The Heart of Business

For a refoundation of business and capitalism around purpose and humanity.

Having recently stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Best Buy, Joly shares the leadership principles illustrated by multiple vivid and concrete stories that underpinned the remarkable resurgence of Best Buy and that he believes are at the heart of business: pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center, embrace all stakeholders, and treat profit as an outcome.

There was a time when many would call this a soft philosophy. But times have changed. The world and business are facing unprecedented challenges. Business can be, in fact needs to be a force for good. In 2019, Best Buy and 180 other companies signed the momentous Business Roundtable statement in support of stakeholder capitalism, highlighting that you can do well by doing good. The Covid-19 pandemic further pushed many businesses to lead from a place of purpose and with humanity.

Joly himself transformed from a hard-charging, deeply analytical McKinsey consultant to a leader who believes in what he calls human magic or how to mobilize people to give their best, which translates into extraordinary performance.

Joly shares how so much of what he initially learned about management is either dated, incomplete, or simply wrong. Drawing from multiple sources of inspiration as well as his rich experience, he offers a set of essential leadership principles and provides concrete advice on how to turn them into action including how to turn around a business without everyone hating you, how to develop and implement a strategy in a way that truly inspires and mobilizes, how to concretely embrace and align all stakeholders around a noble purpose, how to unleash human magic and create outcomes that defy logic, and how to become a great leader by pursuing a noble purpose and embracing your humanity.

This is not a revolt, but a revolution. Joly's principles helped transformed Best Buy and other companies he led. Even more importantly, they are a major contribution to the necessary re-foundation of business and capitalism around purpose and humanity.