A Cup of Coffee With Best Buy’s Brad Anderson

A Cup of Coffee With Best Buy’s Brad Anderson

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Though the recession has battered Best Buy every bit as forcefully as other consumer electronics purveyors, the company still occupies the pinnacle of CE retail and has not shied away from talk of European expansion, even as it regroups to adjust to the current thrift among its American customer base. 

Brad Anderson, who has served as Best Buy’s Vice Chairman and CEO since 2002 (after 30 years at other posts within the company), is widely credited with a leadership style which has embraced constant change and named "having fun while winning" a core value. 

Anderson plans to retire at the end of June, handing over the reins to Best Buy’s current President and COO, Brian Dunn.  Anderson spoke with Picture Business about this latest transition, just one of many in his extraordinary career.

PB:  You’ve said on numerous occasions that one of Best Buy’s core values company-wide is learning from challenge and change.  Do you look upon your years in leadership as a period of near-constant transition?

Anderson: Yes.  Yes I do.  And one of the things I love about our business is that it’s in a state of constant turmoil.  I guess that’s because I’m easily bored.  This business is so challenging.  I think when they look back at us 50 years from now, they’ll find that we were pioneers in dealing with a high velocity of change, most of which I think will be beneficial in the long run.  But the change came at us with such velocity that we hadn’t developed systems to fully adapt to it, and in fact, we are still early in the Digital Age. 

PB:  You certainly presided over unprecedented growth, both in sales numbers and in scope of the company’s vision.  Looking back, are there certain highlights that stand out to you, like the moment the company hit a billion in annual revenues [1992] or opened the first superstore in China [2007]?

Anderson: There are so many.  Those are two of them.  For me, the biggest single thing about the business that I’ve loved is being connected to individuals; dreams.  I remember a lady in one of our stores saying that for the first time, she was realizing what a valuable woman she was, her knowledge and skills.  She had two kids and I think realizing that about herself made her feel like a better mother as well.

I started out not really imagining a business career or individual success myself and then I had this wonderful experience. I got so much more out of the career than I could ever have imagined.  It is connected to the milestones, but it’s also connected to individual dreams. That gave us a reason to exist and a competitive edge.

PB:  Can you tell us a bit about the enormous decision to transition Best Buy from a product distribution company to more of a service company?

Anderson: I didn’t think we’d have a future if we couldn’t do that.  We had to change.  I don’t think our leaders could have transformed our company without that kind of risk.  Because our industry is so challenging, we had to figure out how to do that.  But we had the great fortune in our past of having to fundamentally change more than once.  And we’re still in the process, honestly, we still have the design instincts of a product company.  It’s still not a natural fit for us.

PB:  What’s got you the most excited now in terms of emerging services?

Anderson: One of the good things about the turbulent economic climate we’re in is that we’ll all either have to change our standard of living or find out how to do things more efficiently.  We have lots of options in our industry to offer to help with that. Look, if we hadn’t had to change, we wouldn’t have.  The opportunity for our industry the next few years is to help people do a lot more for less.

PB: Best Buy Mobile famously offered U.S. customers a more streamlined cell phone sign-up experience. What do you think the company will offer its new European customers in coming years?

Anderson: Europe is a completely fresh slate for us.  We’re building new websites and store configurations.  We’re hoping to use everything we’ve learned to present to our European customer a compelling choice:  a lifestyle-oriented integrated set of solutions.

We’ll look at a customer as trying to solve a problem.  They’ll still be able to go into a store and just buy a TV, but if they have a band and want to record music or if they want to work from home, the way we are building services will make it much easier for them to do those things.  We’ll be able to solve particular challenges using technology.

PB:  You’re credited with welcoming an interactive corporate culture where your employees participate in a private online social network [Blue Shirt Nation], a company-wide wiki, and even in sales projection games. What did you learn from those employees, many of whom are under the age of 25?

Anderson: It feels like a million years ago since I was that young!  But what I had thirty years ago, in spite of being young, was that I was closer to the customer’s experience then than the people who were running the company. I think that’s why I got a chance to lead in the first place. Part of what we’re trying to do at Best Buy is to leverage that [proximity of staff to customers].  Their insight is likely to be better than anything that I can provide, but I can use the things I’ve learned to add to the insights of the folks in the stores.

Back when I was in the store, if I felt nobody was listening to me, the level of service I provided to customers reflected that. But if I was doing something I believed in, the level of service was much better. So we’re creating more engaged employees. That wouldn’t be possible without the very tool sets that we sell.

PB:  The retail conditions of the last six months couldn’t have been more challenging. Is Brian Dunn giving you a hard time about turning over the reigns to him this particular year?

Anderson: We just shot a cover photograph for an internal magazine and it was a picture of me handing a remote control to Brian, it’s meant as sort of a symbol….In one of the shots, I’ve got a huge smile on my face and Brian looks a little alarmed. (laughing) I think that’s a pretty good representation.

PB:  Do you feel some relief?

Anderson: Yes!  (laughs)  The company is so much bigger than we ever dreamed it’d get to be…It’s a consumptive enterprise to manage and I am looking forward to feeling less guilt.

PB: We know you are big reader. Do you have a stack of books already waiting for you this summer?

Anderson: They’re piled up next to my refrigerator.  I think the stack of books is about 5 feet high. 

PB: Would you consider a Kindle?

Anderson: Yeah, actually!  I haven’t bought one yet, but I definitely would consider it.  I seem to still have this affection for big, clunky books that weigh down your luggage.

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