CONTENTshift is a big win for the book industry. It brings established companies into direct contact with highly innovative and forward-looking ideas, while startups themselves benefit from expert feedback, further training and access to potential partners and investors. CONTENTshift is a welcome complement to the work we do at MVB, especially our commitment to transforming and strengthening the book industry. Ronald Schild
MVB‘s core business is tech-based internet platforms that foster book marketing and selling. Our strengths are found in the development of neutral and scalable platforms; indeed, when such platforms are used, it generates advantages for all industry participants. We already have many connecting links and projects with startups today, but we’re very eager to develop these even further. Our experience shows that successful startups have two particular things in common: a clear focus on well-defined customer benefits and a no-compromise attitude towards success.
Ronald Schild has been managing director at MVB Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels GmbH as well as a board member of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (BBG) since 2006. MVB is the leading service company for the German book industry. As a subsidiary of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e. V., it offers publishers and booksellers a broad range of different products and services that promote the marketing of books and provide orientation on the book market. Their services range from the issuing of ISBN numbers and the Verzeichnis Lieferbarer Bücher (Directory of Available books or VLB) and the IBU ordering system to the VLB-TIX digital title information system. MVB also publishes the popular industry magazine Börsenblatt and the leading client magazine Buchjournal. Schild was responsible for restructuring MVB from a traditional special-interest publisher to a technology company. In 2016, in the context of this reorientation, the area of MVB Labs was created; the goal of this department is to develop innovative business models for the book industry. After studying business administration in Germany, France and Great Britain, Schild worked for ten years in a number of positions at various companies in the IT and media industry before becoming managing director of MVB and BBG. He is also the current chairman of the international ISBN Agency as well as a board member of the industry organisation known as Editeur.