Abstract

Home Depot was the biggest retailer of home improvement products in the US in the early 2000s. The company was also well known for its entrepreneurial and laissez-faire culture, a culture fostered by co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, who led the company from 1978 to 2000. In late 2000 however, the board appointed Robert Nardelli, a GE veteran, as CEO. Nardelli was given the task of solving the problems that the company ran into in the late 1990s. The case discusses the cultural changes at Home Depot under the leadership of Nardelli. Nardelli was responsible for changing Home Depot’s culture from an entrepreneurial and informal one, to one that focused on processes. He also introduced a fair amount of centralization and managed to link the various departments and regions of the company together.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Effect of change in leadership on culture
• cultural evolution in an organization.

Keywords

Home Depot, Bob Nardelli, Operation Career Front, Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Organizational culture, Wal-Mart, Dennis Donovan, Change management, Leadership institute, Training and development, Cultural transition, Retail industry and General Electric