G. Mike Mikan's message to Best Buy employees

G. Mike Mikan, interim chief executive officer of Best Buy, sent this email to the company's 167,000 employees Wednesday afternoon.

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Good afternoon Best Buy team,

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I'm Mike Mikan, your interim CEO.

I'll start by saying thank you -- to all Best Buy employees around the world - for your efforts, your passion, and your questions as we move the company forward.

I know some of you are curious about my connection to Best Buy, so I'll share a little bit about myself. I grew up near Minneapolis, Minnesota, and have always had great admiration for Best Buy and its legacy. When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike to my local Best Buy store to check out the latest and greatest technologies (back then it was the VCR).

As I worked in other organizations in the Twin Cities area, I always kept an eye on the great things Best Buy was doing. I consistently heard about the company's unique culture, and how highly Best Buy was admired in the communities it serves. So I've been a customer and a fan of the company for a long time.

That's why I was so pleased when I was first given the opportunity to join Best Buy's Board of Directors in 2008. And I can't describe how honored I am today to serve as the interim CEO of this great organization.

I know the news of Brian's departure was a surprise, and that the shift in focus of the news coverage later in the day likely raised additional questions for many of you. I'm very aware that was difficult to read and experience. As the coverage of Best Buy continues, you have my commitment that we will redouble our efforts to ensure employees learn about important company news from us, first.

With that in mind, I'm aware that many of you are curious whether our plans for this year and beyond are going to change. It's important to know that I'm very pleased with the priorities that have been established to address many of the underlying challenges in our business -- improving the customer and employee experiences, re-energizing the store portfolio, reducing costs and driving our global growth strategies (Connections, Services, e-commerce and China). This work absolutely must continue, and it's where each of us needs to focus our efforts in the days, weeks and months ahead.

As we move forward on this important first phase of our future, I also want you to know that your senior leadership team and I simultaneously will be creating a blueprint for growth. This blueprint will be a longer-term plan designed to capitalize on the actions we already are implementing, and position Best Buy for sustained, profitable growth in the years ahead. I look forward to sharing more about this exciting work as it progresses.

This is a time of transition for Best Buy, and I know that means you'll continue to have questions along the way. You have my commitment that your senior team and I will keep the lines of communication open as we move forward.

Finally, I'd like to ask all of you -- our employees in all of our brands and locations -- to stay focused on serving our customers, and delivering our plans for the year. When we deliver on those plans, we will prove to the marketplace that Best Buy is the best at what we do - and that will be reflected in the customer experience, our employee engagement, and ultimately in the value our shareholders place in our company.

Thank you again, and I look forward to working with you to create an exciting future for Best Buy.

G. Mike Mikan Chief Executive Officer (Interim) Best Buy Co. Inc.