Best Buy Managers
Best Buy Managers Plan with Moral Responsibility
Denece Oplinus
University of Phoenix
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Best Buy Managers
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Best Buy Managers Plan with Moral Responsibility
The Best Buy Corporation (BBC) is a company that has realized extraordinary growth
from a single store employing five people in Minnesota into a multinational corporation with
thousands of stores and over 150,000 employees across the globe (Best Buy Co., 2007). Goals
and plans created at the BBC constantly change because of outside factors. Just as other large
corporations, the BBC has ethical problems and changed management planning in response.
Even though no company is perfect in the twenty first century, the BBC effectively handles
ethical problems by creating an outstanding code of business ethics, and actively responding to
consumers demand for corporate social responsibility.
Best Buy Grows with Effective Management Planning
The BBC uses effective planning within management to promote growth across all
sectors of the company. The BBC focuses on international, customer, portfolio, and employee
growth. Global expansion for the BBC began with the acquisition of a Canadian electronics
retailer, and then expanded to include stores and products in Mexico, China, Europe, and
recently Turkey. The BBC believes that “by connecting human beings around the globe with one
common vision – to improve the lives of our customers – we believe we can learn faster” (Best
Buy Co., n.d., Internal Growth Section ¶3). The BBC achieves customer growth by following the
customer as a guide to making the correct decisions within the company. The BBC developed the
Reward Zone program specifically to integrate customer satisfaction with ordinary purchases.
The secret to success at the BBC with portfolio growth is a simple formula; “We look for unmet
customer needs, and then we look for the best way to meet those needs and serve those
customers in order to grow” (Best Buy Co., n.d., Portfolio Growth Section ¶2). The BBC’s
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portfolio grows through production of exclusive Best Buy brands, partnerships with other
companies to create products, such as Best Buy Mobile, and through acquisitions of other
companies as with the Geek Squad. The BBC also finds strengths in numbers with employee
growth. Management at the BBC believes, “the size of Best Buy, far from being an obstacle, can
and should work to the advantage of our employees in finding growth, by equipping them and
enabling them with innovative, global assets that allow them to solve problems for customers”
(Best Buy Co., n.d., Employee Growth Section ¶2). Growth plans from management at the BBC
always take legal issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibility into consideration.
Best Buy Manages with Moral Responsibilities
Almost all companies in the United States have had ethical problems and management at
the BBC is not immune. Having ethical troubles is not what makes the BBC stand out; what
makes the BBC stand out is how they effectively resolve ethical problems. One example of legal
issues changing management in the BBC occurred when the state of Wisconsin sued the BBC
with allegations of misleading customers on a variety of subjects (State of, 2005). Today, the
BBC has an ethics policy that specifically deals with problems, such as misrepresentation, and
deal harshly with violators. The BBC states in their Code of Business Ethics, “We make every
effort to price and present products in a manner that is fair and accurate for our customers” (Best
Buy Co. 2007, p. 40). The BBC ensures every employee learns proper business ethics through a
4-hour ethics-training course for officers and a modified version for the board of directors and
regular employees (Horwich, 2005). The BBC takes moral responsibility to a higher level with
their corporate social responsibility to their customers. According to the BBC, “Consumer
electronics is one of the fastest growing waste streams on the planet” (2009, p. 30). To help
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combat global warming, the BBC recently introduced a recycling program called Greener
Together. The Greener Together program is designed to help employees assist customers in
making smart energy decisions and offering customers a more convenient way to recycle
electronics (Best Buy Co., 2009). The BBC also has to be ready for a multitude of problems that
could arise in the planning processes.
Best Buy has Many Factors that Affect the Planning Process
Preparation is never permanent in the world of business planning, especially at the BBC.
When the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring all television stations to upgrade signals to
digital broadcasting, the BBC assisted the consumer with the shifting technology. The BBC
communicated with consumers using a multifaceted approach: Store employees received training
about the DTV transition, weekly advertising inserts and cash register receipts displayed DTV
information, the Geek Squad filmed DTV instructional videos for consumers, the creation of a
dedicated DTV phone line, and a website that gives consumers DTV information in relation to
Best Buy home theater products. The FCC has also contracted with the BBC to provide in-home
installation of DTV products for low-income families free of charge in 30 states (Best Buy Co.,
2009). In today’s changing technological world, the BBC increasingly uses new and alternative
ways of reaching and listening to consumers, such as having the chief marketing officer
engaging in Twitter conversations with the world to learn customer attitudes toward their
company (Best Buy Co., 2009). Strategic planning is “not to micromanage the institution but to
make long-term decisions going forward” (Ginovsky, 2006). When companies, such as the BBC
have strategic goals, tactical planning is the process that translates those goals into specific plans
(Bateman-Snell, 2009). When upper management at the BBC creates a goal of gaining market
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share, mid-level management tactically created a plan for that goal by joining the Get Game
Smart campaign. Get Game Smart is a public service campaign that aims to get parents and
children on the same level about video games. The BBC has seen the gaming industry move
from a teen-dominated genre to include all members of the family. By collaborating with
Microsoft and over a dozen children media advocates with the Get Game Smart campaign, the
BBC is the sole media outlet promoted in the drive to educate parents. Consumers can make ageappropriate decisions with confidence while raising the BBC’s image and profits (Best Buy Co.,
2009).
Conclusion
The BBC is a company that strives for excellence and management’s actions show that
high moral values integrate with planning decisions. After ethical problems arose, the BBC
switched tactics and introduced the ethical-training courses. With sudden changes in the
technological world, such as with the DTV transition, the BBC changed plans and continuously
moves forward. With the planning stages always changing, the BBC vows to act ethically by
saying what they do, and doing what they say:
At Best Buy, we demonstrate our ethics by living our values. This means that we
live our values every day in our interaction with one another, customers, vendors,
business partners, competitors, and in the communities in which we work, live,
and play. It also means that our business decisions consider not only the financial
risk or reward, but just as import, the impact on people, communities, and the
environment (Best Buy Co., 2007, p. 5).
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References
Bateman-Snell. (2009). Management: Leading and collaborating in a competitive world. 8th Ed.
Retrieved September 17, 2009 from the UoPhx rEsource MGT330.
Best Buy Corporation. (2007). Best Buy Code of Business Ethics. Retrieved from the Best Buy
Web site at http://www.bestbuyinc.com/corporate_responsibility/
Best Buy Corporation. (2009). Corporate Responsibility Report 2009. Retrieved from the Best
Buy Web site at http://www.bestbuyinc.com/corporate_responsibility/
Ginovsky, J. (2006, October 24). Strategic Planning. ABA Bankers News, Vol. 14(22), retrieved
from ProQuest database.
Horwich, J. (2005, March). Conference pushes business ethics from the top down. Retrieved
from the Minnesota Public Radio Web site at
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/03/17_horwichj_bizethics/
State of Wisconsin suing Best Buy. (2005, May 24). Anonymous. The Business Journal of
Milwaukee. Retrieved October 4, 2009 from the Business Journal Web site at
http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2005/05/23/daily14.html