Revolutionizing Work at Best Buy
December 5th, 2006 (7:36am) Anne Zelenka 29 CommentsTweet This
In their December 11th cover story, Business Week profiles a new way of working at Best Buy corporate headquarters in Minnesota. It’s called ROWE, the Results-Oriented Work Environment. The thirteen commandments of ROWE include these:
No.1: People at all levels stop doing any activity that is a waste of their time, the customer’s time, or the company’s money. No.7: Nobody talks about how many hours they work. No.9: It’s O.K. to take a nap on a Tuesday afternoon, grocery shop on Wednesday morning, or catch a movie on Thursday afternoon.
BW calls it the “post-geographic office” and, borrowing a favorite Web Worker Daily phrase, mentions that tech companies have been “going bedouin” for several years. Few companies of any sort, however, would be willing to go as far as Best Buy has, banning mandatory meetings and allowing workers to work wherever, whenever, and how much they want, so long as they complete their work.
This is a welcome development in the corporate landscape. Post-geographic work, going bedouin, virtual teams: they’re not just for freelancers and tech startups anymore.
Do you see any revolutionary or evolutionary steps towards results-oriented work in your own business life?
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
Lol. Great post. Yepp, profits over people =>
This is a really interesting and neat idea for such a large company to implement. I think that this will definitely increase worker morale and productivity. Now get all these happy folks back in for Hawai’ian Shirt Friday and it will be a regular party over there in Minnesota. Good post,
Ryan
How on earth do you think they will manage it in a retail setting? (The article mentioned this might be part of their plans for the future)
As a matter of fact I do, It is a great personal assistant. ;)
paperbacks – I was wondering the same thing… I have no idea how Best Buy will deal with staffing their stores under a ROWE program! Perhaps the lure of commissions will get workers into the stores? But what about when everyone decides to take a day off?
Ryan – only problem with your Hawaiian shirt Friday idea is how darn cold it gets in Minnesota during the winter. But I guess they can wear them over their turtlenecks ;)
Great post. Thanks for sharing.
“a new way of working at Best Buy corporate headquarters in Minnesota”
Not stores, but corporate.
i read this article the day it came out in business week – it was a real good read. subsequently i posted it on my work internal blog at a major computer company for reviews. didnt get much but those that did said its a great idea and for the most part that we were already doing them.
anyway, i like the ROWE idea. i also enjoyed the accompanying articles regarding meetings and ??…forgot the other one. i hate meetings and think most of them are wastes of time. well done business week!
As the article mentions, a lot of Tech companies have been utilizing flex-time systems and virtual office systems (e.g., telecommuting, etc) and they have been quite successful at this. I think that allowing team members to work anytime/anywhere they wish is an added benefit that should be considered a competitive advantage and should be seriously considered by non-tech companies across the country.
As a freelancer who works with people in offices that have not adopted “bedouin” practices, I find myself running up against their expectation of when one ought to work, how long one ought to work, and all of the other crap one finds in traditional offices. Sometimes I have to go so far as write a clause in the contract clearly stating that I set my own hours, but never miss a deadline.
I am a traditional manager. Face time has been important to me. After reading the article, I would like to try ROWE type system tailored for my environment (IT department). If there is the technology to back it up like laptops, VPN’s, phone systems, and cell phones and associated software, I think it could work quite well. Think of the commute time saved. The IT staff do have to be at work some of the time because that is where we support network and computer users. Many questions are answered over the phone. The normal work hours for users are important to us as well.
It also puts a burden on management to accurately measure results. I would want iron-clad procedures for hanlding requests for service, emergencies, and projects, that would clearly indicate who was responsible and what the results were. Most of our existing systems are not heavily oriented toward measuring results, but achieving results.
I expect this trend will continue to grow
Come on, that’s not innovative, look how many companies were doing that in 1999 before the 1st web bubble. It’s just a documentation of the first dot bomb era.
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I think this is a good idea, but not new, of course: AT&T, Dell, Inc., IBM is doing it partially. Actually, IT business is quite different from the retailing, so there is an implementation problem with ROWE: lack of control, hourly workers compensation, and front-line workers and emergency staff.
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I’m not quite understanding what all
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I have to say based on my experience with Best Buy over the past year that they don’t really “walk the walk” and are more “talk the talk” with regards to their ROWE program. I have applied for skilled corporate jobs with Best Buy over the last year and they have called me twice for initial interviews. One of the first questions they ask is if I will relocate. When I tell them I’ve read about their ROWE program and wish to work for them remotely, they are immediately no longer interested in talking with me further. So I guess you still have to live locally even if you don’t have to work in the office.
Well, its quite exciting the ROWE program, there is no doubt, productivity would increased, that’s one side of it and am not sure, the extent of its success over traditional business methods.
I think Human Resources at Best Buy are very reactionary. They do not like ROWE.