Home Depot’s Blueprint for
Culture Change
Harvard Business Review
By: Ram Charan
Robert Nardelli
CEO of Home Depot – December 2000
 Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank Home
Depot’s legendary cofounders
 Goals:

Independence of stores
 Take advantage of economies of scale
 Inflexibility of company
 Decentralized

Three part strategy

Enhance the core by improving the profitability of
current and futures stores in existing markets

Extend the business by offering related services such
as tool rental and home installation of Home Depot
products

Expand the market, both geographically and by
serving new kinds of customers
Tools for cultural change

To improve the collective ways in which people
work together across the organization which
supports the business model.




Metrics
Processes
Programs
Structures
Way’s to achieve strategy

Taking advantage of its growing scale

Centralize certain functions (purchasing) in order to
leverage buying power

Functional, regional and store operations need to
collaborate

Store environment needs re-evaluated
Metrics

Describes the values and makes clear what people will
be accountable for.

Standardized the performance management process
based upon quantitative criteria.

Three one-page documents
Processes
Programs

Set up five day forums which including district and
store managers

Nearly 1,800 people

Small groups set up to invision where the company is
going.

“This is what Bob and his team are trying to do”

Continued commitment has continued
Structure
Centralize Purchasing
 “Super Saturday”
 Get people affected by a change to help
define the problem and design the
solution.
 Base your change on hard data

Home Depot Culture Today
Process
 Hard Data
 Accountability
