The World’s Largest Home-Improvement
Warehouse
Started in the early 1980’s by two individuals who were
fired the same day from a chain of home improvement stores called Handy Dan’s,
The Home Depot (THD) quickly expanded in California and the northeast region of
the U.S. By 1996 THD was pushing into
western NY with two stores in Buffalo and one in Rochester. Joining Home Depot in those days was easy;
all you needed was knowledge of some aspect of home improvement and a willingness
to learn and work hard. That same year, THD celebrated the opening of its 500th
store.
THD was founded upon the core values of respect for all
people, excellent customer service and giving back to the community (Roush,
1999). Success was based upon living the
values everyday, offering a huge assortment of merchandise in large,
warehouse-sized stores at unbelievably discounted prices, and satisfying the
customer by doing whatever it takes.
Employees became devoted followers of the founders Bernie Marcus and
Arthur Blank and constantly lobbied to have them visit their stores. Customers became equally fanatical and would
not dream of shopping anywhere else. It
became a cult-like event to bring the entire family to “their” store after
church on Sunday to see what was new at the Depot.
The international Home Depot community and its extended family of suppliers and vendors experienced a wrenching sense of dislocation when the founding fathers announced their retirement after nearly twenty-five years of growing the company. Bernie wanted to focus on his charitable foundation and Arthur wanted to become more involved with his beloved Atlanta Falcons. The hand-off was explained as a logical means of taking the company into new markets with increased growth potential. The change was not something to fear, but rather something to embrace. Every employee believed it, because Bernie and Arthur said so.
Unfortunately, Mr. Nardelli saw things differently. Coming from a structured, Fortune 100
buttoned-down environment, the seemingly chaotic, wild-west, go-for-broke
culture at THD was anathema to the new CEO who saw Marcus and Blank as the root
of the problem he was hired to fix. They
were immediately banished along with the humorous cartoon mascot “Homer” who
adorned advertising flyers and in-store promotions. This abrupt reframing impacted every
functional area in the company and resulted in Home Depot being thrust into an over
managed but under led corporate-dictated culture with the corresponding loss of
spirit and inspiration (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Bob Nardelli’s mental model,
or perceptual frame with which he viewed the business world, was drastically
and dramatically different from THD founders’ view.
