Hubert Joly on leadership
From FIRG Seminar - Hubert Joly, Harvard Business School · · Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy
“I told him if you're serving yourself or your boss or me as the CEO of the company tell me I don't have a problem with that zero problem except you cannot work here. You can be promoted to being a customer of Best Buy which is a very exciting adventure but you cannot work at Best Buy.”
On , Hubert Joly, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Best Buy, spoke about leadership during FIRG Seminar - Hubert Joly, Harvard Business School on Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy.
About Hubert Joly
Hubert Joly, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy, has been discussing his philosophy that business should serve a purpose beyond profit. In a recent interview, he stated that "the exclusive excessive focus on profit, that's not working" and argued that companies should be "a force for good." He described his belief that the purpose of a company is not to make money, but that the best organizations perform simultaneously on "people, business, and finance" dimensions, starting with the people imperative. Joly recounted how during his tenure at Best Buy, the company redefined itself "not as a retailer, but as being in the happiness business, enriching lives through technology." He described a personal transformation from seeking to be the smartest person in the room to becoming a more compassionate leader, and said that studying with Catholic monks and other CEOs led him to view work as "a noble calling to serve others." He also shared an anecdote about asking his executive team to bring childhood photos to an offsite, where they discussed their life stories and how they wanted to be remembered.