![\"IngramDavid1\"](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/05\/IngramDavid1.jpg\" "\\"IngramDavid1\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
During lean economic times, many business owners look for a lifeboat. In the case of David Ingram, Chairman and President of Ingram Entertainment Inc. (IEI), his came in the form of beer. Or beer distribution, that is. When IEI\u2014a Nashville-based business that distributes DVDs, video games and other home entertainment products\u2014was faced with a challenging marketplace several years ago, he decided to start an entirely new company: DBI Beverage Inc., which now operates beer distributorships in eight different California markets.<\/p>\n
In becoming Chairman of DBI, David wasn\u2019t looking to jump ship and abandon the home entertainment business. Instead, he was looking for a way to stay in it. With his feet planted firmly in both companies, he has leveraged each one\u2019s individual strengths to help the other succeed. This willingness to diversify and evolve has enabled David to steer through difficult waters and find new revenue streams that have done more than just keep his ship afloat. Today IEI remains the nation\u2019s leading distributor of home entertainment products, and DBI is one of the fastest growing companies in beverage distribution.<\/p>\n
The story, however, doesn\u2019t end there. If the ability to diversify and evolve is important in business, David believes it\u2019s equally so for a business school, particularly one as young and as small as Owen. Since 2006 he has served as Chair of Owen\u2019s Board of Visitors, which assists Dean Jim Bradford in determining the strategic direction of the school. In this role David has been a force in encouraging Owen to chart a new, exciting course\u2014much as he has done in business.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s little wonder that Owen is an important part of David\u2019s life. Yes, the school has played a key role in his success, but his devotion to Vanderbilt was fostered by his parents long before he ever earned an MBA.<\/p>\n
His father, E. Bronson Ingram, former Chairman of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust, built a hugely successful barge company before branching out into lucrative areas of distribution, including books and microcomputers. At his death in 1995, Bronson left a tremendous legacy of giving to the university that continues under the stewardship of his wife, Martha Rivers Ingram, who now holds his former position on the board. David and his three siblings\u2014brothers Orrin, BA\u201982, and John, MBA\u201986, and sister, Robin Ingram Patton\u2014have followed in their parents\u2019 footsteps by supporting Vanderbilt in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n
In addition to their devotion to family and civic life, the Ingrams instilled in their children a tradition of responsibility and a strong work ethic. As the youngest of three boys, David was well aware of the demanding hours his father kept while running the family business. \u201cMy father had a free pass from my mother to play golf on the weekends,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I learned that if I wanted to see my dad,\u00a0I needed to play golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
David\u2019s passion for golf continues and is reflected in his office decor. With characteristic modesty he notes, \u201cI liked golf, and I had some ability.\u201d That ability garnered him a spot on the men\u2019s golf team at Duke University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1985. He met his future wife, Sarah, when she visited the school as a prospect for the women\u2019s golf team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to tell people she chose Duke because she met me,\u201d he says with a grin.<\/p>\n
After graduation he worked on a $200 million capital campaign in the development office at Duke for a couple of years, partly to be near Sarah while she finished her degree. He played in amateur golf tournaments before he says he realized, \u201cI wasn\u2019t the next Greg Norman or Jack Nicklaus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bronson suggested business school, and David, who found that he missed the quality of life in Nashville, chose Vanderbilt. Sarah was finishing up her undergraduate degree, and he knew they\u2019d both be too busy to spend much time together anyway if he chose to stay at Duke for business school.<\/p>\n
At Owen, David demonstrated the personal qualities that became hallmarks of his success in the business world. Classmate Justine Brody, MBA\u201989, was in his study group and part of a student team that conducted a marketing research project for Ingram Book Co., assessing the market for booksellers to sell prerecorded videocassettes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid was not only reliable and considerate to work with, but he added the needed humor and perspective to make it through long and sometimes not-so-agreeable group meetings,\u201d remembers Brody, Director of Retail Marketing at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid had the insight to utilize the core strength of the book company to break into a new industry, build a new business and become the dominant force in the industry,\u201d she says. \u201cToday, as video struggles with new distribution platforms, David is again facing the change head-on and breaking into a new distribution business\u2014beer. He\u2019s always looking for the next opportunity to future-proof his company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or, as David himself says, \u201cOne thing I definitely gleaned from my dad is that in any business, if you\u2019re not growing, you\u2019re dying.\u201d His business acumen often is compared with his father\u2019s, but David sees himself as a more collaborative leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a demanding guy, a perfectionist, yet fair,\u201d he says of his father, who\u2019d taken over the family business from Orrin Henry \u201cHank\u201d Ingram, a member of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust from 1952 until his death in 1963.<\/p>\n
Another classmate, Fleet Abston, MBA\u201989, Chief Financial Officer of Old Waverly Investments in Memphis, Tenn., watched David use the skills he\u2019d learned from his father and take them to the next level. \u201cDavid is very serious and good at what he does, but at the same time, he values relationships,\u201d Abston says. \u201cHe\u2019s got a far different way of motivating people than his dad. He\u2019s different in ways that complement his abilities. He\u2019s taken his dad\u2019s talents and added to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
David is quick to say that his success is largely due to luck and accident of birth. \u201cEverything was given to me,\u201d he says. It was understood that he would go into the family business just as Bronson had. David and his siblings grew up working for their father during the summers.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad wanted us to have an understanding of what it was like to work in a warehouse or work on a towboat, if nothing else so we could relate to people in those situations,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Upon graduating from Owen in 1989, he married Sarah and announced that he didn\u2019t want to work for the family business anymore. \u201cMy father and I had an interesting discussion. It got pretty tense, but I now understand why it meant so much to him,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I came into the family business under duress.\u201d<\/p>\n
David took a job as an assistant to the company treasurer, Tom Lunn, because Bronson wanted him to understand the banking side of the business. After they had worked together for some time, Lunn offered David some blunt advice on a long business flight. \u201cHe said, \u2018David, what do you want to do with your life? I don\u2019t see you getting to the top of this company through the finance area.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
David appreciated the straight talk and Lunn\u2019s suggestion that he would blossom in one of the operating companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had one brother in microcomputer distribution and another in the barge business, so I picked the video side, really because I thought it was the most likely one to go out of business soonest due to changing technology. When it did, that would free me to be on my own,\u201d David recalls. He announced his intentions to his father and started in sales at Ingram Entertainment in 1991.<\/p>\n The next year Bronson cut a deal to buy a large video distributorship, Commtron, located in Des Moines, Iowa. Though it may have made more sense to locate the newly combined company there in Iowa, Bronson moved the headquarters to Middle Tennessee, near Ingram Book Group in La Vergne. He wanted to avoid traveling for board meetings, David says.<\/p>\n Still new to the video distribution business, David began by concentrating on building grocery and drugstore sales. \u201cSell-through was a new phenomenon then,\u201d he says. In 1994 a shake-up at the top of the company led to David\u2019s taking over the helm of Ingram Entertainment quite a bit sooner than expected.<\/p>\n He began by integrating the newly merged company more fully, identifying the best employees from both companies. \u201cIt\u2019s very interesting from a culture standpoint when the small fish eats the big fish,\u201d\u00a0he says.<\/p>\n Just four months after David became President of IEI, his father was diagnosed with cancer and was severely weakened by the treatment. It was a difficult period for the family. Toward the end, the once powerful man was unable to speak. Still, Bronson appeared at board meetings \u201ceven when his hair was falling out on his suit,\u201d David remembers. He is proud that his father got to see him run one of the family companies before he died in 1995.<\/p>\n With Martha Ingram succeeding her husband as Chair and CEO of Ingram Industries, the family had some decisions to make: At $11 billion, it was one of the largest privately held companies in the United States. First, they decided to take Ingram Micro public, as it was the fastest growing company in the group. The world\u2019s largest wholesale distributor of technology products and services, Micro had sales that exceeded $35 billion in 2007 and currently has a market cap of $2.9 billion.<\/p>\n Soon after Micro went public, David, at 33, spun off Ingram Entertainment from Ingram Industries. He kept a stake in Ingram Micro. \u201cI finally had a chance to become my own boss and do my own thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Immediately after striking out on his own, David\u2019s video business got \u201ca nice shot in the arm,\u201d he says, with the advent of the DVD format. \u201cIEI was actually the original distributor that launched the DVD format for the studios in seven test markets,\u201d he notes. The DVD format gave Hollywood the chance to resell consumers their favorite movies in a superior format. He hopes some of that momentum will continue with Blu-ray technology today.<\/p>\n While file sharing and piracy have hurt the video business, the impact has not been nearly as great as in the music business because video file sizes are so much larger. \u201cWhat\u2019s affected us more is the growth of Wal-Mart and other retailers that deal with studios directly,\u201d David says. Consolidation has decreased competition from video wholesalers as well. \u201cWhen I started in this business in 1991, 70 percent of sales went through the wholesale distribution channel. Now it\u2019s less than 10 percent,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The beer distribution business is different, David says, because a retailer, in general, must go through a wholesale distributor to buy alcohol. \u201cSo if you\u2019re a Wal-Mart in Northern California, you most likely have to buy Coors Light from us,\u201d he explains. \u201cPicking beer distribution was the culmination of a concerted effort to look for an industry that would likely undergo consolidation and play to the strengths of our management team.\u201d<\/p>\n IEI already had a large distribution center in Memphis when David came across Crown Distributing Co., which was losing more than $1 million a year but had the Coors and Pabst distributing rights for the area.<\/p>\n Even though a competing Budweiser distributorship had 65 percent of the market share in Memphis, Crown was a way to \u201cget a foot in the door to meet suppliers and show them what we could do with a troubled company,\u201d he says. Lessons learned along the way made David ready when the opportunity arose to buy another beer distributorship in the San Francisco area, where IEI already had a distribution presence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe suddenly went from losing money in Memphis to a great distributorship in San Francisco with people we could learn from and with all the supplier relationships we didn\u2019t have,\u201d David says. The company began to expand into other areas of California\u2014Chico, Napa, Sacramento, Stockton, San Jose, Truckee and Ukiah\u2014and the Memphis distributorship eventually was sold.<\/p>\n Consolidation in the beer industry has occurred faster than expected, beginning when Miller and Coors formed a U.S. joint venture in 2007 and Anheuser-Busch teamed with a Belgian company a year later. (See sidebar above.) In early 2010 Heineken sealed a $5.4 billion deal to buy the beer unit of FEMSA in Mexico, giving the Dutch brewer a huge presence in Latin America.<\/p>\n The beer business is about market share, David says. It\u2019s important for distributors to get their beers on tap handles in bars, for example, because \u201cbar behavior translates into what happens in stores,\u201d he explains. In stores, what matters the most is having prominent displays and taking up more space in the refrigerated aisles than the competition.<\/p>\n DBI Beverage distributes products from leading beverage suppliers, including MillerCoors, Heineken USA (FEMSA), Crown Imports LLC (Corona), New Belgium Brewing Co., Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Diageo-Guinness, Pabst Brewing Co., Pyramid Brewing Co., Boston Beer Co., Anchor Brewing Co., Sapporo USA, Mendocino Brewing Co., Deschutes Brewery, Red Bull, AriZona Beverage Co., and Crystal Geyser.<\/p>\n David often tells people that he got into beverage distribution because \u201cyou can\u2019t digitize beer,\u201d but tough economic times do change beer drinkers\u2019 habits as they tend to move toward cheaper brands. DBI\u2019s diverse selection has helped solve this problem. While some of the cheaper brands that DBI distributes are admittedly less profitable, the company also offers an array of popular craft beers, which, David says, have good margins and sell surprisingly well in these recessionary times.<\/p>\n As for IEI, its business has historically been countercyclical, with people preferring to rent or buy movies and stay home rather than go out to the more expensive movie theaters in a recession. However, new pressures that leave out the wholesale distributor have made the industry much riskier.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s video or beer, there\u2019s a distinct advantage to becoming larger and spreading your fixed costs over more sales. That was a big reason why we got into beer. We wanted to continue to grow and spread our costs between these two companies,\u201d David says.<\/p>\n This arrangement allows DBI to buy services from IEI and share personnel, such as treasury, accounting and human resources staff\u2014in essence making both companies better equipped to face future challenges. Many of the executives echo Justine Brody\u2019s comment about David\u2019s quest to \u201cfuture-proof\u201d the business, not only for his many loyal employees but also for his two sons, Henry, 14, and Bronson, 12.<\/p>\n \u201cDavid is building a business that he can leave for his children if they want it,\u201d says Bob Webb, Executive Vice President of Purchasing and Operations at IEI. Bob Geistman, IEI\u2019s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, adds, \u201cI\u2019ve been at Ingram for 24 years, more than 17 with David. He has followed his father\u2019s philosophies well: Take care of your associates, and they\u2019ll take care of your business.\u201d<\/p>\n David\u2019s approach to business has made others outside of his organization take notice as well. In working with DBI Beverage, Pete Coors, Chairman of Molson Coors Brewing Co. and MillerCoors, has become well-acquainted with him. \u201cDavid is a very astute businessman,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s a creative and innovative thinker who is always in search of new ways to improve and grow his business. He\u2019s the type of distributor who understands the importance of execution in the marketplace and provides the leadership and motivation that is required in the beer business.\u201d<\/p>\n The qualities that Pete Coors describes are precisely the reason why Jim Bradford looked to David to lead the school\u2019s Board of Visitors. When Bradford became Dean in 2005, one of his first initiatives was to establish the board as a strategic partner to the school, which offers insights on curricular issues in relation to the needs of business and opens new doors for mentoring and career opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Board of Visitors is an essential component in ensuring that Owen is providing the most relevant, meaningful education for the next generation of business leaders,\u201d Bradford says. \u201cThat means combining the real-world business perspective of these accomplished individuals with the cutting-edge research of our renowned faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n In its current state the board comprises 36 members representing a range of industries, from health care to finance to manufacturing. While some, like David, are Owen alumni, a significant number are not. The idea is to bring together those individuals who are best equipped to advise the school, regardless of their personal ties to it.<\/p>\n Under David\u2019s leadership the board has helped Bradford launch several innovative programs at Owen, including the Health Care MBA, the Master of Management in Health Care, the Master of Science in Finance, the Master of Accountancy, and Accelerator\u2014a 30-day summer program for highly qualified undergraduates. A separate Health Care Advisory Board and Real Estate Advisory Board also have provided critical perspective for Bradford in these endeavors.<\/p>\n \u201cDavid\u2019s leadership is exceptional. He is perhaps best described as an enabler,\u201d Bradford says. \u201cHe embodies the Owen experience by supporting, encouraging and questioning. He keeps us focused on what\u2019s most important for the school\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n David is just as quick to return the praise. \u201cI think Jim is the best choice we could have possibly made\u201d as Dean, he says. \u201cHe comes from a business background, so he can relate to people who\u2019ve gone to business school and are out doing business. At the same time, Jim has a true respect for business-teaching professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n As Chair of the Board of Visitors, David often finds himself looking ahead, trying to project where the Owen School will be several years from now. When he considers Bradford\u2019s vision and leadership, the top-notch faculty and student body, and an ever-expanding alumni base, he is confident that the school is headed in the right direction. \u201cI think the Owen School gets better every year,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Of course, the same could also be said about David himself and the companies he runs. Like the school, Ingram Entertainment and DBI Beverage continue to evolve and adapt, growing stronger in the process.<\/p>\n Special thanks to Harris Teeter management for their assistance in arranging the photography.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During lean economic times, many business owners look for a lifeboat. In the case of David Ingram, Chairman and President of Ingram Entertainment Inc. (IEI), his came in the form of beer. Or beer distribution, that is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":10674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[16,32],"class_list":["post-1849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-main","tag-spring2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8867,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions\/8867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"DVD](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/05\/IngramDavid.jpg\" "\\"IngramDavid\\"")
On His Own<\/h2>\n
\n\u2026I picked the video side, really because I thought it was the most likely one to go out of business soonest due to changing technology. When it did, that would free me to be on my own.<\/h2>\n
\u2014David Ingram<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
![\"drinkshelves\"](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/05\/drinkshelves.jpg\" "\\"drinkshelves\\"")
<\/p>\nBack to School<\/h2>\n