Comments on: Business Week Article on Best Buy Strategy

By: Missy

Missy — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:08:12 +0000

What happened to your very INSPIRING message on using social media to empower your employees with innovative ideas and to engage customers??? The last date of your blog entry was 12/2009 and Blue Shirt Nation looks to be discontinued… what happened???

By: Best Buy Goes Walmart | Will Video for Food

Best Buy Goes Walmart | Will Video for Food — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:53:58 +0000

[...] Judge, the CMO of BestBuy, blogged about the article, to surprising support from his [...]

By: Ro

Ro — Mon, 24 May 2010 18:28:26 +0000

Barry,

Is this accurate?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/24/best-buy-advertising-higher-than-regular-prices-as-sales/

By: nalts

nalts — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:29:02 +0000

I am still a Best Buy loyalist- especially when I need some advice. Billy can answer a few questions and provide me tips I wouldn’t know to consider through online research (even extensive). But the problem this article observes — the demise of competitors — is sadly reflected in the weekend circular that is my never-miss reading. I miss the deals from the Circuit City ads. And the obsession with TVs means I can’t count on it to find some obscure $100-$300 toy I seek.

By: Dan T

Dan T — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:53:46 +0000

I am currently working on my MBA and I am writing a paper about creativity. You company provided me with a lot of insight and great material.
You make a great case study!!!
Thanks

By: Robb Heisey

Robb Heisey — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:09:26 +0000

Hey Barry, I don’t know if you will actually read this, but I have a complaint about the one “Best Buy” Spots on the looping for Home Theater. The one in questions is when the guy states “I don’t know about you, but I always get home and then remember the batteries, that’s why best buy has them right here for you, are you all stocked up” OK as a best buy employee that kinda leads out to that best buy employees actually FORGET we carry them, that really does not represent best buy in a positive way, If I were the one doing the commercial (and the holiday adds had ZERO Asset Protection associates in them) I would say “Hey have you ever gotten home and said (both hands to head)Oh No I forgot the batteries, well just so you know We have them here at best buy so you DON’T have to forget them, So Come Into Best Buy where our name says it all BEST Buy!

Thanks for reading

Robb Heisey – Best Buy Store #518 – Kingston, NY

By: Dave Hughes

Dave Hughes — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:02:25 +0000

I am curious as to how you will transition from a ‘retailer brand’ that hosts or vends other well know ‘retail brands’ into an actual product brand itself – per:

“He wants to go beyond the typical big-box retailer role of selling commodity products such as televisions and personal computers and become a central player in determining which products come to market and how big-spending customers choose the latest gear.”

I would think you are definitely in a position of strength possibly from being closer to the consumer physically and to some degree virtually – yes I use both persistently to my wife’s regret However, this does seem like a dicey play possibly. I am guessing the entity with the strongest knowledge of and relationship with the consumers – especially genY or genZ or whatever is next – will win out.

By: Nat Boughton

Nat Boughton — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:56:57 +0000

This most interesting point being made is to not get lazy and complacent. Creating the necessary agility is critical in the current environment, and being able to adapt in real time. The other key is as the leader being able to continue creating disruption by changing the game will keep the competitors off balance. Innovation starts with a keen understanding of the customer relationship, and behavioral economics.

By: wfletche

wfletche — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:37:48 +0000

Interesting piece. while BBY is in a great position to experiment, the author omits their need to do so. BBY has massive stores that used to be filled 25% with music CDs and DVDs and then video games. All that is going away or gone, and BBY is left with both empty space and no revenues from those segments, which has migrated to various online services. So experimentation is a necessity to find ways to make money from all that vacant square footage.
As for the professor’s observation that this retail power is an innovation – its been walmarts model forever. They have long used their power and relations to influence manufacturer behavior. But with them, its typically been focused on taking out costs, or in service of walmart (eg, supply chain efficiency and/or data exchange) rather than (primarily) in service of customers and product innovation.
The author also short changes the scope of BBY’s power today. They are not just the dominant channel and potentially preferencing one mfr vs. another, but they are now also a competitor. With so much of tech manufacturing outsourced, even by the ‘manufacturers’, BBY can just as easily go make it themselves, as they have done with TVs, if their suppliers like dell, hp etc don’t go along.
BBY is most notable, i think, in that they have taken the traditional benefits and business model of the online world and figured out how to apply it to their advantage in the very physical world of bricks-mortar big box retailing. In a world where physical manufacturing is entirely fluid, the value comes from the customer insight and a well-running innovation and learning process.

By: Best Buy Leader

Best Buy Leader — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:44:49 +0000

“Best Buy says that its biggest not-so-secret weapon is the staff of 155,000 employees worldwide who can talk all things electronic.”

If this is Best Buy’s biggest weapon, then why isn’t more money being provided to support the employees? Best Buy’s employees experienced a structural change in the beginning of FY10 with the promise that the new structure would ensure that they would now be properly staffed and have enough hours to put more bodies on the floor. Yet a year later many Best Buys are seeing labor crunches where there isn’t enough money to allocate for quarterly let alone monthly training meetings. Best Buy’s best sales associates find it difficult to make a living off of the wage ceiling that Best Buy has put in place for its full time employees. There Blue Crew Bucks program gives some hope that they will se an extra couple hundred in their paycheck but caps out at a certain level. How are these employees supposed to be rewarded for going beyond that? A 30 year old working full time sales at Best Buy (which isn’t over 32 hours) cannot come close to supporting a family after being demoted several times because his position was eliminated. I joined the company in 2005 and was sold on the vision that I can make a career out of this company, was told about Brian Dunn’s story of moving up the ranks, and began to care about the growth of this company and our business. As a leader in one of your retail stores I understand that there is a need to grow financially and continue to be profitable in a time of compressing margins, but where is the support for your best sales associates? Employees lose faith in the company because they see it as they are doing more work now than they were when they were Magnolia Home Theater Pros and making more money. It becomes difficult as a leader to motivate these employees when they do not have the chance to receive a raise and they have very little opportunities to earn more for performing better. I do not want to see a commissioned sales floor ever at Best Buy, and I know that Best Buy is testing several solutions out, but there has to be something in place for Best Buy to keep their best sales associates soon before we lose them to expanding competitors.