Austin Ligon worked with the CEO of Circuit City, Richard Sharp, to develop the CarMax idea in 1991 and launched the first CarMax store in Richmond, Virginia, in 1993. Austin became president of CarMax in 1995. He led the company through a decade and a half of rapid growth, and added the title of CEO upon the company’s spin off from Circuit City in 2002. Ligon came to Circuit City from Marriott Corporation where he had been senior vice president of strategic planning for Marriott Hotels and Resorts. He joined Marriott in 1984 as director of corporate planning, and served as vice president of both marketing and concept general management in the family restaurant division.

During his visit to Innovation Navigation, Liggon gave credit to rapid-testing for Carmax’s early success – he and his team went to market as soon as they felt they had the basics of their product, always expecting and embracing ways to improve it. He emphasizes the importance of being an expert in your organization’s consumers first and foremost, and structuring systems, incentives, and roles to stay attuned to consumers’ experiences and measure their real behaviors rather than profiling their demographics, as the traditional car sales competitors to Carmax famously do. Original Airdate: 4/8/2014

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