Masters of Leadership: Corie Barry

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Teraniv:

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Consumer Technology Association for our virtual Masters of Leadership Series event, please welcome Greg Baroni, the Chairman of NVTC and the Chief Executive Officer of Attain.

Greg Baroni:

Thank you, Teraniv. Good afternoon. I am delighted to be welcoming you into our virtual event today. We have an exciting program featuring Best Buy Chief Executive Officer Corie Barry and Consumer Technology Association President and CEO, Gary Shapiro. As we get underway with our program this afternoon, I have a few housekeeping matters just to cover briefly. During the Q&A portion of today's session, you'll note Q&A button in the middle of the bottom bar on your screen. So use that in the event that you have any questions you want to submit.

Greg Baroni:

The Masters in Leadership Series is made possible by our co-producer Consumer Technology Association and the following sponsors starting with our premier sponsors CoreSite and SAP. Our support sponsors, American Systems, Amazon Web Services, CGI Federal, CNSI, Cresa, Iridium, Micron Technology, Morgan Stanley, NTT Data, Raymond James & Associates, Transformation Systems, Inc and Verite Group Inc, VGI.

Greg Baroni:

Thank you all for your support, and if you'd like to join them as a sponsor, please contact Yolanda Lee at NVTC today. We have one more Masters of Leadership event planned for this summer. It's Mindy Grossman, CEO of WW International, formerly known as Weight Watchers. She'll be joining us on Tuesday, August 11th. So if you're interested, please register on the NVTC website. Now it's my privilege to introduce today's moderator Gary Shapiro. Gary is a proud member of NVTC as a board member. He's also better known as the president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, the US Trade Association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies and which owns and produces CES, a global stage for innovation. And I'm sure he can share with you some exciting news there.

Greg Baroni:

It is through his New York Times Bestselling books, television appearances, and as a columnist who's more than 1,000 opinion pieces have appeared in publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more. That Gary has developed direct policymaker... I should say he's helped direct policymakers and business leaders on the importance of innovation in the US economy. A thought leader. Gary is an influencer on LinkedIn and has more than 300,000 followers. Please join me in welcoming Gary Shapiro.

Gary Shapiro:

Thank you, Greg. What a generous introduction, that was great. But I'm here to talk about leadership with Corie Barry, who has done so much so quickly. Of course, we all know Best Buy is the leading provider of consumer technology products and services. It has over 125,000 employees in North America and $44 billion in revenue. Corie Barry is the CEO and serves on the company's board of directors. And prior to becoming CEO in June, 2019 a little over a year ago, Corie served in several other executive positions playing a critical role in developing and executing the companies, building the New Blue growth strategy and related transformations. She was the company's Chief Financial and Strategic Transformation Officer overseeing strategic transformation and growth, digital and technology, global finance, investor relations, enterprise risk and compliance, integration management, and Best Buy health.

Gary Shapiro:

She joined Best Buy in 1999 and has held many different financial and operational roles across the organization, both in the field and at the corporate office. She became CFO in 2016, and prior to that service Chief Strategic Growth Officer. She has also served as senior VP of domestic finance and interim president of Best Buy service organizations. She is from Minnesota. She holds bachelor degrees in accounting and management from the college of St. Bernadette, where she now serves on the board of trustees. So welcome Corie.

Corie Barry:

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. I just so appreciate the invitation.

Gary Shapiro:

Well, we're very fortunate to have you. I was commenting beforehand, the last speaker we have from the corporate world was Lisa Su of AMD and she had quite a day yesterday. I don't know what that means, but it means that hopefully we're a good luck charm, but I want to start off by asking you about your background actually, because you have a very interesting background growing up in Minnesota about an hour outside of where you are now. But your parents had interesting occupations and you traveled around the US with them. Could you talk about that?

Corie Barry:

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for starting there. I mean, I think every one of us as leaders would say our ethics, our leadership ethos is started early in our lives at a very young age. My parents were both self-employed artists. And so they traveled the world and well mostly the US selling their artwares. And at a very young age, I started traveling with them. And there were three big factors that came out of my early years with them. The first is flat-out work ethic. I am certain there are people that are watching right now who are self employed, and there's this misnomer that when you're self employed, you set your own hours and you have flexibility. My experience with my parents was they worked all the time and there really wasn't an on or an off switch. It was their lives.

Corie Barry:

And this idea of work ethic and working hard to accomplish what's important to you was just ingrained into me at a young age. The second is having purpose in your work. My parents believed art was incredibly culturally significant in this world and that leaving an impression on the world, they could do that through art. And it was very important to me that I also took a path that aligned with my personal purpose and that you had a purpose in your work. And the third thing that was really impressed upon me at a young age is the idea of advocacy and diversity.

Corie Barry:

The world of art is a very diverse world and our customers were incredibly diverse all over the US. And the interesting thing about artists is it's not about one beating another, it's about art being important and all of them succeeding. And that means your success is inextricably tied to someone else's. And I think that idea of advocacy and embracing diversity was also really important to me at a young age. And so, even though I didn't ever have any exposure literally to corporate America, no one in my life, I was surrounded by teachers and artists and those ideals and those ethical moments really were important in shaping, I think, the leader that I've become.

Gary Shapiro:

So how do you go from being parent as the child of artists to go into college and becoming an accountant?

Corie Barry:

I think when you're raised in a world, and my guess is many of you have similar stories. You often seek what you don't have growing up. I mean, art is a wonderful thing, but it's very organic. We grew up without many means at all. I craved structure and clarity. I had a very analytical brain and I think I just decided to go completely the opposite spectrum and try something that was completely different. I love when I hear, even in my kids, I don't want to grow up to be what you are. I want to grow up to be what's important to me. And luckily, my parents supported me in that journey.

Gary Shapiro:

But early on the Best Buy, you got a very difficult review where you'd... I think the reviewer's language was something about being risky for the company to keep you there. Could you tell us about that and how you responded and what you did?

Corie Barry:

Yeah. I mean, I think everyone, at some point in your career, gets feedback that is hard to hear. And for me at that moment, it was difficult to embrace the idea that I wasn't ready for the next step. And you have a couple different ways you can respond to that and typically it's either fight or flight, right? You either just going to say, "I've had it, I'm not going to be right here. I'm going to go do my own thing." Or you decide, "No, I'm going to embrace this. I'm going to learn from it and I'm going to try to come out the other side, a better leader." And in this instance, I felt like taking the latter approach was really important to me.

Corie Barry:

So I took the feedback and created, as best I could, a really strong action plan around it. And I think it taught me a lot about making decisions from a place of humility and finding others that can help you make the right and best decisions. I think in those moments, if you do all you can to try to learn from whatever the feedback is in the moment and create a specific plan, my personal point of view is, I think you'll come out stronger on the other side.

Gary Shapiro:

Did you find support and mentors along the way? And if you did, did you reach out to them or did they reach out to you?

Corie Barry:

Yeah, I absolutely have found support and mentors along the way. And usually because I have proactively tried to reach out to them. The mentor doesn't always know when you need their help, advice, support. You, I believe, need to put yourself out there and ask and make it clear when you need some support. And so in moments like that, or in moments of very difficult decision making, surrounding yourself with mentors along the way is incredibly important, but it's up to you to proactively leverage them and make sure that you are setting the objectives. You're setting the agenda for what it is that you really need and want from them.

Gary Shapiro:

Well, they must be very proud of you at this point because you have in the last 14 months dealt with more different issues than I can think of any CEO coming into a new job in such a short period of time. So we had international situations, we had tariffs, and now recently we had COVID. Could you talk about COVID? I mean, Best Buy kept 80% of the sales during the first six weeks of the quarter, despite not having customers in the stores. How did you pivot? How did you do it?

Corie Barry:

If I were to overly simplify it, I would say it's a team of amazing leaders and employees who are willing to do anything to serve our customers. That's the simplest answer. Of course, the complexities are much bigger than that. The first thing that I would say is, look, there's things you plan for as a leadership team, and then there are completely unwritten playbooks. And this was one of the unwritten playbooks. It's interesting, the pandemic has changed completely the way that we work, the way we learn, the way we entertain and Gary, you know this better than anyone it's all on the back of technology. Everything we are doing right now, mainly sequestered to our homes is done with technology, cooking, entertaining, gaming in my house. A lot of working and learning, and that actually only underscored our purpose at Best Buy.

Corie Barry:

Our purpose is to enrich lives through technology. And that's not a tagline, that is the purpose. We believe that people's lives can genuinely be improved and enhanced through technology, and interestingly, in this case, the pandemic held that up that actually helped in our pivot because what we believed was we are crucial for our customers. We are essential for our customers. The question became how can we deliver those essential services in a way that's as safe as possible? And so very early in the pandemic, I set up three priorities for us to prioritize the work.

Corie Barry:

The first was keep our employees and customers safe. The second was protect the employee experience for as long as possible for as many as possible, and the third was to come out the other end of this, not just a vital company, but a vibrant one. And I think those three goals and parameters allowed the team to constantly prioritize decision-making and help us iterate the operating model incredibly quickly. But I'm going to go back to where I started. At the end of the day it is genuinely about a team who is willing to think differently than they've ever thought before, and then iterate solutions literally, constantly.

Gary Shapiro:

I appreciate those three goals, especially the first one to focus on safety. You know, we had a little announcement of our own yesterday. We announced that CES will be digital only, and we will not have a physical event in Las Vegas. How did you respond when you heard that? Just out of curiosity, since I'm asking you questions?

Corie Barry:

Well, first of all, I'll just say kudos to you for making such a sizable decision. Like any of these, you have to lead from whatever the place is that you think is most important. And it was clear in the decision that you also prioritized safety above all else. And so for me, I'll be honest, it felt intuitively like absolutely the right decision. And it also felt like you and the team can continue to help us connect, continue to add value, continue to highlight the importance of technology, but do it in a completely different way on a completely different platform. So I just would say, thank you for leading from the front and for trying to think really differently about how we do the work in an environment where safety just has to be prioritized.

Gary Shapiro:

Thank you. I had no idea what your answer would be, but I appreciate hearing that one. Let's talk about a tougher part of what we've been through or you've been through really is the furloughs. You had to make some decisions really quickly and you had to communicate them in a very uncertain future harsh business realities. But you've also accompanied that with an announcement recently, the minimum wage. Could you tell us about the minimum wage decision and the furlough decision and how you approach that and what your thinking was?

Corie Barry:

Yeah, so I think every CEO right now is trying to balance many constituencies all at once. And I think it's incredibly important to balance those constituencies and then talk about how you're balancing them with clarity and humanity. And we have tried very hard as we've made these decisions to think through what is the best way, back to that second point, how can we do the best we can to protect the employee experience while also balancing coming out the other side a vibrant company? And when we made the furlough decision, what people don't know is we actually paid all of our employees for the four weeks leading to that.

Corie Barry:

So we flipped to a curbside-only model on March 22nd, that required materially less people in our stores than we had had before. And so for the following four weeks, we paid everyone whether they were sick, whether they were working, whether they were . That bridged people to the first federal stimulus package which meant that by the time we furloughed people, and as we furloughed, we said, "We'll definitely continue to cover your medical benefits." And they were eligible for that first stimulus package. That all was really important to us. And the way we've been communicating has also been really important.

Corie Barry:

When we had to make the furlough announcement, I personally created a video that went to every single person that was being furloughed to help try to give them my point of view, at least on why we were doing what we were doing and to help steer them toward the resources that we had available for them. I think as we went through the pandemic, then we started to accelerate some of our other decision making. What we were seeing in the minimum wage decision was we definitely had a large quantity of people... I mean, this is our livelihood. This is what they do every single day. And we had been weighing and talking about getting to a higher minimum wage over time.

Corie Barry:

And we just decided that now was the time given how many people were working so incredibly hard to provide these essential services for our customers. It was that perfect pivot point to say, "You know what? Now is the time for us to invest in our people further and make sure we feel like we are doing the best we can to present them with that livable minimum wage." And so every one of these decisions, of course, you're trying to balance all your constituencies from shareholders to communities, to employees. But when we knew we were already on the path to get there, pulling that forward and doing it quickly for the people that were working at this point was really important to us.

Gary Shapiro:

What I'm hearing from what you're saying is that you balance communication with a tremendous amount of honest empathy as well as focusing on flexibility and empowerment of your workforce. Is that a good summary?

Corie Barry:

Yeah. I love that you've gone there. At Best Buy we have what we call four inclusive leadership behaviors and they are empathy, courage, vulnerability, and grace. And we started down the path well before COVID of working with our leaders on exhibiting these behaviors as we were trying to create a more inclusive environment. But what we have found is that in the new way that we're...

Gary Shapiro:

We lost you for about 30 seconds there.

Corie Barry:

Oops, sorry.

Gary Shapiro:

Or at least I did. I don't have anyone else in.

Corie Barry:

Sorry, funny. I came into the office because the Internet's more stable, so go figure. But we have four leadership behaviors that are empathy, courage, vulnerability, and grace. We started those as they related to our diversity and inclusion efforts, but what we have found is that in the new way of working, they are really attributable to every day and how we're making decisions and how we're communicating with others. And so we are continuously going back against these behaviors and thinking about is the way that we're communicating is what we're saying, really tied to living those behaviors. What are people craving right now? They're craving context and clarity and you to do it in the most honest and empathetic way possible. And I think we continuously are trying to tack back against those guiding principles.

Gary Shapiro:

That is really fascinating. And it almost sounds unique to me from a large corporate standpoint, to use the words, vulnerability and grace as key defining elements of your company.

Corie Barry:

But think about...

Gary Shapiro:

Could you talk about how you get there and the role of your board in that. I know you actually have probably one of the most diverse boards in the Fortune 500 companies.

Corie Barry:

Yeah. So about two or three years ago, we worked a lot on our guiding behaviors here at Best Buy. And our guiding behaviors are be human, make it real and think about tomorrow. And we worked with our board in partnership to talk about what do we think we stand for as a company? And the way we did it is we actually said, on our very best days, when someone comes into Best Buy and they love their experience so much that they're going to write a letter to the CEO, how does that show up? And it shows up because they interact with an amazing associate who in a very human way connects with them, helps them genuinely figure out the problem they're trying to solve and helps prepare them for whatever technology changes might be coming down the road. And that backbone that we worked with our board on has been very important in terms of how we continue to evolve our leadership expectations and behaviors.

Corie Barry:

You're right. You might not think of a huge company talking about things like grace, but grace in a moment like this, and it's not just grace with others, it's braced with ourselves. It's grace with how we're all trying to live our lives. It's grace because at any given point in time, my 10-year-old might come strolling in the door because they need something. And I think adding that bit of humanity and opening the door in partnership with our board on being human as an attribute that we look for, I think has created a lot of space for our teams to feel more comfortable and confident in not just how they treat each other, but importantly, how they treat customers.

Corie Barry:

And this is a stressful time. It's a stressful time, not just for our employees. It's a very stressful time for our customers. And I think the more human and really to make those interactions, the better the chance you can solve that customer's problems, but do it in a way that feels like you're really empathetic, you said it to their situation.

Gary Shapiro:

Wow, that's very revealing and I appreciate you sharing that with us. Another big issue, which came up during your one year tenure. Your corporate headquarters is right there in Minnesota, where the tragedy of George Floyd occurred, you're a Minnesota native. What have you learned from leading employees through these times and how did you unite the company and focus on a common goal of creating a just and equitable society?

Corie Barry:

It's interesting, you started the conversation with some thoughts on mentorship. And some of my perspectives on mentorship has changed. I think CEOs now more than ever need to be in constant learning mode. And it's not just about having the answers based on your own life experience, it's about constantly being willing to learn from the life experience of others as a way to help inform your decision making. I think your whole career, you look for mentors who are more accomplished than you, and can help you get to that next level. And my perspective now is I need to surround myself with people who are incredibly different. I need people with different life experiences. And so here at Best Buy, we have a formalized reverse mentor program where we actually match executives with people throughout the organizations who might have life experience different than theirs.

Corie Barry:

And it could be everything from, they have a disability, they are of a different race, they're of a different ethnicity, all different types of parities. And then above and beyond that, I have tried to find as many people throughout the organization in all different roles who are willing to spend a little bit of time with me and teach me from their life experience. And I think when you do that, that's the idea of empathy. It really does help you put yourself in someone else's shoes. You asked, how do you unite a company around ideas just and equitable societies. Our company reflects the communities in which we work. It is a very diverse. It was tens and thousands of people all over the US. It reflects our community.

Corie Barry:

The truth is the company wants to coalesce around these issues. The question is, how do you create the right platforms so that they can do that? How do you create space so you can have very open conversations? How do you listen a lot more than tell so that you can learn from them and therefore create a path forward that incorporates their ideas. So I think the role here is not just it's my job to unite. I actually think it's how do you create the platforms that will unleash other leaders to do amazing things because they want to in they're passionate about it.

Gary Shapiro:

So is one of the strengths of Best Buy or indeed the entire United States, our diversity?

Corie Barry:

I absolutely think it's a strength. I mean, I'll be honest with you, our work around diversity and inclusion started because we believe it's a business imperative. Every bit of work that's ever been done in the field would say more diverse teams deliver better outcomes, period. But I think in order to build that team, you have to be willing to have some tough conversations, to work differently, to make different decisions, to create different pathways. But I would say we believe strongly. This is not just you do it because it's good, you do it because it's also a business imperative, but then you have to commit to it and start the path and the work.

Gary Shapiro:

I totally agree with that. In fact, I've been advocating for almost 15 years now that diversity is the secret sauce in United States which propels our innovation above all other countries. We are the most heterogeneous society there is and we have also a cultural desire to do things better and to ask questions about how things can be done better. And we do better if we're diverse, because otherwise you just getting the same ideas when people are like you.

Corie Barry:

Yeah. I love that. I love that point of view and I think that's very much what we also fundamentally believe in. It's nice when you are a company like ours that has locations across the country and by your very nature, if you're willing to listen and willing to unleash people, you have representation that very much mirrors that diversity that you're talking about across the country.

Gary Shapiro:

So I'm going to come back to what I said earlier. Your corporate board is diverse. You are the youngest female CEO in a Fortune 100 company. Your board has 10 members. We counted six are women, and three are people of color. So is that part of who you are now in terms of propelling you forward in your focus on D&I and also doing better? And do you have goals on diversity for the coming five or 10 years?

Corie Barry:

Yeah. So as it relates to the board composition, I think all of us on the management team would say we are pushed to think differently and are given feedback that is incredibly thoughtful and much more diverse in its nature because we have such a diverse board. And it's diverse in all the ways you can run. It's wildly diverse in terms of experience, it's diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, background. I mean, it is diverse on all levels, which means... And it's a very supportive board for us.

Corie Barry:

So when we have conversations, they come from each of their own places of life experience and ask amazing questions. And then it also means so many of us and so many of our employees can look at our board and see themselves in roles like that someday. And I think that is also an amazing example for our employees. We have had a number of goals and I'm going to run through a little bit of a laundry list of some of the things we're doing. And I would only do that because I think this is something you need to work on from all angles, and you need to constantly iterate and change and talk about.

Corie Barry:

So from a recruitment standpoint, we've been very intentional about hiring in a diverse way. But also we know that recruitment starts young and so we've been focused on our Best Buy Teen Tech Centers. We just committed to 100 of them, and those are centers that are all over the US and they are aimed at more underprivileged areas and there are afterschool programs for starting in middle school, up through high school. Students to give them access to technology and technology they might not otherwise have, and to hopefully point them towards some stem careers.

Corie Barry:

And we're already seeing great results in terms of much higher likelihood to want to graduate, much higher likelihood to want to go to college. We also have a corporate work study program where we have internships and often mentorships that are through some of, especially our black employee resource group that helps bring some of those interns on and gives them visibility to what corporate life could look like.

Corie Barry:

We hold numerous on campus hiring events, and we really have been partnering closely with the historically black colleges and universities. And in fact, we were ranked number 11 on HBCU Connect's list of top 50 employers for HBCU students. And we funded a $2.5 million scholarship at the U of M here in Minnesota, to try to take first generation students from our Teen Tech Centers and get them into colleges, and then hopefully get them back into amazing companies here in Minnesota, hopefully Best Buy, but frankly any of these companies, because it creates such a virtuous cycle.

Corie Barry:

We have a robust mentorship program. I talked about the reverse mentorship program and we've been sponsoring about 40 of our employees to attend the Executive Leadership Conference which is aimed at giving high potential black leaders more visibility and put them on the path to become officers. The Juneteenth, the holiday this year and we gave every employee eight hours because we've made it a holiday close to the date, eight hours, anytime to go volunteer or protest or have their voice heard.

Corie Barry:

And we have shortened our hours already on election day to make sure everyone has a chance to vote and has their voice heard there. We post our numbers, meaning all of our diversity progress and all of our ESG reporting. So you can see just what our population looks like. And one of the most important things then I'll stop. We said out loud that we are creating a task force of a very cross functional, diverse, multiple level group of people at Best Buy who can help teach us and help propose what we think the next round of commitments should be at Best Buy.

Corie Barry:

And we didn't want to just put those commitments out there from our own perspective. We wanted our employees to help us create and probably push us to make commitments that we might not otherwise. And so I think you can expect to see another round of commitments that will be highly informed by our own employees in the near future.

Gary Shapiro:

Well, that is a very impressive list of things. That's terrific. You know, we have a foundation and what it does is it links up people with disabilities and people who are older with technology and I couldn't help, but notice that Best Buy's made significant investments in technology for people that are older, that'll enhance their lives. And also when I met with you a year ago at your headquarters, you talked about your focus on health care and why it's important. Could you talk about both those things, most seniors in health care and obviously there's a huge overlap there.

Corie Barry:

Yeah. I'm going to start with the health care question. And you said it, I started with our purpose being to enrich lives through technology, and we believe that we do that by addressing real human needs. An example right now is most of us need to work at home. And how do we create that technology suite that's going to help you work at home. But one of the needs that we saw was certainly in health and specifically to help people age in their homes longer with the help of technology.

Corie Barry:

I mean, we have an aging country, frankly. We have 10,000 people turning 65 every day and the population is living longer, which is wonderful. But as evidenced even more so in the pandemic that we're in, we definitely have more people who want to stay home longer if at all possible. And so we have been thinking about the health aspect of our business from multiple angles. The first is just broadly. There is so much technology that's coming to life. Gary, you see it all the time. I mean, at CES last year, there was a whole building dedicated to health technology that hadn't even existed before.

Corie Barry:

And so a, there is just a massive amount of technology so that we can take care of our own health. I mean, right now in my own house, I can take my own temperature, I can take my blood pressure, I have a pulse oximeter and all of those things I could get for under $200 and I can monitor my health. But importantly, we also think you can connect a number of things together that will help. You know, my parents and my grandma's 100 that can help them be comfortable, that can help me also as a caregiver, have some visibility to how they're doing.

Corie Barry:

Like I can see, but some basic sensors, is grandma opening the fridge? Is she going to the bathroom regularly? Is she getting up from her chair occasionally? Or in the worst case scenario, has she fallen and what tools does she have if something like that happens? So we believe strongly this combination that we have at Best Buy, which is both the tech, but also the touch. The human touch, the ability to go into people's homes, the ability to talk directly with you and help you come up with the best solution.

Corie Barry:

We think there's a real opportunity there for us to help people, not just buy the stuff, but to put it together in a way that will provide peace of mind for both someone who maybe wants to age in their home, but also a caregiver like me who might not be able to be with that person 100% of the time.

Gary Shapiro:

So this sounds personal to you. Are you a caregiver?

Corie Barry:

I am a caregiver. So my grandma, and by the way, I would say, I think more of us are caregivers than we'll personally identify as being caregivers. So my grandma's 100, she is in a light care facility, but she's got basically an apartment. So she lives here by us. She's about a half hour away, and so we look after her. But even my parents. My dad lives alone on 10 acres here in Minnesota, my mom and stepdad, they live by themselves.

Corie Barry:

And think about right now the world that we're living in, how I stay in touch with them, how we stay connected to them, because this isn't just always physical wellness. It's mental wellness, connection. All of them, in some way, shape or form, I feel like I have some level of caregiving for them. And in every one of those cases, I'm using technology right now in ways I wasn't before in order to stay connected and hopefully to make sure I have confidence that they're doing well.

Gary Shapiro:

Yeah, I think this COVID-19 has accelerated our focus on that. And obviously it's also increased loneliness or just physical ability to be with those we love. But I am excited that technology is increasingly going to provide answers. In fact, just this week, last in the other big announcement, we announced that we are as an organization convening a lot of major people in the health care world to focus on the next big eye health problem and how we could use technology to solve it.

Gary Shapiro:

And that includes companies like CVS and other healthcare providers, hospital groups, things like that because we really believe that technology is an amazing solution to the challenges we face in the future. And I think these wearables... [inaudible 00:34:02] started today about how wearables are making such a difference now and just even the ability to figure out if you have COVID. Rapid, rapid growth in that area. And that's why I think we're making a difference. And that has been a growing area, not only for CES, but for our entire industry. And I imagine with Best Buy's acquisition of great call with your personal focus and intensity on this, that will be a great area in the future as well.

Corie Barry:

Yeah. I agree with you 1000%. Before COVID, I felt like the one space that had yet to be materially disrupted by technology was health care. And as the pandemic has broadened, your point is I think it's only exacerbated and probably will accelerate the level of innovation and technology disruption that we will continue to see in healthcare in a very good way. And this is the happy disruption. This is the kind that I like, because I think it will put more of our own care in our own hands and we will control more of it, and we will also be able to interact with others and have better visibility to take care of others, which I think that world makes me feel better, but it'll still be confusing, and I think people will need help sorting through what's the best solution for them.

Gary Shapiro:

Absolutely. But the other part of COVID which has definitely benefited parts of our world is the focus on home office and people spending more time in their home and remote work. Can you talk about how Best Buy has responded to that need?

Corie Barry:

Yeah, so it has been really interesting. I mean, almost overnight, literally for many of us, you were at work one day on Friday, and then you got an email that said, you probably shouldn't come in on Monday and now you're going to work from home. And I think it started with people being interested in products, and we've got a lot of questions, like what products are selling, and we've said it out loud, people are working from home. But now I think it's turning into productivity and it's less about, "I need a computer," and it's more about, "No, I need a comfortable home office space that maybe has a webcam."

Corie Barry:

I had to go back to a landline phone at my house because my cell reception is awful, and I have so many calls that I needed something stable. It's this idea of not just what's the stuff, but how do I put this together now in a home setting, in a way that will work. And for many people, it's not just about them, it's about potentially another working spouse. It's about maybe two kids who are also learning. And so you're not just buying an iPad. You're trying to figure out how do I create a productive space for my 14 year old son who now needs to finish eighth grade from the dining room.

Corie Barry:

And again, that idea of not just we're here to have as many computers go out the door as possible, but instead bring to life so much of what your organization has highlighted, which is how do you connect all these things together in a way that makes you ultimately more productive and keeps you connected? It is actually the essence of our purpose coming to life and really trying to enrich people's lives with the help of technology.

Gary Shapiro:

I definitely understand and agree with that, but did I just hear you say that you have poor cell reception in your home, or were you quoting a potential customer?

Corie Barry:

No, no. I actually really have poor cell reception in my home. I mean, this is a universal problem people. It doesn't just magically get solved.

Gary Shapiro:

And that is something that fortunately Congress is focusing on there. The digital divide, especially with regard to education and it's really being addressed and talked about. And there's a lot of great solutions out there, but one of them will enhance and make easier service, at least in urban and potentially suburban areas is 5G. Are you looking forward to 5G? Is that something that's part of Best Buy's game plan?

Corie Barry:

Yeah, I think 5G in and of itself unlocks some interesting doors, particularly in the areas that you're talking about when it comes to connectivity of large swaths of land. And the power to process, back even to the healthcare question. Like when you're talking about the amounts of data that now you might have flowing, 5G and what that unlocks in terms of speed and processing is incredible. I would actually ladder up a little bit and say, I think 5G represents what is so exciting about technology. And my guess is you're going to agree with me. There is no world where technology innovation slows. And in fact, interestingly, something like the pandemic or any time the world situation changes, actually technology innovation ramps up because we're trying to think about how could technology help the situation we're in or help us live our lives differently.

Corie Barry:

And so 5G is one example, but part of the reason we at Best Buy believe in our purpose and why we have such a right to live on this planet is because technology will continue to innovate. And large companies will continue to try to think about ways in which our lives could all be made better by technology. 5G is a great example, but there are many of them. And so when people ask me like, what's the product I'm most excited about? It's less about the product and it is the idea of constant technology innovation and our position uniquely to help people understand the right set of that innovation that will make their lives better.

Gary Shapiro:

So I totally get it and you're right. The only thing that came to mind for me is North Korea, which isn't a big proponent democracy, restricts technology totally. And that's one way of not allowing freedom of information or democracy to flourish and people to understand what's going on and that's somewhere else where I like to think there's a correlation between promoting innovation and technology and people's freedom and democracy.

Corie Barry:

Just one thing I have to add there, I also think it puts people on more equal footing. It's not just the democratization of technology. It's almost the democratization of ideas and I think the startup ethos is such a part of that. Everyone has the right to bring to life some new amazing technology, and they have as much a chance as anyone that, that might be the thing that takes off.

Gary Shapiro:

That's what's great about innovation is. And as we're speaking and the series of problems we're still going on, Capitol Hill is that, you know, 20 years ago there was five different companies all up there there being attacked for the same things because we take the leaders in technology and they can be unseated rather quickly and they have been I mean, if you look at who was hot 20, 30 years ago. They're not those five companies, those are five new companies out there. So that's part of the benefit or it depends of where you are the downside of technology. But you mentioned 5G and you mentioned the importance of innovation. What are you excited about going on the next few years and where you see technology going, what products do you see that this is going to be a winner?

Corie Barry:

Yeah. I love all my children, so I think there's a lot there's a lot there.

Gary Shapiro:

Exactly.

Corie Barry:

But I do think we hit on one area that I think will continue to explode and that as health and is everything writ large in health, everything from, if you're familiar with technology, the Owlet baby socks that you put on and they warn you as a parent, you know, through an app device that your baby either isn't breathing or that their oxygen level is low, all the way to fitness at home and all the different things we're all doing to stay fit, but yet connected and competitive at home. All the way to how we age at home. I think this idea of self care will only proliferate. I also believe over time, you're going to continue to enhance the entertainment experience at home.

Corie Barry:

I mean, look right now, people are not going to the movies, but they're thinking about really different ways that in their own home, they can create movie like experiences and frankly just enjoy that together in their own home. And I think this idea of constantly innovating about entertaining at home will absolutely continue. We talked about productivity, that's not going to slow. And we already know the more and more that we can continue to do on the handheld devices in our lives, especially again, with that being such a huge part of how we're connecting that only continues to innovate.

Corie Barry:

We know gaming is innovating and we've got probably new platforms coming there, which always sparks excitement. I think the quantitative innovation you continue to see in technology just means it becomes more and more important in our lives. And then it starts to do really cool things together as you can connect it and as you can control your home and control your health and control your entertainment, all those things start to connect. And that also becomes fun and exciting as well.

Gary Shapiro:

It's a great future. We always think we're at the peak of where we are with innovation and technology. We keep going better whether it's in transportation or in robotics or in drones, or obviously video gaming is getting more real as we experience in our homes. But COVID's given us telehealth, it's given us tele-work. it's given us tele-education. Do you think they're not last one on education. I mean, do you think there's some room for doing things better?

Corie Barry:

Well, this is another space where we were forced into change. I mean, it is very interesting, in Minnesota, which is where I am we have snow days and when we have a snow day, school is closed. It never transitioned to, "No if it's a snow day, we're going to learn from home." It was just, "We're going to close the school." So we didn't really have practice for learning at home. And I think, because this isn't just about the physical tools you have. It's not just about having an iPad. It's about what's the content that will be most engaging. How does that look different if you're an elementary school student versus a high school student? What tools do teachers have? What have they been trained to do? How do we engage students, both one-on-one and in groups? I mean, we just have not in a planful way thought about distance learning writ large.

Corie Barry:

Obviously there are pockets of places where schools have done an amazing job, but across the US I think you can see a pretty big gap in distance learning capabilities. And so I'm hopeful that as we head into the fall here and as school start to create more comprehensive plans, that we start to get a little bit more planful in terms of how we do that. But I think it's going to take some time. I'm sure there's a lot of parents on the video chat today. I mean, I think so many schools are in so many different places just trying to do the best they can with pretty limited resources.

Gary Shapiro:

Right. And it was a very sudden transition and they tried the best, but I think the consensus was it wasn't a satisfying experience, but I have an eight and 12 year old. You have children and so I'll let you talk because you're a working parent and you've committed actually to the challenges that working parents face and striking a balance between family and work. What can we do to support more working mothers and fathers?

Corie Barry:

Let me start by saying, I have a luxury and it's an incredible luxury, and that is that my husband stays home to help take care of our kids. But that's not the case for a lot of our employees, and that's not just corporate employees for us, that's also field employees. And I have spent a lot of time talking to working parents and I think I, and many others I talk to are really concerned about what it looks like when we head back into the fall and you've got, you know, two working parents and either very young children or children who need more help throughout schooling.

Corie Barry:

The number one thing that we are focused on is work flexibility. And it's a question of how can you get your work done in the best possible way that allows you room to do what you need to do for your family but also keeps you connected to the company. And that can look like different arrangements, literally for every single person, depending on what their life experience is. And so we are trying to arm our leaders with the tools that will help them have individualized conversations about what might work for each employee in their own situation.

Corie Barry:

And then of course, we're continuing to try to refine our benefits. Things like backup childcare. That also tricky though in a pandemic, depending on how do you certify and who feels comfortable with someone else in their home, but at least providing that as a benefit. Paid caregiver leave in case you also need to not just take care of your kids, but maybe take care of an aging parent or someone who might be sick in your life. Mental health resources I think are incredibly important right now, because sometimes it's not just about, "I need the physical time, I need someone that I can talk to."

Corie Barry:

And then we also have here paid time off for part time employees, so that all the way through our part time workforce, they also can take some paid time off and that. Either to just regenerate themselves or maybe to deliver on some commitments they have. But I think flexibility, this is where grace comes in a lot and allowing our employees the room and acknowledging they're balancing a lot at any given point in time.

Gary Shapiro:

Terrific. Other people want to ask questions, so I want to go to a few of them fairly quickly. There's a couple of related ones, one from a founder and inventor Dephelia McLennan, "Can we submit a new invention for consideration to be in Best Buy shelves?" And Skip West, one of our board members from Maxsa, a small manufacturer. Very innovative guy. "How does a new and small supplier offer items on bestbuy.com?" In other words, how do we get into breakthrough the Best Buy, I don't want to call it bureaucracies. It clearly sounds like it's not, but what do you do when you're a smaller company?

Corie Barry:

Yeah, I think it's a difficult question because the question is always, how do you take a smaller invention or thought and produce it at scale? And so this is actually where we've used your organization before, Gary, or our merchant teams do an amazing job trying to bet through what is literally hundreds of thousands of products and try to understand what would this unique solution be for our customers that would make it right for us to try to monetize and sell at scale? In our case, in most cases, our merchant team is constantly combing all of the new innovations that are out there and trying to decide which ones would make the most sense for us to present. Which ones solve a distinct customer need, which ones fit most into those needs that we were talking about before that we're trying to solve for our customers.

Corie Barry:

And we're pretty consistently bringing in new trading out for different, trying something new all the time, because we just talked about the fact that technology is constantly innovating. It's not hard to contact me, but that we have a merchant team that is constantly looking through any of these new thoughts and innovations and trying to think through how could we potentially assort, and does it make sense to assort based on, like I said, the customer problems that we're trying to solve.

Gary Shapiro:

Paul Gluckman, one of the great journalists in our industry of, Executive Senior Editor of Consumer Electronics Daily asks, "Does Best Buy run the risk of supply shortage of some of the highest in demand connectivity tools like laptops and how has the pandemic affected demand for some of the more discretionary consumer tech items such as premium televisions?"

Corie Barry:

Yeah, I think if you went... I'm going to answer a couple of lines. If you went to some of our stores right now, you would look at the shelves and you would say maybe not as much inventory there as you would like to see. That is more a function of how many different times we've changed our model. We have run nine different operating models since the start of the pandemic. We flipped a curbside immediately, but we've done appointments. And then in mid June, we opened for shopping again. We have released publicly that from the date we opened for shopping again until we did our release, which was just about a week ago, a little bit more, we were running 15% growth during that timeframe.

Corie Barry:

And that was like a complete flip from where we had been before that. And so it's a little bit more right now about catching the trajectory of interest and demand and flexing up and down in a way that meets that demand, especially when we weren't sure exactly how long we'd be closed and what the reaction to the pandemic would be. In terms of demand for what are sometimes considered more discretionary products, we haven't talked about that publicly, but we definitely have said, look, as we started to open our stores, we started to see more interest and some of the more complex kind of sales.

Corie Barry:

And I would go back to, I think it's less about discretionary or not in the traditional way of thinking about it because people are living at home. I mean, think about how spending is happening right now. About a trillion dollars of spend went to things like sporting events, movies, cruises, vacations. That trillion dollars is a minuscule amount of that is being spent right now. And that spending is moving into other buckets because of the way we are living our lives. And so I just think the idea of what might be discretionary and that will evolve over because we're living our lives in a way that is completely unique to anything that has come before.

Gary Shapiro:

Well, I've seen you in the Best Buy story of the last several months referred to repeatedly in Fortune Magazine, I've seen it in Inc, Harvard Business Review mentioned it. And there's a question here that goes into what we haven't really discussed. Is that, Tom Solitario asked, "How is retail changing in this new era and what changes are permanent?"

Corie Barry:

Yeah, so there are four things that I think are more permanent in nature. The first is choice. Choice for our customers. They want to be able to shop how they want and when they want. And for some people right now, that means I'm totally comfortable going into a store and I'm fine wearing a mask and interacting. For others, it means I am not leaving my house and I need that product here same day so that I can do what I need to get done. So customer choice and customer being in charge is going to continue to be important into the future. I think the speed at which we work, the speed at which we iterate, the speed at which we change and develop new ways of interacting with Best Buy, that includes listening to customers, listening to employees and adapting that will continue into the future.

Corie Barry:

I think most companies you've heard them say things like, "What we thought we'd get done in three years, we've now done in six months." I think that that speed idea is going to continue and be quite permanent. I think you're also seeing from a lot of companies, much more of an enterprise mindset. Meaning, you're not worried about which channel you're doing business in. You're not worried about exactly who's getting the credit. What you're trying to do is get a safe experience to as many customers as humanly possible. And I think that enterprise mindset is also very much going to stick for people.

Corie Barry:

And then finally, I think work flexibility is going to stick. And that might also be learning flexibility. But I think the days of everyone needs to be in the office all the time in order to get their work done, I think you're going to see flexible work models exist for the foreseeable future and therefore this idea of creating home office productivity spaces. That's not just about a six month change. I think that's going to be in a lot of cases a forever change.

Gary Shapiro:

Wow. That's terrific. You know, I keep thinking of the Charles Darwin phrase that it's not the strongest that survive, it's not the fastest, it's those that adopt the quickest. I've been preaching that for five or six months now, but you're actually doing it. I'm just preaching so-. [crosstalk 00:53:21]. I got to read this, it says, "First and foremost, thank you for this inspirational message all the way from South Africa. As consumers globally become more e-commerce savvy do believe that post COVID technology will play a far bigger role in the traditional retail space and how consumers make choices, not only to buy technology and electronics but other goods as well?"

Corie Barry:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can see it. If you look at how many people have changed their buying around things like groceries or even food delivery. I mean, the quantity of people that are self identifying as never before having had groceries delivered to their home, or never before having used an aggregator to deliver food to their home, it's massive amounts of people who are trying these experiences for the first time. And I think we all would agree once you're comfortable with it, once you try it once or twice, those behaviors become sticky very quickly.

Corie Barry:

And I think that will only up the game across industries because as soon as I'm happy with the way my app works with Delta, as an example, I expect those same kind of wonderful app experiences to translate to restaurants, to translate to retailers, to translate to other industries. So I think the game will continuously be increased and I think you have a much more digital savvy population, which means they'll be more comfortable going forward.

Gary Shapiro:

I could see that another, Jeff Keto writes, "This is my first time to hear Corie speak and I am totally impressed. I'm a big fan now. My question is who has extended the most grace to today in your career and how did that impact you? Thanks."

Corie Barry:

First, thank you for the compliment. That's very kind. In terms of who has extended the most grace, I actually right now would say it's been my team and what do I mean by that? I think, especially in the situation we're in right now, maybe it's because we're in it. There are decisions that we are all collectively making every single minute of every single day. And I think grace sometimes looks like we're not all going to say things perfectly, we're not all going to show up perfectly in the moment, but our intent is consistently to do what's right for our people, our customers, and our business.

Corie Barry:

And I think this constant focus on intent and then not always showing up perfectly and not always having all the answers written perfectly, I think that is one of the most wonderful things. It's kind of silver lining things that happens in moments of high stress or high risk like this. And I definitely am grateful to be able to come to work with them every single day. None of these are decisions you make alone. These are all decisions you make together and in doing that, we all afford each other better grace.

Gary Shapiro:

Yeah. Alberto Garcia asks, and this is actually news that we haven't talked about that you announced, I think it was very recently that you'll be close for Thanksgiving, but the question is, "Is there going to be a new Black Friday and will it be digital only?"

Corie Barry:

I think that the holiday will likely get spread out over more time and it will be less about a Black Friday and it'll be more about a variety of events that will go a longer period of time. And to your point, probably will be more digital in nature back to what I was saying about people's shopping behaviors changing. And I think you've seen a number of retailers already say, "Look, we're probably going to start earlier or it's going to be more spread out." Because what you don't want are exactly what you're trying to avoid, Gary, through CES. You don't want swaths of people all packed together at one point.

Corie Barry:

And so instead, you're going to try to think about how do you stretch amazing deals out throughout a season and how do you help avoid some of those peaks? And then yes, how do you deliver digitally with speed with strong fulfillment mechanisms that will have less people potentially all bunched together, but offer still that same really fun holiday experience?

Gary Shapiro:

That's thinking ahead. Two last questions, Patricia M. writes, "Any specific advice for younger female executives in the technology world?"

Corie Barry:

I think it's probably less about exactly whether you're female, male anytime you're kind of younger in your career. My best advice that I could give is to push yourself harder than anyone else will push you. I think sometimes we wait for someone to kind of push on us and tell us where to go next and what to do and I have always found personally, I mean, it sounds cliche. I'm a very hard critic on myself. I think most people here who are watching, if you're taking the time to do this, you're probably a hard critic on yourself, pushing yourself harder means you're almost always going to outpace, and out-think and really try to out-deliver.

Corie Barry:

I think this idea of pushing yourself harder, making yourself uncomfortable, taking some of the things that might require change or might require a new skill sets. But I think will ultimately stress you further. I think those are the things that start to position you to continue to grow your career.

Gary Shapiro:

The final question, and I want to apologize to all those who asked. There's a lot more questions here. A couple of them are asking about things you've already said. We will have a video of this and potentially a transcript, but Julio Silva says, "What was the most difficult trade you had to give up during your journey to become a CEO?

Corie Barry:

What difficult trait?

Gary Shapiro:

Trade. What did you give up in order to get to the CEO position?

Corie Barry:

Oh, what did I give... It's a tricky question because I don't know any other path. Meaning I don't know exactly what I had to give up or what might have looked different in order to take the path that I took and so inherently I'm sure there are things that I might've done differently. I have to say out loud, I don't feel like I've been forced to give things up. I've made trade offs and there are decisions that I've made, but this is part of the result of those decisions. So I don't think for me, it was about a major trade-off along the way. But of course, there are things that I might've attended or been able to do that I didn't because of the path that I took, but I also wouldn't trade it for the world because this is where the path took me.

Corie Barry:

It's a great question. I haven't actually thought about it in terms of things that I've had to trade and instead, I just felt strongly that if I continue to do the work that challenged me, if I continue to try to learn, if I continue to try to push myself and take those jobs that might be uncomfortable, or I might not know as well then I was happy. And I think only you can define the path, the decisions that make you happy, that fill your bucket and you can't really apologize or think of a different life cause it's yours.

Gary Shapiro:

Wow. Well, phenomenal advice throughout an hour. Terrific insights. I can honestly say that I have never ever met with a CEO who is one year on the job, faced so many challenges and turns lemon into lemonade and seeing what amazing opportunity you've created for Best Buy. You're truly a leader, and you've been very generous in your time sharing with us. So thank you so much.

Corie Barry:

Well, likewise. Thank you for the time and I really appreciate being here to be able to share the work of so many. I can't tell you how proud I am to be a part of this team and to be able to share this and to be able to have a little bit of time. So Gary, thank you and thank you for everything that you're doing to continue to advance all the things that I hold near and dear in terms of technology and do it safely. So thank you.

Gary Shapiro:

We both do. Thank you.

Teraniv:

Thank you, Corie and Gary, for that fascinating discussion. The next Masters of Leadership event is with Mindy Grossman on August 11th. Registration is open on the NVTC website, nvtc.org. We hope to see you there. In the meantime, please stay safe and healthy and have a great rest of your day.