{"id":38835,"date":"2019-03-09T18:43:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T18:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-best-buy-rescued-itself-from-slow-death\/"},"modified":"2019-03-09T18:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T18:43:00","slug":"how-best-buy-rescued-itself-from-slow-death","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-best-buy-rescued-itself-from-slow-death\/","title":{"rendered":"How Best Buy Rescued Itself from a Slow Death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The year was 2012, and everything seemed to be going wrong for Best Buy. The CEO had just resigned after admitting to an improper relationship with a female employee. Employee engagement seemed to be at an all-time low. And Best Buy stores were bleeding money&#8211;as customers came to test products they wanted, only to buy them online from Amazon at a cheaper price. Best Buy was dying a slow death.<\/p>\n\n<p>But fast forward to today, and the company is thriving: The stock price is surging and workers seem happier than ever. So, how did Best Buy do it? Hubert Joly, the new CEO, focused on people and practiced humility. In his first months on the job, Joly did something great: He visited Best Buy stores (and even worked at a store for a week), giving him the chance to speak directly to front line employees.<\/p>\n\n<p>Based on their feedback, Joly:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Fixed broken systems<\/p>\n<p>Restored a beloved employee discount program<\/p>\n<p>Invested in employee training<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>The measures seem to have worked. A survey showed 78 percent of employees would recommend working at Best Buy to a friend, and Joly enjoys a 92 percent employee approval rate.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-source\">Justin Bariso, &ldquo;Amazon Almost Killed Best Buy. Then, Best Buy Did Something Completely Brilliant&rdquo; Inc.com (3-4-19)<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3524,3609,3610,3717,3858,3859,3895,4351,4354,4380,4546,5242,5243,5247,5293],"tax_ctp_topics":[395,396],"class_list":["post-38835","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-brokenness","tax_ctp_tags-church-growth","tax_ctp_tags-church-health","tax_ctp_tags-criticism","tax_ctp_tags-employee","tax_ctp_tags-employer","tax_ctp_tags-evaluation","tax_ctp_tags-leadership","tax_ctp_tags-leadership-styles","tax_ctp_tags-listening","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-vision","tax_ctp_tags-vision-casting","tax_ctp_tags-vocation","tax_ctp_tags-work"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Best Buy Rescued Itself from a Slow Death - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-best-buy-rescued-itself-from-slow-death\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Best Buy Rescued Itself from a Slow Death - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The year was 2012, and everything seemed to be going wrong for Best Buy. 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