Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership head Tom Ingram talks about his new role in planning Knoxville's revitalization

by Joe Sullivan

The Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership was born of a belief that Knoxville's economic development efforts have been faltering at best. While an oligarchy of business leaders contributed to its formation last fall, the impetus came foremostly from that godfather of countless community initiatives, James Haslam II of Pilot Corp.

"We've been taking too many pitches, and it's time we started swinging," Haslam proclaimed as he put the ball in play. With support from the governmental sector spearheaded by County Commissioner Mike Ragsdale, a task force headed by Rodney Lawler of Lawler Wood set about consolidating what were perceived to be a fragmented and often ineffectual batch of economic booster organizations. These included the Greater Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, The Downtown Organization, and the Knoxville Convention and Visitors Bureau. The highly-regarded Knoxville Sports Corp. and Knox County's Development Corp. were also brought into what's heralded as a strategic alliance with the other merged entities.

Beyond restructuring, strengthened leadership was also part of the mantra. A Charlotte-based head hunting firm was retained to conduct a nationwide search for a $200,000-a-year CEO to head the newly-formed partnership. But after interviewing several candidates from afar, a search committee headed by Bill Sansom of H.T. Hackney last week picked a hometown favorite son whose Gay Street office is just a block away from Sansom's.

He is Tom Ingram, who has spent the past three years wearing two hats, first as a partner in Venture Alliance, a firm that nurtures newly-formed businesses, and second, as a founding principal of The Ingram Group, a public relations firm with lots of tentacles. Prior to moving to Knoxville in 1989 as one of (Chris) Whittle Communications' trophy hires, Ingram served for much of the 1980s as then-Gov. Lamar Alexander's chief of staff. Along with his credentials as a business and political operative, Ingram also gets high marks for his civic contributions, especially during his term as chairman of the Knoxville Museum of Art where he's widely credited with transforming its identity from that of an elitist enclave to a community attraction.

How is Ingram approaching his new post and what does he hope to accomplish? To get answers to these and other questions, Metro Pulsea sought out our "superchamber" chief for the interview that follows.

MP: How would you define your mission?

Ingram: I think the mission is to begin to bring the different interests and groups in this community together, enlarge them, develop some consensus objectives, and then set plans against those objectives and work very hard to make them happen. This community's got tremendous assets and incredible opportunities that we don't maximize because we have been divided. We've said, "Let somebody else do it!" We haven't had people accountable for it, and we've spent too much time wallowing in self-criticism and poor-mouthing ourselves instead of recognizing what we've got and getting on with it.

MP: Why do you believe that you are the optimum person for the job?

Ingram: I think I'll answer that question on two levels. One is personal; one is professional. On a personal level, I am passionate about Knoxville. I love this place. I have chosen this place as my home. I want to raise my family here. This is not just a job, it's a call. Ever since I started thinking about it, I've been waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning and making notes and thinking about what I would do if I got the job.

Professionally, I think of this as a significant career change, but in another way, everything I've ever done has prepared me for this job. Newspapering—a big part of this job is communications. Politics—everything about this job is political. Building a business, the Ingram Group or Venture Alliance—this job is all about economic help and well-being. My museum experience—taking the KMA from a place where we were talking about closing its doors to a place where it's exhibiting Rodin and Treasures of Peru. My Next Big Steps experience—looking at the city as a whole to see what we need to do to bring life to it. All of that in a way was preparation for this [job] that I didn't know that I was preparing for. I think my experiences, my strategic focus—I believe everything should begin with a strategy—and my ability to work with people, to put together teams...that is what this is all about.

MP: What do you most hope to get accomplished over the next few years?

Ingram: First, I want to get the talk right. I mean, the place where we need to begin is to believe in ourselves and realize what we've got and take advantage of it. The next thing that I want to do is really make this a partnership—the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership. There's only one word in there that matters much to me and that's partnership. If I can get this group of people and this group of organizations truly working together, that's a big deal. Specifically, I want to see some things happen, I want to see a convention center built but with a destination development. Without it, it's not going to be the same thing. I want to see the Miller's building restored and occupied. I want to see Market Square come to life with more and more Cyberflixes. I want to see the Old City begin to feel more secure, and I want to see that begin to spill out into the region, and I want to see agreements with Oak Ridge, and I want to see agreements with Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. I want the look, feel, reputation, and self-confidence of this place to turn around over the next few years. In working together there's no reason that all of this can't take place.

MP: Why do you believe Knoxville's economic growth has lagged behind that of a lot of other southern cities in recent years?

Ingram: What I'm not sure is that we're as bad off as we think we are. I think that gets to my point of beginning to get the talk right. Yes, we're not a Nashville, but I don't know if we really want to be Nashville. Yes, Chattanooga got ahead of us downtown, but it took them a long time, too. I also think that we've missed some opportunities. I think the reasons are complex but some of them are: We've seen people take risks in this town and be brought down. Whether it's the Butchers or, in a very different way Chris Whittle, there's a reluctance in this town on a lot of people's part to take risks. And you have to take risks to get ahead. Another reason is we spend a lot of time poor mouthing ourselves instead of banding together in action toward a goal. I think you only define that as a lack of leadership at times on certain issues. And that has to improve.

MP: Do you believe that Knoxville really has the desire to become a more progressive, growth-minded city than it has been up to now?

Ingram: I think a large number of people do. I think there are still some people in this community who would like for it to stay that sleepy little community by the river. The balance needs to be that it remains a wonderful place to live in terms of lifestyle but have the amenities and services in a field that's more lively. I think that when you go beyond the leadership involved in all of this, there's a real eagerness on the part of the people out there in general to see things start happening in Knoxville that are positive. So that they begin to feel good about the place and that goes back getting the talk right. It won't take but a few things happening right to do that.

MP: What's your assessment of Knoxville's image and how can it be strengthened?

Ingram: To those of us who know it—it's great! To those who don't—it's suffering! We are a place along the interstate on the way to the Smokies. Some people know that we used to be a World's Fair [city] because they see the ball in the air. They know about Big Orange football which, by the way, is an asset that we need to take major advantage of, along with the Lady Vols. I think a lot of work needs to be done in terms of agreeing upon what we want our image to be, and then making an investment in creating that identity. I don't know how many different logos and slogans that I've seen in Knoxville since I've been here or how much money has been put after them. I think most of it has been money down a hole. And I don't think that we've come up with one yet that really grabs us—and if it can't grab us, it can't grab anybody else. I think a lot of serious work needs to go into how we want to be perceived and how we perceive ourselves. And then some real work into developing images and words and colors and type faces and everything else that defines that; and then put some real investments behind that so that we really get it out there—first to ourselves and then to everybody else.

MP: Do we need more tax inducements or infrastructure spending to attract new industry and other employers to the area?

Ingram: If I have a weakness in this job it's technical knowledge of the economics—the function of recruiting businesses. Economic development, first of all, means three things to me, in this order: Number one, helping businesses that are already here to grow. And I doubt if that requires a lot of tax inducements or infrastructure; we probably can do that a lot of other ways. Second, it means helping new businesses start. This is a very entrepreneur-minded, spirited community. And we ought to encourage new businesses. And if it helps to find some places where we can give new businesses a leg up in terms of space or common services or things of that sort the way we discussed with the entrepreneur center over on Market Square, we ought to do that. Third is recruiting businesses. And that's the most costly, it's the most difficult—you have to take advantage of opportunities as they come along, and we need to be prepared to do that. I'll probably be looking either within existing resources or recruiting new resources to create a focus on that. And my guess is at that point the question of tax inducements or infrastructure will come into play. I've got to learn a lot more about that, though, to really answer the question well.

MP: What should Knoxville's strategy be when it comes to attracting more tourism?

Ingram: I think that this is one of our greatest untapped opportunities. Here we are, literally an interstate's exchange away from the most visited national park in the country. Here we are at the intersection of three different interstates. You don't have to spend much time on the interstate to notice traffic. We've got to get it to where you can even stop and get off. This is what Chattanooga has done so well. It started with an outlet mall, then moved to the aquarium, then moved to the Children's Museum. We've got to do that too. Our riverfront has got to be more than just a pretty place. Our convention center has got to have more than just great conventions. If we don't develop around the convention center some destination events and venues, if we don't help stabilize the Old City and keep it intact until an anchor goes in there, provides it real security, if we don't look for every way that we can to pull people off that interstate, to spend an hour, a day, a weekend or a week in Knoxville the way they do on football weekends, we've missed a great opportunity. I hope to spend a lot of time with Mike Wilds and his group to focus on this, and I expect tourism to be a major focus of the partnership.

MP: As you well know, racial relations are very strained in this community right now. Do you foresee the chamber addressing this problem specifically and, if so, how?

Ingram: It's too easy to live in this town as too many of us do and not be aware of it and not see it and ignore it. I think we've got to address it on every level that we can. I think we've got to address it in terms of dialogue; we've got to start talking. We've got to start listening. I think we've got to address it in terms of leadership; I think there's a lot of leadership in the black community here, and it needs to be brought to the forefront. Businessmen like to avoid those problems and let the mayor or county executive or county commissioner or city council handle that. They need our position and our support and if they don't get it, it may blow up in one way or another and have a negative impact on a lot of positive things that we are trying to do in this community.

MP: One rap against the superchamber is that it's being run by a small self-perpetuating business oligarchy. How would you respond to that?

Ingram: This goes back to the question of the issue of leadership that I addressed earlier. I think that the partnership in its origin is unique because it brought to the table a lot of new people who financially may have been thought of in the leadership of Knoxville but who practically had not been in the leadership of Knoxville. It was a larger group that normally sits around the table and talks about these kinds of issues. The challenge in the future is to keep expanding, and if we don't, we're being unfair to those people and unfair to our future. If we are going to be serious about convention centers, designation sites, baseball stadiums, Old City revival, Gay Street revival, Market Square revival, regional concepts, etc., it will take a lot of people working together, and there's going to be plenty of work and plenty of challenges to go around. To whatever extent a small group was involved in getting it started, if we leave it with them, we've made a mistake. We want them to stay involved, but we've got to broaden and deepen the basis of leadership participation in this community, and that's what partnership means to me.

MP: Why isn't it a conflict of interest—or at least the appearance of one—for you to have a continued involvement in your two present businesses, The Ingram Group and Venture Alliance?

Ingram: The Ingram Group is 15 years old and supports payroll of 25-30 people in Nashville and in Knoxville. Venture Alliance is three years old and has developed eight businesses—six of which are operating today...100 plus jobs in Knoxville...hope to create a lot more. I'm very proud to be a part of both of them. I will remain a board member of Ingram Group. I will remain a partner of Venture Alliance. I will not be involved in day-to-day activities of either. I understand and fully expect a question of conflict to arise, and I need to be very sensitive and very careful about that and expect people to be watching me to make sure that I am. And I expect people like you to beat me up if I mess up.