How Would You Turnaround a Dying Best Buy?

“The best leaders don’t climb to the top, they are carried to the top!”

— Hubert Joly, CEO Best Buy

In 2012, Best Buy was in crisis; Amazon was killing Best Buy with its online pricing, the company was reporting huge losses, the stock was tanking, and the CEO was fired for misconduct. Who would have the courage to lead and turnaround the company at this point? Enter Hubert Joly, a McKinsey “turnaround” consultant!

We have always encouraged listening to these podcasts as they are great for improving business knowledge and learning from the experiences of others. Now, here is a podcast about someone who openly confesses he was not a born leader and never had the opportunity to lead large teams. How did he develop his leadership skills? When the opportunity knocked on his door, was he able to successfully lead an IT consulting firm with 3000 employees ?

Listen and learn from his experiences at three different companies until he took the office as CEO and Chairman of Best Buy.

Key Points to Ponder

• What is the role of a leader? Is it to be the smartest person in the room, come up with great ideas, and make good decisions? Or, is it something more? Think about how a good leader drives inspiration. Have you ever thought about inspiring your employees, and how much emphasis should a good leader put into that?
• What is the purpose of a company? The famous economist Milton Friedman said, "The role of a company is to create value for shareholders through profits." Do you think there is more to it? What about employees, vendors and customers? What about the communities they live in? Should the purpose of a company be to serve all of them?
• What are the steps to a successful turnaround? Most turnaround teams start with cutting down on extra expenses, selling off poor performing assets and streamlining operations. Layoffs is usually a key part of the strategy, but is that really the right way to do it? What did Hubert Joly do at Best Buy? Did he fire people the day he joined the company? What were his first steps?

Finally, pay attention to what Hubert has to say about customer focus

Focusing on the competition is interesting but not fascinating. It's all about a focus on the customer. If you're passionate about understanding the needs of the customers and then creating ways to provide a great solution for the customers, this is how you win!

Contact BBCCH and see how we can help you turn your ideas into your next business venture.

Now click below and listen to this awesome podcast from NPR.

Can a Janitor become a VP at Pepsico?

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door!”

— Milton Bene

You have heard many success stories … “rags to riches,” they call them. Now, here is one that we would like to share with you. It is inspiring; It exemplifies the pride one should feel in their work. It talks about hustle and initiative. Best of all, it proves that despite how low one starts at the bottom, a janitor doesn’t have to live and die a janitor.

Please note that there are some discrepancies in the accounts of this story, but one thing will always remain true: Richard Montañez didn’t stop where he started as a janitor in the 1990s.

Key Points to Ponder

• Initiative: How Richard answers the call to initiative with ideas, lots of ideas
• Courage: He makes a call to the CEO and presents his idea in front of the big guys
• Resilience: How he keeps taking steps forward untill he gets to the top of the company

Finally, keep in mind how he learns from his mistakes. What could Richard Montañez have done differently in his career? If he had more courage, could he have turned his innovative idea into his own business? Contact BBCCH and see how we can help you turn your ideas into your next business venture.

Now click below and listen to this awesome podcast from NPR. If you would like to read the story instead, click here

A Business Story About Cookies

“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: Cash and Experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. ”

— Harold Geneen

We can learn a lot from the experience of others, and use that to shape our business journey. In this curated blog post, we are bringing to you the story of someone that starts with something very small; like many of us. She loves what she is doing and continues to do it determined to make it successful. All the hard work and the small disappointments don't dishearten her from moving forward. She tries new things and learns from her experiences. Finally, a time comes when the business is running on its own. All was good, she had money, real estate and time on her hand to enjoy life until she makes one wrong decision that ruins everything for her. And then she fights … to get her business back!

Before you dive right into the podcast, prime yourself with key points you can learn from this captivating story. You will find that success is always based on a few fundamental principles.

Key Points to Ponder

• Passion: Nothing happens without passion. Her baking business wouldn’t have taken off if she didn’t have the passion to improve and perfect her craft

• Courage: She risked her personal money to setup the business because she was passionate about it. But she didn’t just stop there. Despite the obstacles, she kept moving forward maintaining a positive attitude. She experimented with recipes, sold door to door to strangers, made new investments in her business, and even paid the debt piled up by others to make her business success

• Resilience: Highs & Lows are part and parcel of any business. Things happen and they will always happen. You can’t control that. What you can control is learn to be resilient and be able to fight back like she does when adversity strikes hard.

Pay also special to attention to partnership issues and why it is important to setup partnerships correctly. Contact us and we can help you setup your partnerships correctly according to Shariat, in a way that protects the investment of all parties and gets you the Rida of Aqa Maula (TUS).

Finally, learn the importance of work / life balance from her. Money is not everything and spending all your time in business is never worth it in the end.

Now click below and listen to this riveting podcast from NPR.