Hubert Joly is the French-born former CEO of Best Buy, who graduated from HEC Paris in 1981, was named among the top 30 CEOs worldwide by Barron's, and is now a senior lecturer…
Hubert Joly is the French-born former CEO of Best Buy, who graduated from HEC Paris in 1981, was named among the top 30 CEOs worldwide by Barron's, and is now a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. ◦ Before Best Buy, his career path took him from being a hard-charging McKinsey consultant to a leader who believes in human magic; he had previously led travel and media businesses including Carlson and Vivendi before joining Best Buy as CEO in September 2012. ◦ During his CEO tenure from 2012 to 2019, Best Buy's share price increased more than 263%, the company achieved six straight years of growth, and earnings tripled over his tenure. ◦
Joly frames the core thesis of his work as "the pursuit of a noble purpose, putting people at the center, embracing all stakeholders, and treating profit as an outcome, not the goal." ◦ He argues that "purpose and human connections constitute the very heart of business," and that "Capitalism as we have known it over the past few decades is in crisis." ◦ He states that "Profit was not the goal. It was an imperative, and an outcome, but not the goal." ◦ He describes a sequence of priorities: "There is a sequence: a business imperative, a people imperative, and a financial imperative." ◦ On connecting work to purpose, he says: "Connecting dreams, it's the idea that something magical happens if we can connect what drives us individually with our work and with the overall purpose of the company. That's when we have a spring in our step." ◦ He believes that "Life is about growth. If the organization and the people in the organization are not growing, there's something wrong." ◦ On strategy, he says: "Strategy is not about beating the competition, it is about becoming the best version of yourself," and frames purpose around four questions: "What human needs are you trying to address in the world? What are you uniquely good at? What are you passionate about? How are you going to make money?" ◦ His book aims to show leaders "how to unleash 'human magic' and achieve improbable results" and "how we can reinvent capitalism, so it contributes to a sustainable future" by having leaders "pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center of the business, create an environment where every employee can blossom, and treat profit as an outcome, not the goal." ◦
Joly says: "The difference between great leaders and good leaders is not the quality of their decisions, it's the quantity," and adds, "If you make a lot of decisions, you'll make some bad ones, but then you make more decisions to correct them." ◦ He applies a "bicycle theory" of turnaround: "The bicycle theory is that it's impossible to ride a bicycle at standstill," and "You get it moving, and if it's not moving in exactly the right direction, you adjust." ◦ On strategy framing, he says: "Eliminate the tyranny of 'or' and embrace the power of 'and'," and "My view is that 98% of the strategic questions that are asked as 'either/or' are better answered as 'and.'" ◦ On layoffs, he says: "For me, taking people out is the last resort. Because you need to capture the hearts and minds," noting his company laid off about 1% of its workforce in the turnaround. ◦ He believes that "our role as senior leaders is less about coming up with the right answers from a strategic standpoint, but more about engineering the right environment." ◦
Joly uses a "bicycle theory" in which "it's impossible to ride a bicycle at standstill" and one must get it moving before adjusting direction. ◦ He rejects binary trade-offs, advocating to "Eliminate the tyranny of 'or' and embrace the power of 'and'." ◦ He tracks organizational follow-through with a "say-do ratio." ◦ He thinks in terms of a priority sequence: "a business imperative, a people imperative, and a financial imperative." ◦ He defines purpose through four questions: "What human needs are you trying to address in the world? What are you uniquely good at? What are you passionate about? How are you going to make money?" ◦ He believes in "connecting dreams" as the idea that "something magical happens if we can connect what drives us individually with our work and with the overall purpose of the company." ◦ He also aims to show leaders "how to unleash 'human magic' and achieve improbable results." ◦
Joly is the former CEO of Best Buy, where he led a turnaround from a dire state in which "Everyone thought we were going to die," reviving it by "radically rethinking how we view work, how we define companies, how we motivate, and how we lead." ◦ Before that, he led travel and media businesses including Carlson and Vivendi, and began as a McKinsey consultant. ◦ He is now a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. ◦ He writes on leadership, purpose-driven strategy, and the reinvention of capitalism, and argues that "From an environmental standpoint, the fact that destroying the planet is a free activity, that makes no sense." ◦
Joly says that on modern leadership, "It's all about creating the right environment, being someone caring, vulnerable, and very human." ◦ On energy and communication, he says: "Energy is not a finite resource in an organization, it is what you make it," and "Bad news has to travel at least as fast as good news," and he tracks employees' follow-through using a "say-do ratio." ◦ On authenticity, he says: "I don't think you can, in this age, have a dichotomy of what you say outside and what you say inside," and that recognizing the humanity of his workers was "the essence of the Best Buy turnaround." ◦ On vulnerability and emotion, he reflects: "Like many leaders of my generation, I long believed that emotions were not meant to be shared," and says employees expect leaders to make them "feel respected, heard, understood, and included." ◦
Joly describes his own evolution from "a hard-charging McKinsey consultant to a leader who believes in human magic." ◦ He admits that "Like many leaders of my generation, I long believed that emotions were not meant to be shared," indicating a personal shift toward vulnerability. ◦ He warns against perfectionism, recalling that "The first time I had to ask for my team's help, it was excruciating pain for a perfectionist," and stating that perfectionism means "You're destroying the heart of the organization, the heart of the people around you, and your own heart." ◦ He led a turnaround at Best Buy when "Everyone thought we were going to die," requiring radical reinvention of work and leadership. ◦
Joly evaluates leaders by asking whether they are "a good fit for a leadership model that is about purpose, humanity, serving, creating the right environment, authenticity, empathy, and vulnerability." ◦ He believes engagement comes from "connecting what drives us individually with our work and with the overall purpose of the company." ◦ He advises that senior leaders focus on "engineering the right environment" rather than simply supplying strategic answers. ◦ He aims to show leaders "how to unleash 'human magic'" by creating "an environment where every employee can blossom." ◦