Name: Clarity in Complexity: A Conversation with Corie Barry
Uploaded: 2025-10-16
Duration: 18 min 43 s
Description: Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, ranked No. 30 on the 2025 MPW list, discusses the challenges of implementing AI into the customer experience, meeting expectations of today’s tech consumer, and navigating the dynamic tariff situation her complex global electronics supply chain relies on.

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, ranked No. 30 on the 2025 MPW list, discusses the challenges of implementing AI into the customer experience, meeting expectations of today’s tech consumer, and navigating the dynamic tariff situation her complex global electronics supply chain relies on.

Clarity in Complexity: A Conversation with Corie Barry

Conferences

Oh my gosh, well, everyone's excited to hear from you, and we were just hearing from the Duchess about everything she's doing for the holiday season and how important that is for her brand. That's something you two have in common. Yeah, it turns out holiday is kind of a bit, I'm so excited we have something in common. Um, holiday is kind of a big deal, and you know, joking aside, our focus is just maniacally on the customer and you want this to be like a joyful fun, you want to help people deliver their holiday dreams and so we think about it a little less as like what product people always ask me what product's going to be hot. I'm not sure it matters. All that matters is what the recipient thinks, and we have so many ways in which I think we can make you the cool gift giver, which is something I always want to be. That's so fun whether you want jam or whether you want some new technology. I mean, maybe it is your jam. That is so true. Well, that was a good one. Thanks, um. OK, I want to, you have such great insight on the state of the world right now, and I think if any company was impacted by tariffs over this year, it has been Best Buy. So walk us through what these past months have been like for you. Where did your experience Best Buy's exposure to tariffs start and where is it today? Yeah, so maybe some context setting, um, we're in an interesting position. We are actually a brand of other brands and the consumer electronics supply chain is a very different one. Less than 10% of all the consumer electronics in the world are manufactured in the US, so it's an incredibly global supply chain with some of the world's biggest companies, um, and. Our position is here in the US, which is the largest market, we are obviously the last man standing or woman standing, I guess as it is in the consumer electronics industry. And so when we entered the year, about 55% of products as we could tell, were manufactured in China. That has already shifted to 30% to 35% with another 20%. 5% coming through Mexico and the US and then the remainder from a variety of other countries and so everything in some way, shape or form since March in essence has been impacted by some kind of tariffs and I think what like if you take a bigger step back in COVID we learned some really interesting lessons. There's 85,000 people who work at Best Buy. They can't be worried every day about the ups and downs of geopolitical policy. And so how do you create some just like light post moments, and there are just 3 guideposts for using one, stay anchored in the facts and take action. Don't worry about the hyperbole. Go fast, be urgent, be clear, be convicted, make decisions. The second is to provide context. It can be very easy to want to just kind of do things under the cover of night. Our people deserve to understand why we're making the decisions we are, and we are incredibly transparent. And then finally this isn't just something that you try to live through you come out of this a vibrant company you come out of it actually with more capabilities and better partnerships and that's what we're really focused on. Do you feel you're there today? I mean 5 minutes ago maybe I you know I I don't think it's their question um one of the things that's really important to me uh is building a company that's resilient so this shouldn't be about. And you navigate this particular situation. The question is, is the company operating in a resilient way and therefore whatever happens, it will live far beyond tariffs or far beyond AI or far beyond the coronavirus or, or, or, and so I I think about it less as a destination and more about the muscles that we need to build to continue to navigate and what I think will just continue to be a volatile environment. What do you do as a leader to make that possible to make sure that that workforce of 85,000 people is not taking that on and that you are the one. Taking on that burden and deciding what those moments are where they do need to be engaged. I think it's always a question of what, what do you share in terms of urgency and what do you hold in terms of urgency. Part of the way we're navigating this is again similar to how we navigated the pandemic, a small SWAT team of people who are thinking 24/7 about how you navigate the tariff situation in global. Politics in general, not everybody needs to be doing that, but everyone else needs to be really clear about confidently how we're navigating, confidently how we come out the other side and what our position is in the marketplace. And so we just had our holiday leadership meeting we had 1500 people, all of our general managers, and that was all about the unique culture of Best Buy. What makes us special. What makes us special to our customers, what makes it an amazing place to work, you keep people focused on what they can control and use the expertise of few to ensure you keep the money focused. So in addition to tariffs from where you sit, you also have such an incredible view into the state of the entire economy, not just the consumer economy. So let's talk about that macro environment. Give us the rundown. You said it's uneven. What are you seeing today? I mean, uneven should be the word of the century, um, and, and it's hard because this consumer conversation becomes the consumer is a monolith. And if there was ever a time in my career where it's been about very different behaviors depending on the consumer you're talking about. It is now. In general, we've used very similar language for the better part of 18 months, a more resilient consumer than we thought, who continues to respond when they have a need or when there's really interesting innovation. But they are very value focused and by value I mean it doesn't always mean they're looking for the cheapest. They're looking for how do I fulfill my need in a way that matches my budget. And so as it relates to the tariff of conversation, I think what what people don't realize in consumer electronics, this is all about breath. So it's not like an egg. If you go buy an egg, you know exactly how much an egg costs week after week after week. You haven't bought a computer for probably 4 or 5 years, and since then the whole assortment has changed. Last year we had 45 co-pilot plus computers. This year we have 145. What you need is just help navigating. What's the right device for my price point. And that for our consumers is what we're seeing gravitate. Definitely we're seeing some dispersion between the high income earners and the low income earners, and I think again if I just level up, that is probably what keeps me up at night most. You went from call it 30% of GDP spend coming from the lower income consumer pre-pandemic. Now you're, you're talking about something materially less than that. I mean it was 30%, I'm sorry, the high income consumer, now it's 60%. And that reliance on the high income consumer, while it makes it feel like there's really resiliency in the overall market, um, that's that's an issue because your lower income consumers are really struggling. So our high earners holding up the economy right now? Yeah, I mean, I think that there's a lot of data points that would say that is where the spend is happening and a lot of the other indicators, whether it is credit lines and the level of credit delinquencies, whether it is the inability to find housing or food discrepancies, a lot of that is impacting the lower income consumer to a much greater extent. And you said that keeps you up at night, like, talk about that more. What exactly about that keeps you up at night? I think it's, it's any time the entire economy is heavily reliant on a small narrow population of people that is not good for the long-term health of the economy. And so I think what again in our business what we're trying to keep an eye on and then make sure we assort for is whatever your budget is, how can we make sure we have something that will cater to you so that the answer isn't no I can't afford anything, the answer is no, we can get you that like very entry point price point skew that'll work for your child going to high school who needs a computer in order to be able to be in high school. Um, I wanna remind everyone you have the opportunity to ask questions of course if you have any, start thinking now please raise your hand. Um, not only is the economy uneven, there's also all these conflicting signals. So when you're looking across housing, employment, consumer confidence, which ones do you rely on? What do you turn to for the answers right now, if anything? Yes. Um, we use all of them, and, and one of the greatest joys, uh, I'm a learner by heart, um, and, and we were talking about, especially with AI as a backdrop, this ability to unlearn and then relearn. We actually were talking with our board about at least the Caputos here as a Simatai. And um we this concept of how you constantly unlearn and then relearn is going to be incredibly important I think to all of us. So one of the greatest joys of this job is how many chances I get to learn. It is something that fuels me, so I get to spend time with economists and when we sit down with an economist from JPMorgan or City. It's 90 minutes of all those metrics and what you're trying to do or what I'm trying to do is take this immense amount of data, this disparate set of metrics, turn it into what I think that means for how we need to show up for the consumer because I'm not trying to predict the future. That is a useless task at this point. Um, what I am trying to figure out is how do we best position and then again create resiliency where I'm maybe starting to see some cracks or I think we need to be positioned slightly differently. And when those metrics seem to contradict each other, is there one that you turn to over the others? And I think that's why it can't be, it can't be in the job of predicting the future or using a perfect set. AI is great. Even AI can't kick out. Like I can ask Chat what's going to happen in the next 6 months, and Chad's very confused right now on that one. Oh my god, maybe it's not up to date um I think we have a question up here if we have a microphone available. Thank you for asking a question, yes. I love the fact that you said you love to learn. That's what the question is about. As you look at all your peer groups around the globe because the whole world is a bit of a mess. This is not just US or North America. What have you seen that's interesting that you said, ah, I'm going to copy that, something that somebody has done that's profound that you thought copying is the best form of compliment. Um, it's, it's maybe not as much copy. What I'm interested in your question about learning is, um, not just AI for the sake of AI, but especially in consumer retail. Boxes like ours. Where does the human element matter so incredibly much and you're actually going to double down on it versus where can you make those human-like interactions? I mean, I think one of the most ironic things about generative AI is that it is the most technical set of specifications we've ever seen, requires more compute than anything ever, and the irony is it's to make your products feel more human. And I think what I'm watching is a proliferation of if I were to predict the future, a proliferation of interacting with devices in a way that feels very human. Like if you want my 15 year old, she talks to her phone all the time, she does not type anything in the chat, right? She's just talking to chat like it's a person. And so I'm, I'm what I'm really interested in though is where is that a great solution versus where does the human really matter because I had an experience where I went into a big box. I asked the person in front of me, can you help me find X, Y, or Z? They looked it up in their own generative AI tool and then just like pointed where to go. I was like, oh, that's not the interaction I wanted like I wanted, I wanted you to talk to me and tell me about it. And so I think for consumer brands, it's a really interesting world to try to discern who's doing interesting things in the space, but also who is doubling down on those real personal interactions and where and why. We've been talking about such a period of uncertainty, unevenness, etc. What are the skills that are needed to be a CEO through all of this? Oh my goodness. Um, I, I, this idea of unlearning and relearning is one of the most important. I mean, look, as CEOs, none of us, I think very few of us at least graduated in a degree with advanced AI anywhere around our title, right? That it's true and so having a willingness to do that. Um, the second is I, it sounds trite, but boy does it matter now, surround yourself with people way smarter than you, like way smarter than you. And then the third that has to be a corollary of that then is don't be afraid to ask for help. I ask my board all the time for help. I ask my team for help. And so what I think what you're trying to create, again back to this resiliency point, it can't be about you as the CEO. I stood in front of my team and I was talking about culture and I said, our culture is our culture because I told you it's going to be so. Our culture is our culture because you've decided this is the culture that matters here. And so when I first came in the job like 6.5 years ago, I, I tried to define what I thought the role of the CEO was and my definition was to create the conditions for other amazing leaders to execute the strategy with urgency. And for me that's more relevant today than it was even when I walked in those 6 years ago. So it just, I think it's more having the humility every day you wake up to say there's a bunch of stuff that happened in the last 24 hours that I need to like get smarter about, and I need a whole team of people and all of their best superpowers in order to keep this thing going. Has how you do that changed in the past 6.5 years? How do you create those conditions? Is that different today? I think any CEO would tell you the CEO, they are 6 years into the job is wildly different than the CEO. They were 1 year into the job. All of us feel that, right? Like there is a confidence that comes from just sitting in the chair. That being said, I still wake up nervous every day. I wake up in a good way, like what else has happened? What else do I need to learn? Where are we behind? And so yes, I think there's a level of confidence you get um in terms of surrounding yourself with the right people and of course over that time I've also had a chance to continue to refine the board and the people I surround myself with, which means you just wake up with a different level of like excitement to go do this work with the people around you. Do we have any other questions for Corey? Oh, we have one right up here. Because if you're gonna do tariffs, you need a fun team of people. Hi Corey, I'm Marisa Andrada. I'm curious about what it is that you've had to unlearn. Yeah, I, I mean, so many things like in our case, let's let's, the traditional bricks and mortar retailer is very good at creating an SOP, standard operating procedure, and then we push the SOP out over 1000 stores and everybody is judged based on the SOP, right? Um. We have again 85,000 people who are used to doing work that way, and all of a sudden we wake up one day and we need massively more flexibility. We need empowered general managers who know how to meet the needs of their particular consumer. We need different operating models, I mean. As we came out of COVID that year, we had, I think when we look back at 187 different operating models that we put in place. You can't mandate those with SOPs. You have to completely rethink the way that you're going to market or in a digitally native economy. How are people really, where, how are they going to search? Where are they going to look for the product? How do we just embrace the fact that the store plays a completely different role and lead all our decision making for people like me who never go into a store and only shop digitally. The, the, the examples are almost limitless and what's fascinating to me is they happen almost every day. Something has changed and we have to kind of unlearn our traditional way of doing it and think differently about how we'll meet the consumer. Great question. So 2 years ago you coined the term fundflation for how consumers were spending. They were going to the Aeros Tour, spending a lot of money on Taylor Swift tickets. They were not buying big electronics and big home purchases. Do you have a word for what consumers are doing today? Oh, I got in trouble last time for the funflation Taylor Swift thing, so I don't think I'm gonna be in trouble with who? I'm just kidding. It got, it got a lot of, got a lot of press, um. I actually think what's trickier right now is that um it's it's it's a very individualized consumer experience. I mean we sold more laptops in Q2 of this year than we have in 15 years. So, You just can't. I think this is the hardest part about your question about metrics all pointing in different directions. When there is innovation, when there's something, I mean we had lines around every one of our buildings for a switch to launch, and this is in a world where people could pre-order. They knew they had it and they were still in lines at midnight because they wanted that personal experience to get a $500 gaming console. This bifurcation of how the customer is reacting and acting, I think is one of the new challenges of retail, and if I guess if there was ever a word, it's not a very interesting one, but this is just an individualized time. The hardest part about being in retail right now is you Need to meet every single individual's need across an amazing assortment and you need to do it seamlessly across every channel and that I would like the team would love for me to say like this channel at this time is the most important and that's just not that's never how it's gonna work again. That sounds kind of like an impossible task. Is that possible to do? I, I actually, I absolutely think it's possible. The question is what is the core of your decision making? Sometimes people will ask me like how are you using AI? What's your AI strategy? And I'm very clear that it's not strategy of AI. It is what is the customer behavior look like and then how do we use all the tools at our disposal to help the customer and if you keep the customer at the center of every decision that you're trying to make, I do. Think and then you trust people to go make good decisions across touch points to use AI to measure whether or not those decisions are actually working the way that you thought across touch points. Like there are more tools than there have ever been to actually understand the efficacy of your actions as it relates to individuals, and I think as you put that infrastructure in place, that's what creates a really resilient company that moves as fast as the customer and as technology. Thank you so much, Corey, for such a fascinating conversation. Thank you. Thank you