3 Takeaways From Best Buy Chairman & CEO Hubert Joly on the Powerful Connections Between Business and the Arts
On April 19, Best Buy Chairman and CEO Hubert Joly joined Children’s Theatre Company Managing Director Kim Motes for a conversation about the interdependence of the art and business communities. The occasion was CTC’s 3rd Annual Business and Arts Luncheon, an event held every spring to celebrate the power of art to build community and inspire future leaders. Drawing on his experiences as a corporate executive and an arts patron, Joly spoke to a crowd of Twin Cities business leaders about the magic of teamwork, finding purpose in your work, and the importance of investing in the arts. Here are three key takeaways from their discussion:
1. Creating art as an ensemble can drive home the power of teamwork.
Joly began his career with consulting firm McKinsey & Company. During his time there as a partner, he participated in a retreat for leadership staff, in which the entire partner group was tasked with performing a section of Verdi’s opera Nabucco. Joly called the experience “transformative.” Over three days, a group of management consultants with no previous operatic training were able to perform a complex piece of Italian vocal music. The experience, Joly said, “Showed how a group of people with limited skills can, with the appropriate training, coaching and direction, perform something that’s magical…” These kinds of creative experiences illustrate the extraordinary things people are able to create as an interdependent team, rather than merely a collection of individuals.
2. Whether you’re an artist or a corporate CEO, work should have a meaningful purpose.
Throughout the conversation, Joly didn’t hesitate to get philosophical. “Work is essential to the human condition….Work is, in fact, producing something that is a part of the meaning of life,” he stated. He suggested that those in the business world could look to artists as models of a healthy and sustainable attitude towards work. Artists treat work as an activity with broad meaning, and more of us, he believes, should approach our work this way. At Best Buy, for example, Joly emphasized that their mission goes beyond just selling products to actually serving the everyday needs of human beings. The purpose of the company, and his work as its leader, is to “help people enrich their lives and pursue their passions with the help of technology.” Artists have always had these kinds of mission statements, giving the day-to-day minutia of their work a guiding sense of purpose. Joly implores members of the business community to find that sense of purpose in their own work, one that goes beyond merely rewarding stakeholders and investors with profits.
3. For the business community, supporting the arts is a smart investment.
Having a flourishing arts scene is a great way to attract talented employees to a new community. By providing access to financial and technological resources to cultural institutions like Children’s Theatre Company, Best Buy and other companies are creating the kind of place where smart, curious and engaged people want to live. If talented folks feel at home in our theatre or any one of the amazing arts institutions in the Twin Cities, they are more likely to feel like they belong in this community and in their place of work. When skilled employees feel a sense of belonging, inside and outside of the workplace, companies and communities thrive.
For information on next year’s Business & Arts Luncheon or other ways your organization can partner with Children’s Theatre Company, contact Peter Kaiser, Corporate Relations Manager at pkaiser@childrenstheatre.org.
