Big Change at Best Buy: Working Through Hypergrowth to Sustained Excellence

I found the book to be interesting and challenging enough to order a copy for each member of my management team. My take on this book is that it provides a great deal of insight into managing the evolution process. As with most management texts, the most interesting and exciting parts of that insight show up in the latter third of the book. I suppose you could skip the first 175 pages and still get the flavor of what RHR and Best Buy did, but I encourage you to read it all. The last 100 pages will be your reward for getting through the first 175.Things I noted in particular:1) Early in the book, the authors set up the concept of the Head, Heart and Hands. The Head talks about getting the concept. The Heart talks about motivation, the desire to apply what was learned. The Hands is about putting the concepts into action and producing results.2) There is a lot of discussion about the role of the Senior Managers in this process, I suggest you test yourself against the model that develops and see if you meet the authors' expectations.3) If you don't read any other part of the book, I ask you to read pages 216 and study the table on page 234. 4) On page 216 you will see "When people set out to measure the effects of change on business results such as productivity, sales, profit, and employee turnover, they are measuring the outcomes of a process. Measuring results does not provide much information on how the change is proceeding or what issues might be impeding or furthering the change process." We all certainly focus on a couple of the measures cited - to what extent do we sacrifice the longer view in doing so? The authors got me with the following: "Knowing the score at the end of a game gives you limited information about how the individuals played, where they need to improve, or what's getting in the way of their achieving a better score." Sound familiar?

Three interesting observations...1) I'm surprised Best Buy management would allow these details to become public2) I liked the way the consultants admitted they learned something, too3) There are many paragraphs where one could change the name of the company from "Best Buy" to your company's name, and the text would apply to YOU.

I have been teaching in the public schools for 30 years. One of the things that I have done since Tom Peter's came out with his "In Search of Excellence" is keep a close eye on what is being done in the economic sector and applying those principles in my classroom. "Big Change . . ." caught my attention immediately after I read the first chapter. It was not only an interesting read, but I knew it was going to make me change my way of doing business in the classroom.As a teacher who has always held the ancient Greeks in esteem, I have always thought the best products were ones that employed the head, heart, and hands, but I had never thought of it in quite the same way as presented in "Big Change". While I have always "soap boxed" the idea, I have never tried to make it a mindset, to actually change the culture. Next year I will try to do just that in my classroom using the tools that are presented in this excellent book. Because the process is so well laid out, I expect to succeed in changing the culture of education in my classroom.I also teach a class at Western Washington University on how to create change. This book will be required reading because when you are finished with this book, you have the tools to implement change that lasts and makes a difference. "Big Change" is a best buy!

There are lots of books on change but this one gives practical information that you can use tomorrow without losing theoretical sophistication. It is the only model that I know of that deals well with all three arenas: head, heart and hands. I particularly liked ithe "what to do to fail" lists. The book is realistic in that it does not present the consultants and the company as all-knowing. The examples of mistakes and corrections give a realistic picture of the what a real change project feels like. If a company is going through (or planning) a change process, this would be a great book to read and discuss as a group.

...Elizabeth & Andy understate the influence they & their change management leadership wrought on Best Buy. It was their process, as brilliantly outlined in their book, that took entrepreneurial potential and realized its promise into profit by organizing a company culture around the change management principles laid out in this book. Without "Head, Heart & Hands," Best Buy may have been just another company that squandered that potential.What this book is not, is a history of Best Buy from it's founding through it's world class success...two years ago topping the S & P list of best ROI comapnies over a five year period.What this book is, is an easy read of simple but involved change management principles on transforming a company from potential to world class success...that two years ago topped the S & P list of best ROI companies over a five year period. When I came across this book I could not put it down. It was as if I were reliving Elizabeth and Andy's presentations. The book does not communicate as well as Elizabeth & Andy do in person, on a podium, but it's language and it's points are eminently digestible, if not delectable.If you are interested in a well written read about a company's transformation into a leader in its industry....this book is for you. If you are interested in a company's cultural revolution that unlocks a company's potential into streams of profit...this book is for you.Elizabeth & Andy congratulations on what you did at Best Buy, and congratulations on being able to translate this process into an easily understandable book for all cultural revolutionists and change agents.