5大锦囊妙计拯救百思买

形势日益恶化

    百思买（Best Buy）的境况非常糟糕。虽然这家电子零售商依然是网虫和科技发烧友心目中的“神殿”，但公司内部已经陷入一片混乱。经过一个喧嚣的夏天，公司创始人理查德•舒尔茨在上周提出，要以每股24至26美元的价格将这家电子零售公司私有化。（今年六月，由于对公司前任CEO与一名女性员工的桃色绯闻知情不报，舒尔茨被迫下台。）舒尔茨的出价比8月3日百思买的收盘价至少高出36%。按照出价的中间点计算，目前公司市值约在85亿美元左右。

    目前尚不清楚最终结果会如何，但有一点很明确，百思买现在麻烦缠身。面对亚马逊（Amazon）等在线零售商带来的残酷竞争，百思买实体店的销售下滑，公司面临关闭店铺的压力。下面五点措施或许能够帮助身陷困境的百思买起死回生，扭转颓势。

第1步：私有化

    实行私有化相当于为百思买找一个“挡箭牌”。将百思买私有化就可以避免季度目标带来的压力，而且，这样一来，公司也就不用担心在形势危急的时候还得承受股价的猛烈打击。为了下一步的行动，舒尔茨和他的私募股权合作伙伴需要找到掩护。

第2步：停止压缩规模

    公司管理层当前的计划是关闭店铺，放弃之前雄心勃勃的扩张计划。新计划是什么？放慢关闭店铺的速度。至少目前应该这么干。

第3步：降价

    百思买很难在价格上与在线零售商进行竞争。更糟糕的是，购买电子设备的消费者大部分都习惯“线下搜索，线上购买”（ROPO）的方式，也就是说，他们会亲自到实体店查看装备，但会从网上寻找打折销售的网络店铺。为了应对这种情况，百思买必须降价。

第4步：改善客户服务体验

    许多零售商都渴望能提供苹果公司（Apple）那样的客户服务体验。尽管这并非易事，但却能帮助百思买留住消费者，让消费者愿意掏腰包购物，而不是空着手离开。提高客户服务可以帮助表现较差的店铺增加客流量。百思买其实有这方面的经验。公司的“奇客”（Geek Squad）便为消费者提供IT服务。此外，公司部分商店内也有销售Mac和iPod的小型苹果零售店。

第5步：专注

    最后一点，由于董事会的闹剧，百思买的境况一直时好时坏。面对公司CEO的突然离职，董事会似乎根本没有做好应对的准备工作。因此，外界不由得质疑，公司董事会是否有能力监管复杂的复兴过程。要想获得成功，公司管理层必须将更多注意力转移到执行方面。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

Bad to worse

    Best Buy is in bad shape. The electronics retailer is still Valhalla to nerds and technophiles, but its corporate house is in disorder. Capping a tumultuous summer, the company's founder Richard Schulze offered last week to take the electronics retailer private at $24 to $26 a share. (Schulze had stepped down as chairman in June after a scandal involving his knowledge of the former CEO's alleged relationship with a female employee.) Schulze's offer represents a price at least 36% higher than Best Buy's closing price Aug. 3. The midpoint of the offer values the company at about $8.5 billion.

    While it remains unclear what will ultimately happen, it is clear Best Buy is in trouble. It faces pressure to close stores as sales lag as well as cutthroat competition from online retailers such as Amazon. Here are five elements of a possible turnaround strategy for the struggling company.

Step 1: Take Best Buy private

    Call it a shield. Taking Best Buy private would protect the company from the pressures of meeting quarterly goals -- not to mention sustaining the assault on its stock price when things get rough. Schulze and his private equity partners are going to need some cover for the next step.

Step 2: Stop downsizing

    Current management plans to shutter stores and pull back from Best Buy's previous, aggressive expansion. The new plan? Slow down the closures. For now.

Step 3: Cut prices

    Online retailers are making it hard for Best Buy to compete on price. To make matters worse, consumers buying electronics equipment are some of the most likely to "ROPO" -- research offline, purchase online -- checking gear out in-person in stores, but finding Web outlets that sell products at a discount. To combat this, Best Buy will have to lower prices.

Step 4: Improve customer service

    Providing Apple-like customer service is something many retailers aspire to. Achieving that won't be easy, but it could help Best Buy keep customers from walking out without buying anything. Better customer care could help drive foot traffic to poorly performing stores. Luckily, Best Buy has some experience in this domain. It owns the Geek Squad, which provides IT services. It also hosts mini-Apple Stores selling Macs and iPods within some of its own outlets.

Step 5: Focus

    Finally, Best Buy has suffered from fits and starts as a result of its boardroom drama. The company's board appears to not have been properly prepared to deal with a sudden departure of the company's CEO. That raises questions about its ability to oversee the complexity of a turnaround. To have any hope of succeeding, management is going to need to focus on execution.