A Home Depot Analysis

lowest Exam Questions 1a. The way that Nardelli laid emerge his intention for interchange was unitary of the reasons I recover it was so successful. He came in and addressed the problems that were clean to point out and also the unmatcheds that werent app bent to other(a) employees. Nardelli involve to re come on an government that could easily compete with other big names, and this was relatively easy because the batch at legal residence neckcloth knew the importance of pickings advantage of its growing size. Nardelli did this by implementing a three strategy plan that involve enhancing the core, extending the business, and rotateing the market.Nardellis first timbre in the influence was enhancing the core. This involved improving the profitability of current and future stores, as salutary as in existing markets. From the article Heart of Change, I think that Kotters first measurement, increase goading, relates the most to Nardellis first quantity. Kotter des cribes his first step like this A sense of urgency, roughlytimes developed by rattling creative means, gets masses off the couch, out of the bunker, and ready to move (Cohen and Kotter 690) strain writer life hacks. I think that this is what Nardelli was trying to make materialise in his first step for change.He require the deal of the company to turn back what the issues were, and make a point to say that if we stay where ar now, we provide fall behind in a few categorys. This sense of urgency and improvement was the skillful step to getting fireside Depot employees to headache and start to make the best change for the company. The first step leads right into Nardellis second step which was, extend the business. Nardellis purpose with this step was to get employees to come up with ways to better serve the customers. This was to not only enhance customer service, but to become a standout betoken among competitors.This was probably one of the most important steps and I think that Nardelli implemented it actually well. I associate this step to Kotters twenty percent step of empowering action. I chose this because Kotter outlines this step as Key obstacles that stop batch from acting on the vision are removed (Cohen and Kotter 697). The obstacle that Nardelli needed to remove was the similarities between his company and competitors. He did this by offering related home improvement services such as tool term of a contract and home installation of products. This set them apart and allowed them to overcome that obstacle and extend to move forward.I think that this was the most important step because it represents the major gamble in the road that Home Depot needed to overcome in order to continue to keep growing. The final step in Nardellis plan was expanding the market. This was one of the easiest steps to correlate to Kotter because I think that it make the most sense, without specifically saying that same thing. Kotters seventh step of dont l et up is described as this a change effort will accommodate direction and momentum build on this momentum and make a vision a truthfulness. (Cohen and Kotter 700).The whole point of Nardellis third step is to set about what they capture learned and implemented in the company thus far and expand geographically, even serve new kinds of customers. This was his way of carrying the momentum of success out as far as it could go, and making sure that Home Depot didnt let their success slip by means of their fingers. This a very good move on Nardellis part, and attracting new customers such as commercial contractors and even women, do a huge impact on the overall morale, and success of the store. The only thing that I would have suggested Kotter adds to his plan, was the carrying out of metrics.The Home Depot article talks about how in the runner there was some harsh resistance to the change, Resistance to the changes was fierce, particularly from managers more(prenominal) of the top executive police squad left during Nardellis first year (Charan 64). Nardelli did use metrics, and they did make a difference. However, I think that if he had do them a part of his plan and utilise them earlier in the process they would have made an impression on the executives that did end up leaving. If Nardelli had used metrics I think that they would have correlated with Kotters ordinal step, communicate for buy-in.This is described as simple heartfelt messages sent through many unclogged channels (Cohen and Kotter 697). Those metrics were the heartfelt messages that needed to be expressed to get hatful motivated even sooner. With my suggestion Nardellis plan should have looked like the following Enhance the Core, Express Metrics, run low the Business and Expand the market. Overall, I think that Nardelli did an excellent job, and that taking my advice, would have only yielded better results. 1b. When Nardelli first arrived at Home Depot, the elaboration was one that w as very close- pucker and family oriented.I chose this term to describe the elaboration because the former chief operating officer and chairman were often thought of as father figures by other employees Many employees scarce couldnt picture this company without these father figures (Charan 63). When information the article about Home Depot, there was one specific metre that stood out to me because it described the pre-Nardelli culture very well, It was marked by and entrepreneurial high-spiritedness, a willingness to take risks a passionate commitment to customers, colleagues, the company, and to the bow window and an execration to anything that felt bureaucratic or hierarchical (Charan 62-63).Looking specifically at this rendering of the culture, I can find characteristics that relate directly to low-context cultures, as well as to OReily, Chatman and Caldwells Cultural Characteristics. I came to the conclusion that the culture at Home Depot was a low-context culture specif ically because high-context cultures are based blown-uply on hierarchy. According to our class notes on culture low-context cultures are described as cultures that focus on that which is explicit. People are specific and clear in their communication (Culture notes 1).This description fits the culture of Home Depot, not only because it strays away from hierarchy, but also because it was very much based on entrepreneurship which requires specific and clear communication. I believe that the entrepreneurial high-spiritedness that is described above contributes to the feeling of a family oriented and close knit company. Relating the culture to the cultural characteristics of OReily, Chatman and Caldwell was relatively easy as well. specifically there were three characteristics that stood out to me innovation and risk taking, attention to token, and flock orientation.I chose these because of the way the culture is described. Innovation and risk taking is described as the percentage po int to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks. Not only was it said outright that this was a characteristic of the company, but I feel as though the close-knit environment promoted this kind of view making everyone feel comfortable and open to sharing their ideas. Attention to detail was not as direct as the previous example, but I related this to the description of entrepreneurial high-spiritedness.Attention to detail is described as the degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis and attention to detail. This definition force me to lean towards entrepreneurship because I thought that all of the qualities listed are qualities that would be infallible to be a successful entrepreneur. Again, these are all characteristics that thrive in a close-knit family style culture. Finally, I chose volume orientation. This is described as the degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect of outcomes on raft within t he organization.This definition not only relates to the passionate commitment to customers, colleagues, the company, and to the community part of the description, but it also relates to the definition of low context culture. I know that specifically bulk orientation talks about people within the company, but I think that part of the reason Home Depot was so successful was that it reached outside of the company to impact peoples lives. Lastly, a major part of the low-context culture definition is that people are specific and clear in their communication, and I believe that people orientation would not be successful if this were not a major factor.The pre-Nardelli culture was very easy to define, and point out specific aspects that made it easy to describe and compare. When talking about the part-Nardelli culture, the only thing that authentically stood out to me was a difference in the feel of the culture. By this I mean specifically it went from a close-knit, family style culture , to a big corporation style that is highly focused on building the organization to take advantage of its outrageous growth. Instead of focusing specifically on the people in and outside of the community, this post culture was a focus on merchandising and collaboration between regional and store operators.Everything was on a larger scale, and even little thinks such as shelf organization and signage were standardized and enhanced, so they were able to stay on the playing orbital cavity with competitors such as Wal-Mart. term I think that this doesnt change the fact that it is a low-context culture, because there is still a focus on people and communication and an avoidance of hierarchy, I do think that it changes some of the relatable characteristics of OReily, Chatman, and Caldwells cultural characteristics.I do not think that they wooly innovation and risk taking, attention to detail and people orientation, but simply that the focus was significantly diminished. Instead a focus on team orientation and aggressiveness was emphasized. Team orientation is defined in our notes as the degree to which work activities are organized around teams alternatively than individuals. While the pre culture wasnt so individually focused that it was everyman for himself, its that the post culture needed teams to make sure that all of the new projects like, merchandizing and reevaluation of the store environment, were successful.Finally for the post culture, there was a definite lean toward aggressiveness, which is defined in our notes as the degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing. I do not think that in the pre culture that they were quite a on the level of stability from our culture notes, but that Nardelli promoted an environment that allowed people to be assertive and aggressive towards achieving more growth. For the most part I thought that pre- and post-Nardelli cultures were very similar, minus the shift in focus from family busi ness, to large corporation.