by Jessica Shambora

Watch out, geeks. You’ve got company.

Yes, Best Buy’s (BBY) Geek Squad, whose “agents” drive those Volkswagen Beetles to the homes of customers in technology distress, has competition to contend with: digital troubleshooters who aid consumers via the Internet.

Even as these forces are expanding, it’s hard to detect them. For instance, the “solution engineers” of Support.com (SPRT)’s are almost impossible to spot since they work via remote-access subterfuge. Once a troubled tech user downloads Support.com’s software, an engineer can access the computer via the Internet to diagnose and fix problems.

Ever stealthy, Support.com’s engineers even go undercover as technicians for companies like Staples (SPLS) and Sony. You’ve seen Office Depot (ODP)’s Tech Depot Services? These friendly folks are actually Support.com’s hired guns.

Perhaps you’re lucky enough to never have needed consumer tech support. (If that’s the case, either you don’t own a computer, or you own a Mac). But there’s no escaping that our lives are getting more digital every day. And even as we become more tech-savvy and as tech providers improve design and user interfaces, there will always be bugs, malfunctions, spyware and viruses.

There will be updates and upgrades. New platforms and devices to install. Compatibility issues to iron out. Who ya gonna call?

For hardware problems, you can go to your device manufacturer. But let’s face it, these days it’s all about operating systems, platforms and software: Google’s (GOOG) Chrome and Android, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 7, Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes, Adobe’s (ADBE) AIR.

So while the Geek Squad has been the most visible source of help (and no wonder, given the marketing muscle of Best Buy), it’s not the cheapest option. Nor the most convenient. Rivals are gaining ground as many consumers no longer need a technician to hold their hand–or simply don’t have time to schedule an appointment with a Geek.

Support.com hasn’t done well as a stock, in part because it only recently switched from serving enterprises to targeting consumers. Other options include startups like PlumChoice and iYogi. Meanwhile, phone companies are also getting in the game. Support.com CEO Josh Pickus says that Verizon (VZ), Dell (DELL), AT&T (ATT), and Wal-Mart (WMT) are all “poking around in this space.”

For more about this hot industry, check out my profile of Support.com on Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech site.

Note: Geek Squad offers tech support remotely through a partnership with SupportSpace, which offers services similar to Support.com.

Gilt Groupe CEO Susan Lyne has joined the board of AOL–soon to be spun off from Time Warner (TWX).

Does Lyne love trouble, or what? Five years ago, after Martha Stewart began her five-month prison stint in West Virginia, Lyne stepped up from the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) board to be CEO of the company–and worked, eventually hand in hand with Martha, to rebuild the crippled company.

That was a slog (Lyne left last year), and so was her three-year stint on the board of CIT (CITGQ)–which she began in 2006 when it didn’t seem to be a terribly risky move. But it turned out to be. For the past few months, Lyne has had a seat at the table as CIT’s board and CEO Jeff Peek vied to save the company from bankruptcy. Peek failed. Lyne left the CIT board last week–one day before CIT filed Chapter 11.

So now Lyne is turning her attention to another once-mighty company that lost its way. AOL’s new CEO, Tim Armstrong, who joined from Google (GOOG) last March, is preparing for the spinoff from Time Warner by assembling a board that includes Procter & Gamble (PG) ex-global marketing chief Jim Stengel, former FCC chairman Michael Powell, tech investment banker Bill Hambrecht, and Jim Wiatt, who headed William Morris until he got squeezed out in a messy merger with talent agency Endeavor this year.

These people know pressure–and have their work cut out for them at the flagging web pioneer. Time Warner’s earnings report on Wednesday included news that AOL’s sales dropped 23% last quarter, while profits fell by half.

The good news for Lyne is that she has a positive story where, for her at least, it really counts: at Gilt Groupe. She joined the tiny purveyor of luxury goods last year, and it has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the Internet space.

by Patricia Sellers

Photo courtesy of Avon

Liz Smith, who was on track to succeed Andrea Jung as CEO of Avon Products (AVP), is moving to a new company and a new industry. Again.

The onetime star exec at Kraft (KFT), who made an unlikely leap from food to cosmetics in 2004, is the newly named chief executive of OSI, a chain of casual-dining eateries.

“What?!!” is a question that Smith admits she’s been asked often throughout her career. She says she follows her own guideline: “Be open to opportunity.”

There’s plenty of opportunity–and risk–at OSI, which you may not have heard of but is a giant in the casual-dining category. With 2008 revenues of $4 billion, OSI operates chains such as Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Roy’s, and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar. Good brands, as restaurant brands go–and as Bain Capital and Catterton Partners thought when they acquired the company for $3.2 billion in 2007. But the global recession brutalized the business, which operates across the U.S. and in 20 other countries. OSI lost $739.4 million last year, and it’s been suffering serious declines in same-store sales.

Which may be ideal for Smith, since she adores companies that are ripe for overhaul. “It’s really always been in my DNA,” she told my colleague Jessica Shambora in September, on the day she announced her departure from Avon.

Smith’s exit from Avon shocked many people, since she was crucial to the cosmetic giant’s turnaround, well-liked across the company, and widely viewed as Jung’s eventual successor. But “eventual” was looking to be too long from now. While Smith, who is No. 29 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business list, is just 46 years old and has plenty of runway ahead, she lost patience. That’s understandable since Jung, who was named Avon’s CEO at age 41 a decade ago, has no plans to retire.

So now, Smith–who began her career at Morgan Stanley (MS) and then, as a Stanford MBA student, “wanted to start the next Microsoft or H-P”–is off in yet another new direction. Geographically, this time it is Manhattan to Tampa, Florida, where OSI is based. Smith plans to commute initially and then relocate with her husband and two young sons.

And though retail isn’t entirely new to Smith–she’s on the board of Staples (SPLS)–she’ll be testing herself against her own measure of leadership. “Nothing is more important than a nimble, agile leader who is comfortable with ambiguity,” she told me a few months ago.

“We have to be comfortable figuring it out as we go along,” Smith added. Definitely, she’s living her philosophy.

There comes a fork in every career. Should I do this or do that?

Charting a successful career was the topic on Tuesday at Wal-Mart (WMT), where the company’s female officers staged a “Fortune Most Powerful Women” event and I interviewed two stars of the 2009 MPWomen rankings: Wal-Mart EVP of People Susan Chambers and Xerox (XRX) CEO Ursula Burns.

Their bios tell the paths they chose. More inspiring and instructive, as they revealed on Tuesday, are the career paths they decided not to take.

Chambers, who joined Wal-Mart from Hallmark a decade ago, once dreamed of being a professional opera singer. Her mezzo-soprano might have been, but she didn’t love the idea of traipsing around the world as artists must do. “It’s still in my heart,” said Chambers, who now plays piano and sings–at home and at church–to lessen the stress of overseeing the largest private-sector workforce on earth. “Make sure you spend some percentage of time doing something that brings you joy,” she advised.

Burns told a story that few people know–how in 2001, she almost left Xerox.

Having joined Xerox as an intern in 1980, Burns by then had ascended to SVP in charge of manufacturing and supply-chain operations. a stellar rise, but Xerox was teetering–facing potential bankruptcy–and its CEO, a former IBMer (IBM) named Rick Thoman, had lost the faith of investors and management.

Burns was outta there–or so she thought. She had lined up a job at a healthy, younger company and was about to move to Texas with her husband and two children when she got an unexpected call from a Xerox board member.

This director said to her: “If your spouse was old, but now they are sick, would you stay and care of him?”

Yes, of course, Burns replied.

“If you and your spouse both made it through to a long-term relationship, but now a young, ‘pretty’ suitor came along, would you stay in the relationship you’ve invested in–or leave for something new and unknown?”

Stay–absolutely, Burns told the director.

It was at that moment, Burns said, that she realized she was key to saving Xerox. And when she learned that the board was going to name Anne Mulcahy, another lifer who embraced the need for radical change, as the new CEO, Burns ditched her departure plan.

So, what was that healthy, younger company that almost lured Burns away? “Dell,” she told the Wal-Mart gathering.

And who was that Xerox director who persuaded her to stay? “Vernon Jordan,” said Burns, referring to the well-known Lazard (LAZ) lawyer who, besides serving on Xerox’s board, advises American Express (AXP), where Burns is a director. By sticking it out, she eventually made history: The Mulcahy-Burns succession, in July, was the first-ever woman-to-woman CEO handoff in the Fortune 500.

P.S. For more Wal-Mart wisdom, read my Wednesday post, “A visit to Wal-Mart’s home.”

by Patricia Sellers

“Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage.”

That was said, simply enough, by Wal-Mart (WMT) founder Sam Walton. And though today it’s widely known that Wal-Mart is the world’s most efficient retailer, a little-known fact is that for 25 years–long before Wal-Mart became America’s largest retailer–it ranked No. 1 in its industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales.

Efficiency runs in the water here in Bentonville, Arkansas, where I’ve spent the past 36 hours. I hadn’t been to the center of the retail universe since 1996, when Wal-Mart crossed the line of $100 billion in annual sales. This past year, the company, which started in 1962, crossed the $400 billion line.

And while it’s now 17 years since Sam has died, the rules he established when he opened his first five-and-dime, on Bentonville’s town square, still apply. On Monday night, when I had dinner with Wal-Mart financial services president Jane Thompson and seven other corporate officers, everybody chipped in $20 a piece for the wine. That’s because Wal-Mart’s founder refused to pay for alcohol of any kind.

Over at the home office (which Sam Walton preferred to “headquarters” because he thought the latter term sounded highfalutin), I ran into Mike Duke, Wal-Mart’s CEO who took charge in February. I asked Duke if I could take a peek of his office–which are Sam’s old digs–and as he escorted me into the tiny room, he noted with pride, “Same wood paneling from 30 years ago.” Duke’s fanciest decoration is an aquarium in the corner. “That’s from David Glass,” he said, referring to Wal-Mart’s chief after Sam, “and I’m just trying to keep the fish alive.” What did Duke add to the space? “Just the pictures on the wall,” he replied. Two framed photos above his desk show Sam’s first store and below that, a picture of the world. “Because that’s where we’re focused now,” the CEO said.

Before moving into Wal-Mart’s top job, Duke headed international operations and worked in a low gray shed next door. At 40,360 square feet total, this may be the world’s smallest office responsible for $100 billion in sales. (Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRKB) headquarters in Omaha comes close, in terms of efficiency. See Monday’s Postcard on “How Warren Buffett manages his managers“). Now Doug McMillon, who succeeded Duke as international chief, works out of the unsightly barracks, where a few fortunate execs get a jailhouse-type window through which, as Duke says, you have to crank your neck to see the sun.

I was invited to Bentonville by Wal-Mart’s women officers, a group that just passed 100 in number and self-finance their events by chipping in $100 each every year–another mark of management’s extreme self-denial. (Anyone who sells to Wal-Mart knows that its managers aren’t allowed to accept even a bottle of water without paying for it.) Yesterday, at their special ”Fortune Most Powerful Women” event, I interviewed Susan Chambers, EVP of Wal-Mart’s Global People Division, and Ursula Burns, the new CEO of Xerox (XRX)–which you’ll read more about on Postcards later. Before the day ended, Thompson, the financial services chief, drove me past the spot where Sam Walton is buried, alongside his wife, Helen. It’s a barely noticeable grave in a crowded cemetery tucked behind Wal-Mart’s home office. Even in the afterlife, Sam Walton is saving money.

Hey, Starbucks lovers–and critics too! Have you taken the Starbucks Via Taste Challenge? The drip vs. instant coffee faceoff began this morning in Starbucks (SBUX) stores across North America.

If you want to know the science (it involves micro-grinding) behind Starbucks’ new instant, check out this story today by my Fortune tech-writer colleague Michael Copeland. He talked with Andrew Linnemann, Starbucks’ director of green coffee quality and operations, whose mission these past two years has been to make Via worthy of Starbucks branding.

The mission is incomplete, as I see it: I did my own taste tests earlier this week and gave Via lukewarm reviews. So, what do you think of Via?

P.S. To read a barista’s advice to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, click here.

Shoppers may have fewer dollars these days, but they still want to make the most of them. That’s the idea behind Gilt Groupe, the members-only shopping site featuring daily deals, or “flash-sales,” on limited quantities of designer goods. (Click here for a post about Gilt CEO Susan Lyne, formerly head of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia).

Now Gilt is bringing the same formula to the luxury travel sphere with a new site called Jetsetter. Before you start thinking this is just another Orbitz/Expedia/Travelocity/Priceline copycat, check out my story on the Fortune Brainstorm Tech site. I explain how Jetsetter departs from the norm, with destinations like the Cotton House on the Isle of Mustique, and the Bauer Hotel, overlooking Venice’s Grand Canal. The list of mass-market travel sites may be long, but according to Jetsetter CEO Drew Patterson, “The luxury travel industry has a lot of white space.” –Jessica Shambora

Home Depot (HD) hammered it home this morning–earnings beat expectations, and the stock is up 3%, to just under $27. Nice surprise after Lowe’s (LOW) disappointed yesterday. The No. 2 home-improvement retailer reported a 19% profit dip in its second quarter and, even more worrisome to investors, a 9.5% decline in same-store sales.

So what is Home Depot, the market leader, doing right? The new Fortune, hitting newsstands this week, delivers some intelligence on that. My colleague Geoff Colvin did a comprehensive interview with Home Depot CFO Carol Tome, who has seen it all. I remember when Tome joined Home Depot from Riverwood International Corp., a packaging and paper products company, 14 years ago. (I was a student of Home Depot back then.) We’ve followed Tome via our Most Powerful Women tracking and watched her weather the tumult as the mega-retailer has gone through four CEOs. Tome has worked for Bernice Marcus, Arthur Blank, Bob Nardelli, and Frank Blake.

Now Blake is Home Depot’s chief, and Tome has an expanding purview. (She’s also on the UPS (UPS) board, where she chairs the audit committee, and last year she joined the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where she’s deputy chair.) Blake and Tome and their team are doing a lot of smart things. Since you probably don’t yet have your new Fortune in hand and since the Tome interview won’t be on Fortune.com and CNNMoney.com until Thursday, here’s a preview of what the savvy survivor says about “Renovating Home Depot”:

Recognize what you’re good at. “We have a three-legged strategy, and you will recognize this from Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. What are we passionate about? We are passionate about our customers. What are we the best at? Product authority. And what drives our economic engine? Productivity and efficiency. It is no longer driven by square-footage growth. We’re still going to open stores–we’re opening 13 stores this year. But it’s not about that any longer. It’s about how do we get more sales per square foot in the existing stores.”

Rethink your people strategy. “We introduced something we call power hours inside our stores. In the hours when traffic is heaviest, we stop all activity that is not customer-facing–pack-down activities, say–and spend 100% of our time taking care of customers…Even if you’re in the receiving area, if you’re in the vault, you come out on the floor.”

Remember that  the devil is in the details. “The professional contractor is a very important customers to us–3% of our transactions and about 30% of our business. We serve coffee at the pro desk. By changing the brand of coffee–not stopping the coffee, because coffee is important–but by changing the brand, we will save our company $500,000. It doesn’t take too many $500,000 decisions to make a penny per share.”

P.S. Credit Suisse (CS) analyst Gary Balter today reaffirmed his bullish view and raised his estimates on Home Depot, noting that HD’s U.S. quarterly same-store sales, while down 8.5% company-wide and down 6.9% in the U.S., beat Lowe’s for the first time in memory. Guess that cheap coffee isn’t turning off too many Home Depot customers.

“Starve yourself. Don’t take the money. Do it yourself. I recommend a diet of ramen noodles and very little sleep. If you don’t love your business, someone else will love it more than you, and do it better and be more creative.”

–Robert Stephens, Geek Squad founder and Chief Inspector, on his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in the Wall Street Journal. In 1994, Stephens dropped out of school, and with $200, he turned his side job fixing PCs into the Geek Squad–sending employees in nerdy attire to rescue tech-addled customers. Fast forward eight years: Geek Squad was acquired by Best Buy (BBY) for $3 million. Now there are 20,000 employees in 1,038 Best Buy stores, plus seven stand-alone Geek Squad storefronts. Says Stephens, “I have an irrational love of technology. I don’t care how much I get paid.” –Jessica Shambora

The female economy is on my mind. That’s the subject of an upcoming book, Women Want More, that I told you about in yesterday’s post, “Why CEOs should do housework.”

A survey of 12,000 female consumers, by the Boston Consulting Group, was conducted to research the book by BCG marketing expert Michael Silverstein–as I was telling Tory Burch and our dinner companions last evening. The female economy is of interest to Burch since she, in a scant five years, has built a fashion empire with 18 boutiques and sales through 450 other retail outlets. (She doesn’t disclose revenues, but Mexico-based Tresalia Capital last month invested in Tory Burch LLC, giving her company a valuation reportedly around $600 million).

Burch is expanding her business, opening her first boutique abroad, in Japan, in December. So when I told her about Silverstein’s intriguing global research—such as his finding that Brazilian women are most optimistic of all women about their financial prospects–she was eager to hear more.

So here, for Burch and other global-minded marketers, are a few more stats, from BCG’s recent research…

Women in Mexico fall right behind Brazilians in optimism about their own financial outlook. Five years from now, say 89% of them, their financial situation will be better than it is today.

Women in BRIC countries–China, India, Brazil, and Russia–are most optimistic about “the world, your country and community.” Chinese women express the most optimism: 82% expect improvement. Among American women surveyed, only 39% do.

And who are the most pessimistic worldwide? Japanese women–in terms of both their own financial prospects and their outlook on their country and the world.

Hmm, yesterday’s Postcard noted that Japanese husbands do fewer chores at home than men in the rest of the world. Do you think that Japanese women’s pessimism and their mates’ disregard, domestically speaking, have anything to do with each other?