Case Study

The WOLF movement: Driving results through women at Best Buy

16 pages
June 2009
Reference: IMD-3-2098

Julie Gilbert, senior vice president and founder of the Women’s Leadership Forum (WOLF) movement at Best Buy was ready to leave the company to take the movement to the outside world. Over a period of four and a half years, WOLF@Best Buy became a vast network of thousands of employees and consumers who worked with individuals, brands, partners, stores and communities to help Best Buy build strong woman leaders and capture a greater share of the female consumer electronics market while at the same time contributing to the local community. WOLF, in its very architecture, was created by a visionary leader as a company reinvention strategy by transforming the company from the “inside out” with female employees and, at the same time, from the “outside in” with female consumers. Responsible leadership in the form of engaging a wider stakeholder group by Julie Gilbert was a major contributor to this initiative. The case shows how a woman in a leadership position has made a contribution to society at large by involving women to help at three levels: the individual, the company and the community. Students can discuss how driving a bottom-up change initiative through employee and consumer engagement not only helps a company but can also contribute to the community.

Keywords
Gender, Organizational Culture, Retail
Settings
United States of America
2005-2009
Type
Field Research
Copyright
© 2009
Available Languages
English
Related material
Teaching note, Video
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