lessons for any business that intends to stick around for the long haul. * <b>Tim O'Reilly, founder, CEO, and Chairman of O'Reilly Media</b> (from the foreword) * Comprehensive account . . . an inside look at one of the publishing industry's key players. . . Anyone interested in learning about the modern history of book publishing would do well to check this out. * <b>Publisher's Weekly</b> *