Julie Gilbert has touched the lives of tens of thousands in her role at BestBuy Co. Inc. (BBY) as the Senior Vice President of Retail Training, Leadership Development and Women’s Leadership Forum (also known as WoLF). In her positions, she leads Best Buy’s innovation and guides the Company’s plan of increasing its market share with female customers, who believe-it-or-not outspend men in today’s consumer electronics industry.
Julie’s greatest passion is empowering others to help them become leaders. In fact, she previously did this for quite awhile as a side hobby by randomly visiting stores and mentoring the employees who wanted to take larger roles in their companies. Through her guidance, many saw changes in their lives both inside and outside of the workplace.
Today, Julie is devoted to discovering the leadership abilities in every Best Buy employee by creating motivated training programs. She also does this by using the talents of thousands of female employees to transform the business, and organizing a leadership forum with the purpose of giving high-potential employees opportunities to partner with corporate support teams and take on new business pursuits.
Even though Julie has a full schedule, she still finds time to maintain an active lifestyle through dancing, aerobics, inline skating, bicycling and downhill skiing activities. She is also a gifted writer and has been published internationally. Her background of expanding the horizons of businesses and individuals has attracted the attention of top publications as she has been named one of the 100 most successful women in business by Profiles in Diversity Journal magazine and one of Minnesota’s Women to Watch by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
What are some of the best things to know about Best Buy?
Balance Sheet: Best Buy’s balance sheet is in great shape. Total assets reported for the period ending December 1st 2007 totaled over $15 billion, exceeding the $11.7 billion reported in liabilities. Long term debt is only 15% of its capital and the company holds an incredible $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
Emerging HD Video Market: Now that the new HDTVs are coming down to an affordable price, more consumers are looking to upgrade their old television sets. The recently passed legislation requiring all programming to be converted to digital by February 17, 2009 also encourages HDTV sales as older analog TVs aren’t able to display digital content without a converter box.
Budding HD Content Market: Of course after getting an HDTV, consumers need to have HD content to get the most from their new set. Best Buy’s senior vice president commented, “With the explosion of HDTVs, customers are hungry for quality, high definition content.” One of the best ways of experiencing full HD is buying a new Blu-ray player, along with a collection of Blu-ray discs, both of which add to the Company’s revenues.
Bottom Line: Although Best Buy boasts sales growth of 16.50% for the last 12 months and an income growth of 52% for the same period, the future grows dim in any light of recession. If the economy can find its footing again and begin uptrending, Best Buy will be well positioned to reap the benefits and pass on the added value to shareholders.
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