Poor choices by Brian Dunn as Best Buy's CEO and Richard Schulze as chairman of the board of directors have cost both men their roles within the company. Their departures, however, may also give Best Buy an unexpected opportunity to accelerate the evolution of its business model from bricks and mortar to more Internet-intensive retail.

Schulze will step down as chairman June 21 and will leave the board a year later. The announcement comes after an internal investigation concluded that he failed to inform the board of directors that Dunn, who resigned last month, had "violated company policy by engaging in an extremely close relationship with a female employee that negatively impacted the work environment."

Dunn and the employee deny having an affair, and the report concluded that no company assets were misused.

The internal investigation did not spare Schulze, Best Buy's founder, reporting that "by unilaterally confronting the CEO in December 2011, the Chairman failed to act in a manner consistent with the Audit Committee's mandate and good governance practices, and he created serious risks of employee retaliation and Company liability."

Schulze's judgment, however poor, does not and should not obscure his larger legacy. He guided Best Buy from its origins as a small electronics store, Sound of Music, into the nation's largest big-box electronics-oriented retailer just as technological innovations were whetting appetites for whole new categories of gadgets.

Today, Best Buy rings up annual revenues of $50 billion. The company employs 7,530 people in Minnesota and 167,000 worldwide. As an individual philanthropist, Schulze has been generous. Institutionally, charitable giving by the Best Buy Foundation and employee business units totaled around $6 million last year.

But Best Buy's business model is in jeopardy. The company acknowledged as much when it announced plans earlier this year to close 50 superstores and lay off hundreds of employees. Buffeted by competitors that are even bigger, like Wal-Mart, or more nimble, like Amazon, Best Buy needs to respond and change.

Such a strategic transformation would be a formidable business challenge for any firm, in any industry. But it may have been even more difficult if the founder and chairman and the CEO he mentored were tasked with reinventing their own creation.

Now, Best Buy can begin anew -- because it must -- with Schulze's successor on the board, Hatim Tyabji, who will help lead the search for a successor to Dunn (George L. Mikan III has been named interim CEO).

Of course, the trajectory of Best Buy won't be determined entirely by a few corporate leaders. Many others, including leaders and staff at the store level and especially those who work at Best Buy's corporate headquarters in Richfield, will be crucial in shaping the company's future.

We hope Best Buy can soon move past the self-inflicted turmoil -- and even find a fresh start opportunity in it -- and continue to prosper as a key local employer and contributor to the community.

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