On Inclusiveness

Interesting riff from Seth Godin, from his fabulous new book, Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?

"Under CEO Bob Nardelli, Home Depot alienated customers, investors, and employees. Even though Home Depot had huge market power and a significant retail footprint, customer dissatisfaction was enough of an opening for the more agile Lowe's chain to make significant inroads. A simple idea, pursued relentlessly (women welcome here), was enough to transfer billions of dollars of market value from one company to another."

Note: this is the opinion of Seth, not of the present author. :) But it is important for companies to know what's being said about them - before it's too late.

As a matter of fact, my wife loves Home Depot Stockyards so much, she takes two city buses there to go mix some paint or buy some bolts. (Yes, you heard right - she hauls cans of paint on the bus! Now that's dedication to home improvement! Can't always wait for hubby to come home with the car.) I've never heard her mention being put off by any type of "macho environment" at Home Depot, but then again, we don't have Lowe's in Canada (yet) to compare it to. At the Stockyards location in Toronto, we can compare it with adjacent big boxes, Canadian Tire and Rona. All have their shortcomings. But that's another story.

Labels: home depot, lowe's

Posted by Andrew Goodman
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