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Famous Quote
“We believed from the beginning that if we brought customers quality products at the right price and offered excellent service, we could change retail in the United States. today, we model what retail should be. “
Starting the Business
in the late 1970s, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were both working the home center chain in Southern California called Handy Dan when Siegfried S. Sigoloff, known for the disposal of senior management in companies he bought, bought the struggling Dayl Inc., the parent company of handy Dance. Since Handy Dan was profitable, Marcus and Blank were determined their jobs were safe. But they were wrong. False charges were brought against the two alleged they were allowed to leave open an account and use the funds to fight against the merger at Handy Dan outlets in San Jose.
Before they were fired, however, Marcus and Blank had been working to find profitable ways of discounting on one of its positions Handy Dan. They note that by marking down items, increased volume and cost, as a percentage of sales, decreased. At a time when they lost their jobs they had been planning to introduce their discovery of other stores, but now they were free to start building a country home-center chain of their own. They were going to develop a store where product selection was great and the prices were as low as possible, and where training, knowledgeable, and helpful customer service representatives provide the best service available.
The venture began in the suburbs of Atlanta with money from the New York investment firm. They stock shelves first two stores with 18,000 different products ranging from paint supplies to specialized tools to repair, cut prices as far as they could, and hired and trained staff themselves. On the opening day, they gave their children a stack of $ 1 bills to hand out to customers to say thank you for shopping at the store, but at the end of the day, there was still money left and the kids were out in the parking lot someone to use the money trying to convince people to go and have a look.
Both were dejected and despondent. Marcus remembers that “[his] wife would not let [him] humidity days. She did not [him] have razor in [his] hands.”
build empire
A few days after the grand opening, the client again with gratitude her – a bag of okra Marcus – the positive experience of shopping at Home Depot. Although he did not like okra, it was a turning point, and word of mouth started spreading.
Money was still tight (workers stacked empty cardboard boxes and paint cans on the top shelf so the shops seemed more packed with goods than they were in reality), but where the first two shops were doing well, Blank and Marcus decided to open two, this time in the Miami area. Two more stores Miami two months later. November 22, 1981, the company went public and investment and profits exploded. Chain expanded and profitability far exceeded expectations. Originally estimated at $ 9 million worth of sales of the store, the average selling rate went to $ 17 million. Before 1990, 118 Home depots were pulling in $ 2.7 billion in sales.
In less than two decades after 1999, The Home Depot had become the world’s largest retailer of home decoration products. In addition, it has become an international retailer with stores in Canada and South America and will continue to expand. Blank said that the basic principles of his company, though it has grown so much, “were cast in these early years, and have never changed. Our rates were low then, and they are still low today. And the service was excellent then and still he is today “
Core values and Company Secrets
Marcus and Blank, as stated in his book” built from scratch “, attribute their success to eight values :.
– Provide excellent customer service.
– Take care of your people
– Develop entrepreneurial spirit.
– Respect all people.
– Do the right thing; not just to make things right.
– give back to the community as an integral part of doing business.
– Take your shareholders.
– Build strong relationships with colleagues, customers, suppliers and communities.
The success of Home Depot can also be seen in the way it has encouraged its customers to do it themselves. Shop at Home Depot are hired for their knowledge and understanding of repairs at home and can direct customers to the equipment they may need for a particular project. Short hands-on training classes are also available in their stores to teach various aspects of repair and remodeling.
Blank and Marcus take “road trips” and prior notice at its stores. They say the experience is good for them because they are constantly learning from its associates – the marketing methods have changed because of this opportunity to learn from those on the ground who know more about the products and deal with customers directly.
In addition, Blank and Marcus act in accordance with “Running Scared” process management, where 90% of their meetings to deal with the problem, how to outdo techniques competitors, products that are in demand and what customers are not found in stores. Chronic Their goal is to continually work to improve standards today. And it certainly has worked for them so far.
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Source by Evan Carmichael