Home Depot...?

[Bigmack]

I've been avoiding HD like Mall-Wart, but I read this piece in the local (mostly rightwing) rag.

Is this a puffpiece or is there a fundamental change at HD?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2012783334_homedepotprofilte05.html

snips.....

Frank Blake is Home Depot's 'calmer-in-chief'

Frank Blake's mellow, it's-not-about-me style helped him move Home Depot past the emotionally charged reign of predecessor Bob Nardelli and recapture some of the culture fostered by its founders. It also syncs with his push to get the company back to its service-oriented roots.

By Rachel Tobin
Atlanta Journal-Constitution


ME DEPOT, INC. / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Home Depot CEO and Chairman Frank Blake has been the "calmer-in-chief" after the emotionally charged reign of his predecessor, Bob Nardelli.
Francis "Frank" S. Blake

Age: 61
Born: Boston

Education: Harvard University, Columbia University School of Law.

Career highlights: Law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Jobs at General Electric included general counsel and senior vice president of business development. Deputy secretary for the Department of Energy and general counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency.

ATLANTA — Soon after becoming the top executive at Home Depot in 2007, Frank Blake read to employees on a live TV broadcast from a copy of "Built from Scratch," the company biography written by founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank.

The gesture didn't cost anything, move the stock price or ease the tough decisions Blake soon started making to downsize the Atlanta-based home-improvement retailer. But it set the tone for Blake's tenure as he has guided the company through the Great Recession and its savage effect on anything housing-related.

Blake's mellow, it's-not-about-me style helped him move Home Depot past the emotionally charged reign of predecessor Bob Nardelli and recapture some of the culture fostered by its founders. It also syncs with his push to get the company back to its service-oriented roots.

At the same time, Blake has found himself compelled to order painful steps to lay off thousands, sell an entire division, close poor-performing stores and restructure internally.

"You might be scratching your heads, going, 'This guy is too much of a nice guy,' " said Jeremy Garlington, a leadership consultant in Atlanta and managing partner of Point of View. "But from what he faced from a reputation point of view, he gets very high marks in righting the ship. He's been the calmer-in-chief for that company."

[Skittles]

1. what piece?

[Bigmack]

3. Goddam 'puter had a premature ejaculation... it's fixed. nt

[Skittles]

4. you want I should kick some premature ej'ing computer ass, Bigmack?

LEMME AT IT

[teenagebambam]

2. No link but

At least in my neck of the woods (Florida) they offer same sex partner benefits, which is a plus for me

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Guess they have come a way since Nardelli and his Bush asskissing and big donations.

HD was as red as a company could get. I only went to Lowe's. Good to think they have come back from the precipice.

[madrchsod]

6. home depot`s customer service sucks

as does menards here in the midwest. lowes customer service is the best of any store i`ve been in.

[moobu2]

7. Right Wing Christianists have been

boycotting Home depot for several months now... Home Depot must be doing something right.

[saltpoint]

8. My question is about the Power of the Home Depot,

which is their latest ad pitch.

Is the Power of the Home Depot a good thing, do you think?

One hardly knows how to proceed.