Clearly, he's a winner: EXCEL Award recipient Brian J. Dunn explains the impact of openness on Best Buy's bottom line.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]When Brian J. Dunn, recently appointed chief executive of Best Buy, took the stage at IABC's World Conference in June to accept the EXCEL (Excellence in Communication Leadership) Award, he captured the attention of hundreds of communicators with his first few words. Dunn chose not to use a podium. And after interviewing him post-session, I can see why. With a booming voice and a broad smile, Dunn's delivery was funny, passionate and heartfelt. This man loves his company, and he's clearly dedicated to the 155,000 employees who have made it the leading consumer electronics retailer in the U.S.
Times have been tough for everyone lately, and Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Best Buy is no exception. Last year, as president and chief operating officer, Dunn found himself navigating a painful course that included a dramatic drop in sales and stock value, and a round of layoffs at the corporate support center. As with the podium, nothing stands between Dunn and his ability to communicate openly and transparently. His thoughtful, intuitive approach to communication helped the company pull through a difficult year with its culture and core values intact. In the following interview, Dunn walks us through that approach and explains how it has made a difference for Best Buy.
Natasha Nicholson: I'd like to start with how you handled communication in 2008, because it speaks to your approach regarding transparency.
Brian Dunn: It was a frightening year for people, and I think that as institutions--the banks notably, which people are so used to trusting and believing in--started to fail and have difficulties, I think people were looking for places they could hang on to and sort of get a real perspective. That was primarily what we were trying to do--this idea of "Hey, you know what? This is crazy, this is tough, here's what we're going to do about it, here's what we know so far, and we'll keep you in the loop." We had the fundamental belief that people would come out of this and there will be a new normal, and people will be a bit more pragmatic. I think if you're good, if you're of value to your shopper, that's going to continue to be really important. People are going to look for brands and people that they can connect to who actually care about the things they care about. I've been very up-front with our team about this. I think we're in a really great position here because of this notion of transparency and what we value, and the way we communicate with our employees is core to that.
NN: In your presentation you talked about how you're always learning about communication. What was the last thing you learned?
BD: I'm really floored by these social media sites and the explosion of them. I don't tweet, but I'm on Twitter. I very rarely post things. I listen a lot. And I'm just amazed at how many of our employees are out there. I have more than a thousand people following me, and it's employees and they communicate with each other there. I guess the thing that is my big "Aha!" is, if you don't engage in those social media places, you are missing where your people actually are. It used to be the bar or the coffee shop or the restaurant where people would talk about this, and now people across the country and across the world are able to access each other and compare notes. You have to be there.
NN: And do you feel like you've sort of cracked that nut? BD: I would love to sit here and tell you we've cracked the nut. I would tell you that we are further ahead than many in understanding that we have to crack the nut and expose, warts and all, who we are. The truth of the matter is, your employees know what you're good at, they know what you're not good at, so this notion of having a public face--you know, getting your makeup on before you do anything--it's ridiculous.
NN: Communicators are struggling with their company leaders wanting to maintain that sense of control. How do we educate leaders like that? Flow do you educate ?
BD: I guarantee you that there is a healthy population of people who are resistant, which actually creates some tension in our organization--which is OK, because you want to create bars that communication devices and business ideas have to get over. But the truth of the matter is, it doesn't hold up, the idea of the internal memo. Practically every one of our videos, for instance, has shown up on YouTube. So now we post them. My point is, there are a number of people inside the organization who are resistant because it's not what's taught in the business schools.
NN: There is a huge disconnect there.
BD: There is. And this notion of having your secret strategy, this notion of that type of control, doesn't exist. I think what you have to do is set up parameters and guidelines and let people do what they're going to do. I really do believe that.
There isn't anything I send to employees that I wouldn't be prepared to have published on the front page of the newspaper. It's a learned discipline, but it really makes our communication. It means so much to our employees that what they see and hear inside is the same thing they see and hear outside. It's like, "Oh my goodness, they're telling the same story, they're telling the truth, at least the truth as they see it." I talk to a lot of folks who run big organizations, and they're always asking, "How do you get comfortable, and how are you so willing to give up so much control?" I don't think that control actually exists. The question is, did it ever exist? Probably to some degree, but social media, the explosion of technology, has just amplified the folly of the notion of internal versus external voice. I don't think there's such a thing anymore....
The one place where it is truly challenging is with the financial community, because there is so much in this Sarbanes-Oxley era--what's inside information? What's outside information? I would describe that as an area where we're really working hard to have that transparency hold up. I understand why we have all these regulations and why they're really important. But also, I think it gets in the way of what it's actually trying to accomplish and that is this open, transparent communication around what a business's strategy is, what the business performance is, and it often gets in the way of what the shareholders actually need from us.
NN: You mentioned in your presentation the relationship with the legal department.
BD: Because businesses have been so interested in de-risking this environment in which communication is so open and transparent, legal departments have become very rigid about what you can and can't say, and because people have anxiety, they are uncomfortable, they're unfamiliar with this sort of open architecture that social media has really brought to us. So the default position is, "Legal won't let us do this or legal won't let us do that."
At Best Buy, our legal department is there to advise us, not to make those decisions, and that's a big, important distinction. We are in some new spaces here with this sort of open, transparent flow of information. It's going to challenge some legal precedents in an interesting way. But the default position that many firms take, "Legal won't let us, so therefore we won't," I don't think is a sustainable frame.
NN: Let's talk about this idea of fun as part of your company culture. How does it lead to customer satisfaction, and how does it help your employees stay motivated?
BD: This notion of bringing fun into the workplace is, in fact, one of our company values-having fun while being the best. We are an extremely competitive company. We like to win. We are also a fun-loving company. What we sell is fun. We're not selling, for the most part, life-or-death devices (although there are situations and circumstances where having that cell phone in your hand can be a life-or-death moment)....
We have a group of writers and producers who are extraordinarily talented, who are able to take the things we do and laugh at them, and present the information people need to have in a way that's fun and amusing while poking fun at pop culture and all those things, and it really resonates....
I feel like not only are we out there competing for our customers every day, I'm competing for a share of my employees' hearts and minds every single day. Not only reminding them that it's OK to have fun, but encouraging--that goes a long way. Over the past five years we have materially reduced the turnover in our retail stores--we've reduced it by 50 percent. Which I know is the result of a couple of things. We've been very sharp and focused about the benefits we offer, and we make sure to encourage [employees] to be proud of where they work and to have a good laugh about some of the things we do periodically. It's a really powerful combination.
NN: How does that translate to the customer? BD: When you walk into a store where you've got a store manager who's embraced this notion of open communication and allowed her employees to bring the best of themselves to work each day, you can see it on the sales floor in five minutes. When you watch people interacting with customers--they're smiling, they're laughing, or they're engaging in that real and genuine conversation--you can feel it; it's palpable in the store. And we have the math to prove it. Where we have higher levels of engagement of our employees, where they know there is someone at work who cares about them (we survey this through Gallup), or they have the tools to do their job, those stores perform materially better than the stores where the scores are lower. Where people are valued and their thoughts matter, their opinions count and engagement goes up, and customers get a better experience.
In his own words: The story behind the stories
The most compelling thing about our company, our greatest differentiator and the centerpiece of Best Buy's story, is our employees. It's something I believe deep in my heart of hearts, and it's some thing you'll hear often if you have the opportunity to spend time in our stores or wander the halls of our corporate offices.
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But we have not been great at telling that story to the world. And we've had particular difficulty breathing life into that story through our advertising--until recently.
Over the course of the last several months, Best Buy has launched a television advertising campaign called "True Stories." It features our employees telling real stories about experiences they've had with their customers.
This isn't just a campaign. These are our stories, and they are a genuine reflection of our company culture. And to us, the way our employees feel about this work is just as important as the reactions we've been getting outside the company--maybe more important.
The idea of telling stories is some thing we talk about a great deal at Best Buy Good stories need good characters, and it's critical we all know our roles. I'm well aware that I'm just one character in the larger Best Buy story, and I like to joke with our production team that they actually created me so they'd have an executive they could use as comic relief in their videos.
The reality is that it's true--we're all characters within the stories we're trying to tell. Each of us plays a different role. Some of us are out in front, playing the lead. Others are in supporting roles, bringing nuance and context as the story evolves.
Personally, my biggest hope is that I'm a good character, one who is important to the telling of the tale, but also one who is acutely aware of the need to be subservient to the larger story. Because the truth is that I'm humbled and honored to be in a position where I've been asked to help tell the Best Buy story, and shame on me if I ever forget that.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
--Brian Dunn
Natasha Nicholson is executive editor of CW.
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| Title Annotation: | 2009 excel award |
|---|---|
| Author: | Nicholson, Natasha |
| Publication: | Communication World |
| Article Type: | Interview |
| Date: | Sep 1, 2009 |
| Words: | 2082 |
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