...THE HOME DEPOT’S ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION Organization Communications Mgmt 305 Potomac College Abstract This paper will analyze the culture of The Home Depot and its communication practices. This will be accomplished by examining the dimensions of the organization’s structure. The Home Depot’s sociability, power distribution and job autonomy, degree of structure, achievement rewards, opportunities for growth, tolerance for risk and change, conflict tolerance, and emotional support will be used to determine if the organization has a Theory Y culture. Introduction Home Depot is considered to be one of the top ranking home improvement organizations. The mission statement of this organization was formulated around being “committed to maximizing long term shareholder value while supporting management in the business and operations of the company, observing the highest ethical standards and adhering to the laws of the jurisdictions within which the company operates” (Homer TLC INC, 2010). The Home Depot transformed the “home improvement industry” by providing a well round reputation for products, corporate governance and strong values within the community. The purpose of The Home Depot remains to build relationships, have social responsibility, and concrete ethics as an organization. Employees are respected, offered growth and reputable incentive plans. Public policy makers and Home Depot collaborates on ideas to assure prosperity in our society. Home Depot delivers...
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...Home Depot Failed in China Name: Chuanshi Liu ID: h701789460 Course: IB 207 Background Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the world. It has about 2200 stores across the United States, Canada, and Mexican. It targets three main customer groups, which are D-I-Y customers, D-I-F-M customers and professional customers. Home depot is famous for its D-I-Y products and services. In 2006, after housing market turn down in the United States, Home Depot entered into the China home improvement market through a full M&A activity. It has twelve stores in Beijing, Shanghai, and other large cities in China. Home Depot served the similar services and products to Chinese customers, which also include the D-I-Y products. However, Home Depot did not succeed this time in China. From 2006 to 2012, the top managers in China area have been changed three times. Home Depot wanted to find out the solutions to this bad situation in local market. However, the situation was worsened when the building material market turned down in 2012, 12 main stores have been closed in local market. Top managers believe that the main reason for their failure is the cultural difference. The D-I-Y services and products do not fit the local culture. Changes and effects Business Environment There are changes in business environment for Home Depot. In United States, the biggest competitor for the Home Depot is Lowe's. They have very similar products and services. Both...
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...Home Depot and PepsiCo Founded in 1978 by Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank, The Home Depot is an American home improvement and construction product retailer. It operates stores in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, Canada and Mexico. It is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States, next to Lowes. Founded in 1965, PepsiCo is an American food and beverage corporation formed between the merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito Lay. PepsiCo has gone on to expand to include Tropicana, Quaker Oats, Gatorade and many more. Each generating sales of one billion dollars each and distributed in more than 200 countries (PepsiCo). As of 2011, PepsiCo employs approximately 297,000 people worldwide (PepsiCo). This paper will assess the above mentioned companies areas of leadership, management, organizational learning (training), and culture and compare and contrast to the structure The United States Army and Macy’s Department Store. Home Depot Leadership: In 2000 Marcus and Blank were replaced with Robert Nardelli, who pushed hard to make the company more efficient, bringing with him many new metrics to centralize operations, and to meet quarterly goals he even cut jobs of associates. Nardelli, a former General Electric top executive, arrived at Home Depot with a leadership style that was already outdated, an autocratic top –down style of command and control. Under Nardelli, Home Depot went from a retail business to a new contracting...
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...July 22, 2013 Question # 1-Detemine how each corporate culture differs from the other. When starting a business you as the owner should always have a strategy that sets you apart from competing vendors. What makes your company differ from the others and what would you like consumers to know that set you apart. In today’s market competition is always a factor but it does not necessarily have to be a bad thing; there are advantages to having a competitor. Developing strategies for your competitor is key, “The underlying goal of strategy development is competitive differentiation,” (Kurtz, 2012, p. 230). The companies presented below demonstrate the perfect example of business competition. The home improvement industry has been experiencing rapid growth since the late 70’s. Due to the capital effect, consumers would spend high amounts of cash and credit on improving their most prized and expensive possession, their homes. As a result, the home improvement industry experienced quick development and progress. This is what led to the opening of two mega home improvement stores known as The Home Depot and Lowes Companies, INC. The Home Depot which was founded, “1978 in Atlanta, Georgia and has since become the world's largest home improvement retailer, operating more than 1,500 stores”, (Brumley, 2012). Although not as international as its competitor Home Depot, Lowes is a “$26 billion retailer of a complete line of home improvement products and equipment. The company serves more...
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...Home Depot Business Environment The Home Depot is the world’s largest do-it-yourself home improvement retailer that was founded over thirty years ago in Atlanta Georgia by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank (The Home Depot, 2011). Through the lifespan, The Home Depot expanded from a two store operation into the fourth largest grossing retail store as reported by the Fortune 500 listings (CNN Money, 2012). Strategies like price matching, environmentally friendly supplies, introducing Home Depot brands and services, and offering clinics to patrons assisted in Home Depot dominating the do-it-yourself home improvement market. Throughout the lifecycle of Home Depot there have been numerous changes; markets, consumers, direction, and leadership to name a few. Home Depot made adjustments along the way and endured the constant waves of change and in the process developed the orange blooded culture enjoyed by employee and customer. Things change and the Home Depot understand this simple value, but constant is the orange apron and everything it stands for. To date the Home Depot remains a sound corporation even through the recession and unfavorable markets and is in a prime position to generate stronger ROA, ROIC, and ROE measures relative to their closest competitor Lowe’s (Sozzi, 11/2). The pages that follow will analyze The Home Depot and examine what differences it has from the closest competitors. Taking a brief look into the culture behind the store, how Home Depot...
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...Home Depot Internal and External Factors Team B Amy Sharp Jens Carter Joshua Jacobson Brandon Hudson May 20, 2013 Lon Schiffbauer Home Depot Internal and External Factors The Home Depot started going global in 1994. The first country they expanded to was Canada. The way they expanded into Canada was to purchase a chain of hardware stores called Aikenhead. Along with expanding to Canada, they implemented their practice of business. They took helping their customers using professional contractors to either help or do the project for their customers. They also use their tool rental service in Canada's stores so their customers could rent tools for whatever project they need to do. The next step going global for The Home Depot was to Mexico in 2001. After they went to Mexico, they didn't make any moves going into other countries for a few years. In 2006 they finally decided to go overseas into China in which they called their stores The Home Way. They started with a 12 store chain. In September 2012 there was a report that The Home Depot closed all of its stores within China. To help them globalize their company they expanded in purchasing a lot of the featured products from companies overseas. With the market buying things overseas is cheaper than making products within the United States. There are many ways to expand globally, many different strategies, and many options for places to expand to. The best way to succeed, whether it comes to the first store or the store...
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...From Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew the Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion, tells the story of Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, and how they are responsible for one of the biggest entrepreneur successes in recent history. This novel shows, first hand, how they became leaders within the home improvement industry. This was no easy task, but these two had experience. Bernie’s parents immigrated to America, and he grew up in a poor neighborhood, Newark, New Jersey. He dreamed of working in medicine, but could not afford the kickback he needed to pay Harvard Medical School to circumnavigate the quota they had at the time for people of Jewish ancestry. Bernie soon graduated from Rutgers, Newark, and worked as an intern in a pharmaceutical company. One day a customer came in that forever changed his life. Bernie was introduced to the world of discount stores when he met a man named Danny Kessler. A few years later Bernie worked alongside Arthur blank within one of the most successful home improvement chains at the time, Handy Dan’s Home improvement center. Bernie became the President and CEO, and Arthur was the vice president of finance. They were eventually fired, and faced legal trouble due to a false accusation. It was at this time that they decided to open up their own home improvement store, one that captured their own core values. They had high hopes of a store that far surpassed Handy Dan’s Home improvement center. The idea was to build a store more...
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...Paper Diversity is one of the most important things at The Home Depot. It is the catalyst for innovative thinking, entrepreneurial spirit and new ways of building our communities. To this end The Home Depot uses creativity, fresh thinking, and the experiences of people from different cultures and beliefs. The Home Depot believes that talent comes in many different forms and they celebrate each and every talent, because every talent is cultivated and is considered to be the foundation of our culture in America. At The Home Depot, the executive management team is responsible for diversity and creates a culture that welcomes every associate. The company encourages people from diverse backgrounds in all levels of management, and managers are accountable for attracting diverse candidates. The Home Depot realizes that as they continue to grow locally and globally, they will increasingly need for their associates to continue contributing to their efforts. The Home Depot values diversity because it offers a competitive advantage, makes the company a better place to work; and they can understand better their diverse customers’ needs in this way. The Home Depot gives customers better service and deliver. At The Home Depot, Managers are committed to creating a diverse work environment and in these circumstances all employees are included, respected, supported and encouraged associates to do the best work. The Home Depot recognizes with pride the uniqueness of each associate. The company...
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...“How Home Depot could enter Indian Markets” Cohort 41 Justin Widener, Cole Lewis, Daniel Smith, Kacy Jackson, Pramod Sudhakar, Angela Lintz WMBA 6030: Global Strategy November 14, 2013 Executive Summary Home Depot tried and failed to enter China. In hindsight, the errors Home Depot made seem obvious and many. In the analyses below, we examine Home Depot from an Industrial, Resource, and Institutional perspective. Based on our extrapolation of the findings, we ask whether Home Depot can enter the Indian market, and describe our strategy for how Home Depot might successfully expand globally into India. We believe that Home Depot can gain great value from entering India following our strategy. Introduction and Background Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus. They originally started with two stores in the Atlanta area with about 60,000 square feet each. These stores dwarfed the competition in not only size but also in product offering and availability. They started off offering over 25,000 different SKU’s to customers in everything from power tools to simple easy to use items such as tape and glue (Home Depot). The goal was, as a company, to target and create a market for the “Do it Yourself” or “DIY” market. Until the arrival of Home Depot there was such a market but only local mom and pop shops competed. Home Depot provided a place where they could provide a one-stop shop for DIY and could also provide the “know-how” necessary...
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...Home Depot Business Environment Communication Channel Scenarios MGT 521 March 3, 2012 Jacob Nichols Home Depot Business Environment The Home Depot is the world’s largest do-it-yourself home improvement retailer that was founded over thirty years ago in Atlanta Georgia by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank (The Home Depot, 2011). Through the lifespan, The Home Depot expanded from a two store operation into the fourth largest grossing retail store as reported by the Fortune 500 listings (CNN Money, 2012). Strategies like price matching, environmentally friendly supplies, introducing Home Depot brands and services, and offering clinics to patrons assisted in Home Depot dominating the do-it-yourself home improvement market. Throughout the lifecycle of Home Depot there have been numerous changes; markets, consumers, direction, and leadership to name a few. Home Depot made adjustments along the way and endured the constant waves of change and in the process developed the orange blooded culture enjoyed by employee and customer. Things change and the Home Depot understand this simple value, but constant is the orange apron and everything it stands for. To date the Home Depot remains a sound corporation even through the recession and unfavorable markets and is in a prime position to generate stronger ROA, ROIC, and ROE measures relative to their closest competitor Lowe’s (Sozzi, 11/2). The pages that follow will analyze The Home Depot and examine what differences...
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...Arthur Blank founded the Home Depot in 1978. Along with investment banker Ken Langone and merchandising guru Pat Farrah, the founder’s vision of one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourselfer came to existence when they opened the first two Home Depot stores on June 22, 1979, in Atlanta, Georgia. The first stores, at around 60,000 square feet each, were cavernous warehouses that dwarfed the competition and stocked 25,000 SKUs, much more than the average hardware store at that time. Empty boxes piled high on the shelves gave the illusion of even more product. in only one year they opened a 4th store in Atlanta and the company had annual sales of $22.3 million dollars. In only 10 years on its 10th anniversary Home Depot opened its 100th store in Atlanta. I. Current Situation The Home Depot is the fastest growing retailer in U.S. history. Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer and the second largest retailer behind Wal-Mart in the United States based on net sales for the 2005 fiscal year. In 1981, the company went public on NASDAQ and moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1984. The 1980s and 1990s spawned tremendous growth for the company, with 1989 marking the celebration of its 100th store opening. The company arrived in Canada with the acquisition of Aikenhead’s home improvement centers in 1994. In 2003 Home Depot opened its 100th Canadian store. Home Depot began flying its flag proudly in Mexico in 2001 through the acquisition of Total HOME. In 2006, the company extended...
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...Finba1. i. Home Depot’s mission statement is as follows: “The Home Depot is in the home improvement business and our goal is to provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products and the most competitive prices. We are a values-driven company and our eight core values include the following: Excellent customer service, Taking care of our people, Giving back, Doing the "right" thing, Creating shareholder value, Respect for all people, Entrepreneurial spirit, Building strong relationships.” (Home Depot, 2014). According to Exhibit 2.1 in chapter two, Top management of a company provide strategic direction after assessing the external and internal environments. Taking a look at the external environment, some of Opportunities available to Home Depot (Circa 2005) were Restructuring, to make operations more sound and profitable, provision of internet shopping facilities to customers, and expanding the market geographically and locally, as well as targeting new market segments. It should be quite important to note that during the Nardelli era, the slogan Home Depot used was “Improve everything we touch”. Threats included declining home sales and market share, a looming credit crunch, a dip in the level of customer service and product knowledge hitherto offered due to poorly trained staff, and a saturation of the markets in North America. Increasing levels of Environmental Uncertainty as more layers of management are added to achieve a more vertical structure...
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..."The Home Depot NYSE: HD, headquartered in Vinings, Georgia, is a home improvement retailer that aims for both the do-it-yourself consumer and the professional in home improvement and construction. It is the second largest retailer in the United States, behind Wal-Mart; and the third largest retailer in the world, behind Wal-Mart and French company Carrefour. The Home Depot operates about 1,900 stores across North America. The company operates stores in the United States (including the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands), Canada, and Mexico. The Home Depot also operates EXPO Design Center stores in select U.S. markets, providing high-end home design products and services. Its 2004 sales totaled US $73.1 billion. It was ranked #13 on FORTUNE magazine's FORTUNE 500 The Home Depot also owns a chain of higher-end home decorating and appliance stores. The Home Depot employs over 325,000 people." The company was founded in 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, and grew rapidly, with sales topping $1 billion annually by 1986. From the moment of its foundation, HD has continued to grow constantly by targeting strong markets with many new homeowners and young people such as New Orleans. Home Depot managed to grow fast by quickly adapting to change and continued to be successful by holding fast to the culture and values of the organization. The constant renewal and the work to sustain culture that produces good products, employees, and customers...
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...the Home Depot case in the textbook and develop a response to the questions below: How would you describe the culture at Home Depot? The culture at Home Depot was a culture set primarily by the founders, Mr. Marcus and Mr. Blank. It was a culture marked by an entrepreneurial high-spiritedness and a willingness to take risk, a passionate commitment to customers, colleagues, the company, and the community, and an aversion to anything that felt bureaucratic or hierarchical. All of this led to the company’s success. Discuss the impact of the cultural change and the reaction of the employee. When the founders of Home Depot left and the new CEO Mr. Nardelli came along, employees found it hard adjusting. They felt an outsider would “GE-ize their company and culture.” The changes Nardelli brought about was dealing with immediate problems that weren’t readily apparent, shortage of experienced store & district managers as well as the challenge from Lowes, poor inventory turns, low margins, and weak cash flows. Nardelli laid out new strategies from the store, the centralized leverage buying power, reevaluation was done on store operations, detailed data transparent environment, store layout and employee training. Although Nardelli’s changes left some managers and employees resistant, and many of the top executive team left, some did see merit in his approach. Over time, attitudes slowly began to change. Nardelli’s changes and new strategies transformed Home Depot from...
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...Home Depot Patsakorn Niruntasukrat Mahidol University International College Preparation Center for Language and Mathematics February 27, 2014 Home Depot Foundation's Sustainability Obama stated that “It is not a choice between our environment and our economy; it is a choice between prosperity and decline” (“Sustainable Development Strategies”, 2009). Sustainability means the balance of three things which are steady business, society and friendly environment. In other words, businesses must show crucial responsibility in terms of environmental impacts and social responsibilities. Consequently, businesses must utilize natural resources carefully, and the economic growth and employment rate of businesses must be increased (“Understanding Sustainability”, n.d.). Therefore, sustainability is an aim of businesses. The Triple Bottom Line or TBL is a significant tool advocating sustainability goals. The concept of TBL emphasizes three things, which are healthy communities (people), clean environment (planet) and stable profitability (profit) (“Slaper & Hall”, n.d.). In contrast with the past, many businesses, nonprofit organizations and government entities tend to follow this guideline. Home Depot is one of the best examples of companies which are following the TBL standard. Home Depot is the world biggest home improvement retailer (“Did You Know”, n.d.). The company was established by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank in 1978. The first two stores opened on June 22...
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