|
|
 |
 |
February 2005 Home Depot Retools to Stay on Top
Home Depot has soared since Bob Nardelli took over as CEO in late 2000. After 20 years of success, the firm was at the top of its industry but had grown complacent. There was no mid-range forecasting process, technology systems were outdated, and merchandising techniques and the product line seemed stale. Today a new Home Depot store opens every 48 hours, Nardelli told a Business School audience in October. The company’s 1,813 stores generate $7 million worth of sales every hour and 1.25 billion transactions every year. In the past three years, Home Depot has grown its top line by $19 billion. To accomplish this, Nardelli introduced a new system he calls SOAR, which stands for strategic operating and resource planning and is expressed in a large flow chart on prominent display at strategy sessions. “It allows us to see opportunities we otherwise weren’t seeing,” he said. SOAR has brought the company a more market-focused, consumer-centric view. Nardelli is modernizing the stores and changing the shopping experience to meet new customer tastes. He introduced Ralph Lauren paints and other upscale brands, installed 800 self-checkout counters for faster transactions, and invested in 90,000 wireless bar code readers to make checkout easier for customers with bulky merchandise. “We have a template for change management, where we have to focus on the things we’re doing and if are they relevant to the strategy. If not, we’re probably wasting our time,” he said. “The landscape is strewn with retailers who got locked into a paradigm and couldn’t change.” |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Spreadsheet 
