Bleeding Orange Blood-- Part 2

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 500^th 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.