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The Business of Books in a Digital Era: An interview with Tami Heim

The Business of Books in a Digital Era: An interview with Tami Heim

Last updated on: September 9, 2015 at 4:11 pm by Ethix

The Business of Books in a Digital Era: An interview with Tami Heim 2015-09-08T16:26:59-05:00 Ethix

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This post continues our partnership with Ethix*, a publication of the Center for Integrity in Business in the School of Business and Economics at Seattle Pacific University. Ethix has conducted many inspiring interviews with business leaders, and we’re excited to feature them here from time to time!*

Tami Heim is a partner in The A Group – Brand Development, a technology, marketing, and media agency in Nashville, Tennessee. She has responsibility for integrated technology, social media, marketing, and strategic branding. From 2005–09 she was executive vice president and chief publishing officer for Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Prior to that, she was with Borders Books from 1996–04, the last four years as president. When she left Borders in 2004, the company had had their most profitable year in history.

From 1980–96, Ms. Heim held various positions with Federated Department Stores, including general manager and division vice president for Lazarus Department Stores (1989–94), regional vice president for Lazarus/Riches/Goldsmiths (1994–96). After leaving Federated, the company combined all of its stores under the common name of Macy’s. She is the author of one book and a frequent speaker on issues of technology and the media. She has a bachelor of science in retail management from Purdue University in 1980.

This conversation took place between Tami Heim and Al Erisman in Nashville, Tennessee, October 10, 2011. In November, Tami accepted the position as CEO of the nonprofit Christian Leadership Alliance, a position that she began in January 2012.

Ethix: You are presently a partner with the A Group. But you have had senior positions with Macy’s, Borders, and Thomas Nelson. You have been in retail, bookselling, and book publishing. Tell us how you got here.

Tami Heim: It’s a continuation of a long journey that I have been on since graduating from college. I graduated from Purdue University with a degree in management, determined to pursue a career in retail.

I spent the first 22 years of my career with Federated Department Stores. By the time I left, I was overseeing two different divisions. It was a time when the company had strong geographic boundaries and each division had its own nameplate. I thought I would be with Federated forever. I loved the company and business. I received the best leadership management training in the industry. I served there during the ‘80s and the ‘90s when there was a lot of consolidation, and I learned much from the challenge of leading during periods of massive change.

The Business of Books

Then in August of 1996, I got a call from Borders Group. They were new, exploding in growth, and looking to add senior leadership to support future expansion. I loved their stores and spent at least one night each weekend in one of the ones in the Indianapolis area. They reached out to me, but it took me six months for me to decide to finally leave Federated.

I started at Borders as the territorial vice president for the west half of the country in December of 1996. I spent the next seven years in big-box specialty retail. The last four years there I served as president.

I stepped down from my position at Borders in March of 2004. We had a strong year and profitable year. In fact it was the last profitable year in Borders’ history. My daughter was a senior in high school, and I’d never experienced the joy of being a stay-at-home mom. Through a series of other personal events that happened that year, I felt called to step down and be present to all that was happening in her life. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made and I am forever grateful for the quality time we shared. I would not change a day of it.

In the fall, it was time for my daughter to go away to school at Ohio University. Soon after she left, I accepted the position of EVP and chief publishing officer for Thomas Nelson Publishers in Nashville, Tennessee.

I remained at Thomas Nelson four years. While there I witnessed all the changes that had happened in bookselling begin to ripple through publishing. Digital content development and social media were radically altering how people were able to publish and make a message known.

I left Thomas Nelson in April of 2009. I enjoyed a brief time out of the corporate scene and fully immersed in the planning of my daughter’s wedding. Later that summer, I connected with Maurilio Amorim, the CEO of The A Group (TAG). We had worked on a couple of projects together while I was at Thomas Nelson. I respected him, but had no idea the breadth and depth of capabilities within his organization.

I quickly realized TAG had the unique ability to occupy a sweet spot in the industry. With technology, marketing, and the literary representation under one roof, they had the potential to focus on “message” and brand development in a way authors, agents, and publishers were not able to at this time. Maurilio asked me to help with the integration and refine the branding component for the company. It was an irresistible invitation. Uniquely positioned to fill a gap, today we navigate the waters and accelerate innovative responses to the high velocity change that’s rocking the industry.

(Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post about more of Tami’s experience working for Borders Books. Did you remember Borders? Yup, me neither. Kind permission is granted by Seattle Pacific University and the Institute for Business, Technology, and Ethics for the use of this material from Ethix magazine, where it first appeared January 2012.)

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