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Tyfanie Petersen MGMT 479 Home Depot

Synopsis:
Home Depot is a multinational company with over 2,000 stores located across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Argentina. The company was founded in Atlanta, Georgia, by three men, Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank and Kenneth G. Langone and went on to become the worlds largest home improvement store and second largest retailer after Wal-Mart. (Wheelen, 2010) By 1980, there were four Home Depot stores opened in various parts of Atlanta with total annual sales of $22.3 million. Soon after, Home Depot expanded further south and opened up four more store in Florida and by 1988, there were 100 stores in place. This number expanded to store number 2,000 in 2005. The corporation consists of several entities, including Home Depot, Home Depot Supply, Home Depot Landscaping Supply, EXPO Design Center and Home Depot Floor Store with a combined total of 345,000 associates. Annual sales reached $81.5 billion in 2005 with earnings per share more than doubling from $1.10 in 2000 to $2.72 in 2005. After co-founder Arthur Blank retired as President and CEO in 2000, Robert L. Nardelli took over the reins as the new CEO. Nardelli was a successful executive at General Electric and appeared to be a great fit with Home Depots culture. However, Nardelli had his own strategies that would quickly boost Home Depots growth, but with a lot of negative results.

Finding of Fact #1:

Home Depot stocks going down and Nardellis salary goes up. Nardelli resigned as Chairman CEO on January 2007, amid complaints over his heavyhanded management and whether his pay package of $123.7 million, excluding stock option grants, over the past 5 years was excessive considering the stock's poor performance versus its competitor Lowe's. His severance package of $210 million has been criticized because when the stock went down his pay went up. (www.nypost.com) He was succeeded by executive vice president and vice chairman Frank Blake. Blake agreed to a much more conservative compensation package than his predecessor that is very heavily dependent upon the success of the company. Before coming to the Home Depot family he also served as deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy which was similar to a role of chief operating officer in private industry. He also served the public as general counsel for the EPA and deputy counsel to Vice President George Bush and law clerk to Justice Stevens of the United States Supreme Court. (www.homedepot.com) He was a longtime deputy to Nardelli at GE and Home Depot, Blake has been said to lack Nardelli's hard edge and instead prefers to make decisions by consensus. Blake repudiated many of his predecessor's strategies, and it has been reported that the two men have not spoken since Nardelli departed Home Depot. (www.nypost.com)

Nardelli had pushed hard to make the company more efficient, instituting many metrics and centralizing operations, while cutting jobs to meet quarterly earnings targets. While this initially doubled earnings and reduced expenses, it alienated many of the store managers and store associates and eventually the customers. Nardelli, who regarded home improvement store by store sales as less important due to market saturation from competition such as Lowe's, aimed to dominate the wholesale housing supply business though building up HD Supply, a unit that Blake sold for $8.5 billion in August 2007 since it was not part of Home Depot's integrated business. (www.nypost.com) In comparison to Nardelli whose number driven approach never appreciated the role of the store and its associates, Blake's strategy has revolved around reinvigorating the stores and its service culture, engaging employees, making products readily available and exciting to customers, improving the store environment, and dominating the professional contracting business, an area in which Home Depot's closest rivals trail far behind. As he recognized that employee morale is a more sensitive issue in retail compared to other industry sectors like manufacturing. The slogan "More saving. More doing." was introduced by The Home Depot in the March 18, 2009 circular, replacing "You can do it. We can help." which had been used since 2003.

Finding of Fact #2:

Competition with Lowes. Both Home Depot and Lowes pursue the strategy of serving both do-it-yourself (D-I-Y) and building products. That there is considerable overlap between these offerings is one reason this is a viable strategy. However, the needs of do-it-yourselfers and builders can be very different. Do-it-yourselfers get to enjoy the low prices which this highly competitive industry brings in seeking builders as customers. Home Depot and Lowes differ in their strategies, however. Lowes has recently been stressing multivariate testing analysis in an effort to measure and focus its marketing efforts more effectively. (www.yahoonews.com) While Home Depot is the leader in the market, Lowes works hard, Were second, we try harder. Lowes seeks to raise profits through targeted advertising campaigns determined by statistical analysis, while Home Depot is not quite so scientific. Lowes innovative advertising plan recently pledged $1 million to open a National Garden in Washington, DC. The Garden will draw approximately 1.5 million visitors a year and Lowes will be prominently credited as a benefactor there. Likewise, Lowes has paid the Orlando Predators, an arena football team, to have its name associated with the team. Even more daring, Lowes has made a deal with the former Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina to change the name of the venue to Lowes Motor Speedway. While Lowes has succeeded in making its stores more appealing to women, who are a growing part of the market, Home Depot has been seeking multiple new demographics, recruiting more Hispanics in order to attract the Hispanic market. Home Depot has been expanding into countries new to it also, as part of their strategy. As part of this strategy, Home Depot has been working hard to improve its information technology, identifying core business practices and IT processes which can be used uniformly throughout the world, allowing them to expand their businesses quickly into new markets, even while

tailoring its marketing to each nation. Because it cant know when it enters a country whether it will open new stores or develop joint ventures, the technology has to be nimble enough to handle any likely scenario. They develop all applications as if they could be used anywhere in the world. Home Depot has also acquired the Home Decorators Collection, which provides an online Web Portal for the purchase of furniture, rugs, and lighting, and launched the specialty Web catalogs 10 Crescent Lane and Paces Trading. (Wheelen, 2010) In an effort to cut costs and streamline the business, Home Depot has eliminated over 200 reports and scorecards. One example of this simplification is a company-wide blackout on e-mail on Tuesdays and Saturday, allowing store managers to attend more to local concerns. (www.homedepot.com) Theyve reduced the number of products, while still carrying the number 1 and 2 market leaders products in every category, and are attempting to eliminate coupons, rebates, sweepstakes, and gift cards, all in an effort to lower costs and provide savings to all customers without the need for the customers to do anything extra to achieve that. (www.homedepot.com) Clearly, each company is approaching market development from different angles. This represents both the imagination of these companies and their desire to overcome shortcomings in their existing approaches. The Home Depot vs. Lowes drama is a study in an intense free market competition where both seem to be profitable and stable, even in the reality of the low profit margins of their industry as a whole. This competition has lessons for many companies that operate internationally and their strategies should be studied by those seeking international market. (www.yahoonews.com)

Finding of Fact #3:

Fulfill its mission in becoming a top corporation in the home improvement business. The renowned Home Depot Corporation is widely spread across North America, China, and other parts of the world with almost 2000 store locations. It is involved in the retail and service business providing consumers with all the help required to create a dream home. The inventory of each store is approximated at 40,000 with over 250,000 other products not present on site. These products can be ordered specially for the consumer from various store locations across the globe. The merchandise available at the different store locations varies due to the fact that each local region has different market needs and it is important that such needs are met for consumer satisfaction. These products range from different kinds of home building materials, improvement supplies, appliances, apparel, and lawn and garden products, amongst other products required to decorate and create your home. Despite making great strides in the retail business, it also offers services of various kinds to fulfill its mission in becoming a top corporation in the home improvement business. Many customers are not qualified professionals to take on home renovation projects. Home Depot Home Services offers professional help to such customers to professionally complete their project. (www.homedepot.com) These include the installation of windows to water heaters, floors to roofs, kitchen cabinets to vinyl siding, and fencing to landscaping. While the Home Depot Home Services program can provide support to the unprofessional customers, it also extends its helping hand towards the professional customers with special services and support to enhance their success through the Serving

the Pro Customer initiative. These customers have access to loyalty programs, a pro bid room to handle large customer orders with volume discounts, direct ship programs, credit programs and other specialty sales initiatives.(www.homedepot.com) Contrary to the fact that it is a business focused upon maximizing its revenue, it offers a variety of free workshops to help its customers. This is a great marketing strategy to gain new customers, while satisfying the existing ones. At the same time, they are able to promote their various products. Some of these include the free How-To Clinics offered every weekend at every store location. It allows the customers to gain hands-on experience and learn the different techniques involved in home improvement. Furthermore, it also offers the Kids Workshops for free on the first Saturday of each month between 9:00 am to 12:00 pm at all of The Home Depot stores. (www.homedepot.com) It is designed for children ranging from the age of 5 to 12 and their parents to gain hands-on experience. These free initiatives are beneficial for both the customer as well as the corporation. Thus, it is evident that The Home Depot has become one of the largest corporations in the globe in the home improvement business. It has fulfilled its mission of providing the customers with all the help and support required to successfully create a dream home.

SWOT Analysis: Strengths:

To my opinion Home Depot has managed to succeed and lead the home improvement industry only through its numerous and unique strengths. Some of the most important ones are: Company culture-The orange-blooded culture emphasized individuality, informality, nonconformity, growth, and pride. Taking care of its people-Providing excellent wages and benefits, superior training, and advancement opportunities. Excellent customer service-This is the key to the company success. Operational efficiency-Home Depot was achieving operational efficiency by upgrading its computerized systems and implementing the satellite communication. All of these investments would help in reducing cost, support growth, and enable better decision-making. Operational efficiency is very crucial in achieving low prices while still offering the same customer service. Television Network(HDTV)-Money saving device that allowed HD's top executives to get instant feedback from local managers, and allowed training and communication programs to be viewed in the stores. Advanced inventory management system-It allowed and increases in the inventory turnover. Electronic Article Surveillance-Preventing theft. Continuous experimenting and testing in technology and business strategies-A company can grow and be successful only if it invests money and time on its future development. Advertising-Home Depot maintained an aggressive campaign using various media for both price and institutional policy. Also sponsored the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, which

can have a great impact on the generation-X and Y who are going to be future customers of HD. Reacting with speed and catch trends early- This can assure a firm's success. Merchandising Strategy-It provided excellent customer service, low prices, and wide variety of products. Workshops-Can attract more do-it-yourself customers. No unions-The Company has never suffered a work stoppage. Foresee future problems-The year 2000 problem. Strategic Planning- Planning in advance how many stores would be opening in the next four years and how many employees they would need to keep the business going.

Weaknesses:
The strong management team of Home Depot has left less space for weaknesses but has not eliminated all of them. The greatest weakness that I noticed was the rapid expansion into unknown territories. For example, when Home Depot moved to Houston and Detroit. Both these terrain areas were less hospitable and the company lost money. I can say that this was not a well-studied move. Home Depot repeated the same mistake when it bought the 9-store Bowater Warehouse chain, and also when it implemented the Cross Road Strategy which didn't turn as profitable as HD expected. So all these moves were the result of not wellplanned strategies and could lead to a disaster if not prevented. Another weakness is the fact that HD is not doing a great job in targeting the women customers. The rack-type displays and the non-elegant stores definitely don't attract females like myself, Lowe's is even better at that.

Opportunities:
Being the only big-box retailer to offer a number of other exclusive, high quality products such as Prego laminate flooring, Ralph Lauren paints, and Vigoro fertilizers gives Home Depot the competitive advantage. Serving primarily to do-it-yourselfers, which is a largely recession-proof market. So, even during a recession Home Depot can survive and even make money. Offering a broad line of products that can lead to an increase in the number of customers.

Threats:
The biggest threats that I see for Home Depot are its competitors such as Lowe's, which are trying to emulate or even take a step further every strategy used by Home Depot. Wholesale outlets can also affect Home Depot by offering lower prices to professional business customers.

Serving to the DIY industry can also be a threat because it is a very competitive industry and the profit margin is very low. So, if the DIY industry is not managed properly, a company might end up selling it off, like Kmart with Builders Square.

Strategic Audit:
I. CURRENT SITUATION A. Current Performance Financial- The Home Depot profit margin currently is 4.4% and operation profit 8.4%. Trends- Liquidity ratio: Home Depot current ratio 1.39 which shows liquidity of Home Depot is good. Profitability ratio: Home Depot ROA is 11.92% which means Home Depot assets are profitable. Debt ratio: debt ratio for Ford is 0.52 which indicates Home Depot has more assets than its liability so it is attractive to investor. Data shows that sales growth increase by 11.4% and earning declined by 1.3%. Increased selling space realized through enlarging existing stores, and increasing productivity. Due to housing and home improvement changes the sales changes. Economic and current market conditions caused a slowdown in the residential and housing market and an overall market share decline. Market Trends- The Home Depot stores serve three primary customer groups: Do-It-Yourself ("D-I-Y") Customers: These customers are typically home owners who purchase products and complete their own projects and installations. To complement the expertise of our associates, The Home Depot stores offer "how-to" clinics taught by associates and merchandise vendors. Do-It-For-Me ("D-I-F-M") Customers: These customers are typically home owners who purchase materials themselves and hire third parties to complete the project and/or installation. We arrange for the installation of a variety of The Home Depot products through qualified independent contractors. Professional Customers: These customers are professional remodelers, general contractors, repairmen, small business owners and tradesmen. Today market trends are easily accessible location, friendly and helpful staffs, variety of merchandise, wider and clean aisles, ease of find out merchandise, lesser checkout time and other customer services.

B. Strategic Posture I. Mission The main focus of Home Depots mission statement is to offer high quality, competitively priced, products and service to its customers. The Home Depots mission statement is to form mutually beneficial partnerships with diverse businesses that allow us to deliver superior products and services and superb customer service, which ultimately increases shareholder value. We are committed to creating effective competition utilizing all possible sources. We will actively seek targeted diverse businesses and provide them the opportunity to

partner with The Home Depot to provide competitively priced, high quality goods and services to our customers (Our Mission and Outreach Efforts). 2. Objectives The Home Depot, Inc. objectives arise out of its mission statement. The main objectives from the mission statement of the company are to deliver exceptional customer service, superior products and services, competitive pricing through partnerships with suppliers and distributors, and increase shareholders value. The companys 2010 targets included: annual sales growth of 9-12 percent, earnings per share growth of 10-14 percent, add 400-500 new store openings with 40-55 million new square feet, and cumulative capital expenditures of $17-20 billion (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-7). The Home Depot also expects to expand its do-it-yourself market by $200 billion in the United States and more than $250 billion in the international market (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-7). According to CEO Nardelli, Over the next five years, The Home Depot expects to maintain and grow its leadership position in home improvement retail worldwide. At the same time, [it] expect[s] to become the nations largest diversifies wholesale distributor, become number one in services and will dramatically increase [its] directto-consumer channels (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-7). 3. Strategies The Home Depots current strategies are helping it reach its current goals and objectives outlined from the mission statement. The Home Depots overall strategy was composed of what Nardelli called the 3Es: Enhancing the Core, Extending the Business, and Expanding the Market (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-6). Enhancing the Core means that The Home Depot stores and product lines are always being updated to increase sales of current products to current customers (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-6). Determining success of this strategy was evaluated on the basis of an increasing average ticket paid by store customers and by improving store productivity (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-6). The second current strategy is, extending the Business. The goal of this strategy is to expand the primary retail business of the company into multiple channels (i.e. catalogs, selling new products or services) (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-6 & 20-7). The Home Depot continues to look for new ways to expand and grow its business. The last current strategy is, expanding the Market. Expanding the Markets goal is for the corporation to constantly grow with new products in new markets to help serve current and future customers (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-7). This strategy is being met by opening new store locations in other countries and by offering new building supply services to professional customers, such as home building contractors (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-7). Numerous new products and services offered at Home Depot, were being obtained through acquisitions of existing companies (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-7). 4. Policies

The Home Depots current policies are reflected in the companys Statement of Outreach, and Business Code of Conduct. The Statement of Outreach says: In our efforts to actively reach out to diverse businesses, we have chosen several different vehicles to enhance our outreach efforts in order to build upon our program. First, we are national members of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and the National Minority Suppliers Development Council (NMSDC). We also sponsor and attend national and regional diverse supplier and small business trade shows as well as chamber events. We also advertise in publications that are geared toward diverse business owners. We believe these vehicles, in conjunction with our web site, will assist us in effectively identifying prospective suppliers who will partner with us as we continue to grow our business (Our Mission and Outreach Efforts). The Statement of Outreach is a commitment to creating equal employment opportunities within the Home Depot Corporation. Giving equal rights and opportunities to women, and all minorities, is at the forefront of Home Depots Outreach Statement. Home Depots Business Code of Conduct and Ethics state[s]: Acting with integrity and doing the right thing are the driving forces behind The Home Depots extraordinary success. From the very beginning, The Home Depot, inclusive of its subsidiaries and affiliates, has been committed to conducting its business in an ethical manner-doing right by our Associates, our customers, our vendors, our suppliers, our communities and our stockholders.All that we do at The Home Depot must be consistent with the values of the Company. We believe in Doing the Right Thing, having Respect for all People, building Strong Relationships, Taking Care of Our People, Giving Back, providing Excellent Customer Service, and Encouraging Entrepreneurial Spirit and providing strong Shareholder Returns (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-11). The eight values defined in The Home Depots Business Code of Conduct and Ethics are expected of every employee and member of its team everyday within The Home Depot. The values are the fabric of the Companys unique culture and are central to our success (Values).

II. STRATEGIC MANAGERS A. Board of Directors The Company's Board of Directors is dedicated to continuing the Company's leadership position in matters of corporate governance and to maintaining an active role in the business. In addition to attending Board and Committee meetings, the members of the Board regularly visit stores and engage in the operational review of stores throughout the year. A substantial majority of the Directors on the Board are independent and each Director serving on the Audit, Leadership Development and Compensation, and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees is independent. Through its existing procedures and with the guidance of an informed, engaged, and independent Board, the Company has the structure and tools in place to continue to execute on its commitment to strong corporate governance. Due to decentralized organization structure Top level management retains most of the decision-making power and influence.

B. Top Management

The top level management retains most of the decision making power and influence. The decisions are made ethically and socially in a responsible manner. The Home Depot former CEO Nardelli centralizes organization structure. The Home Depot faces strong sales competition from various stores mainly Lowes, Menards, True Value, Ace Hardware, Do It Best, Sears, Target and Wal-mart. The top management is sufficiently skilled to cope with the future challenges because the challenges faced by The home Depot company are actually the same challenges that they have been facing for last few years.

III. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT (EFAS) A. Societal Environment 1. Economic a) The country is becoming more diverse and ethnic and gender diversity in U.S. workforce is on the rise. In income distribution more than 44% earns annually more than $50,000. b) 5% prime rate, 5.37% inflation rate. $160 million budget deficits, USA has trade deficits, 2.8% personal saving rate, 3.6% business saving rate, $13.84 trillion GDP growing at 2.2%. 2. Technological a) Technology changes rapidly and development. Market moves toward more feature, more advanced, durable, safer and economical vehicle. 3. Political-Legal a) U.S. has antitrust law to protect consumer and local firm and have different taxation laws. U.S. firm providing training for labor. 4. Sociocultural a) People attitude is changing according to economic condition and legal and political changes. Current economic condition discourage people to buy or renovate houses or business unless necessary. B. Task environment Michael Porters approach to industry analysis focuses on five main areas within the industry. These consist of rivalry among existing firms, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and threat of new entrants. For Home Depot, these areas are all relevant to its growth and stability in the market. The industry was a $700 billion industry in 2006 (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-24). In order for The Home Depot to maintain and increase its market share of the industry, it will need to analyze the industry thoroughly and take action appropriately.

IV. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT (IFAS) A. Corporate Culture 1. The Home Depot has very centralized structure. Robert Nardelli acted as president, CEO, and chairperson of the board from December 2000 to January 2007. From GE he brought new management strategy based on Six Sigma.

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2. Using six sigma principles he centralized the management structure of the company by eliminating and consolidation division executives, he initiated processes and streamlined operations, such as the computerized automated inventory system, and centralize supply orders at the Atlanta head quarters. B. Corporate Culture 1. Home Depots corporate culture has changed drastically as a result of Nardellis leadership style. His military background creates vertically oriented management structure. 2. Originally Home Depot enjoyed a sense of autonomy, as each store director was able to set prices and promote precuts within that store to match the needs of the community in which it was located. Under Nardelli, each executive and store director was responsible for various financial targets, and if these targets were not met, they were immediately terminated. 3. This expectation created a general atmosphere of fear and distrust. And most of the top executives were removed and replaced. Nardelli also implemented a part time workforce and eliminating many of the full-time employee position. This trend caused a great deal of resentment from employee who had worked full time before for Home Depot. They no longer receive medical and health benefits. 4. Part time workforce was combined with a management system that only focused on the bottom line; no time was left for taking care of the customers. C. Corporate Resources 1. Marketing The Home Depots marketing strategy is to offer a broad assortment of high-quality merchandise and services at low prices using knowledgeable, service-oriented personnel and strong advertising and promotional campaigns (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-16). Although it has a good marketing strategy, The Home Depot currently captures a low share of the home-improvement and profession supply market, with only 11% (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-16). It went to great lengths to capture more of the market by sponsoring the Olympic Games and associating itself with Olympic athletes (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-16).

2. Finance The corporation has noticed where it needs to make improvements and has taken action to do so. Concerned about Home Depots recent drop in customer satisfaction, management added 5.5 million more employee hours to the 2006 Fall/Winter season compared to the same period a year earlier (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-29). By doing so, it is staying on track with satisfying customer needs. The 11.5% increase in net sales in 2006 shows that Nardelli made a good move when adding more employee hours (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-28). This action has paid itself off in the long run.

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3. R&D Currently important internal factors are corporate structure and culture, HRM, marketing competitive advantage. In future important internal factors are information technology competitive advantage, financial, operation and logistic competitive advantages. More over marketing of product and innovation by investing heavily in R&D for effective and efficient products. Gradually the firm can enter in foreign market to gain market and efficiency and effectiveness.

4. Operations The Home Depot stocks approximately 35,000 to 45,000 different products in a typical store (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-19). Home Depot imports its products from across the globe; it has developed import centers in the United States and Canada to help process all its merchandise (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-20). The Home Depot has purchased several different companies, and tried several different strategies, failing numerous times. Although today, The Home Depot has its operations under control. Rather than operating several different segments, it offers something for everybody in its main stores. Home Depot stresses the importance of leaving a customer with a positive experience. It trains employees from the top down, as well as cross trains employees (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-23).

5. Human Resources The Home Depot believes that employees have to be committed to excellence. It strives to have the right people in the right place to best assist its customers. The Home Depot does not believe in paying employees on a commission bases. Bernard Marcus had said, The day Im laid out dead with an apple in my mouth is the day well pay commissions. If you pay commissions, you imply that the small customer isnt worth anything (Wheelen and Hunger, 20-22). Every employee is created equal, from the top to the bottom. The Home Depot is a team, if one person fails, everyone fails. When hiring new employees, The Home Depot looks for team players.

6. Information Systems Home Depot stays on top of the ever changing technological improvements. It believes that by staying amid the new technology, it will be able to better assist customers and their needs. Also, by staying on top of the new technology, the store will be able to grow and eventually reduce costs. It is important for The Home Depot to stay up to date in order to compete with its competitors. However, the technological advancements do not stop in the stores. It also focuses on improving its website, as well as other forms of communication to reduce cost and best assist customers.

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V. ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIC FACTORS A. Situational Analysis 1. Strengths: (a) Variety (b) Assortment (c) Price (d) Service 2. Weaknesses: (a) Organization structure (b) Leadership style (c) Expansion of retail stores (d) Supplier relationship 3. Opportunities: (a) Restructuring (b) Globalization (c) Innovation 4. Threats: (a) Intense competition (b) Higher buyer power (c) Innovation (d) Globalization (e) Economical conditions (f) Competition B. Review of Current Mission and Objectives 1. Current mission is appropriate 2. Some of the objectives are really goals and need to be given time horizons. VI. STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES & RECOMMENDED STRATEGY A. Strategic Alternatives 1. How to leverage its core competencies in the retail market and becoming an excellent corporation for customers and shareholders. 2. How to enter in international market to gain efficiency and effectiveness. 3. How to increase profitability and product sale to increase firms value. B. Recommended Strategy 1. Recommend the transnational and restructuring strategy. 2. Transnational strategy will gain advantage of global and multi domestic strategies. 3. Restructuring strategy helps to leverage resources and core competency in retail market and firm become a best corporation among share holders, employees and customers.

VII. IMPLEMENTATION (A) For The Home Depot to implement this strategy effectively, it will take the combined efforts of all departments and services. The Leadership Team will need to work as a single unit and agree upon the suitable strategy. Implementation will be important to communicate to all

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employees and stakeholders in the organization. It will take action from all areas of the company to make this happen and to effectively implement the pause/proceed with caution strategy. (B) From an operations standpoint, The Home Depot will need to focus less on growth, and more on increasing current store sales. This will mean allocating fewer funds for acquiring, building, and stocking new stores and more funds to improve upon current stores. The finance department must monitor the current economic situation, including the housing market, interest rates, and inflation rate. Marketing will need to focus on increasing same store sales. The marketing team will also need to focus on improving price strategies for its services. Human Resources (HR) will need to hire only what is needed in current stores and try to minimize employment turnover at this time. The Information and Technology (IT) department should focus its efforts on increasing technology software to make inventory management simpler and more cost-effective. The IT department should also focus on improving automation to increase efficiencies. VIII. EVALUATION AND CONTROL A. Home Depot has point of sale bar code scanning, electronic data interchange with venders, regional buying linked to the corporate communications network, and satellite communications for both data and video transmission. B. A satellite based network was deployed to tall stores in order to increase network resiliency and connectivity to our data centers. C. With the new improvements to the stores, new hardware was installed in approximately 18 logistics facilities. D. The installation of a new Radio Call Box System, designed to help customers obtain in aisle assistance, was completed in every store across the U.S. and Canada. Reference: Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. (2010). Strategic Management and Business Policy-Achieving Sustainability. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. "Home Improvement Made Easy with New Lower Prices | Improve & Repair." Home Improvement Made Easy with New Lower Prices. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://www.homedepot.com>. New York News. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://www.nypost.com>. Www.yahoonews.com. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.