Case Study : Your Customer Is The Star

Home Depot’s retail strategy is one of reasons for its fast growth and continued leadership in the home improvement retailer industry. Its focus on speed, efficiency, and quality has made it one of the largest retailers in the world. Home Depot focuses on being a leader in “product authority.” Walmart and Costco are leaders

Home Depot has clearly set itself up to be successful in the recent upswing in the housing markets. Their technology upgrade has proven to be successful in keeping stores stocked and employees more engaged with helping the customers.

Home Depot is the fastest growing retailer in the U.S. by some accounts. It has a fascinating history of innovation and entrepreneurship. The company had some difficulties in the mid-2000s that some attribute to cultural clashes. However, during this period the company was able to take full advantage of the housing boom. Yet when the bubble burst, Home Depot was forced to claim substantial losses. Despite these loses Home Depot has weathered the storm fairly well and is in prime position to take advantage of an economic recovery; if it ever comes.

The Home Depot knows that they must stay on top of technology and management must be able to organize this function in a way that surpasses the competition, pleases the customers, and keep the employees satisfied.

I believe that Home Depot has done an excellent job at reaching its goals in the past ten years. They have been able to expand their market by aggressively opening several store locations and using a clustering strategy. In doing this they have become a market leader and they have also been able to keep their SG&A expenses down by eliminating redundant expenses by spreading them out between stores close in proximity to each other. Home Depot is facing a few problems in order to continue reaching its stated goal(s) of becoming a global leader and expanding their existing market. There are a few established business that are in direct competition with Home Depot such as Lowe's, their number one competitor, and other companies such as Eagle Hardware & Garden of Seattle, who has been preparing for the intense competition

Home Depot is one of the most recognizable brands in Home Improvement. It also holds the largest market value in its industry. In 2017 Home Depot’s market value was over 206 billion dollars, its closest competitor, Lowe’s, held only 69 billion in market value (Net Advantage, 2017). During the

Home Depot is a for profit organization that is a family owned organization that was started with the beliefs that all their products should be natural and non-toxic to the user and the environment. It was started by an individual with an idea to be different from the rest. It was built on the principle of creating value for their stockholders while never forgetting their values. They seek to be profitable, responsible and balance the needs of communities. The Home Depot 's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor 's 500 index. The Home Depot 's proposition was to build home-improvement warehouses, larger than any of their competitors ' facilities.

When boomer demand slams into the market place, prices soar (until the fad passes). Nothing stops the baby-boomer. There is somewhat of a bright side to all the spending and boomer traffic. Being just a few steps ahead of the boomer can make an individual very well off if you know which way they are headed. Boomers have always acted this way. Still the largest generation in the United States has been shifting markets ever since the diaper and baby food industries in the late 1940's (Geoffery 59-64). Construction of elementary facilities exploded for municipal budgets—Los Angeles was spending $1 million a week on new schools in the mid-1960's (Geoffery 59-64). After that happened, the boomer moved on abandoning a huge amount of those facilities. When younger boomers wanted cars, the Mustang and Camaro were considered a phenomenon and as the boomer herd passed so did the sales. Suburban homes in beautiful areas were next since boomers were doing the family thing. Prices on suburban homes exploded in the 80's and as usual; when the boomer left, so did the sales.

Starting with the savings and loan crisis of the 1980’s, baby boomers, a generation born between 1945-1964, made many avoidable mistakes regarding economic decisions. Although the economy is always fluctuating, the onset of the baby boomers’ adulthood caused a downward spiral and the actions of Millennials aren’t helping. As the Huffington Post demonstrates, older generations are quick to judge, blaming the economy on Millennials and Generation Yers. On the other hand Newsweek, a more credible news site, shows that had generations before planned for the long term, Millennials wouldn’t have made this transition in the first place. By turning into a more “shared economy,” meaning buying things used and renting, big corporations are taking serious hits, causing them to layoff people and raise prices. Furthermore, the generational differences in ideals and behavior are also contributing to the distress. Although many would argue that these generational differences are common throughout the ages, they are further hurting an already weak economy.

The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is a home improvement, construction products and services retailer operating over 2,000 big-box stores in the United States and abroad. The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank with the vision of one-stop shopping for do-it-yourself (DIY) customers, installation services for do-it-for-me (DIFM) customers and competitive products for the professional market. Their DIFM installation programs include products such as carpeting, flooring, cabinets, countertops, and water heaters. In addition, the company provides installation of various professional products like generators and HVAC systems.

Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer operating in 45 states, Canada, Chili and Puerto Rico. Home Depot stores aim to serve both do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors with home improvement superstores carrying between 40,000 and 50,000 different products. Home Depot has also been listed as one of Fortune's most admired specialty retailers for the past six years. In order for companies to succeed in the competitive current marketplace they must consider not only the bottom line and their investors but also their impacts on the community, their employees, and their customers. Home Depot was founded on the idea that treating employees well is an important responsibility. Home Depot believes employees that are

Kyles (2005) defines them as competitive, political, hardworking, and nonconformists. “Known for their workaholic ethic, Boomers will do whatever it takes to get the job done and get ahead, and they expect to be rewarded. They outnumber all generations and hold a majority of management-level positions. They are also approaching retirement and are heavily concerned with financial and job security” (Kyles, 2005, p. 54). This group is very hard working and also offers a lot of wisdom that can be beneficial to those of the younger generations.

The Home Depot Inc. was founded in 1978 and is the world’s largest home improvement retailer and the second largest retailer in the United States. The sales for the fiscal year 2000 were $45.7 billion, compared to $38.4 billion in fiscal 1999. As of January 2001, the company was operating 1,134 retail stores in forty-seven states, six Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico, Chile and Argentina.

“The number of employees over the age of 55 has increased by 30 percent; however, the number of 25- to 54-year-olds has only increased by 1 percent” (Claire, 2009). In 2008 the eldest of the 77 million baby-boomers turned 62. Estimates are that by the end of the decade about 40 percent of the work force will be eligible to retire. As people begin to reach the age of retirement there may be not be enough new employees to fill the gap (Clare, 2009). Companies need to find ways to attract Boomers and Millennials. Companies that want to attract Boomers and Millennials need to be creative in their culture, HR policies and work environments.

When it comes to Millennials, there is nothing that screams “business as usual.” Consequently, savvy leaders who want to remain successful in the global business arena, must concede their current method of attracting, engaging, developing and retaining Millennials as future global leaders is ineffective. Therefore, today’s leaders must develop a more compelling strategy to entice Millennials into leadership. Failure to use strategic foresight to recognize trends regarding future organizational trends and take timely actions to change their tried and true, old school philosophy regarding developing and retaining talented employees will result in losing the competitive edge, which is driven by technology-laden Millennial’s who are poised to innovation.