百思买（Best Buy）正在走下坡路。去年一年，公司股价下跌50%，核心高管纷纷跳槽。最近，公司数字战略负责人史蒂夫·吉列特跳槽并加入赛门铁克（Symantec）。公司意识到，私有化或许是最佳选择，于是延长了创始人理查德·舒尔茨针对公司出价的期限。

    不论上市还是私有化，百思买都必须确定未来的发展方向。它的核心业务日用电子商品零售业务已被迫终止，无法继续给公司带来利润。亚马逊（Amazon）等在线竞争对手使百思买沦落成一个臃肿的展厅，消费者到这里来触摸、感受产品，只是为了以更低的价格在线购买。百思买店铺的“导购员”对店内技术的无知一直为人诟病。相比之下，苹果（Apple）商店每一位穿蓝汗衫的员工已经成为苹果技术不可分割的一部分。

    百思买应该学习IBM，从销售低利润的日用商品，向销售高利润、高参与度的服务转变。不过，百思买不必像IBM一样，以《财富》百强（Fortune 100）公司为核心客户，而是面向中小企业和普通消费者。公司的核心资产包括其值得信赖的品牌和处于优势地位的房地产租约。百思买可以以全新的方式利用这两项资产，找到一条截然不同的发展道路——不再提供服务糟糕的日用商品，而是提供服务、培训和创新。

    下面是执行这一策略的五种方式：

    1. 提供现场培训、店内培训与在线培训。科技初创公司General Assembly等已经创建了一个非常成功的数字培训中心网络。百思买可以与GA或其他培训服务提供商合作，将其大卖场作为培训中心。与直接向消费者销售商品化的平面屏幕相比，这种方式不仅可以带来高利润的收入，还可以加深消费者的参与度。百思买还可以到公司园区安排现场培训。许多公司都在努力跟上科技发展的步伐，如果有一家知名的、全国性的培训提供商能到现场对其员工进行培训，这些公司肯定会非常欢迎。

    此外，百思买还可以与微软（Microsoft）、思科（Cisco）、在线客户关系管理服务供应商Salesforce.com等公司合作，提供在线与现场培训。此外，公司还可以与Udacity、Coursera等在线课程提供商合作，为其课堂提供视频会议与学习活动的共用空间。

    Best Buy is in a downward spiral. The company's stock price is down 50% over the last year and key executives have jumped ship. Best Buy's head of digital strategy, Steve Gillett, left recently to join Symantec. The company has given its founder, Richard Schulze, an extended period to put a bid together for the company -- sensing that going private may be its best option.

    Whether Best Buy (BBY) stays public or not, it must define a roadmap for its future. The core business of retailing commodity electronics is broken and will not produce ongoing profits. Online competitors like Amazon (AMZN) have forced Best Buy into becoming a bloated showroom for consumers to touch and feel product only to buy the same product online for less. Best Buy's store "helpers" are notoriously uninformed about the technologies in the store. Compare the experience with an Apple (AAPL) store where nearly every blue-shirter is personally embedded in Apple technology.

    Best Buy should take a page from the IBM (IBM) playbook and shift from low-margin sales of commodity products to high-margin and high-engagement services. Instead of focusing on the Fortune 100 as IBM does, however, Best Buy can serve small and medium-sized business and consumers. Among the core assets of the company are its trusted brand and its well-placed real estate leases. Best Buy can leverage these two assets in a new way to deliver a fundamentally different proposition -- instead of offering commodity product with poor service, Best Buy can offer services, training and innovation.

    Here are five tactics to implement this strategy:

    1. Offer on site, in-store and online training. Companies such as General Assembly (GA) have created successful networks of digital training centers. Best Buy can bring in GA or other providers and use part of their big box stores as training centers. This will bring in high-profit streams of revenue while engaging the customer in a much deeper way than selling them a commoditized flat screen. Best Buy could also arrange for on site training at corporate campuses. Companies are struggling to keep up with the latest technologies and would welcome a brand-name, national training provider to teach their employees on site.

    Best Buy can partner with Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSCO), Salesforce.com (CRM) and others to deliver online and on site training modules. It can also work with Udacity, Coursera and other online course providers to offer a common space for video conferencing and study sessions for their classes.

    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.

    面对快速变化的科技，包括手机平台和社交媒体，中小企业疲于应付，他们将需要来自专业技术人员的帮助。而且，随着iPad、智能手机、笔记本电脑、DVR和其他设备的日益普及，家用技术激增。如果知名的、值得信赖的百思买提供的服务能帮助他们理解这些新兴科技，肯定会受到中小企业和普通消费者的热烈欢迎。

    通过这一策略，百思买可以从一个好看但不中用的庞然大物变成促进新技术应用的敏捷的领导者。百思买不必等着科技公司推出硬件，然后以极低的利润对外销售，而是可以帮助中小企业和消费者使用这些新技术，主导有才能的创业者进行未来创新。百思买不仅可以大幅提高公司价值，还能建立一个富有粘性的、忠诚的客户社区。他们将来到百思买购买它的服务与产品，并通过自己的网络为百思买进行推广。

    本文作者杰克·希达里为初创企业投资人，Dice.com公司联合创始人及前任CEO。发送评论：@jackhidary

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    As small and medium businesses (SMBs) contend with rapidly changing technology including mobile platforms and social media they will need more help from skilled professionals. Home technology is also exploding with multiple iPads, smartphones, laptops, DVRs and other devices now common in many residences. SMBs and consumers will welcome a branded, trusted service from Best Buy to make sense of this emerging tech.

    Through this strategy, Best Buy can transform itself from a white elephant chain to a nimble leader catalyzing adoption of new technologies. Instead of waiting for tech companies to come up with hardware that it then tries to sell at zero margins, Best Buy can shift to help SMBs as well as consumers use these new technologies and host the brainpower of future innovation. Best Buy will not only dramatically increase in value, but it will create a sticky, loyal community of customers who will now have a reason to visit the locations and purchase services and good from Best Buy and recommend Best Buy to their networks.

    Jack Hidary is a startup investor and co-founder and former CEO of Dice.com (DHX). Send Jack comments: @jackhidary