...Home Depot: Research and Development Improvement Recommendations This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment for Business Marketing (EMBA) - March 24, 2013 Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 SWOT Analysis 7 Strategic Alternatives 7 Recommendations 11 Marketing Strategy 11 Marketing Implementation and Control 13 References 14 Executive Summary Where do you go to buy your home improvement supplies? Have you experienced an exceptional home improvement store that meets all your needs and provides exceptional service? If the answer is no, there are several reasons to shop at your nearest Home Depot home improvement store. You can count on the variety of products to choose from while viewing the floor showcase. If you are worried about transportation, we offer truck rentals and service installations so you can sit, enjoy and relax while we do all the work. However, we are going to change the customer experience, our goals and efforts are to change your experience the minute you step into your friendly Home Depot store. You will no longer have to wait for a cashier to answer your question because an expert associate will be available immediately to help guide you and meet your needs during your shopping experience. To help fulfill the new customer service experience, we will enhance our current Mobile App that will provide navigation around the store along with a product information scanner. We hope to improve your families shopping experience by incorporating...
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...They Can Do it! You can help! Home Depot’s Plan Home Depot had several intentions regarding the use of it organizational talent to gain a competitive advantage in the Do It Yourself Industry. The first of these understanding is that talent was the most important element in being a competitor and developing a reputation of having an outstanding staff. Home Depot realized they needed very qualified leaders to assist with finding talent. The second of these intentions were to have limitless and diverse channels of entry into Home Depot to mold personnel into program that would build leadership. Once they acquired the leadership talent they began to prepare them for bigger roles within the company. They began to focus on the bigger picture by: Their focus is the result of many things: * Embedding the enduring importance of human capital to corporate success. * Internalizing the importance of engaged associates in creating a superior customer experience. * Experiencing unprecedented growth in challenging employment markets. * Acknowledging significant changes in workforce and consumers demographics. * Understanding that talented associates tend to leave leaders, not companies, and therefore the competency and preparedness of leaders is paramount to ongoing success. When Home Depot began to focus on these key factors they were successful with opening new channels for recruiting the best talent that they could obtain. Recruiting Talent Home Depot developed...
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...Assignment #1 They can do it! You can help! A look at talent Practices at the Home Depot Kashoray Owens Dr. Lila L. Jordan Hrm 532 July 18, 2010 1. Discuss how the leadership at home depot intended to use its organizational talent to gain a competitive advantage in the do it yourself industry? The home depot is the world`s second largest retailer. With revenues in excess of $90 billion, it has the distinction of being the number one home improvement retailer in the world. On average, the home depot places approximately 17,000 leaders into positions each year. This includes placements as first- line supervisors and continues all the way to placing executive vice presidents. Notably, more than 80 percent of leadership placements are internal promotions, and the vast majority of those placements are into key frontline management roles interfacing directly with customers every day. In addition to placing a large number of leaders, number of hourly retail associates every year. It has created multiple and diverse channels of entry into the organization and developed dedicated programs that build leadership and functional skills. 2. Discuss the key channels that home depot developed for recruiting talent? Early on, the home depot recognized that talent was the key competitive differentiator in a rapidly growing company that built it`s reputation and business case on knowledgeable associates...
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... HR587, May 2010 Session Table of Contents Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………….…………………… 2 Assessment/Diagnosis………………………………………….……………..………………….. 3 Analysis of the Change Strategy…………………………………………………………………………….…..………… 4 Results/Outcomes………………………………………….……………………,………………. 7 Evaluation of the Effort…………………………………………………………………………………….……….. 9 References………………………………………………………………………...…………….. 13 Appendix A……………………………...…………………………………………………………………. 14 Appendix B……………………………….……………………………………………….……………….. 15 Executive Summary Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. From the start, associates were able to offer the best customer service in the industry, guiding customers through projects such as laying tile, changing a fill valve or handling a power tool. Not only did store associates undergo rigorous product knowledge training, but they also began offering lessons so customers could learn how to do it themselves. Home Depot is still guided today by those values established by its founders, excellent customer service, taking care of people, entrepreneurial spirit, respect for all people, building strong relationships, doing the right thing, giving back to communities, and creating shareholder value. (Corporate Website, 2003). I will be concentrating on the Human Resource department of the organization. They restructured their HR department by cutting down their HR functions believing that it they could create jobs in other sections of the company. ...
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...Home Depot A. Executive Summary * Introduction * The Home Depot Story - First Stage (1979-2000) * The Home Depot Story – Second Stage (2000 – 2006) * Problem Identification * Case Questions Introduction * Home Depot was founded in 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. * Both of them worked at Home Improvement Company in California and were fire by this company. * So instead of looking for a new job they decide to start up their own business based on a vision they had. * This vision was about creating home improvement stores similar to warehouses where customers would be able to find different types of tools and products with the help of experts in home improvement and customer service. * Home Depot created the concept “Do it yourself” (DIY) where homeowners were encouraged to buy products and tools and to use them to build, repair and improve their own homes. * This concept of “Do it yourself” was Home Depot’s main strategy to become successful in the Home Improvement industry. The “Do it yourself concept consisted on: * Prioritizing customer service (special attention to their customers problems) * Providing customers with training workshops and clinics to teach them how to repair their own homes. * Vendors and sale associates went through a rigorous training in product use before servicing customers. * Sales associates develop relationships with customers rather than just merely seeing...
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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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...Discuss how the leadership at Home Depot intended to use its organizational talent to gain a competitive advantage in the Do It Yourself industry. The best way for Home Depot to gain a competitive advantage and to maintain it in today’s business situations is to carry out and transform so fast that they bring forth a cycle of temporary competitive advantages. This can be extremely difficult to accomplish as it requires a grouping of organization policies, practices, and designs. It is specifically because it is not easy to make organizations that change rapidly and effortlessly that being able to do so is an influential and sustainable foundation of competitive advantage. Its one thing to know talent is significant and it’s another to make talent a foundation of competitive advantage. It requires maintaining the right talent and organizing and managing it efficiently (Sears, 2003). Maintaining the right talent is not easy, but Home Depot seems to get it done by dedicating resources to it. Discuss the key channels that Home Depot developed for recruiting talent. The key channels that Home Depot developed for recruiting talent has been built to meet the retail hiring needs and observes some of the leadership development programs that have been formed to meet the leadership talent needs of the organization. Home Depot works hard to attract top talent and then commits to supporting that talent while they prepare for upcoming leadership roles. They include: • Embedding...
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...Running head: STRATEGIC DIRECTION—HOME DEPOT Strategic Direction—Home Depot Keller Graduate School of Management J. Lambrou, Professor Strategic Direction Introduction What is Strategic Direction? This means taking your company in a direction related to what’s happening in the dynamic environment of what the business provides (be it in a services, manufacturing, technological, or financial area). (Olsen, 2007) Therefore, the strategy and direction the company take are defined by what established and unique value propositions the company has when compared to competitors; operations executed to provide different and tailored value to customers; clearly identifies any tradeoffs and clarifies what not to do; focuses on activities that fit together and reinforce each other; and is continually driven for improvement within the organization and while moving it toward its defined vision. I use The Home Depot (Home Depot here-out) for this paper as I have a part-time job with them. Strategy Home Depot’s simple and straightforward strategy is to ensure it diversifies its operations by having several businesses competing in the different product markets of home improvement. (Home Depot, 2008) The Home Depot has positioned itself within the industry based on a strategy of cost leadership. This operating strategy allows the company to earn above-average profitability by dictating prices from suppliers lowering input costs and minimizing distribution transactions eliminating...
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...Risk Assessment Introduction Home Depot was founded in 1978 by two individuals and they are Bernice Marcus and Arthur Blank. The two wanted to change the way people thought and took care of their home and their gardens. They created the do it yourself concept and that way of thinking has caught on and has spawn across the globe. Home Depot headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Today Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailers. It has over 2200 stores throughout the United States and that also includes Puerto Rico, U.S, Virgin Islands, Canada, Mexico and even China. Home Depot employs 317,000 individuals in all off the stores. Home Depot sells anything from carpenter needs, carpet, appliances and most everything that a person would need to complete their do it themselves projects. Strengths and Weakness The Home Depot stores has a variety of areas where their strengths and weaknesses are greatly measured and used to help make their business and their stores strive and be successful. The first area that is going to be mentioned is the stores. To begin the strengths of Home Depot it has to start will all of the employees. It also builds it strengths around their merchandise that they carry. They want to make sure that they have everything that a do it yourself person to do their construction that they need to do. Projects are what people want to do to make the necessary improvements to their homes and landscapes. Home Depot wants to make their customers feel...
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...to find ways to be more competitive so that they can take some of the customer base from the competition. How they go about doing that can involve many different changes to the strategy that they are currently utilizing. If an organization is not willing to change based on the competitions success, then that could be the easiest way for failure to occur. When developing a competitive strategy an organization must focus on the five generic strategies, how their competition utilizes them, the best strategy type, and how the company comes to gain products and services. When developing a competitive strategy Lowe’s must focus on the five generic strategies to ensure that they meet the needs of the company...
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...leadership at Home Depot intended to use its organizational talent to gain a competitive advantage in the Do It Yourself industry. At just 32 years old, Home Depot has created quite a name for its self. Everyone is aware that they can go into any chain of this international store and find practically anything they need to master their home improvement project. Behind the brand created by Home Depot are the smiling faces of every associate that assists the customers with the dueling task of locating the perfect product. The leadership at Home Depot is the driving force behind the organization’s talent and their efforts of being top notch rated in the Do-It-Yourself industry. Home Depot hires thousands of associates yearly to accommodate the growing demands of their retail company (Dowell & Silzer 2010). The leadership within the company uses its organizational talent to get ahead in this competitive industry by training the associates to be the best customer service team. Home Depot is known for promoting internally. With their knowledge and understanding of supply and demand, the leaders can monitor and promote the superb customer service brand. The leaders (shift managers, front-line supervisors, and store managers) are aware of the brand that is associated with Home Depot. Since the company has now expanded from America to Canada and even Japan, their servicing technique must be accurate to continue to promote growth. Discuss the key channels that Home Depot developed...
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...Cover Story Renovating Home Depot; Skip the touchy-feely stuff. The big-box store is thriving under CEO Bob Nardelli's military-style rule By Brian Grow, with Diane Brady in New York and Michael Arndt in Chicago 6 March 2006 BusinessWeek 50 Volume 3974. Don D. Ray is one tough hombre. The 39-year-old Kentucky native spent three years with the 82nd Airborne Div., one of the U.S. Army's elite units, serving at the head of a maintenance crew during the first Gulf War and an additional seven years on active duty. Then, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Ray suited up for service again, this time as the commander of a special forces A-team that followed the U.S.-led invasion into Afghanistan. His 12-man squad of snipers, demolition experts, and communications specialists hunted renegade al-Qaeda and Taliban. Combing mountain villages, he grew a thick beard, wore traditional Afghan garb, and rode on horseback to blend in with local Muslims. Ray and his men never killed anyone, he says, but they arrested dozens of suspected militants. Nowadays, Ray commands a different kind of operation. He has replaced crack-of-dawn physical training and green Army fatigues with sunrise store openings and an orange Home Depot apron. A store manager in Clarksville, Tenn., Ray runs a 110,000-square-foot box with 35,000 products and a 100-member staff, 30 of them former military. Many days start at 4 a.m. That's when he wakes, eats breakfast, catches some CNBC news, then heads to the store, where...
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...leadership at Home Depot intended to use its organizational talent to gain a competitive advantage in the Do It Yourself industry. The Home Depot is the second largest retailer in the world. With that title there is a need to employ a lot of employees. According to the case there are approximately 17,000 leaders into positions each year on average. This is a range from the front line supervisors to executive line supervisors. Unlike most company the Home Depot has more than 80 percent of leadership placements are internal promotions. With that high rate of internal promotion there has to be a seamless pipeline to develop that talent and still have the competitive advantage. That comes from their talent which they take very seriously. The key competitive differentiator in a company that built its reputation and case on knowledgeable associates, problem solving, and superior customer service (Silzer p 657) . The case also goes into detail and explains that the Home Depot was able to keep this focus was by doing the following: • Embedding the enduring importance of human capital to corporate success. • Internalizing the importance of engaged associates in creating a superior customer experience. • Acknowledging significant changes in workforce and consumers demographics. All of these factors help maintain the spot as the second largest retailer in the world. They put enfaces on the people and the service that they are providing. This also helps them with their...
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...around the steps taken by managers and corporations in improving the attitudes of employees towards recession. Real life examples are given in the form of consumer services giants like Bain & Co, Home Depot and Best buy. Now let us look at the facts and the answers to the questions asked. Facts Presented in the case: 1. Bain & co.’s CEO Steve Ellis hired people even during the recession. He added consultants in the hot-growth areas such as emerging markets and targeted experienced consultants who were left stranded during the hard financial times. 2. Home Depots chairman and chief executive Frank Blake set realistic goals to boost employee morale in spite of handing pink slips to some of the employees. This resulted in many employees getting high bonuses thus resulting in high employee morale. 3. Companies which took advantage of employees in the downturn were rewarded with many employees leaving the company. 4. Best buy found ways to boost employee morale by getting them involved in the organization. 5. JetBlue has cut back across the board and over the past year –delaying aircraft orders, trimming head count through voluntary unpaid leaves and even shedding the free pillows from its aircraft in order to cut costs. Identifying the Key issues: The key issues that can be observed from the above case are as follows. 1. Corporations all over the world are facing the effects of recession and the major concern for them is cutting of costs. 2. the most ideal way...
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...TAVIS COBURN Deep, lasting culture change requires an integrated approach that remodels a company’s social systems. The leadership team of Home Depot employed a remarkable set of tools to do that. by Ram Charan W hen Robert Nardelli arrived at Home Depot in December 2000, the deck seemed stacked against the new CEO. He had no retailing experience and, in fact, had spent an entire career in industrial, not consumer, businesses. His previous job was running General Electric’s power systems division, whose multimilliondollar generating plants for industry and governments were a far cry from $10 light switches for do-it-yourselfers. re tu ul C Change HOME DEPOT’S BLUEPRINT FOR april 2006 61 H o m e D e p o t’s B l u e p r i n t f o r C u l t u re C h a n g e Nardelli also was taking over what seemed to be a wildly successful company, with a 20-year record of growth that had outpaced even Wal-Mart’s – but with latent financial and operational problems that threatened its continued growth, and even its future, if they weren’t quickly addressed. To top it off, Nardelli’s exacting and tough-minded approach, which he learned at General Electric, set him on a collision course with the freewheeling yet famously close-knit culture fostered by his predecessors, Home Depot’s legendary cofounders, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. It was this culture that Nardelli had to reshape if he hoped to bring some big-company muscle to the cooled from the breakneck pace of the...
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