Focus on the Leader
Power and Influence
The Home Depot learned the hard way that you must hire a leader that will stay true to the core values. The leader’s ethics and values will play a huge role in determining if the company will succeed or fail. The founders of The Home Depot built a culture on the foundation of respect, integrity, and compassion. The culture and customer service under the influence of the admired founders prospered.
The founders hired a CEO to continue guiding the company on the path towards success but realized too late that they overlooked an important component. The CEO lacked the character and traits needed to positively develop and lead the company and its people. After facing a major decline in customer service and an uptick in employee turnover, The Home Depot realized that it needed to resort back to the basic guiding principles. They must choose a leader that buys into the same vision and philosophy that the company was built upon. The leader must behold the same values that were cherished by the founders and must be willing to invest in nurturing the culture, the associates and customers.
Leadership and Values
The founders of The Home Depot, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, set the foundation of their company on eight core values that are transferable to any business. Their tools for success included:
• Give excellent customer service.
• Take care of your people.
• Develop entrepreneurial spirit.
• Respect all people.
• Build strong relationships with associates, customers, vendors and communities.
• Do the right thing, don't just do things right.
• Give back to the community as an integral part of doing business.
• Take care of your shareholders.
(http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197614#...
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...treet. To further augment his point, Blake created a live call in show, Inbox Live, to provide the platform and opportunity for all of The Home Depot associates to open up and ask anything. The questions were not scripted and Blake answered honestly.
Blake modeled the behavior he sought. He knew the key behavior in creating a satisfied and committed workforce was being honest and acting with integrity. Blake was a role model. He used reward power to highlight and encourage behaviors that were in line with the vision. He rewarded the workforce by bringing back store bonuses and employee awards for great service.
Blake’s leadership traits and behaviors have been essential in harnessing the energy and efforts of The Home Depot workforce. He has been able to motivate and inspire his team to share in the vision, drive towards the vision, and see it succeed.
Home Depot is the brainchild of Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank and came about after both men lost their job in the home improvement industry in 1978 (Parnell, 2014). Home Depot has acquired several smaller home improvement stores in both the U.S. and abroad through the years which enabled it to position itself as the world’s largest home improvement chain (Parnell, 2014). Home Depot focuses on the do-it-yourself segment of the market and sells sells tools, construction products and services. Marketing is a strong point for the company. They are able to maintain a competitive advantage by keeping themselves available to their customers at all times. Home Depot has been using both online and offline marketing efforts. The internet has become a very useful tool for the company and part of the reason that they are leading the market in DIY stores. Home Depot currently provides DIY videos on YouTube and Vine that cover current topics that consumers are likely to be interested in. They also have social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, where they have a huge following. They provide online communities where actual employees answer consumer’s questions and provide assistance on
After thirty years as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Fortuga Artisans, Peter Fortuga is retiring from the company he started to manufacture home decor. As a result, the company conducted an extensive search and found an ideal candidate Doug Jeffers. However, two years into his tenure as CEO Jeffers and Fortuga experienced a high turnover rate with numerous key resignations. During a resignation of his executive assistant, the employees and managers at Fortuga determined Jeffers is the cause of the organizational concerns. Consequently, Jeffers became introspective, and he questioned his ability to lead. In fact, Jeffers would be astute to conduct a personal assessment of his leadership style, capabilities,
The CEO needs to create a corporate culture. His culture will determine what people should be doing and what should do not be trying. He can decide who will stay, who will leave, and how the job will get done. Culture starts with the boss. He can decide how he wants people to act and start modeling the behavior publicly. STOPPED HERE…!!!:)
In the early 2000’s Lowe’s was rapidly intensifying its presence nationwide. The company carried a varied assortment of home improvement products and catered to the needs of retail as well as commercial business customers. Lowe’s expanded their reach by acquiring a 41-store chain, Eagle Hardware and Garden, and engaging in a strategic alliance with HGTV to obtain a more profound existence in their market (Rouse, 2005). By 2004, Lowe’s operated almost 1,000 stores with plans to continue expansion across the nation (Rouse, 2005). The company has a core competency in helping customers meet their home improvement needs at a low price. In order to use this core competency to gain a competitive advantage, the company has focused on key functional strategies. To continue their success, Lowe’s must specifically focus on marketing, logistics, and human resource management strategies.
Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank in Atlanta, Georgia. With their store, Marcus and Blank revolutionized the do-it-yourself home improvement market in the United States. Home Depot began as a very basic store, operated in a large, no-frills warehouse. Home Depot carries over 35,000 products, with national brand names along with the Home Depot brand. At the start, Home Depot was able to offer exceptional customer service with knowledgeable employees who could guide customers through home renovation projects. Since its opening, Home Depot has experienced incredible growth, and today is North America's second largest retailer, and the largest home improvement retailer. Internationally, Home Depot has expanded into Canada, Mexico, and is beginning to operate stores in China. Home Depot's competition includes Sears, Ace Hardware and Lowes (the main competitor).
Each organization big or small has its own values, ways of doing things and assumption that it operates in. The principles and ethics that exist in each of these companies are the baseline through which the company operates its affairs. This is what can be called as that organization’s culture. The culture in existence has an impact on the productivity, effectiveness and efficiency (Keyton, 2011). The basis of setting the most appropriate culture of a company is not only to move or increase the profitability but also to make the stakeholders happy and satisfied. One aspect of that is the employee or the human resource the firm who put their expertise in the firm and add a bit of creativity and innovativeness to move the products. Chick-Fil-A operates in a competitive industry thus it requires all the stakeholders.
This case study demonstrates a young woman leader, Toby Johnson, who used to serve in the military as a pilot and attended Harvard Business School, joined PepsiCo’s Leadership Development Program (LDP), and was working in the management team at the Williamsport plant. She determined to forge ahead, and led the plant to achieve the Level 3 CI and also won the Doolin Award, which the Williamsport plant had never achieved before. The problem that Johnson encounters currently is that if the plant should continue to forge ahead and achieve the ultimate Level 4 CI, which will cost huge amount of money and efforts with the risk of her sudden leave of plant.
The organization that I chose is Home Depot. There are many management and leadership roles within the organization. At Home Depot, dedication to serving their customers and providing the ultimate shopping experience is the highest priority. Helping to maintain this focus and commitment is a leadership team that believes in the company's values. The team also believes that a commitment to great customer service will create value for all stakeholders.
As we learn from the case study, the Lincoln Electric Company is the largest global manufacturer of machines for welding, which are used in all kinds of construction projects. This means that the company has a large global presence and many employees, so its culture affects thousands of its workers. Even though it is now 2014, the company still has a large market share and very satisfied employees, so clearly the culture leaves employees satisfied and motivates them to work hard for the company.
Leading by example embodies Camden’s focus on results. Camden’s philosophy is to do what it takes to get a job completed. Leaders - especially those in charge of a project - are required to...
Sears Holdings is a company in transition. Now, faced with adversity and the threat of bankruptcy looming its leadership has come under scrutiny. “Great leaders not only have drive; they want to lead. Also important is a high need for power, a preference to be in leadership rather than follower positions. A high power need induces people to attempt to influence others, and sustains interest and satisfaction in the process of leadership. When the power need is exercised in moral and socially constructive ways, rather than to the detriment of others, leaders inspire more trust, respect, and commitment to their vision (Bateman, pp 399, 2007).”
Mr. Blake has also brought back personal responsibility to managers, who may be more knowledge about the market requirements (Jacobs 2007). He still holds TV-shows, but now as monthly and live call-in, with a different name of InBox Live. Regardless of their level, all associates are encouraged to ask him questions (Tobin 2010).
...r whole effort into it and they give above and beyond because they want the result to be good for results matter. The leader generates work that meet commitment and generate results that surpass and go above and beyond the normal requirement (Lord & Maher, 1991).
Nonetheless, his charismatic leadership style didn’t mean he avoided working towards the vision. He didn’t hesitate to cut costs, even if it meant laying off employees, because his ultimate vision was about creating a valuable and respectful business. He wanted to create an organisation that would beat its rivals and in order to do this, he had to weed out mediocrity from his company. While this meant certain people had to go, it also improved the company’s communication, its development and ultimately its bottom
Leadership is one of the most important facets in organizations. In most cases, leaders act with respect to organizational culture as well as the codes of conduct that determine the manner in which leaders relate with subordinates. Leadership entails the use of effective communication skills to get activities done in the workplace and to ensure that employees shelve their individual interests for the sake of their organizations’ shared targets. It is the role of leaders to ensure that consumers attain high quality products and services by making certain that members of their firms’ workforce are fully motivated to work effectively and utilize resources in an efficient manner (Bass, 22). With the increasingly sophisticated nature of the corporate world, leadership should not be based solely on the desire to control and coordinate affairs within the workplace, but leaders should also exhibit positive examples and continually monitor the changing trends in corporate governance to initiate the most relevant guidelines. Competitiveness can only be attained when leaders are in a position to set the right standards in their firms and coordinate affairs appropriately by understanding consumer and employee needs.