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DEL.ICIO.USHome Depot co-founder moves on
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The ever-present Ken Langone retired from Home Depot’s board today without a look back to the company he co-founded with Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank.
“It’s time to move on,” said Langone, Home Depot’s lead director who had served on the board since 1978. “Now I’m onto other things.”
Langone, 72, didn’t seem to want to dwell on sentimentality, adding that both he and Marcus believed there should be a retirement age of 72 for directors.
“Bernie created a great company, and Bernie and Arthur did a hell of a job,” Langone said. “But I think the company today is probably in the best shape it’s been in for a long time.”
Langone spoke highly of the current CEO Frank Blake and his team. “I feel very good about the company,” he said. ” Frank’s leadership is going to take this company to incredible heights.”
Then I asked Langone about the former CEO, Bob Nardelli (who is now with Chrsyler). It was Lagone who was largely responsible for bringing Nardelli to Home Depot, an era that was fraught with controversy and bad morale.
And even today, Langone continues to defend Nardelli.
“I think Bob made a lot of necessary changes,” he said. “I think Bob was great for the company at the time he was there.”
Langone did acknowledge that “I would have done some things differently than he did.”
Of course Langone still has big stake in the company. The proxy lists him as holding more than 16.5 million shares of Home Depot stock.
“It’s quite a change,” Blake said of the transition on his board. “It’s going to be hard to imagine a board meeting without a Ken Langone. I have a feeling I’ll continue to hear from Ken just as we do from Bernie and Arthur.”
The annual meeting did bring back Ron Brill, another one of Home Depot’s founding leaders who served as chief financial officer and later chief administrative officer before retiring in 2001. Brill half-jokingly said that had he stayed, he probably would have been fired by Nardelli.
Brill applauded the current management team and board. “I think it’s exciting that there’s a lot of new blood,” he said. “It was time to change management. And now there’s a lot of new thinking.”
Marcus attended the annual meeting, and afterwards was approached by an angry shareholder. “Go after him,” Marcus said pointing to Blake. “Not after me. I’m out of work here.”
As for the board changes, Marcus said: “This is the last of the old guard.”
Told that Langone was still defending Nardelli, Marcus said: “I don’t know what I can tell you.”
Then he referred to one of the shareholder complaints about Home Depot’s sales force lack of expertise in helping customers with their home improvement projects.
“A lot of the quality people who left, they left during Nardelli’s tenure,” Marcus said, adding that reporters keep asking him about Nardelli. “We are done. We are finished with Nardelli. He’s out of my life.”
To read preview column of annual meeting…
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Comments
By Lonnie Fogel
May 22, 2008 5:28 PM | Link to this
The extraordinary confluence of the talents of the founders, the loyalty and enthusiasm of the pioneer employees, and the “one for all, all for one” ethos among all concerned made this the most stimulating and rewarding professional experience of my career.
Home Depot proved that a corporation with a bedrock ethical foundation could be be highly profitable and provide an important service to the public.
Happy to hear that Ron Brill also attended. As for his joke about Nardelli, he clearly still has his great sense of humor.
Lonnie Fogel, former director of public and investor relations
By naturalcurl
May 22, 2008 7:56 PM | Link to this
Now that money-grubbin’, old guard Ken Langone is gone, I feel hopeful for the future of The Home Depot. Frank Blake will lead the company back to it’s good old self.
By DeBosco
May 22, 2008 8:14 PM | Link to this
I was at the meeting this year and last year. Frank Blake got an earful at both meetings. But nothing has changed at Home Depot. Service is abysmal. One shareholder at the meeting today complained about employees who don’t even make eye contact with customers. Blake may be a nicer guy than Nardelli, but his responses sounded like the bland replies of a bureaucrat. He quotes “metrics” but, as one shareholder admonished the board, “You gotta come out of the offices.” They collect their fat paychecks and are clueless about what’s happening at the front lines. The golden days of Bernie and Arthur are gone and will not return under the present board.
By Lonnie Fogel
May 22, 2008 8:15 PM | Link to this
Ken Langone happened to be an essential part of The Home Depot’s success. Money grubber you say? This man continues to give away hundreds of millions of dollars to a wide variety of good causes. As he once observed about money, “Put manure in a pot and it stinks. Spread it around and you have fertilizer.” Ken was and is a fertilizer and philanthopist of great distinction.
By Dwight
May 23, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
As long as Customer Service is only on the survey, it won’t get better. Will my Debit card be accepted or rejected by the HD systems today. Will the commodity item I need be out of stock with a little orange tag saying it is still on order? Why are the search systems limited so it is hard to find items (look up an appliance model number)? When is the store support system going to allow the stores to serve the customers rather than constrain them. It is going to take time to cycle the Type A store managers out and get ones with customer service leanings. Why are lumber carts kept outside if you shop for lumber inside (Hello!)? Why are aisles blocked 30 minutes after the fork lift work is done? Frank need to go through his IT department and get managers that are more interested in supporting the organization than being a dictator squashing ingenuity and proficiency. Outsourcing has really helped (sic). Check the self checkouts at Kroger, WalMart, Publix and others, then you will see how bad the HD ones are. I’m a over 30 years supporter of HD and many years in IT and consulting, but never at HD because it has always been a place for robots. This is a time to really look at the management chain and make the company responsive to customers. The associates in the stores do a great job with minimal staffing levels, lousy support systems and a resupply system controlled by the Store Support Center. It makes you wonder why HD is doing as good as it is. Frank has his work cut out to right the ship and new people on the board should help.
By Tobin Kohlhepp
May 23, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this
I must agree with most of the negativity stated here today. However, in the past few months there has been a noticeable improvement in the two stores that I frequent (Marina Del Rey, CA and Boulder, CO). That change is mostly in the displays and quality of appliances. The rest of the operation is still ridiculous! I can say that the Boulder store is hands-down, the best HD I have ever used. As for bad staff, absolutely!! At the MDR store, there are a bunch of gang-bangers that don’t know drywall from hammers. There are over 20 registers, and never more than two open. The self check outs are almost always broken. The store is a general joke. But HD has managed to put nearly every small store out of business - so I have no choice. I own stock in HD because Lowes is even worse, and the small stores are closing their doors faster than ever.If the new management at HD wants improvements - start with the employees!! Ninety percent of the MDR store should be in prison! The rest should be studying for their GED’s.
By DeBosco
May 23, 2008 7:41 PM | Link to this
I’ll add another comment from the shareholders meeting. A store manager from NC pleaded with Frank Blake to send him more help. He clearly wants to serve the customers but is stretched too thin. If he had said that the Bernie Marcus, Bernie would have been in tears and would have asked the manager to meet with him afterward to figure out how to get him the help he needed. But Frank Blake replied that the board is aware of the needs at the stores. That was it. It was dismissive. I have no confidence in this board. I have been a HD shareholder for decades. Unfortunately, I shop at Lowe’s - and that says something about HD!
By Tommy D
May 25, 2008 9:16 PM | Link to this
You want to forget about Nardelli?? Right…the moron ruined this company by firing the well paid employees that were experienced in the building trades….They could give a customer some valid and useful advice when they wanted assistance….not anymore…nothing but $8 an hour slackers that don’t know or care…..all to make the stock look good….who hired Nardelli??..sure you would like to forget it……dumbass
By mnemonic_man
May 25, 2008 9:58 PM | Link to this
Langone must be smoking crack !
Nardelli and Langone amputated the arms off of 300,000 associates and managers with six sigma and the shift to more pt workers. This forced our customers to shop at the competiton !
There is no metric for a defective CEO and BOD !!!!
Most of our classic HD talent are now working for our competitors or out of the industry thanks to the blunders of the BOD, Blake and Nardelli and friends. The HD supply disaster put many supply associates out of a job and then the fire sale to private equity was the nail in the coffin.
Hiring outsiders for store manager position was another nardelli failure. They do not understand the HD culture that was killed by nardelli and friends.
Nardelli and Langone were the best, for out competitors, that is !!!!
By newteamgear.com
May 26, 2008 10:56 AM | Link to this
I really sad to hear about the state of one of GA’s original companies.
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