Analysis of Mission and Vision Statements and the Company’s Strategic Direction – Best Buy

Part 1

Best Buy is one of the best performing consumer electronics retailers in the United States. The company was founded in 1966 by Gary Smoliak and Richard Schulze. Apart from the United States, Best Buy also has its branches in Mexico and Canada. Currently, Best Buy has more than 1,800 stores with majority of them being Mobile stores. Best Buy also offers technical support service under the Greek Squad brand (Bailey, 2015). The company uses one statement to specify its mission and vision. In its mission statement, Best Buy declares to its employees and investors that, “Our formula is simple: we’re a growth company focused on better solving the unmet needs of our customers- and we rely on our employee to solve those puzzles. Thanks for stopping (Best Buy).” Based on this mission and/or vision statement, Best Buy strives to formulate objectives and strategies that will enable it to meet its declaration to employees and stakeholders.

Although Best Buy has a well defined mission and/or vision statement, it is still facing various challenges that must be met in order to assist the company move forward. Best Buy has a very simple business objective. As stated in bestbuy.com, Best Buy’s objective is to assess the unmet needs of customers and then identify the best ways through which such needs can be met in order to assist the company to grow. Much of Best Buy’s success is associated with this objective as well as its unique business approach that keeps it strong even in times of economic uncertainty. Best Buy is a company that is able to grow even during economic crisis unlike many companies which choose to release workers during tough times. However, despite the high level of success that Best Buy reaps from its business objective, the company still faces challenges particularly in the midst of strong rivals such as Samsung (Payne, 2015).

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One of the challenges that are being faced by Best Buy is limited spending on electronic items, particularly by customers who are able to get substitute products from the company’s competitors. Another challenge that Best Buy is facing is that of conserving energy. According to Payne (2015), Best Buy’s electronics uses large amounts of energy, particularly with the company’s televisions that are always on. Best Buy has however established objectives in order to revitalize the company and ensure that the mission and the set objectives are realized. For example, Best Buy aspire increase its customer base by 15 percent over the next one year. The company plans to achieve this objective by producing highly differentiated electronic items that will keep its products distinct from those of its competitors. In its second objective, Best Buy is now struggling to reduce green house gas emissions by approximately 8 percent over the next two years. The company plans to achieve this goal by tracking energy usage through technological application. Best Buy believes that it will be able to overcome the above named challenges if t successfully meets the set objectives (Payne, 2015).

Best Buy’s mission statement and/or vision statement is aligned with its business objective (Payne, 2015). This relationship can clearly be seen when the company’s mission and/or vision statement and its business objective are listed concurrently. Best Buy’s mission and/or vision statement states that, “Our formula is simple: we’re a growth company focused on better solving the unmet needs of our customers- and we rely on our employee to solve those puzzles. Thanks for stopping.” Best Buy’s business objective is to assess the unmet needs of customers and then identify the best ways through which such needs can be met in order to assist the company to grow. Even though Best Buy’s mission and/or vision statement is aligned with the company’s objective, the objective fails to state how the company will involve employees in meeting the needs of customers. The company can modify its business objective to state, “Best Buy plans to use adequately trained employees to assess the unmet needs of customers and then identify the best ways through which such needs can be met in order to assist the company to grow.

Table 1: Characteristics of a mission statement

Part 2

Best Buy uses corporate level, business level, and functional level strategies to ensure that it fulfills its mission. According to Kotler (2000), a strategy is a plan that a company formulates to help it achieve its objectives. Corporate level strategies involve the entire organization, business level strategies involve business units or business activities within an organization, and functional level strategies focus on various departments in the company such as human resources and information technology (Kotler, 2000). Best Buy currently uses four different strategies to achieve its objectives and they include; Big-Box store strategy also called price matching strategy, customer-centric strategy, rapid store growth and expansion strategy, and ‘renew blue, ignite the possible’ strategy. Best Buy’s price matching strategy is a business level strategy because it involves specific activities that guide the company towards achievement of objectives. The company ensures that there is price conformity in all its chain stores and big-box stores. The stores have enough selling spaces that allow the company to stock as many electronic items as possible. Best Buys ensures that it provides its customers with diversified products, a factor that enables the company to generate more revenue. These products are always offered at the lowest prices to give customers an opportunity to purchase items that they can afford (Team, 2013).

Best Buy’s customer-centric strategy is a functional level strategy it focuses on specific departments in the company. This strategy is mainly concerned with effective human resource management to enable employees to provide good services to customers. Best Buy struggles to provide a good working environment for employees as a way of improving the quality of customer service offered in each and every store. The company is committed at treating as unique individuals with different needs to be met. For instance, Best Buy has installed car video and audio equipment in its store in order to solve unmet customer needs. This strategy enables Best Buy to compete favorably with its rivals in the electronics market (Team, 2013).

The rapid store growth and expansion strategy is a corporate level strategy that Best Buy currently implements. Just recently, Best Buy decided to expand its business territory through acquisitions. Through rapid acquisitions, Best Buy manages to reach as many customers as possible, which enables it to generate increased sales revenue. Best Buy tends to increase its global presence by acquiring different electronic companies which are located in various nations around the world (Team, 2013). The ‘renew blue, ignite the possible’ strategy is a corporate level strategy because it is meant to assist Best Buy to increase its financial position and to compete favorably with its rivals. Best Buy strives to implement this strategy by minimizing costs and maximizing profits, enhancing relationships with suppliers, and increasing online sales (Bailey, 2015).

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