Inside Home Depot

by Chris Roush

Book Overview

Reads like a novel, yet serves as a how-to guide for creating a customer culture and marketing strategies that wow Wall Street...I recommend this book as priority reading for all retail executives.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071340955
• ISBN13: 9780071340953
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 266 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Does not tell the real story

Home Depot is a place now where desperate employees come after being laid off from good jobs, are paid poverty-level wages, poorly trained and thrown out onto the sales floor to bear the brunt of customer heat. It is a company of metrics where if the employee does not measure up to the metrics,even if providing tremendous service to its customers, that employee is penalized. It is a company where employees are charged $9.25 for a copy of their W-2 and where the smallest deviations from the work schedule result in a demerit system which can end in termination of the employee. It is an environment where if an employee is given too much work in the time allotted they are blamed and when trying to defend themselves asked "what is the maximum effective range of an excuse?" it is no longer a company encouraging employee free-thinking or innovation and does not appear to share original values of the founders of the business who retired wealth yand without worry.

A good behind-the-scenes objective take on HD

Although I'm not an HD fanatic or investor, I found this book a good account of what makes this company tick. Given that it was done without the founders' cooperation, that is an even more amazing feat. I disagree that the book reads poorly; on the contrary, I found it an quick read, well organized and on point. Highly recommended.

Fascinating, uncensored look at Home Depot

First-time author and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Chris Roush of Bloomberg News in Atlanta writes of how one company revolutionized an industry through the relentless pursuit of growth. "Inside Home Depot" is an unauthorized, behind-the-scenes look at the most successful retailer to come along since Wal-Mart. A Wal-Mart executive even admits in Roush's book that "Home Depot is the best-managed retail company in America, ours included." The company's founder, Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, say that values like respect among all people, excellent customer service, and giving back to the community have made Home Depot successful. With nearly $90 billion in sales in 1998, Home Depot has become one of the world's biggest retailers in less than 20 years by focusing on customer service, treating employees like family, and relentless pursuit of growth. I learned everything I ever wanted to know about Home Depot -- and more. Roush takes the reader through Home Depot's "boot camp" training class for new employees. Instead of greeting customers with "Hi, how are you doing?" they are told to meet customers with the greeting of "What are you building today?" The book makes interesting reading for the Home Depot shooper who is awed by the success of this innovative store. And for up-and-coming businesses, there are lessons for success that can be learned from the Home Depot example. Home Depot author Chris Roush became an expert on the inside operations of Home Depot while a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he also covered Coca-Cola and Home Depot, as well as the entire retail industry. In 1993, his reporting on consumer issues won him a Pulitzer Prize nomination while he was at The Tampa Tribune. He was nominated for the Livingston Award by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for his reporting on the business scene. Roush also worked for Business Week and The Sarasota Herald-Tribune. -- Ed Williams Department of Journalism Auburn University Auburn, Ala.