Best Buy-No Magic Behind Growth

Best Buy

Minneapolis, Minn.

When a business is able to grow from $160,000 in sales to over $7 million in less than a decade some people might attribute the success to a midnight deal with the devil—or at the very least a trade for some magic beans.

But for Rick Fiebiger, director of Best Buy's 83-employee Print Solutions Group, all it took was focus and attention.

"You really need to run your operation like you would if you were a commercial printer," declares Fiebiger. "You've got to earn the business, you have to provide top-notch service and you have to measure your contributions and prove that you're an asset."

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Fiebiger's parent company has grown quite a bit too. Since it's founding in 1966 with a single store, Best Buy's retail operation has mushroomed into more than 350 stores in 40 states with over $12 billion in sales.

"I think the main thing is that we're very entrepreneurial as a company, and by nature then my team is very entrepreneurial," explains Fiebiger. "And we're very aggressive. When we see opportunities to do something faster and cheaper we move on it. We try to be very aggressive in understanding where our benefits come from."

Part of that motivation also comes from the need for speed. Because Best Buy is an electronics retailer and most of its stores are ordering signage and promotional materials, it's crucial that Fiebiger's crew deliver its products to market as quickly as possible.

To achieve that goal, Fiebiger and company have implemented a web-based ordering system, which offers point-and-click graphic image ordering, personalized product menus, order confirmation and shipping acknowledgement features. Fiebiger believes that by streamlining the operation, the new system can eliminate time-consuming mistakes and decrease overall turnaround time.

Despite its emphasis on customer service, the Print Solutions Group isn't just a one trick pony. Because it's structured like a commercial printer, the in-plant uses internal sales representatives to market printing services within the company and win business the in-plant might not ordinarily see. This additional business accounts for over 10 percent of its $7 million in sales.

Furthermore, the in-plant recently won executive approval to begin insourcing on a small scale to determine the full impact of insourcing on the Best Buy enterprise.

"Our relationship [with our executives] has evolved because of our ability to establish credibility through growth and performance," says Fiebiger. "By the time we go to them with a proposal we've done the math, we've assessed the risk involved and there are no questions. If we don't think there's an overwhelming benefit, we won't move it forward."

Fiebiger also says that because they've been built to support a retail operation, they've grown to offer a variety of services, which ultimately makes them more efficient and provides them with enhanced leverage over their commercial competitors.

"Our company believes maintaining an internal shop gives us a competitive advantage in terms of speed, convenience and quality of service," says Fiebiger.

by Allan Martin Kemler

Key Equipment:

• Two-color 20x28˝ Sakurai

• Two-color 14x20 Heidelberg

• Four-color 13x17 Didde web

• Networked Xerox 6180 with DigiPath software

• Networked Xerox NP135

• Xerox 5100

• Xerox DocuColor 40

• Xerox 54˝ electrostatic printer

• Xerox Xpress 54˝ piezo printer

• Stahl 22˝ continuous feed folder