Dunn, who is married to the woman he wedded a month after joining Best Buy, says the hardest part of his job is being on the road so much. However, he adds, a not-so-secret weapon helps him remain involved with his three sons, ages nine, 16 and 17: technology. Beyond keeping in touch through Twitter and texting, he uses videoconferencing technology. On a recent trip to London, Dunn recalls, he streamed a football game, and connected through a Skype video relay with his boys, who were watching the same game on TV at home. “The only thing I couldn’t do was put my arm around them,” says Dunn. “If I couldn’t have this kind of connection with them, I couldn’t do this work.”
Ask any of the CEOs what is the most important factor in Best Buy’s success, and each will rhapsodize about partnering with customers to deliver the right fit. Each also will insist that the key to pleasing customers is the Blue Shirts. “My job is to empower the local employee to connect with the customer,” says Dunn. “We can’t prescribe the solutions from Minnesota, but we can create the environment that unleashes employees to connect with the customer.”
Even as CEO, Dunn says, he tries to connect with Best Buy’s 160,000 employees by visiting with them at stores. He says he also spends 20 minutes or so each night chatting with some of his 2,744 friends on Facebook, many of whom are Blue Shirts. More formally, Dunn says, he periodically writes Brian’s Whiteboard, a blog that updates employees on his thoughts and plans. “I am often asked how you can monetize social media,” says Dunn. “And it’s true that employees give me great ideas that I pass along to the head of merchandising. But my point is to have a discussion like you do with neighbors over your backyard fence. It’s an awesome cultural touchstone that they reach out to me and a great way to learn about where the customers are.”
In fact, the four-building headquarters campus, opened in 2003, was designed with employees in mind, says the company. Meeting rooms and common seating abound, as do such amenities as a bank, dry cleaners, recreation facilities (game room, putting green, basketball hoops), coffee kiosks, a massive cafeteria and a day-care center. Each office — including the CEO’s — is exactly the same size, the company confirms.
Everything Is Local
The belief that local employees are most in touch with their customer base has driven Best Buy’s international expansion, says Dunn. He adds that the company’s dual-brand model typically begins with buying or joint-venturing with a locally established brand, opening Best Buy stores in tandem with the established retailer only after a comfort level has been reached. “We can’t just import a Minneapolis store to China,” says Dunn. “But we can hire local leadership to influence assortment while we infuse Best Buy’s global brand principles of customer focus and employee engagement.”
Dunn says Best Buy is taking its international expansion slowly, not expecting a profit in China for several years, for example. But he insists such growth is key.
Best Buy says it kicked off the dual-brand strategy in Canada in 2001, when it bought Future Shop. Today the 121 Future Shops and 58 Canadian Best Buys achieve a 35 percent national market share, Dunn says. In 2003, Best Buy notes, it opened a sourcing office in China, where many of its suppliers make their goods. That paved the way for its 2006 purchase of a majority stake in Five Star, which Dunn describes as one of the five top consumer electronics retailers in the country. In early 2007, Dunn says, the first Best Buy-branded store opened in Shanghai, and in 2009 the company bought the remaining 25 percent of Five Star.
Dunn says Best Buy is taking its international expansion slowly, not expecting a profit in China for several years, for example. “The roadway of American retailers expanding internationally is very challenging,” he says, but he insists such growth is key to going from fiscal 2009’s $45 billion in revenues to $80 billion in five years. He believes that innovations in technology will keep customers — and him — energized. “I think we’re just getting started with things like HD cameras and camcorders,” Dunn says, adding that “3-D television is coming next year, and with that comes 3-D gaming. It’s going to be amazing.”
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