While it's not clear whether the Best Buy business model needs a change, the "all hands on deck" was a very simple and brilliant example of mobilizing and energizing the sales managers and corporate staff employees to get out to the stores and sell product and do whatever was needed to make the customer experience better - and "bring in the quarter sales." In addition, the sales managers and corporate staff employees got a taste of what it's like to work on the front lines in the stores and what's necessary to delight the customers. Sometimes, when a business has huge challenges, simple approaches like this one are the most effective!

I find it interesting that flat sales are considered a success at a company that once was the leader in its market segment. Even more telling is what appears to be a gratuitous shot at the ROWE model, which was never given a chance to influence the company. In fact, Best Buy, where ROWE got its start, implemented the program with approximately 3,500 of its 110,000 employees; hardly enough to influence the company's performance, positively or negatively. Many companies, large and small, have fully implemented ROWE with significant increases in their top line growth; but they FULLY implemented ROWE, didn't just pay it lip service. Maybe Mr. Joly should read the latest book by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson of ROWE, "Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It." The book is full of case studies that prove the model. Mr. Joly's comment about ROWE being "fundamentally flawed from a leadership standpoint" is indicative of, at best, a superficial knowledge of ROWE; and at worst, a total lack of understanding of leadership models overall. The ROWE model is not about delegating per se; it's about having every member of an organization understand her or his role, to fulfill that role, and to be held accountable for their performance. "All hands on deck" is last century's idea that being there somehow makes things better. "Everyone on point" in the ROWE model requires performance, not presence. One last thing: ROWE is not about people coming and going when they please. In today's connected world, performance is not tied to physical presence. Performance can come at any time, from any place, using the social networking tools that we now have available. Read the book, and understand ROWE before making inaccurate conclusions. Best Buy missed the boat in so many ways as the retail environment changed. ROWE may or may not have saved them had they embraced it company-wide, but it certainly didn't cause their failures.

"All hands on deck" is a nautical term which means "due to an immediate, ship-wide life-threatening crisis, crew members who are not currently working must report in to help save everyone." That might make sense if Best Buy were a ship at sea running along peacefully when suddenly an enemy vessel or a huge storm strikes and everyone on could be killed within the hour. But the problems at Best Buy are not like a calamity on the ocean. The company has been struggling for years. In this case, "all hands on deck" seems to actually be an implied "we've decided the problem is that you were not working hard enough in the past, so now you're going to work all the time." The lunacy of this idea is illustrated by CEO Hubert Joly 's own words: "This is a time when we all need to be mobilized as a team [and] work toward our vision..." Are there times at which the company *doesn't* need to be mobilized as a team? Are there periods during which it is *not important* to work toward a shared vision? What matters at any organization is results. Best Buy clearly must rethink their business model, but this effort should be through a renewed emphasis on finding out what works best, not on demanding that people simply work more. A wise captain will call for "all hands on deck" in those precious minutes where it makes sense to sacrifice the sleep and well-being of most of the crew to keep everyone alive. But a wise leader knows that you cannot sustain "all hands on deck" for much longer than a single battle or a single nasty storm. Weary sailors fail in their duties. Overburdened crews abandon their posts. Angry mariners desert their ships. They evolve from dutiful seaman into vengeful mutineers. If Best Buy aims to sail successfully into uncharted waters, they should consider the impact of their choices on their people.

This is good news for now, but how is Best Buy going to compete with Amazon and others who not the overhead that stores d? And how can they cope with the showcasing pheominum, and no sales tax collected?

!!!Attention. All hands on deck. The ship is sinking. Get to your lifeboats.!!! I used to like shopping at their stores. However, went to one of their remodeled stores a couple times. Didn't care for it much and couldn't find what I expected they would normally have. Guess I can try their website for store inventory before going, but at that point, if checking online, may as well do price comparisons. Such a shame.

I find it amusing when I hear companies using the phrase ‘create a sense of urgency.’ Why, did management just wake up in a panic? Maybe leadership wouldn’t feel the need to ‘create a sense of urgency’ if they were paying attention all along. Where has your focus been? I am curious about the salvo directed at the ROWE model. It was implemented in only 3% of the employees. What about the other 97% It is clear that CEO Herbert Joly is undereducated on how a ROWE functions if he believes a ROWE “…effectively assumed the only acceptable way to lead is by delegating.” What?! A ROWE focuses on the work and results. What ROWE does assume is that the employee will find the best and most efficient means of getting the work done and achieving the results. They are given the autonomy to determine the means and methods which includes using 2013 technology where poducing results doesn’t always require being physically present. Nowhere does it assume anything about delegating. If leadership is looking for the reasons behind the diminishing sales, perhaps a wider net needs to be cast in search of the causes and solutions. I am curious – why is it such a big event that district and territory managers are spending time in a retail store to observe and gain insights? Is it possible that leadership has spent too much time in mahogany row and not enough time in touch with their employees or ultimate customers? It seems so if Mr. Shawn Score, Head of U.S. Retail, described getting “literally hundreds of e-mails” from store staff enthused about seeing the bosses actually helping. Why are employees so surprised? They wouldn’t be surprised if spending time in the trenches to stay in touch were a regular management practice.

Why blame ROWE for the company´s strategic hardships? Where is the link? Keeping people inside a physical location and preventing them from focusing only on results will not make them more creative or productive! On the contrary! And if they think new ideas are floating around and need people to pick them up why can't they put in place a "challenge database" or a "new ideas database" and let the virtual teams pick that up and contribute? Dan Ariely, one of the stars in behavioral economics, calls this "the toothbrush theory". Everyone needs a toothbrush (idea) but only their own. People have a visceral aversion to accept toothbrushes (ideas) from others. The new guy seems to be under this effect. Sadly for Best Buy.

For those commenting that the company has not fully implemented ROWE as only 3500 of employees are/were on the program- The 100K plus who are not on the program represent the employees in the field. Obviously you cannot "ROWE" employees when you have store scheduled that must be maintained. ROWE in his most commonly understood form does not work for retail positions.

Dzenifer, you are "obviously" misinformed. It's pretty clear to me that you haven't read the books that describe the ROWE model. ROWE can be, and has been, implemented in environments where schedules must be maintained. ROWE has been successfully implemented in educational settings, in a childcare center and other schedule-dependent environments. The beauty of ROWE is that it's an accountability model, and when understood by those in a ROWE, results in greater efficiencies within those constraints. If you read the ROWE books, "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It" and "Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It," and understand the model, you'll see that ROWE is ideally positioned for implementation in just the retail environment you seem to think it is "obviously" not suited for. Check your facts before you come to conclusions that are based on opinion, not knowledge.

Bottom line: If you want to change results in a failing company such as Best Buy, you also have to change the culture. The problem is not ROWE, the problem is poor leadership! As a former BBY'er I can attest to the fact that over the past 3-4 years there has been little to no direction from leadership and no sense of urgency to make changes or to get results. Mr Joly has stated that he works 24/7, and therefore he expects his leaders to do so as well. Personally, I don't believe working 24/7 is a good thing for anyone, but his new edict will certainly shake up the lackadaisical leadership culture at the Box! Did you know that the MAJORITY of Best Buy's top corporate executives don't even live in Minnesota? I would venture to say over 70% of them fly in from Atlanta, L.A., New York, etc. Kind of hard to be on point and be in the moment when executives like the CMO fly in on Monday afternoon and fly out on Thursday morning (on a good week). Again, I believe in ROWE and felt like the program had lots of untapped potential. Unfortunately for everyone the program was typical of most everything that Best Buy does. They invest heavily on the front end of a program, and then in a blink of an eye they lose interest and it dies out over time. Same movie over, and over, and over.... Final thought that nobody seems to be talking about. PROFIT! How is Best Buy going to be profitable with a broken sales model? Product margins are slim to none, and now they are going to price match to gain market share....which means even less margin $$ on increased revenues. And they plan to add additional SG & A spending (more labor in store, invest in ,com, etc.)? How does a company spend more, make less, and still make a profit?