五大锦囊妙计拯救百思买

    2. 将每家店铺的库存量减少50%。不必再像以前一样，在人口稠密地区的所有店铺都努力做到商品齐全，而是专注于部分科技行业。例如，位于纽约市联合广场的百思买引以为豪的是一个宽敞的音乐科技区，拥有一面20英尺高的数字吉他幕墙，这个特色就是纽约市其他百思买店铺无法模仿的。百思买还应向日用商品以外扩张，同时开始关注创新类科技，例如个人健康监测与量化。随着消费者越来越多利用科技来管理个人健康与生活方式，不论连接Wi-Fi网络的体重秤，还是脉搏监测腕表，都会越来越受到消费者的欢迎。通过与通用电气（GE）、耐克（Nike）等公司合作，百思买可以变成健康科技中心。

    而且，这种方法可以大幅削减用于维持库存的营运成本。通过减少库存，留下消费者愿意购买的关键产品，百思买可以挪出资金建立一流的培训与服务平台。如果收入只会带来更大的损失，这时仍然执着于收入增长绝对是错误的做法。百思买应该放弃商品化收入，代之以能够吸引核心客户的高利润率收入。

    3. 将每家店铺的20%（收益）变成初创企业的科技孵化器。过去几年，在旧金山、纽约、洛杉矶和华盛顿特区等城市中心，创业孵化器如雨后春笋般涌现。鉴于百思买在城市郊区有巨大的影响力，因此可以针对无法、或不愿意在市区创业的初创企业提供创业孵化器。

    创业孵化器将为百思买带来下列好处：

    ——百思买可以展示来自初创企业的最新科技。虽然消费者可能不会购买这些技术，但却能帮助百思买吸引之前失去的科技爱好者群体。这就像车迷不见得买得起汽车，却不妨碍他们参观车展一样。

    ——初创企业可以形成社区。在电子行业，仅仅在大卖场内堆满各色产品必然会失败，除非你能拿出令人信服的理由，让消费者甘愿到你的卖场来购物。百思买可以通过举办编程马拉松和其他针对内部创业孵化期的科技聚会，形成自己的社区网络，每次活动肯定能吸引数百名潜在客户。

    4. 对所有人员进行严格的评估，只留下热爱科技的员工。百思买最好的做法是减少销售人员的数量，留下知识型员工，而不是继续留住那些心怀不满的员工——这也正是百思买目前的困境所在。

    5. 投入大量资源，扩大极客团队。极客团队应该从受百思买控制的服务平台，发展成为不再局限于百思买的服务平台。正如安吉星（OnStar）与通用汽车（GM）产品的关系。安吉星是通用汽车的一大胜利，但目前非通用汽车也可以使用该技术，进而扩大了通用在汽车市场的财源。

    2. Slash the number of SKU's by 50% in every store. Instead of every location in a dense region trying to be all things to all customers, have each store specialize in a few tech sectors. The Best Buy in Union Square in NYC, for example, boasts an extensive music technology section complete with a 20-foot high wall of digital guitars -- a feature not replicated many other NYC Best Buy shops.

    Best Buy should also expand beyond commodity products and begin focusing on innovative categories, for example, personal health monitoring and quantification. Everything from weight scales that are connected to Wi-Fi networks to pulse monitoring watches will be increasingly popular as consumers use technology to manage their health and lifestyle. Designated Best Buys could become health tech centers with partners including GE (GE), Nike (NKE) and others.

    This approach will drastically decrease the amount of working capital dedicated to holding inventory. By slicing inventory down to the key products that consumers wish to buy, Best Buy frees up capital to deliver a top-flight training and service platform. A focus on revenue growth when all that revenue only brings more losses is misguided. Best Buy should clearly seek to replace commoditized revenue with higher-margin revenue that engages key customer bases.

    3. Turn 20% of every store into a tech incubator for startups. Incubators have blossomed in the past few years in urban centers including San Francisco, New York, LA and Washington, DC. Since Best Buy has a big footprint in suburban locations, it can host incubators that will attract startups that cannot be or do not wish to be in urban settings.

    Incubators will bring several benefits to Best Buy:

    - Best Buy can showcase the cutting-edge tech from the startups. While a customer may not be able to purchase the technology it will attract back the tech-oriented base that Best Buy has lost. This is similar to how car enthusiasts attend auto shows even though one cannot purchase a car at those events.

    - Startups create community. Just offering lots of stuff in a big box is a losing formula in the world of electronics unless you create a compelling reason for people to show up and purchase there. Best Buy can create its own community network by hosting hackathons and other tech gatherings centered on their in-house incubator which will attract hundreds of potential customers for each event.

    4. Put all staff through a rigorous assessment process and keep only those with a deep passion for technology. It would be better to have fewer sales staff per location and have those be knowledgeable than have a larger staff of disaffected talent -- the predicament Best Buy is in currently.

    5. Pour significant resources into scaling Geek Squad. The service organization mus evolve from a Best Buy captive service to a decoupled offering in the way that OnStar is now decoupling from GM (GM) products. OnStar is a big home run for GM and is now available for non-GM cars thus expanding GM's share of the automotive wallet.