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Home Depot, Inc., The


Self Description

April 2004: "The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer and second largest retailer in the United States. We help our customers build their dreams by being more than a store."

http://www.homedepot.com/HDUS/EN_US/corporate/corporate.shtml

Third-Party Descriptions

September 2007: "CEOs get away with stupid mistakes all the time. Some, like Robert Nardelli, the former CEO of Home Depot, drive their company’s stock low that their boards eventually oust them. But they leave with eye-popping going-away presents nonetheless. (Nardelli got several hundrd million dollars on his departure.) If you’re an average American who gets canned from his job, even through no fault of your own, you probably won’t even get unemployment insurance (only 40 percent of job-losers qualify these days). Conservatives tell us that unemployment insurance reduces their incentive to find a new job quickly. In other words, moral hazard."

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2007/09/moral-hazard.html

February 2007: Most large discrimination cases are settled out of court. Home Depot settled a sex-discrimination class-action suit in 1997 for $104 million. That same year, Publix Super Markets paid $81.5 million for discriminating against female workers.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0208/p01s02-ussc.html

January 2007: "Home Depot, the No. 1 home improvement retailer, announced Wednesday that its chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli resigned effective Jan. 2....Nardelli recently faced criticism from shareholders for what they claimed was his very "generous compensation package" relative to the stock's weak performance and declining profits in the face of a general slowdown in the housing market."

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/03/news/companies/home_depot/index.htm

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Member of (past or present) Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) Organization Dec 15, 2005
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Organization Executive (past or present) Frank Blake Person Jul 5, 2007
Founded/Co-Founded by Bernard Marcus Person Dec 22, 2011
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Robert Nardelli Person Jan 3, 2007

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Sep 07, 2007 Moral Hazard

QUOTE: When it comes to risky behavior in the market, America has a double standard. We’re told that economic risk-taking as the key to entrepreneurial success, but when big entrepreneurs take big risks that fail it’s amazing how often they get bailed out....Bush’s "ownership society" has proven a cruel farce for poor people who tried to become home owners, and his minuscule response to their plight just another example of how conservatives use moral hazard to push their social-Darwinist morality. The little guys get tough love. The big guys get forgiveness.

 Robert Reich personal blog
Jun 07, 2007 Stanford Professor Slams Office Bullies, Work Jerks

QUOTE: ROBERT SUTTON, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford...ministers to victims of workplace bullies and the companies that harbor them.

 Smart Money
May 01, 2007 Wal-Mart's Union Stance Attacked: Retailer's Tactics Are Extreme, Human Rights Group Says

QUOTE: Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group based in New York, released a report yesterday detailing what it called excessively aggressive tactics by Wal-Mart Stores to stop union organization in its stores.

 Washington Post
Apr 06, 2007 Venom on the Web: Nastiness online can erupt and go global overnight, and "no comment" doesn't cut it anymore. Here's how to cope

QUOTE: Most companies are wholly unprepared to deal with the new nastiness that's erupting online. That's worrisome as the Web moves closer to being the prime advertising medium—and reputational conduit—of our time...In the beginning, the idea of this new conversation seemed so benign. Radical transparency: the new public-relations nirvana! Companies, employees, and customers engage in a Webified dialectic. Executives gain insight into product development, consumer needs, and strategic opportunities. All the back-and-forth empowers consumers, who previously were relegated to shouting at call-center minions. Venom can be a great leading indicator.

 BusinessWeek
Feb 26, 2007 Activists put CEOs in a fishbowl: More shareholders are combining forces to scrutinize the practices of upper-level management.

QUOTE: As winter winds down, activists of varied stripes are gearing up for a new spring season of shareholder meetings by linking up with allies and upgrading their approaches. They're tapping into new networks, formed in the past three years, to rally grass-roots investors behind various causes. They're also reaping the benefits of new disclosure requirements intended to demystify mountains of paperwork and legalese that have traditionally enshrouded the inner workings of corporate boards.

 Christian Science Monitor
Feb 08, 2007 Wal-Mart suit shows glass ceiling still an issue: Despite four decades of focus on equal workplace rights, gender discrimination concerns persist.

QUOTE: A lawsuit against America's largest employer is serving as a reminder that concerns about gender discrimination persist, despite four decades of focus on equal workplace rights.

 Christian Science Monitor
Sep 11, 2006 Wal-Mart cheers 'big box' wage veto

QUOTE: Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley on Monday vetoed a "living wage" ordinance that would force big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target to increase their hourly pay and other benefits.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Sep 07, 2006 Congress Is Urged to Hold Off Acting on Options and Pay

QUOTE: The Senate appears to have embraced executive pay as an issue that could play well with voters. But with no bills in the works and the legislative session winding down, it is unclear how serious the latest bid for reform is. Moreover, no sitting corporate chief executive or their representatives were invited to testify.

 New York Times
Aug 22, 2006 Backdating's New Blacklist

QUOTE: According to headhunters, employees of scandal-tainted firms often have difficulty finding new jobs, even if they weren't directly involved in any nefarious activity.

 Forbes
May 23, 2006 Home Depot's CEO Cleans Up: CEO Robert Nardelli is a rarity among managers of major corporations: $3 million of his annual bonus is guaranteed

QUOTE: ...Home Depot's total return to shareholders...is down 13%, according to Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). Still, Home Depot (HD) has rewarded Nardelli, 58, handsomely in that period, with some $200 million in salary, bonus, stock, stock options, and other perks.

 BusinessWeek
Mar 22, 2006 Illegal Logging May Supply U.S. Floors: Firms Fail to Ensure Origin of a Threatened, Luxurious Wood, Group Alleges

QUOTE: A variety of hardwood threatened in Southeast Asia is showing up in flooring in the United States, where manufacturers, distributors and retailers are failing to ensure the wood's legal origin...

 Washington Post
Jul 29, 2004 Whistle-blowers form a breed apart

QUOTE: With or without the backing of the federal government, some people can't imagine keeping quiet when they witness what they believe is wrongdoing.

 USA TODAY
Jun 23, 2004 Wal-Mart Bias Case Moves Forward: 1.6 Million Women May Join Class-Action Suit

QUOTE: ...evidence the nation's largest employer paid female workers less and gave them fewer promotions than men. The suit could include as many as 1.6 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees...

 Washington Post
Mar 27, 2004 These Days, Consumers May as Well Keep Their Complaint To Themselves

QUOTE: ...[he singled out-Ed.] cell phone companies as bottom-of-the-barrel bad. But, he added, customer service has gone south in all kinds of industries.

Washington Post