Business

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

Learn how Hubert Joly orchestrated the dramatic turnaround of the failing Best Buy by focusing on the idea that 'purpose and human connections constitute the very heart of business.'
By Rachel E. Pelovitz
February 22, 2023
Topics
Business

Hubert Joly, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Best Buy, is now a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School. He has been recognized as one of the top 100 CEOs in the world by Harvard Business Review, one of the top 30 CEOs in the world by Barron’s and one of the top 10 CEOs in the United States by Glassdoor. In “The Heart of Business,” a Wall Street Journal bestseller, Joly and writer Caroline Lambert describe how Joly orchestrated the dramatic turnaround of the failing Best Buy by focusing on the idea that “purpose and human connections constitute the very heart of business.” Construction executives will appreciate the book’s exploration of the role of human workers in an increasingly automated labor environment, including in this excerpt:

Now our economic environment—and therefore the nature of work—is going through a radical transformation across the world. Call it a fourth revolution or, like General Stanley McChrystal, a VUCA world: volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous. Because of fast-changing technology and evolving social norms, agility, innovation, collaboration and speed have become more valuable than standardized processes and long-term planning.

As a result, the nature of work has changed. The health-damaging physical strain, the Charlie Chaplin kind of mind-numbing repetition, the forklifts running over you, all are declining, as routine tasks get automated. Take my old supermarket summer job. It is being replaced by electronic shelf labels, which get updated at the flick of a finger on a central computer. Even in manufacturing, farming and other traditionally strenuous occupations, work is becoming less physically demanding. Economies increasingly tilt toward services and more creative work. Two-thirds of all jobs in the U.S. economy now require post-secondary education—up from just 28% in 1973—with leadership, communications and analysis the most valued competencies.

Yet although the nature of work has evolved rapidly, our view of work remains stubbornly unchanged.

by Rachel E. Pelovitz

Related stories

Business
Financial Reporting Software Is Only as Good as the People Operating It
By Richard Sghiatti
Up against stereotypes and ever-upgrading software, the employees who are tasked with handling construction accounting might be misconstrued as the villain.
Business
Waging War: Why Ignorance of Wage Theft Is No Excuse
By Matt DeSarno
Does it matter that many if not most of the contractors that engage in wage theft do so unknowingly? Not at all. But new technology solutions can help you avoid it altogether.
Business
Shipping News: The Rise of the Ecommerce Warehouse
By Christie Chapman
Brinkmann Constructors’ $40-million warehouse project in a new Denver-area logistics hub opens for business amid the pandemic-sparked ecommerce boom.

Follow us




Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Stay in the know with the latest industry news, technology and our weekly features. Get early access to any CE events and webinars.