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How a Strategic Mistake Cost Home Depot More Than Money
Swift culture changes can kill companies.
It was the late 1990s.
General Electric and The Home Depot were going through changes that would unnoticeably form a recipe for disaster.
Jack Welch, the CEO of GE, after an extensive succession planning (in layman terms, finding a replacement), chose Jeff Immelt as his successor. Among the top executives who lost the race was Robert Nardelli.
In a parallel world, The Home Depot was going through a turbulent phase. Arthur Blank, despite being a good Co-founder, was an ineffective CEO, with poor skills in handling managers. Consequently, the company’s supply chain management and logistics were disrupted. They needed a better CEO to take over the helm.
How were these two incidents a recipe for disaster? Read further.
Desperate Talent Acquisition
Ten minutes after losing the race for the CEO’s spot at GE, Nardelli received a call from Home Depot, with an offer — CEO of Home Depot.
This sounds like great things were happening to Nardelli, yes?
For any regular post in a regular company, that could have been great news.
