BEST BUY FIGHTS AGAINST ELECTRONIC WASTE
Q1. Why do you think Best Buy has been able to gain competitive advantage in the retail electronics market while also driving many initiatives to support sustainability?
Solution: Best Buy was found by Richard Schulze who was a specialist in consumer electronics. In 1966 he opened Audio Specialty store in Twin cities with a name of ‘Sound of Music’. The business started flourishing, the stores basically aimed at college going students who wanted high end electronic goods (Twin Cities Business 2003). Best Buy is considered as the largest retailer in its segment in the US with a formidable market share of 21%. It is very clear from the Best Buy’s vision statement that it wants to create superior value for its employees, customers and other stakeholders. It wants to create best practices across the organization. It aims to pay back to the environment where it is doing business. Following were the initiatives taken by the Best Buy to improve their competitiveness by following sustainability measures:
v Extensive acquisition:- To keep itself at par with the competition it started making acquisitions to increase the dimensions of the business and also to win more customers because it would be a one stop electronics retail house which would solve all the requirements of the customers. This would also make the customers brand loyal.
v Focus on customers:- The company believed that the only way to get competitive advantage was to hear the voice of the customers so it invited customers in the decision making process. It uses online forums and blogs to improve the communication with the customers so that they can address the customer’s problems.
v Corporate Social Responsibility:- The company was very keen in Corporate Social Responsibilities because through the market research it got to know that the consumers were more concerned about the electronic waste as they feared that the landfills were getting filled with electronic waste. They wanted a solution which can recycle this electronic waste, so the company came with such initiatives and started recycling kiosks where people could put in their waste or obsolete products which the company got recycled for a fee of $10 and for every product recycled they even gave the customers Best Buy Gift card worth $10 so that the customers can again come back to them for buying any other electronic product. There were some products which they could not recycle so for those products they tied up with other such companies who were concerned for CSR and they continually checked whether their operations were aligned with those of Best Buy (Environment Protection Agency 2009).
They even came up with electronic cycles; they also took initiatives to reduce the carbon credits in all their offerings. Their energy star products were a big hit as on their websites the customers could calculate as to how much money they could save if they use energy star products. They even started using electronic documents to save paper and they reduced 187 metric tons of paper in 2008.
v Superior Service:- Best Buy maintained 24 hours call centre service where the customers could get their problems solved any time, whenever there was any problem the employees would get the computers repaired within a matter of hours instead of days take by their competition. Speakeasy provided IT, broadband voice, and data services to the business customers of Best Buy. Speakeasy technical people were always available to solve the problems of their business customers.
Q2. Do you think the resources that Best Buy is investing to help consumers recycle their old electronic devices is a good investment for Best Buy?
Solution: All the stakeholders including employees and customers were worried about how to combat Electronic waste from filling the landfills and how to use this waste in some productive ways. In such context Best Buy came up with “Greener Together” initiative, this program allowed consumers to recycle two electronics per day, per household. Electronics which were 32 inches required $0 for recycling which included monitors, CRTs, TVs and laptops. The consumers had to pay a fee of $10 for getting a product recycled and to promote this the company came with an initiative to give Best Buy gift card to the consumers for getting the product recycled which could be used by the consumer for buying some other electronic product from the company. This was a win-win situation for the consumers as well as for the company where the consumer could get the product recycled at no extra cost because the amount was already reimbursed in the form of Best Buy gift card and the company could sell these recycled products and earn revenue on that and at the same time invite customers to spend more in their stores by giving the gift cards worth $10.
They also offered recyclable kiosks and pick up service for recyclable products. Online facilities were also offered where the customers could check the value offered for the old item and the value of the new item, from here they could accept or decline the offer.
These initiatives by the company to invest the resources in recycling proved to be profitable in many respects like reduced gas emissions, reduction in waste and energy efficiency etc. With the help of these measures Best Buy could sell the products which could not be recycled to companies like eBay which can resell the products. The $10 Gift card issued by Best Buy as a result of recycling done was helpful in marketing research and they could find out as to how effective the initiative is in gaining new customers and also attracting environment friendly existing customers. This gives a clear message to the public that the company is not only concerned about selling the products but also concerned about the electronic waste disposal and recycling of wastes (Aston 2012).
More than anything the company is able to portray its ethical and environment friendly image to the public which would bring social acclaim and this would fetch in more revenue and will help in improving the bottom line for the company. The ethical and sustainable efforts made by Best Buy helped it get listed in Ethisphere’s 2010 most ethical companies (Ethisphere 2010).
Q3. How does Best Buy’s social responsibility efforts impact key stakeholders such as employees, shareholders, consumers, and suppliers?
Solution: Apart from providing high quality products at discounted prices, Best Buy aims at sustainability with a customer-centric approach. Best Buy has implemented various initiatives that have led its reputation to greater heights in terms of Social Responsibility. Best Buy realized that as the world is moving towards a sustainable environment, the stakeholders, especially the employees and customers were growing to be more and more concerned about the electronic wastage that is caused by the breakage or obsolesce of the electronic product. Best Buy captured the needs for sustainability by innovations that led to energy saving products and also by implementing the recycling program which helps the consumers recycle their old electronics instead of throwing them in an inappropriate manner and causing environmental damage. Best Buy also aimed at aiding the sustainability of the environment by converting all its documents in electronic form eliminating the waste use of paper. This move saved 187 metric tons of paper in the year 2008.
Best Buy’s Social Responsibility efforts have not only impacted the company but also its stakeholders such as the employees, customers, shareholders and suppliers. The social responsibility initiatives adopted by Best Buy such as recycling of old electronics increases its reputation in the eyes of the customers which generates more revenue through higher sales. This enables the shareholders to benefit through higher profit share. Initiatives taken by Best Buy such as the ROWE system and the Open Source Approach enable the Employees to benefit and grow with the company. Under the ROWE system the employees have an independence to work as and when they want subjected to the fact that the results are delivered (Conlin 2006). The Open Source Approach enables the employees to suggest developments in the company’s processes with use of their experience. Such an opportunity inspires them to create innovations like the development in packaging of HDMI cables that reduced consumption of plastic used in the packaging by 30%. Best Buy promotes sustainable and ethical practices among its vendors. Suppliers have to adhere to the compliance standards of the company which is audited annually by Best Buy. In the annual audit, if any supplier is found not be adhering to the compliance standards that are set by the company, the company cancels the contracts with the supplier. Since Best Buy believes in a customer-centric approach, it has taken customer’s needs and concerns seriously.
In response to the demands made by the consumers, the company started publishing its Corporate Social Responsibility Reports from 2007, facilitating the consumers to know the actions taken by the company to address the sustainability issue. In programs such as @15 teenage costumers which formed major portion of their customers could interact and find out the innovative ways which could be used by the company, they could share their thoughts on a website called www.at15.com. It also provided education and scholarship programs where they offered scholarships worth $9.5 million since it was implemented in 2006. It aimed at use of technology to make the students learn. Under disaster relief program the company offered huge packages for the relief in the affected areas, it even helped employees staying in disaster affected areas.
References
2003 Minnesota Business Hall of Fame 2003, Twin Cities Business, Minneapolis, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://www.tcbmag.com/halloffame/minnesotabusinesshalloffame/104304p1.aspx>.
2010 Worlds Most Ethical Companies 2010, Ethisphere, New York, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://ethisphere.com/past-wme-honorees/wme2010/>.
Aston, A 2012, How Best Buy Makes Money Recycling America’s Electronics, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/04/24/how-best-buy-makes-money-recycling-america%E2%80%99s-electronics-and-appliances>.
Conlin, M 2006, Smashing the Clock, Businessweek Online, December 11, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013001.htm>.
Environmental Protection Agency 2009, Best Buy Ramps Up Recycling, United States, Environmental Protection Agency, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://www.epa.gov/waste/inforesources/news/2009news/03-bestbuy.htm>.
BEST BUY FIGHTS AGAINST ELECTRONIC WASTE
Q1. Why do you think Best Buy has been able to gain competitive advantage in the retail electronics market while also driving many initiatives to support sustainability?
Solution: Best Buy was found by Richard Schulze who was a specialist in consumer electronics. In 1966 he opened Audio Specialty store in Twin cities with a name of ‘Sound of Music’. The business started flourishing, the stores basically aimed at college going students who wanted high end electronic goods (Twin Cities Business 2003). Best Buy is considered as the largest retailer in its segment in the US with a formidable market share of 21%. It is very clear from the Best Buy’s vision statement that it wants to create superior value for its employees, customers and other stakeholders. It wants to create best practices across the organization. It aims to pay back to the environment where it is doing business. Following were the initiatives taken by the Best Buy to improve their competitiveness by following sustainability measures:
v Extensive acquisition:- To keep itself at par with the competition it started making acquisitions to increase the dimensions of the business and also to win more customers because it would be a one stop electronics retail house which would solve all the requirements of the customers. This would also make the customers brand loyal.
v Focus on customers:- The company believed that the only way to get competitive advantage was to hear the voice of the customers so it invited customers in the decision making process. It uses online forums and blogs to improve the communication with the customers so that they can address the customer’s problems.
v Corporate Social Responsibility:- The company was very keen in Corporate Social Responsibilities because through the market research it got to know that the consumers were more concerned about the electronic waste as they feared that the landfills were getting filled with electronic waste. They wanted a solution which can recycle this electronic waste, so the company came with such initiatives and started recycling kiosks where people could put in their waste or obsolete products which the company got recycled for a fee of $10 and for every product recycled they even gave the customers Best Buy Gift card worth $10 so that the customers can again come back to them for buying any other electronic product. There were some products which they could not recycle so for those products they tied up with other such companies who were concerned for CSR and they continually checked whether their operations were aligned with those of Best Buy (Environment Protection Agency 2009).
They even came up with electronic cycles; they also took initiatives to reduce the carbon credits in all their offerings. Their energy star products were a big hit as on their websites the customers could calculate as to how much money they could save if they use energy star products. They even started using electronic documents to save paper and they reduced 187 metric tons of paper in 2008.
v Superior Service:- Best Buy maintained 24 hours call centre service where the customers could get their problems solved any time, whenever there was any problem the employees would get the computers repaired within a matter of hours instead of days take by their competition. Speakeasy provided IT, broadband voice, and data services to the business customers of Best Buy. Speakeasy technical people were always available to solve the problems of their business customers.
Q2. Do you think the resources that Best Buy is investing to help consumers recycle their old electronic devices is a good investment for Best Buy?
Solution: All the stakeholders including employees and customers were worried about how to combat Electronic waste from filling the landfills and how to use this waste in some productive ways. In such context Best Buy came up with “Greener Together” initiative, this program allowed consumers to recycle two electronics per day, per household. Electronics which were 32 inches required $0 for recycling which included monitors, CRTs, TVs and laptops. The consumers had to pay a fee of $10 for getting a product recycled and to promote this the company came with an initiative to give Best Buy gift card to the consumers for getting the product recycled which could be used by the consumer for buying some other electronic product from the company. This was a win-win situation for the consumers as well as for the company where the consumer could get the product recycled at no extra cost because the amount was already reimbursed in the form of Best Buy gift card and the company could sell these recycled products and earn revenue on that and at the same time invite customers to spend more in their stores by giving the gift cards worth $10.
They also offered recyclable kiosks and pick up service for recyclable products. Online facilities were also offered where the customers could check the value offered for the old item and the value of the new item, from here they could accept or decline the offer.
These initiatives by the company to invest the resources in recycling proved to be profitable in many respects like reduced gas emissions, reduction in waste and energy efficiency etc. With the help of these measures Best Buy could sell the products which could not be recycled to companies like eBay which can resell the products. The $10 Gift card issued by Best Buy as a result of recycling done was helpful in marketing research and they could find out as to how effective the initiative is in gaining new customers and also attracting environment friendly existing customers. This gives a clear message to the public that the company is not only concerned about selling the products but also concerned about the electronic waste disposal and recycling of wastes (Aston 2012).
More than anything the company is able to portray its ethical and environment friendly image to the public which would bring social acclaim and this would fetch in more revenue and will help in improving the bottom line for the company. The ethical and sustainable efforts made by Best Buy helped it get listed in Ethisphere’s 2010 most ethical companies (Ethisphere 2010).
Q3. How does Best Buy’s social responsibility efforts impact key stakeholders such as employees, shareholders, consumers, and suppliers?
Solution: Apart from providing high quality products at discounted prices, Best Buy aims at sustainability with a customer-centric approach. Best Buy has implemented various initiatives that have led its reputation to greater heights in terms of Social Responsibility. Best Buy realized that as the world is moving towards a sustainable environment, the stakeholders, especially the employees and customers were growing to be more and more concerned about the electronic wastage that is caused by the breakage or obsolesce of the electronic product. Best Buy captured the needs for sustainability by innovations that led to energy saving products and also by implementing the recycling program which helps the consumers recycle their old electronics instead of throwing them in an inappropriate manner and causing environmental damage. Best Buy also aimed at aiding the sustainability of the environment by converting all its documents in electronic form eliminating the waste use of paper. This move saved 187 metric tons of paper in the year 2008.
Best Buy’s Social Responsibility efforts have not only impacted the company but also its stakeholders such as the employees, customers, shareholders and suppliers. The social responsibility initiatives adopted by Best Buy such as recycling of old electronics increases its reputation in the eyes of the customers which generates more revenue through higher sales. This enables the shareholders to benefit through higher profit share. Initiatives taken by Best Buy such as the ROWE system and the Open Source Approach enable the Employees to benefit and grow with the company. Under the ROWE system the employees have an independence to work as and when they want subjected to the fact that the results are delivered (Conlin 2006). The Open Source Approach enables the employees to suggest developments in the company’s processes with use of their experience. Such an opportunity inspires them to create innovations like the development in packaging of HDMI cables that reduced consumption of plastic used in the packaging by 30%. Best Buy promotes sustainable and ethical practices among its vendors. Suppliers have to adhere to the compliance standards of the company which is audited annually by Best Buy. In the annual audit, if any supplier is found not be adhering to the compliance standards that are set by the company, the company cancels the contracts with the supplier. Since Best Buy believes in a customer-centric approach, it has taken customer’s needs and concerns seriously.
In response to the demands made by the consumers, the company started publishing its Corporate Social Responsibility Reports from 2007, facilitating the consumers to know the actions taken by the company to address the sustainability issue. In programs such as @15 teenage costumers which formed major portion of their customers could interact and find out the innovative ways which could be used by the company, they could share their thoughts on a website called www.at15.com. It also provided education and scholarship programs where they offered scholarships worth $9.5 million since it was implemented in 2006. It aimed at use of technology to make the students learn. Under disaster relief program the company offered huge packages for the relief in the affected areas, it even helped employees staying in disaster affected areas.
References
2003 Minnesota Business Hall of Fame 2003, Twin Cities Business, Minneapolis, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://www.tcbmag.com/halloffame/minnesotabusinesshalloffame/104304p1.aspx>.
2010 Worlds Most Ethical Companies 2010, Ethisphere, New York, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://ethisphere.com/past-wme-honorees/wme2010/>.
Aston, A 2012, How Best Buy Makes Money Recycling America’s Electronics, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/04/24/how-best-buy-makes-money-recycling-america%E2%80%99s-electronics-and-appliances>.
Conlin, M 2006, Smashing the Clock, Businessweek Online, December 11, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013001.htm>.
Environmental Protection Agency 2009, Best Buy Ramps Up Recycling, United States, Environmental Protection Agency, viewed on 22 May 2012, <http://www.epa.gov/waste/inforesources/news/2009news/03-bestbuy.htm>.
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