New CEO to take the reins at Best Buy

CHICAGO It was September 1985 when a 24-year-old Brian Dunn knotted his skinny leather tie and began a job as a sales clerk inside a small electronics store in Minnetonka, Minn., named Best Buy.

He was unemployed and took the paid-on-commission job after his mother -- an employee in the chain's accounting department -- convinced him to give the company a try.

"I wasn't sure I'd make it through the holiday season that year," he said. "I remember going home with the sore retail feet."

Yesterday -- almost 24 years after his first day selling videocassettes and speakers the size of chairs -- Dunn became chief executive of Best Buy Co. Inc., which has grown to become the world's largest consumer electronics chain.

The 49-year-old has heady challenges ahead.

Despite the demise of its closest competitor, Circuit City Stores Inc., same-store sales are down for the third straight quarter.

The company's corporate office has hundreds of empty desks after a voluntary buyout.

And heavyweights Amazon.com, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. all have their sights set the company's core business.

"I think he certainly has his hands full," said Morningstar analyst Brady Lemos.

Dunn, whose appointment was announced in January and who until Tuesday was chief operating officer, succeeds retiring CEO Brad Anderson to become the third person to lead the retailer and its 155,000 employees.

Anderson -- also a longtime Best Buy employee -- became CEO in 2002, along the way managing to almost triple sales, which reached $45 billion at the end of its last fiscal year.

He also made the chain the go-to location for consumers hunting for everything from musical gizmos to computers, added installation and repair services like Geek Squad and leading the company's push to cater to and woo specific groups of customers at certain stores.

Now, Dunn will try to use that momentum to scoop up more customers from defunct Circuit City.

He'll also have to execute his four-part plan aimed at keeping Best Buy competitive and able to fend off attacks from retailers hungry for a piece of the company's sales.

Among them: boosting the chain's market share in local communities by stocking stores with an assortment of products and smart employees, and amassing a "full buffet" of so-called connected digital solutions by offering everything from gadgets and accessories to smart-phones to digital music, in part through the company's growing cell-phone venture called Best Buy Mobile and its recent acquisition of the popular file-swapping service Napster.

Best Buy shares climbed 58 cents, or 1.8 percent to $33.56 in late-afternoon trading yesterday. -- The Associated Press