Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly is trying to reverse years of declining sales at the ailing consumer electronics retailer.
He recently told Bloomberg what books he read as he was interviewing for the top job at Best Buy. He accepted the position in August.
As he was competing for the Best Buy CEO job, Joly said he read the following:
- Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change by Louis Gerstner. This book written by the former CEO of IBM talks about how he brought the company back from "the brink of insolvency" and made it a leader in the computer industry again.
- Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz. The Starbucks CEO wrote a book about how Starbucks began to suffer during the recession and how he turned around the business without sacrificing values and ethics.
- American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce G. Hoffman. Ford was offered a government bail-out in 2008, but turned it down. This book details how CEO Alan Mulally turned Ford from being on the brink of bankruptcy to being the most profitable automaker in the world.
The books share a major theme: all are big turnaround stories. Joly is attempting to do the same at Best Buy, which has seen declining sales for two years.
Joly told Bloomberg he identifies with Gerstner, who pushed computer services to save IBM. Joly is pushing the company's 20,000-team "Geek Squad" services as a way to stand out.
"Gerstner used services to lead the transformation of the company, and we have a similar opportunity,” Joly said. “Services can play a huge role.”
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