Leadership Q&A: The Power of Focus

Under the tutelage of CFO Darren Jackson, the finance function at consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. has achieved notable success in implementing technology-supported performance initiatives. The Minneapolis-based company won a Business Finance Vision Award for Excellence in Business Performance Management in 2003 and received an award for excellence in executing strategy from the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative in October 2005. In January, Jackson discussed the role of metrics and methodologies with Business Finance editor John Cummings.

John Cummings: What does it take for a finance leader to drive a successful performance initiative?

Darren Jackson: One of the responsibilities you assume in your organization is to create visibility. If you create visibility as to the important matters that help the business go forward, and you also create understandability, you can then help shape the actions of a company. We've been using some form of national scorecard in all parts of our business for probably the better part of a decade, and what we've learned is that if you can help focus people and then make the scorecard understandable in terms of what's driving the business outcomes, you can help align very large organizations in order to achieve goals.

When we're choosing different technology platforms, we first think about the goal we're trying to achieve, and then we identify the people who are most skilled in figuring out what the best technology is to deliver it. As a matter of fact, we're in the middle of a technology platform change from Oracle to Teradata, and part of that is because the needs of the business have changed.