Building a developmental assessment program

Challenge

• Best Buy is a consumer electronics organization with locations across the globe.
• Our partnership started when the consumer electronics industry was in transition to the digital era, where consumer habits were changing and digital competition was on the rise. They were beginning to shape their business strategy for the future after coming out of a period of stabilizing the business and returning to growth after heavy disruption to the retail sector.
• They recognized that they needed a different kind of leadership for their Top 125 leaders to take them through this period of transition and help shape the future of the organization.
• As a result of the market changes, leadership expectations shifted and so Best Buy requested our expertise to solidify these expectations and determine the current capabilities of their leadership to carry them through the organizational and wider industry shifts.

Solution

Co-Creating A Profile Of Success:

• This allowed us to assess 125 enterprise-level leaders against an ideal profile of the capabilities and experience needed to successfully take the organization through the transition and beyond.
• The profile was co-created using interviews and focus groups with input from multiple levels of the organization, including the Board. The profile was used to benchmark leaders for recruitment, promotion and development purposes.

Assessments and Analysis:

• We individually assessed 125 leaders to deep dive into each leader’s key drivers, potential, strengths and development areas. YSC consultants used the assessments to determine how well each leader matched the requirements detailed within the Profile of Success.
• Following the assessments, aggregate analyses were conducted exploring the collective strengths and development areas of the cohort, illustrating where they are now and where they need to be in future on their leadership journey.

Workshops:

Following the assessments, we began a series of workshops with leaders identified as high-potential. A one-day workshop was conducted with the executive team which included a presentation of the aggregate analysis, a session on their purpose as a team, and current team dynamics to bring to life where leaders were on their collective leadership journeys. Following the success of this workshop, we tailored the process for five of the functional leadership teams within the organization.