From Modern Times to Open Times: Best Buy BlueShirt Nation Case Study: Web 2.0 Expo New York 2008 - Co-produced by TechWeb & O'Reilly Conferences, September 16

From Modern Times to Open Times: Best Buy BlueShirt Nation Case Study

Peter Hirshberg (Technorati), Michele Azar (Best Buy)

12:05pm Friday, 09/19/2008

Topic: Landscape & Strategy
Location: 1A06 &07

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Web 2.0 and social media have already had transformative effects on the press, brands, and entertainment. But perhaps the greatest impact of all will occur when the net generation changes the workplace.

Connected, empowered, resourceful, and used to working across artificial company boundaries, net genners are showing how Web 2.0 applications and services are changing where innovation comes from in companies, how work happens, and how the employee-customer conversation may create more value than senior management does.

In this session we’ll look at the fascinating case of employee-led innovation at Best Buy, the global electronics retailer with over 140,000 employees, more than half of whom are under 24 years old. They are a leading indicator of what’s to come. We’ll look at how the Best Buy employee social network, BlueShirt Nation, built to help the advertising department, went on to transform HR and IT development; how the application of idea market places spurns innovation and cuts through hierarchy; and how tapping the collective wisdom of employees and customers and making this available online helps define the future of the brand. This keynote will be given by Michele Azar, VP internet strategy at Best Buy, and Peter Hirshberg, chairman of the conversation group and longtime technology executive. It will feature videos, animations, historical clips, and music as we examine what happens when Web 2.0 goes to work.

Michele Azar

Best Buy

As Vice President, Internet Growth Group at Best Buy Co., Inc., a global retailer of technology and entertainment products and services, Michele Azar currently leads newly formed growth businesses in emerging channels: Open API, Community, and Mobile Web. Throughout her 11 year career at Best Buy, she has held P&L responsibility for Computer Peripherals and Hardware business units and played key leadership roles in 3 large scale transformations. In 2007, Azar moved to the web division to lead Enterprise 2.0 Strategy and rollout of new growth opportunities beyond existing channels. Azar keynotes across the globe on how Best Buy empowers employees to innovate, serve customers, and capture new growth. Company as Wiki: Modern Times to Open Times talk features true stories of what happens when the Net Generation goes to work at Best Buy. In 2003 Azar led the development of the small business segment from lab concept to nationwide scale of professional product solutions and service offerings including Geek Squad for small businesses. Earlier in her career, Azar had P&L responsibility for businesses at Target Corp-Dept Store Div. and The Gap, Inc.

In June 2006, Azar earned a MBA degree in the Executive MBA Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/kwo/win06/indepth/azar.htm

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From Modern Times to Open Times: Best Buy BlueShirt Nation Case Study

Peter Hirshberg

Technorati

Michele Azar

Best Buy