Arthur Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot, reflects on stepping down in 2001 and the subsequent controversial tenure of successor CEO Bob Nardelli.
Opinion
Blank: NFL anthem protests address social injustice, not military disrespect
“And I will tell you, there are 1750 players in the NFL, and I will tell you, these players have great respect for the military, and so it's not about the military to them. It's just that becomes an opportunity, a platform for them to speak about their concerns…”
Opinion
Blank: NFL players should stand respectfully for national anthem
“Having said that, I mean, I think that players should stand, and should stand respectfully for the national anthem.”
Insight
Blank: Home Depot concept arose by defining an uncompetitive retail model
“Bernie had said, well, you know, if we were ever to leapfrog our own business, Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers, what kind of home improvement center store could we not compete against? And so we said we could never compete against the big warehouse, no fril…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blank: Early competitors believed Home Depot's business model would fail
“Every competitor came into our stores and visited us and said, I mean, these, I can't use bad words here because this is like kind of a live radio thing, but these, ah, whatever you want to call us, they're crazy. The stores are much too big. Prices are much t…”
Disclosure
Blank: Home Depot avoided planograms so every new store improved
“Really, at HD, we had a five year plan, we had a one year budget, we had all of that, but we focused on every single store, and our plan was that each store had to be better than the last store we opened up. So we didn't have any plantograms. We didn't have an…”
Assertion Supported
Blank: Handy Dan was the most successful US home improvement chain
“Well, that company, Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers, was, and we operated kind of a traditional model, 40,000 square feet, 40% gross margin, 40 associates on the floor and it was by far the most successful chain of Home Improvement Center. Stores in the cou…”