Laura-Eve Grellmann

Best Buy was founded in 1966 as an audio specialty store named “Sound of Music” by Richard Schulze and James Wheeler. After a rebranding in 1983, Best Buy found its core business model in selling consumer electronics and related products. Its cur-rent subsidiaries include Best Buy Mobile (cell-phone carrier), the Geek Squad (con-sumer electronics services), Magnolia Home Theater (home theater solution brand) and Pacific Sales (home electronics & white goods retailer). In 2021 the company counted over 102’000 employees worldwide and had a sales revenue of USD 47.3B – making it one of the few companies able to compete in the same market as Amazon. This teaching case looks at the leadership styles of the company's past and current CEOs and their impact on its current position in the market.