Due to my interest in the company I am currently employed with I will be discussing The Home Depot’s governance structure as well as their strategic planning. The Home Depot is a public company and all information about them as well as their governance documents are public information and can be found on their website. The website opens up with the following statement: "The Home Depot strives to be employer, retailer, investment, and neighbor of choice in the home improvement industry. Corporate governance is part of our culture and is founded on our daily commitment to living values and principles that recognize our ethical obligations to our shareholders, associates(employees), customers, suppliers, and the communities in which we operate." …show more content…
The company has 8 values they drive: excellent customer service, taking care of our people, giving back, doing the right thing, creating shareholder value, respect for all people and entrepreneurial spirt. They have many policies in place to ensure they keep up with competitors such as Lowes, JC penny, Harbor Freight, Lumber Liquidators etc. An example of such policies is the "meet and beat" policy in which at point of sale they meet any competitors price of an item plus take off an additional 10% off. The Home Depot’s strategic factors include creating an emotional connection with all customers. They have opened customer call centers so customers can call to receive the best customer’s services and fix any issues they might be having. They have recently created a new returns system to increase customer satisfaction as well as a new scheduling system for store employees to ensure maximum coverage at all times. Another strategic factor is product authority. The company aims to keep an assortment of products in all departments. Another strategic factor is productivity and efficiency. The company is dedicated to building the best relationships with its supply chains as well as leveraging new technology that allows them to lower operating cost and increase shareholder value. A strategic …show more content…
Employee satisfaction is as important as customer satisfaction when it comes to The Home Depot. Policies such as the open door policy and no retaliation policy are some of the way they make sure the employees are able to communicate to management. If not, they are able to call Human resources or the aware line anonyms to make a complaint. A survey is given every year to find out from the employees how they feel about the company. The survey is used to give the employees a voice and fix issues they might be having. Employees also receive many benefits including 15% discount on stock, 401 k plans, heath insurance and many more. Employees do get discounts on several different companies but unfortunately do not receive any discounts on instore items but maybe it is something they can look into in the
Established as the older company of the two, Lowe’s ranks forty-second as a Fortune 500 company. Established in 1946 as a small hardware business, Lowe’s has grown into a 40,000 product, global market enterprise that consist of 1,710 stores nationwide expanding into the countries of Canada, Mexico and Australia (Lowe's Internal, 2010) Home Depot, founded in 1978, is the fastest growing retailer in the United States. Ranked twenty-ninth as a Fortune 500 company, Home Depot continues to remain the number one do-it-yourself retail store in America. These two companies may sell products of the same nature, but comparing their Code of Ethics is their way of setting themselves apart. (Home Depot Internal, 2009)
In the early 2000’s Lowe’s was rapidly intensifying its presence nationwide. The company carried a varied assortment of home improvement products and catered to the needs of retail as well as commercial business customers. Lowe’s expanded their reach by acquiring a 41-store chain, Eagle Hardware and Garden, and engaging in a strategic alliance with HGTV to obtain a more profound existence in their market (Rouse, 2005). By 2004, Lowe’s operated almost 1,000 stores with plans to continue expansion across the nation (Rouse, 2005). The company has a core competency in helping customers meet their home improvement needs at a low price. In order to use this core competency to gain a competitive advantage, the company has focused on key functional strategies. To continue their success, Lowe’s must specifically focus on marketing, logistics, and human resource management strategies.
Home Depot’s slogan, “More saving. More Doing.”, promotes Home Depot’s marketing strategy with more appeal for customers with less money to spend. Home Depot carries major brands but also carries Home Depot exclusives and proprietary brands which save customers money. Home Depot carries major brands like Dewalt, Hampton Bay, Homelite, and Martha Stewart Living. They also carry proprietary brands such as Ryobi, Rigid, Behr, LG and Toro.
The Australian Stock Exchange’s (ASX) Corporate Governance Council (2014) defines corporate governance as “A framework of rules, relationships, systems and processes within and by which authority is exercised and controlled within corporations”. One goal of corporate governance is for the board members to increase shareholder value (Tricker 2015). In order to achieve this, it is important that the board act appropriately and justly so that the best interest of investors are protected. This report will explore the effectiveness of JB Hi-Fi’s corporate governance. JB Hi-Fi is Australia’s largest home entertainment retailer, selling a variety of products at discounted prices. Over the years, they have maintained a substantial
Since the home improvement market is highly competitive, Lowe’s needs to apply the best strategies to deal with Home Depot’s rivalry. This rivalry is as a result of the identical nature of the products handles by the two companies. The company should structure its distribution framework to pull down costs as the firm adjusts to changes in demand. The company should set a 6-month budget for research and development projects. To outperform Home Depot, Lowe’s should seek to expand its in-store services as well as the international operations.
Home Depot is the brainchild of Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank and came about after both men lost their job in the home improvement industry in 1978 (Parnell, 2014). Home Depot has acquired several smaller home improvement stores in both the U.S. and abroad through the years which enabled it to position itself as the world’s largest home improvement chain (Parnell, 2014). Home Depot focuses on the do-it-yourself segment of the market and sells sells tools, construction products and services. Marketing is a strong point for the company. They are able to maintain a competitive advantage by keeping themselves available to their customers at all times. Home Depot has been using both online and offline marketing efforts. The internet has become a very useful tool for the company and part of the reason that they are leading the market in DIY stores. Home Depot currently provides DIY videos on YouTube and Vine that cover current topics that consumers are likely to be interested in. They also have social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, where they have a huge following. They provide online communities where actual employees answer consumer’s questions and provide assistance on
Opening its doors for the first time in 1946, Lowe’s is now the second largest home improvement chain in the world, operating over 1,800 stores in the United States, generating $56.2 billion in sales and $2.6 billion in net income for 2014 (Lowes Newsroom, 2015). Employing around 265,000 personal making them one of the top employers in the nation, there is no question that Lowe’s must be doing something right. According to Lowes Newsroom, “Lowe’s professional customers represent approximately 30 percent of total sales, approximately 16 million retail and professional customers are served each week. (2015, para 3) “Never Stop Improving”, is Lowe’s slogan; encouraging employees and customers to work together to maximize their in store
The Home Depot is one company, of many, in the home improvement industry. This market is relatively easy to enter, in fact many materials, previously only at home improvement facilities are now available at e-commerce sites, such as “Amazon.com”. There are multiple suppliers, but those in the industry attempt to negotiate contracts with suppliers, limiting them to whom they may supply. Buyers have a great deal of power as the products sold are easily able to be substituted by products at other organizations in the industry. However, the Home Depot has built its organization so that replication of their processes and systems would be extremely difficult to replicate. They value their employees, their customers, the environment, and finance
Conclusion: Given the current economic status the home improvement industry is in a low spot with sales. With the decrease in building new homes we have to focus mainly on home improvements. The three strong points we have against existing rivalries are our great locations, quantity of quality products, and convenient customer service. With these great qualities we can move ahead and stay ahead of our competitors during these times.
The Home Depot learned the hard way that you must hire a leader that will stay true to the core values. The leader’s ethics and values will play a huge role in determining if the company will succeed or fail. The founders of The Home Depot built a culture on the foundation of respect, integrity, and compassion. The culture and customer service under the influence of the admired founders prospered.
The third Case Study “Home Depot’s Blueprint for Culture Change” studied Mr. Robert Nardelli’s role as the CEO of Home Depot. He approached management in an autocratic style, which was criticized by many. This paper will take a look at how Mr. Nardelli’s style follows Kotter and Cohen’s model of change.
The Article, "Renovating Home Depot," describes how, since the arrival of the new Chief Executive, Robert Nardelli, the business strategy has shifted to a more militaristic style. In the beginning, Home Depot was a "decentralized, entrepreneurial" business, and now is switching to a different management style. Nardelli loves to hire ex-soldiers, and is perhaps using the armed services as a role model for the new business structure. Under Nardelli's leadership, Home Depot is becoming more centralized and the good financial reports following this are signs that it a good strategy (Grow 50).
Once Home Depot’s marketing plan contains a thorough description of the scissor lift, it will then focus on the branding, pricing, and distribution of the lift. The plan will also need to include a product branding and pricing strategy, as well as examine how the pricing strategy supports the branding strategy. In addition, Home Depot will prepare a distribution channel analysis from which it will create a distribution strategy, determine whether the company is going to use a push or a pull strategy, and how the distribution strategy fits the product.
The first Wal-Mart was opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. By 1969 it was incorporated into Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and in 1972 went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company grew steadily across the United States, and by 1990 was the nation's largest retailer. In 1991 and 1994, Wal-Mart moved into Mexico and Canada respectively. By 1997 it was incorporated into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As of 2005, Wal-Mart has stores in the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico, and brings in revenue of close to 300 billion dollars a year. In 2006, Wal-Mart invaded the China and India's markets. During the last two decades, Wal-Mart has been able to take advantage of the rise of information technology and the explosion of the global economy to change the balance of power in the business world (Wikipedia, 2006). Today Wal-Mart continues to grow and their success is not only from their sound strategic management planning but also from its implementation of those strategic plans. In other words operational planning has been an important key to their success.
Best Buy, one of the biggest consumer electronics retailers in the world, provides products from smartphone, computers to large electronic appliances. It aims at offering a large variety of products with outstanding customer service at a comparably economical price. Yet, it has been facing internal and external challenges in the recent years. Bottom line and the share price are slightly catching up after a fall in 2013 but still barely satisfying the shareholders and customers are changing their purchasing habits which may threaten its future.