Tara Fineout
Midterm Project
CEO of Best Buy Brian Dunn faced allegations of personal misconduct which involved
misuse of company assets with an inappropriate relationship with a 29 year old female employee.
Dunn had been with Best Buy for 28 years and CEO since 2009. It was found by Best Buy’s
audit committee that Dunn had “violated Company policy by engaging in an extremely close
personal relationship with a female employee that negatively impacted the work environment”
[ CITATION Eri12 \l 1033 ]. Dunn and this employee want to lunch and drinks during the work
week and weekend. Dunn gave her gifts of tickets to concerts and sporting events and employees
saw them alone in his office or in conference rooms. This behavior was disturbing and
distracting to other employees. Best Buy founder Richard Schulze found out about the situation
with Dunn, he confronted him but didn’t immediately notify the rest of the board of Dunn’s
behavior. Dunn’s actions were unacceptable and went against Best Buy’s policies.
The ethical issues surrounding Dunn’s behavior weren’t the only problems Best Buy is
currently facing. Best Buy the nation’s largest electronic retailer used to be the place where
people in America went to get their electronics such as TV’s and cameras. But it has suffered due
to the economic issues and has been criticized for not being faster in responding to competitors
and adapting to the changes in American shopping. Best Buy’s shares fell almost 6 percent or
$1.33 to $21.32. Since April 2006 Best Buy shares have lost more than half of their value, they
used to be trading at $56.66 per share.
People like to use Best Buy’s box store as a showroom to browse products that they later
buy on line at a lower price at such sites as Amazon. Best Buy has lost $1.23 billion or $3.36 per
share in the recent fiscal year compared to the $1.28 billion or $3.08 per share the year before.
“Best Buy’s operational strategy has been way off the mark and late to address the fundamental
industry upheaval,” Sozzi, the analyst at NBG Productions, said. “Big-box stores can’t be fixed.
They have to be re-invented [ CITATION Joe12 \l 1033 ].
The stakeholders of Best Buy include the owner, Investors, the Board Members, CEO,
Employees and customers. They must decide what to do with the ethical problems they
encountered with CEO Brian Dunn and how they will get Best Buy back on track.
Identify the stakeholders
Stakeholder Stake in the
project
What do we
need from
them?
Perceived
attitudes/risks
Risk if they
are not
engaged
Owner Policy and
process
owner who
determines
what policies
to follow and
how
Experienced,
ethical and
knowledgeable
. Needs to
evaluate what
will be best for
the company
based on data
and input from
other stake
Lack of
clarity about
preferred
approach. Not
following
through with
approach or
plan.
Could close
down project
and lead to
substantial
profit loss.
Could lead to
the closure of
the company.
