Wolf at BestBuy- Women’s Affinity Group with Bottom Line Effect
I’ve been fascinated by BestBuy’s Wolf program (their women’s leadership program) for a long time. I’m also a member of Julie Gilbert’s excellent WolfPack Online Community. Julie founded Wolf when she worked at BestBuy and has since left to start her own Wolf venture.
At the Conference Board Work Life Conference in DC current Wolf leaders Mary Stoddart and Liz Haesler talked about their strategy. It’s a bit shocking to a purist. Wolf is a women’s leadership- or affinity group- made up of BestBuy hourly employees, BestBuy corporate/executive employees…and BestBuy customers. At some level, it’s meant to sell more appliances for BestBuy. But it also seems to function as an effective way to promote women’s leadership and professional growth at BB. They noted that “six years ago women weren’t banging down the door to work at BestBuy,” now, apparently, they are. Unlike a lot of corporate affinity groups, the Wolf model helps literally push the company’s bottom line.
There’s a whole Wolf language but the concept is simple: networking events with local customers create pilot groups of “Omegas” who give BestBuy advice. Local store employees drive these groups, and then get help from corporate women to put together proposals, business cases, etc.
Dr. Leslie Wolfe of the Center for Women Policy Studies said, it’s “Basic community organizing.” Well, yes, but community organizing that gets corporate attention and money by driving sales in a slow sector for BB- appliances. It’s actually very smart.
About Me
Morra Aarons-Mele utilizes social media strategies to help employers, employees and communities connect. She also consults with leading organizations on how women can use the internet for professional and personal development. In her spare time, Morra enjoys blogging about women and politics. Read her full bio >>
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