Competition winner: Purposeful Leadership at Best Buy

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This case won the Outstanding New Case Writer Competition category at The Case Centre Awards and Competitions 2022. #CaseAwards2022

View photos and video from the awards presentation on 12 May 2022.

Who – the protagonist

Ana Goode had just been offered the newly created role of Chief Purpose Officer at the multinational electronics retailer, Best Buy.

What?

The role of Chief Purpose Officer had been created by departing CEO, Hubert Joly, the company’s main advocate for purposeful leadership. As the role was new, its legitimacy was in question particularly as, with Hubert stepping down as CEO, Ana doubted if purpose would still be the driving force of the company. She needed to get all the directors on board in her presentation to the executive team and address how her new role and purposeful leadership would serve the entire company.

Best Buy

Why?

Best Buy was in deep financial crisis in 2012 when Hubert joined the company as CEO. Over the next seven years, Hubert’s Renew Blue transformation plan and focus on purposeful leadership averted bankruptcy and share prices steadily grew again. Joly’s personal touch, clarity of mission and focus on employee recognition formed the basis of Best Buy’s transformation ethos, but Ana needed to find a way of enabling and scaling this purpose driven culture for the company’s next phase, Building the New Blue.

When?

The case is set in 2019, on the announcement of Hubert’s departure as CEO after seven years in the role.

Where?

Best Buy is a US retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota and also operates in Canada, Puerto Rico and, at the time of the case, Mexico.

Key quote

“The bottom line for the company is to acknowledge that the purpose of an organisation is not to make money but to contribute to the common good. Making money is an imperative, but there is a difference between an imperative and a purpose, and our purpose is the common good.”
Hubert Joly, CEO at Best Buy. 

What next?

Ana had several questions she wanted to address in her presentation – how can purposeful leadership be defined? What is its relationship to the company’s performance indicators? How could Best Buy’s purpose driven culture be scaled in a sustainable way? Would both employees and shareholders buy into it? Ana needed to find convincing answers to all these questions to justify her new role. 

AUTHOR PERSPECTIVE 

This is Rodolphe Durand’s first Case Award but marks the fifth win for HEC Paris. They also won the Finance, Accounting and Control award this year.

Winning the award

Rodolphe said: “This case is very atypical in its structure (a series of personal notes taken by the main character). It deals with a fluffy notion, purposeful leadership, made more concrete through the example of practices featured in the case. And it contains several learning points based on serious academic research and not wishful thinking. For all of these reasons, I feel honoured that it received this award.”

Case popularity

Rodolphe continued: “I think the case makes clear that purpose is not just a buzzword for an organisation but that under certain conditions (made explicit through the case) it is a vector of superior organisational performance. Hence, clear definitions, clear conditions, and clear limitations of the purpose-performance relationship makes the case useful for people.”

Writing the case

He added: “A clear challenge was to structure the notes taken by Ana, the protagonist. Readers have to enjoy the case and not to be overwhelmed by unnecessary information.”

Best Buy planning to-do

Case writing advice

Rodolphe explained: “Think first about the learning objectives. A case is worth its teaching note.”

Teaching the case

He concluded: “Teaching to a crowd, where 20+ nationalities are represented, enables an instructor to use the huge variety of the participants’ feelings about subtle notions like authenticity, authority, trust in leaders and organisations.”

JUDGES VIEWPOINT 

This competition was judged by Patricia Lui, Singapore Management University; Ketan Gandhi, KgGuruji Consulting & Services; Sergey Portyanko, London South Bank University; and Richard McCracken, The Case Centre.

Best Buy judges

“The writing and structure of the case is remarkably confident for a new case author. A well-chosen and engaging scenario is perfectly matched with a novel approach to style and structure, taking students inside the mind of the protagonist and setting up rich potential for engaging classroom discussion.

“The teaching note is comprehensive and helpful for teachers adopting the case for the first time.”

THE CASE 

The case

Who – the protagonist

Ana Goode had just been offered the newly created role of Chief Purpose Officer at the multinational electronics retailer, Best Buy.

What?

The role of Chief Purpose Officer had been created by departing CEO, Hubert Joly, the company’s main advocate for purposeful leadership. As the role was new, its legitimacy was in question particularly as, with Hubert stepping down as CEO, Ana doubted if purpose would still be the driving force of the company. She needed to get all the directors on board in her presentation to the executive team and address how her new role and purposeful leadership would serve the entire company.

Best Buy

Why?

Best Buy was in deep financial crisis in 2012 when Hubert joined the company as CEO. Over the next seven years, Hubert’s Renew Blue transformation plan and focus on purposeful leadership averted bankruptcy and share prices steadily grew again. Joly’s personal touch, clarity of mission and focus on employee recognition formed the basis of Best Buy’s transformation ethos, but Ana needed to find a way of enabling and scaling this purpose driven culture for the company’s next phase, Building the New Blue.

When?

The case is set in 2019, on the announcement of Hubert’s departure as CEO after seven years in the role.

Where?

Best Buy is a US retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota and also operates in Canada, Puerto Rico and, at the time of the case, Mexico.

Key quote

“The bottom line for the company is to acknowledge that the purpose of an organisation is not to make money but to contribute to the common good. Making money is an imperative, but there is a difference between an imperative and a purpose, and our purpose is the common good.”
Hubert Joly, CEO at Best Buy. 

What next?

Ana had several questions she wanted to address in her presentation – how can purposeful leadership be defined? What is its relationship to the company’s performance indicators? How could Best Buy’s purpose driven culture be scaled in a sustainable way? Would both employees and shareholders buy into it? Ana needed to find convincing answers to all these questions to justify her new role. 

AUTHOR PERSPECTIVE 

Author perspective

This is Rodolphe Durand’s first Case Award but marks the fifth win for HEC Paris. They also won the Finance, Accounting and Control award this year.

Winning the award

Rodolphe said: “This case is very atypical in its structure (a series of personal notes taken by the main character). It deals with a fluffy notion, purposeful leadership, made more concrete through the example of practices featured in the case. And it contains several learning points based on serious academic research and not wishful thinking. For all of these reasons, I feel honoured that it received this award.”

Case popularity

Rodolphe continued: “I think the case makes clear that purpose is not just a buzzword for an organisation but that under certain conditions (made explicit through the case) it is a vector of superior organisational performance. Hence, clear definitions, clear conditions, and clear limitations of the purpose-performance relationship makes the case useful for people.”

Writing the case

He added: “A clear challenge was to structure the notes taken by Ana, the protagonist. Readers have to enjoy the case and not to be overwhelmed by unnecessary information.”

Best Buy planning to-do

Case writing advice

Rodolphe explained: “Think first about the learning objectives. A case is worth its teaching note.”

Teaching the case

He concluded: “Teaching to a crowd, where 20+ nationalities are represented, enables an instructor to use the huge variety of the participants’ feelings about subtle notions like authenticity, authority, trust in leaders and organisations.”

JUDGES VIEWPOINT 

Judges viewpoint

This competition was judged by Patricia Lui, Singapore Management University; Ketan Gandhi, KgGuruji Consulting & Services; Sergey Portyanko, London South Bank University; and Richard McCracken, The Case Centre.

Best Buy judges

“The writing and structure of the case is remarkably confident for a new case author. A well-chosen and engaging scenario is perfectly matched with a novel approach to style and structure, taking students inside the mind of the protagonist and setting up rich potential for engaging classroom discussion.

“The teaching note is comprehensive and helpful for teachers adopting the case for the first time.”

THE CASE 

The author

Rodolphe Durand
Joly Family Purposeful Leadership Chair
Read the case

Educators can login to view a free educator preview copy of this case and its teaching note.

CASE - Reference no. 721-0023-1
TEACHING NOTE - Reference no. 721-0023-8
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