The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism

Full of Practical Advice Centered on Our Humanity
Covid has taught us that we need real contact with each other. Joly didn’t need Covid to teach him what this means for business as he brings it front and center in every page of his book.Best Buy’s (BB) CEO Hubert Joly has written a compelling book which may open the eyes of those focused on a more traditional business approach.When Joly joined BB in July 2012, the company was limping downhill. Its share price languished around $11, company financial indicators were going south, and BB stores had inconsistent and lackluster customer service. A failing company’s board of directors often hires an outsider CEO to make tough decisions and cut staff. An outsider won’t have relationships or affection for the staff like long time leaders. When BB hired a French CEO, Hubert Joly, from outside the tech or retail world (he headed travel business Carson), I assumed it was to close stores, cut employees and pump-up profitsBut instead of closing stores and firing thousands of people, Joly took a different approach – one he describes in “The Heart of Business.” Joly’s personal and business journey transitioned from a philosophy of numbers and ‘only results matter’ to leading via a more human first approach. Or as an industrial psychologist taught me early in my CEO career, “focus on people and results will follow.” In fact, Joly began his BB CEO stint by working at a corporate store, traveling and talking to scores of employees.“The Heart of Business” is not just another business book. It describes a personal journey, the transformation of Joly, BB and even the business community from a shareholder value model to a larger model focusing on empowerment and societal change. It includes research and results bolstering the case of why engaged employees, a diverse workforce and a bigger mission are better than focusing only on revenue and profitability.We learn about strategic changes, from how and why BB shook up retail by dumping sales spiffs and commissions to how suppliers get retail floor space to why its legendary founder Dick Schulze was brought back. But the main message is Joly’s thesis that every business needs a noble purpose to inspire employees.He says employees are a “source” not a “resource” and each is an individual with hopes, dreams and aspirations which should be heard. He describes changing corporate policy on how health care benefits were expanded to include transgender needs based on listening to concerns of only one employee. He talks about the importance of creating trust and a team environment necessary for success. And he changed performance evaluations to focus on human metrics first, followed by business metrics like customer satisfaction and lastly, financial performance.Joly describes five key ingredients to shift to an employee focused environment:-Connecting the individual’s search for meaning with the company’s noble purpose,-Developing authentic human connections,-Fostering autonomy,-Growing mastery, and-Nurturing a growth environment.Each gets a chapter and Joly easily slides in examples, stories, research and results to make his case that motivation comes from purpose and relationships rather than purely from money.Even for Chicago school economic purists focused only on profitability, this book will give practical tips to motivate people, develop teams and deal with real life human challenges.BB stock jumped tenfold since Joly took over as CEO. He not only pushed the frontiers of business leadership, but he did it with a coherent set of ethical principles that go beyond traditional financial measures. This book is a must reads it will make any business leader more effective and any person better.

The Human Side of Enterprise 2.0
I was fortunate… no, I was blessed to have the late Warren Bennis (a close colleague of Bill George) as a mentor. He felt the same way towards his mentor, Douglas McGregor, who wrote, “The Human Side of Enterprise.”In that ground breaking book McGregor made a distinction between Theory X and Theory Y in the approach of management and leadership towards their people. In Theory X, the belief was that people were lazy and you had to stay on top of them (i.e. the stick) to get them to be productive. In Theory Y, the belief was that if you believed in your people and did everything you could to help them live up to their potential, they would reward you with effort and high performance.For years I’ve been thinking that there needed to be an updated version of that book and “The Heart of Business,” is that book with a slight twist. That twist is that if you help your people to find meaning and purpose in their work and then help them achieve both, they will reward you with commitment, increased customer care and even that unicorn known as “loyalty.” This is what Hubert did at Best Buy and we are all the better for it.

Hubert Joly shares a truly inspiring approach to leadership focused on purpose before profit that empowers teams to innovate and deliver truly game-changing results.He focuses on his time at Best Buy as CEO to bring this leadership style to life through a case study that shows the power of purposeful, people focused leadership.

I enjoy this book because helped me to understand and also reminded me that organizations are made by people and they are the one who builds magic, and most important our job is to take care of them, support them and serve them. Good narrative with clear examples of it.