This week, we speak with Hubert Joly, who earned a host of accolades during his tenure as chairman and CEO of Best Buy, and is currently a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. Joly’s new book is “The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism.” He has been named one of the top 100 CEOs by Harvard Business Review, and a top 30 CEOs by Barron’s. He sits on the board of directors at Johnson & Johnson and Ralph Lauren.
Joly discusses how he began competing with Amazon by ending “showrooming” via price matching. Best Buy positioned their “Geek Squad” as a differentiator for the company versus online retailers Soon after, he partnered with Amazon to sell their hardware products like the Kindle and Firestick. The turnaround of Best Buy saw its stock rise tenfold.
A list of his favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Monday.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Bloomberg, and Acast. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Jack Schwager, author of various Market Wizard books. He is also the founder of Fund Seeder, a platform designed to match undiscovered trading talent with capital worldwide. His latest book is “Unknown Market Wizards: The best traders you’ve never heard of.”
Hubert Joly Favorite Books
The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism by Hubert Joly with Caroline Lambert
From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession by Rakesh Khurana
In Search of Lost Time: Proust 6-pack by Marcel Proust
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere by Tsedal Neeley
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith
Aligned: Connecting Your True Self with the Leader You’re Meant to Be by Hortense le Gentil
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
