Just a few years ago, Best Buy looked like a dead duck. Investors and customers alike were ready to dig its grave in the retail cemetery right next to the tombstones of once-soaring electronics and appliance chains Circuit City and CompUSA, and the bier being readied for RadioShack.
The company was walking around with a bull's-eye on its back, painted by the juggernaut known as Amazon.com, but it had other problems.Top management was in chaos. Its huge stores had gotten dingy, populated by a shrinking salesforce seemingly interested more in selling customers overpriced extended warranties than in steering them to the most suitable merchandise.