In an era of rapid technological advances and demographic change, how do legacy companies adapt, innovate and evolve?
CNBC Evolve features iconic global companies and executives who are embracing change and transforming for the future.
Featuring best-in class CEOs and innovators in conversation with CNBC anchors and reporters, this half-day event series provides a forum for companies to share strategies, tactics and lessons learned in a peer-to-peer environment.
Attendees will walk away with an understanding of how businesses and brands can evolve and win in an age of disruption.
Learn more and register for our other 2019 CNBC Evolve events here.
Hubert Joly is executive chairman of Best Buy Co. Inc., the leading provider of consumer technology products and services, with approximately 125,000 employees in North America and approximately $40 billion in annual revenue. Previously, Mr. Joly was Chairman (2015-2019) and Chief Executive Officer (2012-2019).
Mr. Joly joined Best Buy in 2012 and led Best Buy through its successful customer-focused Renew Blue transformation, which delivered improved customer satisfaction, market share gains, revenue growth and improved margins, and reduced costs by $1.5 billion to fund necessary investments. Up until June 2019, he led the Company’s Best Buy 2020 growth strategy, focused on enriching people's lives through technology. During both phases, Mr. Joly pursued a purposeful leadership approach, focused on positively impacting all stakeholders. The company’s renewed success with customers has been fueled by the enhanced engagement and proficiency of its employees, investments in their compensation and benefits and a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. In addition, corporate social responsibility and sustainability efforts have been embedded in all aspects of the company’s operations, notably resulting in a reduced carbon footprint.
Prior to joining Best Buy, Mr. Joly served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Carlson, Inc., a worldwide hospitality and travel company, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a business travel management company. Mr. Joly currently sits on the executive committees for the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Minnesota Business Partnership.
A few years ago, Susan Tynan framed four National Parks posters. When they rang up at $1600, she funneled her sticker shock into a revolutionary idea. She felt sure that if someone made high-quality custom framing easy and affordable, people would frame a lot more—and they have. Since 2014, Tynan has grown Framebridge from the ground up. After four years of record growth, the company opened their first retail location in March 2019.
Prior to Framebridge, Tynan held product and business development roles at several consumer technology startups including LivingSocial, Taxi Magic, and Revolution Health. She began her career at Accenture and served as a management advisor on technology and customer service for the Obama White House. Tynan is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Harvard Business School.
Mark Thompson became president and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company on November 12, 2012. He is responsible for leading the company’s strategy, operations and business units.
Mr. Thompson has been instrumental in accelerating the pace of The Times’s digital transformation. Under his leadership, The Times became the first news organization in the world to pass the one million digital-only subscription mark. The company has also introduced a new era of international growth, launched an industry-leading branded content studio and invested in virtual reality, producing some of the most celebrated work in this emerging medium.
Before joining the Times Company, Mr. Thompson served as director-general of the BBC from 2004, where he reshaped the organization to meet the challenge of the digital age, ensuring that it remained a leading innovator with the launch of services such as the BBC iPlayer. He also oversaw a transformation of the BBC itself, driving productivity and efficiency through the introduction of new technologies and bold organizational redesign.
Mr. Thompson joined the BBC in 1979 as a production trainee. He helped launch “Watchdog” and “Breakfast Time,” was an output editor on “Newsnight,” and was appointed editor of the “Nine O’Clock News” in 1988 and of “Panorama” in 1990. He became controller (programming and scheduling chief) for the TV network BBC2 and director of television for the BBC before leaving the BBC in 2002 to become C.E.O. of Channel 4 Television Corporation in the United Kingdom.
In the autumn of 2012, he was a visiting professor of Rhetoric and the art of public persuasion at the University of Oxford. His book “Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics?,” which is based on the lectures he gave at Oxford, was published in the U.K. and U.S. in September 2016.
Mark Thompson was educated at Stonyhurst College and Merton College, Oxford.
Mr. Bertolini was formerly a member of the board of directors of Aetna Inc. from 2010 until the closing of the merger involving CVS Health and Aetna, when he became a director of CVS Health. Mr. Bertolini was also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aetna. He assumed the roles of Chairman of Aetna's board of directors on April 8, 2011 and Chief Executive Officer of Aetna on November 29, 2010. From July 2007 to December 2014, he served as President, responsible for all of Aetna's businesses and operations. Mr. Bertolini joined Aetna in 2003 as head of Aetna's Specialty Products, and subsequently served as Executive Vice President and head of Aetna's regional businesses. Before joining Aetna, Mr. Bertolini held executive positions at Cigna, NYLCare Health Plans, and SelectCare, Inc., where he was President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Bertolini also serves as a director of Verizon Communications, Inc. (communications, information and entertainment products and services), Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (insurance and investment products and services), the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Thrive Global and the Mind & Life Institute.
Mr. Bertolini brings to the Board extensive health care industry expertise, with over 30 years in the health care business. He is a well-recognized leader in the health care industry and possesses deep insights into health care issues as well as broad knowledge and appreciation of public policy issues affecting the Company.
8:15am - 9:00am
9:00am - 10:30am
The Evolving Workforce
Driven by personal experience, Mark Bertolini set out to change his company’s business model and reinvent the employer-employee relationship. In the process, he helped transform a whole industry and demonstrated how a positive culture and a strong focus on employee experience can drive bottom-line success.
Mark Bertolini, “Mission-Driven Leadership: My Journey as a Radical Capitalist” Author; Fmr. Chairman and CEO, Aetna; Board Director, CVS Health
Interviewer: Sara Eisen, “Squawk on the Street” Co-Anchor & “Closing Bell” Co-Anchor, CNBC
The Evolving Consumer
Big changes in consumer behavior and technology have upended ‘traditional’ B2C businesses, creating white space for upstarts to take market share. What can we learn from their successes, and how can leaders encourage such innovation in their own companies?
Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy; Fmr. SVP, Apple Retail; Fmr. CEO, JCPenney
Jeff Raider, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Harry’s; Co-founder, Warby Parker
Susan Tynan, Founder and CEO, Framebridge
Interviewer: Courtney Reagan, Retail Reporter, CNBC
Evolving Ideas: Asking the Right Questions
From Chanel to IBM to Coca-Cola, Hal Gregersen has worked with big businesses in transformation. In this interactive session, the management and innovation guru will share his unique methods to solve thorny problems, inspire new ideas and unleash creativity.
Interactive Presentation:
Hal Gregersen, Executive Director, MIT Leadership Center; “Questions Are the Answer” Author; “The Innovator’s DNA” Co-author
10:30am - 10:50am
10:50am - 12:15pm
Evolving with The Times
Print journalism was left for dead years ago. But the “Grey Lady” has found new life in a new age of media. We’ll talk to Mark Thompson about balancing bold risks while servicing a legacy business and reinventing a venerable brand.
Mark Thompson, CEO, The New York Times Company
Interviewer: Sara Eisen, Co-anchor “Squawk on the Street” and “Closing Bell”, CNBC
The Evolving Leader
One’s a former admiral who motivated and inspired thousands of sailors amid shifting tides; the other is an entrepreneur and ‘CEO whisperer’ who teaches the ‘how’ of innovation. We’ll hear from both about what makes great leaders, and what new skills are needed in today’s dynamic business environment.
Dov Seidman, Founder and CEO, LRN; “HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything” Author
Admiral James Stavridis (USN Ret.), Operating Executive, The Carlyle Group; Fmr. Supreme Allied Commander, NATO
Interviewer: Suzy Welch, Contributor, CNBC
Evolving Strategy: How Best Buy Was Saved
When Hubert Joly took over Best Buy, many believed it would go the way of Circuit City and Sears, another victim of “the Amazon Effect.” Now it has returned to top and bottom-line growth, and its stock is up 258%. We’ll find out what he believes is the key to turning around a big organization under pressure.
Hubert Joly, Executive Chairman and Fmr. CEO, Best Buy
Interviewer: Courtney Reagan, Retail Reporter, CNBC
12:15pm
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