Session 3
The Home Depot, Inc.
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How many of you have tried DIY Home Furnishing?
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Beginnings
Initial vision: “one-stop shopping for the
do-it-yourselfer”
The very first store had 25,000 SKUs
Youngest retailer to have crossed USD 30
B, 40 B and 50 B and so on..
Cultural and macro-economic factors
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The ‘inverted pyramid’ structure
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Discussion
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Summary of Case
Who get’s to make decisions is very important in multi-unit operations such as retail, hotels,
restaurant chains
Both centralized and decentralized planning and purchasing has advantages. Maybe have a
broadly central organization with injections of decentralization, or the other way round.
Accept that some imperfections arise in store execution (remember the 100% comment?)
Manage the tension between in-store logistics and personalized selling
So, did they take the right decision in asking Nardelli to leave?
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Out of curiosity, what happened after Nardelli?
Less emphasis on more stores, more emphasis on same store sales growth
60/40 initiative
Emphasis on learning
Centralized merchandising with a regional flavour
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