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A Commitment To Vision
How does hhgregg do it? In an age of zero margins, ever-increasing big-box presence, consumers with less expendable income and more things to spend it on, this regional powerhouse of a consumer electronics retailer has been expanding... aggressively.
That means Chairman and CEO Jerry Throgmartin has at least two things going for him: the knowledge of what it takes to succeed in a highly competitive CE landscape, and the guts to execute on it. And, to be sure, he ought to be this good. He literally grew up around the business, working in the store his grandparents built while in middle school. That was in the 1970s, just 10 years after his father took over the business, which was only 10 years after his grandfather opened the first hhgregg in 1955.
Throgmartin worked his way through the business while in high school and what is now called the University of Indianapolis, where he played wide receiver for the football team. Once college was over, however, the competitive spirit that served him on the field needed a place to flourish,...