Geek Squad Founder: We Will Feed Custom Industry

Dressed in his trademark short-sleeve white shirt and dark tie uniform, Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens says that his company is at the bottom of the food chain.

"Geek Squad is really the plumbers of the IT industry," he said in his keynote speech at EHX Fall in Long Beach, Calif. on Wednesday, explaining that many IT workers start out helping family and friends.

"It's like being a dentist at a picnic -- everybody wants to show you their cavities."

Stephens told EHX attendees that they should not fear his company, owned by big-box retailer Best Buy, because many Geek Squad employees will one day be working for them.

"We're going to be a feeder for your industry," he said.

Best Buy will help the custom installation industry by spawning talent, "a lot of which you'll probably hire," he said, as well as create awareness for this industry. The big-box retailer should also help increase demand and lower the cost of technology, he said.

Stephens compared integrators to gourmet food providers, who offer customized services and products. Geek Squad, on the other hand, has a bit of McDonalds in its business model, with systemized offerings and attention to detail (like McDonalds' always clean bathrooms, he said).

"When I started out, my dream ... was to start a consulting company," said Stephens. He compared Geek Squad to Target, which doesn't try to compete with Wal-Mart on price but instead deliver middle-market products.

"Watch what happens with Target because that's what Best Buy is going to do," he said.

Japanese Schoolgirls, Home Automation Driving the Future

Where should you look to find the next hot technology?

"Anyone who wants to predict technology goes to Ginza and watches the Japanese schoolgirls," said Stephens, listing instant messaging and text messaging as growing in popularity first in the Japanese district.

He's excited about home automation, which he says will learn a lot from the open-source computing community. "With home automation, you can start with one controller, one lightswitch," he said.

"The hobbyist market will really play a role," he said, adding that for young people using sites like Wikipedia and YouTube, "the world has an edit button."

The DIY crowd aren't the ones who use Geek Squad, though. Instead, it's the "I thought I could do it for myself crowd. We love them," said Stephens.

How Geek Squad Acquired Best Buy

"We did acquire Best Buy in 2002, and let me explain why," said Stephens, whose company was purchased by the big-box retailer in 2002.

Geek Squad, which Stephens founded 16 years ago, started as "a mountain bike and cell phone" business, he said. With those tools, plus technical skills, he could deliver personal service big providers couldn't.

One of the complaints Stephens consistently heard is that big-box customers didn't get their phone calls returned in a timely fashion. Before he had a call center, he set up his voicemail with this message: "This is Geek Squad. If this is an emergency, press 1 and we'll return your call in 4 to 7 minutes."

But, as with most small companies, he lacked leverage.

"Who has leverage in the industry? And that led us to Best Buy," he said. In the 90s, Best Buy grew big, but as a box mover -- a shipping department, he said -- and not a service department.

"I knew they had good people," he said, because he was hiring from them.

The two companies "dated," as Stephens says, for a couple of years before Best Buy officially acquired Geek Squad in 2002.

Finding Enthusiastic Employees is Vital

Geek Squad employees can start as young as 16, and some of them want to do high-end installations later, said Stephens.

Part of that is because they are enthusiastic about technology and doing their job. "If you can get them to be enthusiastic about stuff," that's great, he said. Stephens even showed Geek Squad agents who got their driver's license and passport photos taken in their work uniform.

Best Buy's discount for employees is important, he said, because it allows Geek Squad agents to own and enjoy the products they work with. He encouraged integrators to be as generous with employee discounts as possible.

To find the best employees, Stephens looks for people who are good at finding answers -- not necessarily ones who have all the answers.