Company Background
In an interview with James Wetherbe, Richard M. Schulze tells of how at eleven-years-old he became an entrepreneur in St. Paul, Minnesota as a paperboy. This newspaper boy would grow up to be founder of the world’s largest consumer electronics chain store, Best Buy Co. Inc. (Schulze, 2014). As an adult in 1966 Schulze partnered up with Gary Smoliak and opened the company called Sound of Music until 1986 (Bailey, 2015). Schulze bought out Smoliak around 1970 and by 1983 he had changed the name of the company to Best Buy Co., Inc. Four years later Best Buy Co., Inc. secures an entry on the New York Stock Exchange. During the early 1990’s Best Buy Co., Inc., had become the largest consumer electronics store in the United States.
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By 1999 the competition was growing, Amazon.com introduces a line of consumer electronics to their growing e-business. Best Buy Co., Inc., fights back during the early 2000 by purchasing Magnolia Hi-Fi. Best Buy Co., Inc., goes international when they bought Canada’s Future Shop in 2001. In 2002 Richard M. Schulze steps down as CEO and Vice-Chairman Brad Anderson takes over his position. Brad Anderson started as an employee with Best Buy in 1973. He had been serving as president and chief operating officer of Best Buy Co., Inc. since 1991. With roller coaster events and changing corporate officers throughout the years, as of 2012 to present day Hubert Joly presides as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
External
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In order to compete they would have to be able to price match their products and provide the wide array of consumer services like Best Buy. With over 1,700 stores in the U.S. this allows the consumer easy store access with product and employee interaction of which manifest the loyal returning consumer. These factors in combination would entail a vast amount of working capital from the start along with experienced employees and therefore detouring new
According to the Kohl’s Corporation Hoover Report (2014), in the late 1920s, a man named Max Kohl opened a grocery store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Hoover Report, 2014, pg. 9). By 1938, Max and his three sons had developed his store into a successful chain and incorporated the business. Max Kohl had experienced enough success by 1962 that he opened a department store right next to his Kohl’s grocery store. In 1972, Max Kohl and his family’s “65 food stores and five department stores were generating about $90 million in yearly sales” (pg. 9) In the same year, the British American Tobacco’s Brown & Williamson Industries (BATUS) purchased 80% of the Kohls’ two operations. Six years later, BATUS proceeded to purchase what remained of Kohl’s. In the early 1980s, BATUS decided that “Kohl’s discount image did not fit in with BATUS’s other retail operations” and decided to ultimately separate the two operations in order to put them up for sale (pg. 9). The president and chief executive officer at the time, William Kellogg, “and two other executives, with the backing of mall developers Herbert and Melvin Simon, led an LBO (leveraged buy-out) to acquire the chain’s 40 stores and a distribution center” (pg. 9). By the time Kohl’s managed to go public in the year 1992, they “had 81 stores in six states, and sales topped $1 billion” (pg. 9). At this time Kohl’s began its expansion and within the next five years managed to top sales at two billion dollars. Kohl’s then “acquired a former Bradlees store to enter New Jersey and opened stores in Washington, DC; Philadelphia; New York; and Delaware” (pg. 9). The following year Kohl’s managed to expand into Tennessee by adding new stores. The company named Larry Montgomery CEO in 1999 and short...
Wal-Mart was not always the superstore that it is today. In the late 1940’s, Sam Walton took up the ownership of a Ben Franklin’s store in Newport, Arkansas. Even during the time before Wal-Mart, Walton was all about keeping prices low. It is every business’s objective to find the right balance between the prices of an item to meet the demands of the consumer in order to maximize revenue. How could Walton still make a profit while keeping the prices low for the consumer? Even while still operating the Ben Franklin’s store, he would purchase products from wholesalers and minimally markup the price. Where most retailers would rely on markup prices to gain profit, Walton would rely on pure volume in order to make up for the low prices (Frank, 2006). This was a smart decision on his part because it makes sense that if a consumer can get the same product for a lower price then they will purchase the cheaper product. It was not until 1962 that Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store, also in Arkan...
Due to the fact that Best Buy is non-collusive, they face a kinked demand curve that ultimately determines the firm’s relative market share. The demand curve consists of an elastic and inelastic portion. Oligopolies avoid both portions, where in the elastic portion, competitors keep prices low to steal customers, and the inelastic portion where price war occurs since competitors also lower prices, resulting in no gain in demand.
The roots of Best Buy Co., Inc. can be traced back to St. Paul, Minnesota. This is where founder Richard Schulze opened the doors of his Sound of Music store in 1966. Understanding a demand for consumer audio components and systems in the St. Paul area, Schulze managed to provide a combination of great prices and excellent service, thus building a strong customer base, which quickly prompted an expansion into home appliances and video products.
After watching Charlie Rose’s interview with Jim Collins; where Collins explains his recent book How the Mighty Fall, presented me with an opportunity to reflect over recent companies that were staples in my childhood and early adult memories and now are non-existent. In this paper, I will look, analyze and relate Blockbuster Video and their history to Jim Collins’ five stages of an organization.
The company was founded by Richard Schulze in 1966 in St. Paul, Minnesota and was originally called Sound of Music. In 1970 the $1 million mark was hit in annual revenues. Later in 1983, the name was changed to Best Buy. The company adopted the yellow tag logo in 1989. In 1999, Best Buy partners with Microsoft to increase sales. In 2009, a goal was created to reduce carbon. This was called "20 by 20," a 20% reduction in our absolute carbon emissions in North America by the year 2020. In 2012 there was a $1.7 billion quarterly loss. Currently, Best Buy is a multinational retailer of consumer electronics, computing and mobile phone products, entertainment products, appliances and related services. The Company operates retail stores and call centers, and conducts online retail operations under a range of brand names. With these brands, the company has had almost $50 billion in annual revenue in 2013 that employs over 145,000 people. There are 1,400 stores and locations in the United States alone. The online shopping sector has about 1 billion visitors shoppers annually. With that stated, BestBuy.com is in the top 10 retail websites in the United Sta...
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
Red – Electronics Retailers (Competitors) - When I think about Electronic Retailers I generally think about; cellphones, laptops, digital cameras, printers, DVD’s, and gaming consoles. But, being the leading carrier of these electronics, I have always used BestBuy personally. Not only because I’ve been doing the research on this project for class but, I’ve always done business with this company when
Best Buy, one of the biggest consumer electronics retailers in the world, provides products from smartphone, computers to large electronic appliances. It aims at offering a large variety of products with outstanding customer service at a comparably economical price. Yet, it has been facing internal and external challenges in the recent years. Bottom line and the share price are slightly catching up after a fall in 2013 but still barely satisfying the shareholders and customers are changing their purchasing habits which may threaten its future.
Best Buy’s History & Main Characters: Best Buy is Minneapolis-based and is North America's leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances. Throughout Best Buy's 37-year history, the company has maintained the tradition of making life fun and easy for customers and employees, while providing a significant return to partners and investors. It has 80,000 employees and over 550 stores in the U.S., in addition to the brands Best Buy Canada, Future Shop and Magnolia Hi-Fi. Their leadership is led by Dick Schulze, Founder and Chairman, Brad Anderson, Vice Chairman and CEO, Al Lenzmeier, President and COO, and Darren Jackson, Executive Vice President of Finance and CFO. Chairman Dick Schulze founded Best Buy in 1966 with the Sound of Music, an audio component systems store in St. Paul, Minn. In 1973, Vice Chairman and CEO Brad Anderson joined Sound of Music as a salesperson. The company quickly expanded into video products and computers, was renamed Best Buy in 1983, and became a public company in 1985. Best Buy’s revenues for fiscal year 2003 were $20.9 billion and net earnings of $622 million. It was ranked number 91 on the Fortune 500 in 2003 (Bestbuy.com). Best Buy stores are redefining the way customers shop by offering an unparalleled assortment of affordable, easy-to-use entertainment and technology products and services available through its network of more than 550 retail stores in 48 states and online at BestBuy.com. Best Buy is scheduled to open 60 new stores in fiscal 2003 and is on track to have 650 stores by fiscal 2005. Magnolia Hi-Fi is a high-end electronics retailer specializing in audio and video solutions for homes, ...
Callistus, thank you for outlining the growth that Best Buy has achieved. Based on the information you’ve provided in your post, it’s noteworthy to mention additional data specified in Best Buy 10K report, and highlight critical success factors that this organization will be focusing on to maintain their competitive advantage. To your point, Best Buy has experience exponential consistent growth experiencing an increase in operating income for fiscal 2017 of 479 million which equates to 4.7% of their revenue, this was primarily due to an increase in gross profit rate and decrease in restructuring activity. Gross profit in 2016 increase by .9%, net income increase by 39.6% in 2016, and up 19.1% in fiscal 2017. Best Buy is in
The company started to expand and by 1998 it enter European market by buying online retailers in the UK and Germany and changed their name to Amazon.co.uk and amazon.de. Two years later, it set up a French website amazon.fr.
BestBuy really needs to know the expectations of consumers to be able to align on the same distribution line than its competitors that continue to cut its market shares by offering the same products at very competitive prices. There is no doubt about the threat that may represent specially Wal-Mart for BestBuy, its "Every day low price" slogan speaks for itself. Today, quality’s problem is used as a marketing argument, but it’s not over true even though Walmart some low quality products. We have to notice that most of the producers of nowadays ’technologies are Asian countries as proof, IPhone and well-known brands technologies have always been manufactured in China. So the quality problem is not really the problem BestBuy is facing because there is no doubt that Wal-Mart and BestBuy have the same suppliers since everyone claims to offer high quality electronics. The first thing to do is to figure out how Walmart makes the difference by lowing its fixed and variables costs to better maximize profit even though offering low cost product. I think BestBuy needs to review its employees ‘training budget since they already have a good knowledge about the product they offer. As cited on page 22-4, even though its revenue grow, at the same time its net income and operating
Best Buy has a unique perspective on their business and technology because they pride themselves in educating customers. As Spenner and Freeman (2012) mentions, customers want simplicity and need to be able to make informed decisions. By educating customers about the products and teaching them how to use it, Best Buy could actually increase the chances of the customer buying the product because they are confident in it and Best Buy. This is how Best Buy practices business now. Building on this is the fact that employees are paid hourly instead of based on commission so the employees don’t have to make hard sales, which can be a negative for many customers. Centricity, Best Buy’s tailoring of their stores for targeted customers, is a great concept as well (Chandrasekhar, 2009). It allows the biggest profit generating customers to feel comfortable and encourages spending through a more relaxed environment.
The company started as an online book seller, which then rapidly expanded into music and movies, and finally into electronics and households.