HOME DEPOT

QUESTIONS:

1/ Critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Home Depot Supply wholesale initiative.

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

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2/ Is the cultural overhaul of Home Depot spearheaded by the CEO consistent with delivering superior value to customers ?

A. In the management they change all the organization of Home Depot by transforming it as a army :

- hiring soldiers and officiers (13% of Home Depot’s 345 000 employees have military experience),

-Headquarter : 1800 blue star banners in honor of employees serving in Afghanistan and Irak

- With motivation message to employees : use of the Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication I on « War Fighting »

B. The Values

- They issue clear commands , a 25-minute TV show for week’s top priorities, what they have to do in priority for the next weekend.

- They fire weak managers (expel underachievers) whereas they are called « hire warriors » because of the number of recuitement : in 2003 , 10 000 employees were hired and in 2005 , 17 000 employees were hired.

- Home Depot measures everything from gross margin per labour-hour for store workers to the number of greets at its front door.

-They have a great control over most tasks because of Central Control. Nardelly invest invests $1.1 billion on technology.

-They Borrow Military Ideas with military letterature for motivational messages

Nardelly compare all with the military side, he said that « business is a war ».

The employee begin the work at 4 a. m and they send informations on blackberry employees even the week end. They always have to refer themselves to a manager.

3/ Discuss the extent to which the “command-and-control” management process is resulting in strong performance for Home Depot

« Command and Control » refers to Military discipline, maintenance of authority with everything under control and very hierarchical.

The Positive points: People are hard worker, work as a