{"id":17229,"date":"2024-02-21T16:43:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T21:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/?p=17229"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:43:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T21:43:45","slug":"trailblazers-black-leadership-retail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2024\/02\/trailblazers-black-leadership-retail\/","title":{"rendered":"Trailblazers: Black Leadership in Retail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retail has entered a new age, one in which physical and digital cannot be treated as separate entities. If your store experience doesn\u2019t match what happens on your website, customers will take notice and flock to competitors who offer a more seamless experience. The search for that perfect omnichannel immersion has led to a highly competitive job market with companies desperately searching for someone who can balance physical and digital. Best Buy<\/strong> is in a unique position as an electronics store<\/a> with a longstanding physical presence that needs a digital storefront<\/a> that backs up their technological expertise. The mastermind behind Best Buy\u2019s omnichannel experience is Damien Harmon, Senior Executive VP of customer and channel experiences.<\/p>\n

Damien Harmon\u2019s executive rise through Best Buy\u2019s ranks started back in 2005 when he was hired as a store general manager. Harmon parlayed his store experience into a director position and eventually became VP of Operations in 2013. During his time in the role, Harmon was responsible for international expansion into China and Turkey. In 2014 he left Best Buy for a VP of Operations role at Bridgestone. By the end of 2016 Harmon had become the company\u2019s COO and Interim President. In 2019 Harmon retuned to Best Buy in the role of President of Operations before ascending to his current position.<\/p>\n

Harmon is responsible for every facet of the customer experience both online and in-store. He is also responsible for managing Best Buy\u2019s customer support and call centers along with in-home installation services. He also manages all memberships and launched the company\u2019s My Best Buy membership that debuted last year. Harmon is also the leader of Geek Squad, the company\u2019s tech-support organization that helps customers with repairs and questions about their new technology. Geek Squad has given Best Buy an edge over their competition under Harmon\u2019s leadership. As part of transforming the customer experience, Best Buy has recently removed their physical movie selection, an area that used to take up the most floorspace in stores. The change allows the company the better match their online storefronts where phones and computers are the main attraction. At the end of last year, Harmon added to his leadership positions by being named to Driven Brands<\/strong>\u2019 Board of Directors. In his two tenures at Best Buy, Damien Harmon has led international expansion and merged the company\u2019s physical and digital storefronts while leading a customer service overhaul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retail has entered a new age, one in which physical and digital cannot be treated as separate entities. If your store experience doesn\u2019t match what happens on your website, customers will take notice and flock to competitors who offer a more seamless experience. The search for that perfect omnichannel immersion has led to a highly… Continue reading Trailblazers: Black Leadership in Retail<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":17231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-17229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trailblazers","tag-csg-exclusive","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}