E Good evening Sigma Kai brothers and all others who are participating with us tonight Welcome to our first Sig Talk of the New Year I’m Jim Cooper a sigma kyum of the alpha cha Alpha Kai chapter at Penn State University I am also vice president of the New York metropolitan
Area alumni chapter and chair for the Sig talks program in these past few weeks it’s become abundantly clear 2024 is a presidential election year now one thing that means is we will be hearing reading discussing debating quite a bit about the US economy for months to come A company that is highly
Representative of the business environment in our country is the Home Depot Corporation just think about it Home Depot has a strong presence in consumer retail home renovation construction and real estate related markets in addition most of us are customers of the company I know that
I am so we are quite proud of the fact that Home Depot’s current chairman of the board chief executive officer and president is Ted Decker a sign maai alumnus who as an undergraduate attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg Virginia Ted also earned an MBA from the prestigious Carnegie melon
University we are no less than thrilled that Ted is our guest speaker for this evening’s Sig Talk Ted joined Home Depot in the year 2000 and has been there ever since I can tell you myself as a former Human Resources officer in Private Industry that Ted’s experiences and professional
Development throughout his Home Depot tenure is a model for how an executive becomes tested and prepared to assume the top leadership position at a major corporation in fact our first question for Ted will be inquiring of him to take us through his Ascension within the company now joining me this this evening
For tonight’s Sig talk is my co-moderator Dave David Ashen David is currently president of Sigma Kai’s Washington DC chap alumni chapter he also serves as the fraternities chairman for its government Affairs committee David is a sigma Kai Alum who also earned his bachelor’s degree at the College of William and
Mary one other note before I turn things over to David all audience participants are invited to ask their own questions of Ted which will be displayed following the interview that David and I will be undertaking if you wish to do so please add please put your question in the
Comment section on the right side of your screen so David please take it from here thanks Jim and uh thanks Ted for for joining us tonight it’s uh always great to have another women married brother on uh in fact you are our second uh from uh the college and uh John
Jarvis was our our first not too long ago last year so oh great uh welcome and and thank you well thank you thank you very much and as I said when we all first met I’m it it it’s a thrill because I’m I’m from Northwest Pennsylvania in living in SEC territory
For years I still support Penn State football team and the NIT lions and then obviously um just wonderful memories and experiences from William and Mary David so great great connection with each of you two before we even get started but I’ve got to also put on a plug since uh
In my professional life I advocate for the construction industry at the commercial level and uh thanks for for all that you do not only to help associations like the associated general contractors of America but all of our contractors across the country uh it’s it’s a great thing that home Home Depot
Does and uh we we definitely appreciate that well let’s go ahead and get started I know uh folks want to hear from you and and not from me or Jim so let’s go ahead and get started with our first question uh Ted um you know I’d like for
You to kind of share that Journey that you’ve had at the Home Depot starting from that initial role uh as director of business valuation to your current position as uh Jim mentioned which is chair president and CEO and sort of one of those key experiences or or
Milestones that have sort of shaped that you know career that you’ve had within the company yeah I I’d even back up from there because um you know people think about what’s my career path how do I get from here to there and there is such an element of Randomness in the journey and
You know share share my initial Journey with Home Depot I was working with Kimberly Clark in London and um you know you get periodic phone calls from from head hunters and and never an interest loved living in London and the jobs in the states is you
Know there’s not much of a chance you’re going to show up for an interview this is pre you know streamyard and zoom and the like and my office was in between my house in the airport and I stopped in the office to pick up some paperwork on
The way to the airport to fly to Atlanta Georgia where Home Depot is based and where Kimberly Clark had their commercial B2B health care business so I was going to to Kimberly Clark meeting in Atlanta Head Hunter randomly called calls and says hey we’d like to talk to
You about about Home Depot and I was just like wow I am on my way to the airport and I have a flight in you know four odd hours to Atlanta sure I’ll I’ll pop over and talk to you all my three years um with Casey in London great
Company love Kimberly Clark but that was coming to an end I wasn’t sure what I was going to do and so kind of the rest is history as they say but as much as you are planful of what you want to do and what you want to accomplish the most
Random of phone calls you know while you’re on the way to an airport to fly to the city that they they wanted to talk to you is pretty extraordinary but I came in as you say as as director of business valuation I I’ll be there 24 years as
Valentine’s Day so after what will be 35 years of marriage to my wife who who I met at William and Mary and and got married at the chapel there at the ren building um you know in my two daughters second third love of my life is is Home
Depot so appropriate I started on Valentine’s Day but Home Depot is a very open company you know I I often talk to to folks who who go in you know pros and cons of whether you join a big Corporation you know this is in the business sphere you join a big
Corporation or Law Firm or accounting firm or consulting firm you know with certain types of firms you you know your career path you know you’re working toward you know a partnership or managing director at a bank but in a large corporation you can do so many
Things so the the positive side is you can do supply chain and finance and business development and marketing and Merchandising and sales um the bad news is it it’s not as structured and you have to take some risks in your career in and make some moves across
Functions um often case to to move up and Home Depot is a place that really promotes people moving throughout the organization into stores into the Atlanta headquarters which we call the store support center um into merchandizing Etc so I kind of got on that bandwagon I was uh while I was a
Finance um major in in in core competency I was more of an athlete and happily moved into lots of different roles increasingly came out of Finance in into the core business and in a retailer merchandising or buyer group as some retailers call it is is is um you know
Key operating role in the business and moved into that role and then um you know very surprised to to get a president in in coo role and then ultimately CEO role and then ultimately chair and and as Jim said this wasn’t me this is you know Home Depot and the
Board very very disciplined and princip and invest a ton of time in Talent Development and seccession planning in all these moves just not me but you know everyone in the company were looking to give opportunity ities move people around in in build their capabilities as as they move up and take on more
Responsibility so the the team just did an amazing job you know getting me to that next role giving me the the training and the resources and exposure you know that I that I needed so I I just give a ton of credit to the board and the executive leadership team that
You know Embraces that sort of philosophy hey Ted I’m going to interject a quick question along along the lines of your career development I noticed from your bio that you were an English major yeah William and Mary tell us a little bit about how that background may may have helped you in
Your career development sure um you know I I I love literature I still read constantly and and I don’t read a lot of business books per se I’m I I still principally read sort of literature um outside of work and where that helped me was um really comparative analysis in writing
Skills um you know to to to read a book or a couple different books and really understand what is what is the author getting at what’s the point of view what’s what’s the world view that they’re trying to communicate through the story that they’ve written and how does that compare and contrast to
Another writer attempt to do the same thing in that sort of deep analysis you know not plot but you know philosophies and World Views um approach to to telling the story whether you’re analyzing a couple balance sheets as a banker or or two pieces of literature or two different
Business proposals that deep sort of really rolling up your sleeve and in working at you know what’s going on what what’s the what’s the analysis of the book and then an ability to summarize that and compose your conclusions and your your theories of what’s going on
You know in a paper um you know just terrific training um that that you know liberal arts is a a bit of a Dying um Pursuit you know PE people are are tending to to select a field much earlier whether it’s engineering or accounting Etc and nothing wrong with
That but you know that classic liberal arts education does so much on fundamental grounding of of just how to think how to communicate your thoughts how to how to be exposed to totally different things and even though you might not be interested in it one of my
Classes I took just to get credits and I I I was late filling out my coursework and I took a class I’ll never forget it was a class in 1660 restoration drama and I was like oh my God this is going to be like you know horrible and
It turned out to be one of the best classes I ever took because you know it was all the the Restoration History of the British crown and you know what went on with with um you know the wars and battles of Hastings and just an incredible course if you the Curiosity
And just peel the onion as they say to understand what is going on and what is the author trying to communicate it’s just an incredible Foundation to just how to think well thanks for elaborating on that question and pointing out the value of Majors other than business administration right and I’ll say for
Our non-w Mary uh Brothers on an English ma an English major at way Mary is no easy easy task there I did better in the business classes than the English classes I’ll tell you that well Ted you know you talked earlier a little bit about you know the leadership experience that that you’re
Able to get at the Home Depot through its executive programs and you know you’ve been responsible for a lot of you know activities that go on at the company whether that’s the global store operations supply chain and a lot of other functions there how do you approach building and man in those High
Performing teams uh especially when you oversee such a wide range of responsibilities to sort of drive that operational exence of the company yeah it’s um you know I find anyway it’s a balance of um you know clearly getting a strong team you you you absolutely have to have a strong
Team um you know in areas that you know nothing about so think of legal and in my case uh um Information Technology um where you really have to get a great leader and trust them that you know they are the subject matter matter expert and while you can ask
Questions you really have to rely on on their guidance and their recommendations and yeah you have to have you have to have the confidence in that person that you can trust them and again you can always question but but they’re they’re the lawyer um they the they’re the
Technologist um when it’s more akin to the the business where you’re you’re more engaged yourself because you you were a merchant you know and and you ran operations in supply chain I I take an approach of of it’s been referred to as sort of loose tight and you need to you
Need to make tradeoffs of of where you’re going to run a little looser and say okay that sort of business is usual I have enough metrics that I that I I can watch what’s going on I’m not even gonna ask any questions that’s loose they’re running their portfolio I’m not
Going to get involved but then there are other things where you know there like the recent supply chain issues we we’ve had with the pandemic where this is more critical things are a bit more challenging so you tighten up a little bit you have to delve in a little more
To understand what’s going on and and and provide some some tighter guidance um you know when you’re trying to push through larger programs uh Innovation you know moving moving the business forward you know that that’s where you have to be more engaged and Tighter in the sense that
You’re directing more you’re you’re not not questioning how you’re running your portfolio but we have to make this change it’s it’s going to be challenging change is always challenging and there you have to be a little more forceful and and push through change and you know
As Jim certainly knows that’s one of the hardest things to do is is pushed through change particularly an organization as um as large as Home Depot but it it also makes me reflect that you know it’s it’s challenging to bring up GE in Jack Welch these days
Because you know there’s been a been a different side of the story written lately but you know in their Prime and and what they were doing truly one of the great companies organization leadership principles in in the history of of of business and the value they created and I remember watching this
Show um you I don’t know if it was an M MSNBC or you know one of the the these these um documentaries and it was about GE and the leadership of GE and and I forget who the the um the announcer was who the who the journalist was but they
Were you know spend a day in the life of Jack Welch and the question was he’s sitting in Welch’s office and and and he’s asking you know how do you run this place I mean it’s like you’re involved in 50 different businesses you’re operating in 150 countries around the
World it’s just insane complexity you know what do you spend your time on and Welch’s answer was I spend 90% of my time on people issues making sure I have the right people the right leaders leading the right businesses and I probably saw that program I’m not being very helpful to
Direct you to it but I must have seen that program you know 30 years ago and a day like today actually in yesterday I spent virtually 100% of my time on people and organization and um promotions and and moving people into different roles and I think back of of
Of of what Welch said and I said boy he couldn’t have been you know more spoton of maybe my most important job is just to make sure you know that the infamous um you know you got the right people on the bus and you got the right
People on the bus in the right seats and that’s one of the principal responsibilities I have because you sure as heck can’t do it yourself well certainly understanding that and to sort of continue on that topic of leadership you know recently you had a story that you were part of for Sigma
Kai Focus Magazine and in that you’ve discussed servant leadership and a management model calleded pyramid can you sort of explain to the folks that are on tonight what do you mean by those ideas and sort of if you and how you’ve been able to implement them at Home
Depot yeah well I’m I’m just continuing the Legacy um you know the The Genius of our Founders if if those of you don’t know a brief brief history of of Home Depot Arthur Blank and and Bernie Marcus were running a a regional Home Improvement Center there were loads of
Regional Home Improvement centers much smaller stores much small smaller scale in California and they were famously fired and then looked um to build the business that they always wanted to build with the right values and culture and in business model in Ken langone the sigma Kai from Bucknell was was a
Incredibly successful financier even at the time in New York back in the late 70s and Ken organized the money um is initially 2 million to help Home Depot open up their first two stores and Bernie and Arthur said we’re gonna we’re going to build the company that that
That we that we want that that that you know spouses the value vales and the culture that we want and they came up with this notion of the inverted pyramid where when you think of any organization you know think of the military you’ve got you know your troops and your your
Captains and your majors and your Colonels and you know the pyramid goes like this and and at the top you have your you know fourstar general or your Chiefs of Staff and you get fewer and fewer people as you go up until you get you know the the supposedly the
Important people at the top of the pyramid and Bernie and Arthur um you know very much you know believed in in in servant leadership and and not being about them and it being about the organization so they literally took the pyramid and they inverted it and the inverted pyramid is
At at the top our our customers so you know millions and millions and millions of customers are at the top and then our Frontline store associates 500 450 500,00 th000 odd store associates are next and the pyramid just goes from there and it’s inverted and at the very
Bottom of the pyramid is the CEO and our responsibility is to take care of our Associates so they can take care of the customer and you know Bernie one of his his favorite mantras is if you take care of the associate you know we’re not employees or Associates if you take care
Of the associate they’ll take care of the customer customer and everything else will take care of itself and um you know we all have Ambitions and egos in in in in desires to to to succeed and and develop but at Home Depot you know that type of character is
Just not going to survive the culture if you know if you’re about you if your favorite pronoun is I um if if you’re always making decisions with with with your own interest in mind versus the customer ultimately and in your Associates you’re just not going to last very very long at
Home Depot so we we take it very seriously we talk about it you know how do we keep alive and we’re constantly you know storytelling is so important and we’re telling stories about the culture in the values in the servant leadership and I have a couple props here
You know we wear it on our apron our two symbols of the company is our values wheel which are the eight values that the founders came up with taking care of each other treating everyone with respect giving back entrepreneurial Spirit Etc and then there’s the inverted pyramid where the customers at the top
And the CEO at the bottom so these are these are visual cues they’re on our aprons they’re in our lobby um we tell stories um and that’s what we celebrate is stories of taking care of the customer and taking care of each other and and it’s just such I think it’s a
Secret sauce of the company we’re 45 years old um just incredible grow story and value creation story and we have a great business model and we have great real estate in branding and marketing products and in value service but at the end of the day it’s the culture of the Home
Depot that makes the the Home Depot what it is uh Ted with respect to the inverted pyramid and and the values I’m I’m sure where the rubber hits the road uh is at the store level in particular yeah now H how do you go about best assuring that that the values in the
Inverted pyramid are really happening uh at the store level when you have so many stores uh what is it that that the general manager of a store uh is is accountable for when it comes to that yeah so that that’s great question Jim and it because you know we sit in
Atlanta and and you’re you’re in 50 states and 2,000 stores in in the US and you know H how do you possibly you know work that equation across such a geography but you know everyone who who joins the company and and and you know this is what we’re talking about and
This is what what’s important to us so the people who tend to continue to move forward are are very capable business people and value creators but they also have to have um the cultural Minds set and demonstrate you know that interest in in their Associates in their store
And as as they get promoted to department supervisor and assistant store manager and ultimately store manager 90% of our store managers started as hourly Associates so if you’re starting as an hourly associate um you know we would we would hire you know we probably hire a 100,000
People a year so when you think of just general attrition and growth in the business you know over over several several years years you know you’re you’re hiring literally millions of people and of the millions of people the 2,000 that ultimately get the 2,000 store manager jobs you you’ve done a lot
Of vetting that these are competent capable Business Leaders but that they’re also aligned with the culture and then you know we’re constantly telling the stories and celebrating culture one of my favorite days of the week was was Monday once a month we bring in to the store support center we
Have 19 regions so whatever we’re celebrating we’ll bring in 19 individuals and they can be any level in the company they can be a lot person who associate who’s collecting carts and helping load cars or it can be a district manager who who might have 10 stores and you know
Um 3,000 Associates um in a billion dollars in sales in their responsibility and we come and have have lunch they spend two days in training and and really it’s a culture immersion but it always caps off with a lunch with the executive leadership team and each of them um will will then at
The end of the lunch stand up and introduce themselves and where they’re from and you know why they’re there that day why they were recognized and it’s invariably a culture story of of why why they’re there and Monday we were celebrating our team Depot Captain so we
We giving back is one of the the eight core values and we have just tremendous engagement um with our communities we’re we’re focused on Military and and storm and disaster relief and in pro trade development and you know we we have a commitment that we just surpassed to
Provide $500 million to to military causes we just increased that on Veterans Day this past November to $750 million and you know while that might sound impressive that that’s with our resources that’s the easiest thing we can do is write those checks but we engage with the communities and the team
Depot captains every store has a team Depot Captain every District region Etc and these were team Depot captains from the 19 regions and these are the people who were absolutely living and breathing the culture in their stories of how they got to Home Depot why they stayed at home depo and why they
Volunteered to be the team Depot Captain for their store District region and then what they do and how they engage I mean you literally I mean I’m not exaggerating you literally cry I mean there there there’s so much emotion of of these people their stories um some just
Unbelievably tragic stories in in in their their their view of of life is I don’t want anyone else to have to go through what I went through and and my purpose in life is to give back and um it it it’s there there isn’t a dry eye
In the place and and you’re like wow th this is the culture of Home Depot this is what what makes a special that’s great listening to what you had to say it sounds like you’ve set up a lot of very consistent processes to keep those values really alive in front
Of people all the time and and purposeful from the founders again I mean I’m not coming up with any of this stuff just continuing and reinforcing that incredible value structure and culture that the founders established 45 years ago you know Ted we’ve got a lot of
Young brothers and and and guests on who are either looking to go into the corporate world or you know making their way up the management ranks what’s some advice to to to them that you would give to sort of you know either look at you know developing and strengthening that
Culture within their own companies or you know looking for for ways to to promote that that you know set of values that that you all have done so well at the Home Depot yeah I mean it’s um you know it has to be genuine and again we’re blessed at Home Depot that you
Know when when I think of the words that describe the Home Depot’s brand and anyone please please disagree but you know I think of Home Depot is a real genuine authentic place and brand in what we do and so everything we’ve been talking about the culture is also that it’s real genuine
And it’s authentic and a number of years ago you know purpose statements became big there were mission statements and then I don’t know how many years ago five 10 years ago you know well you need a purpose statement what you know what’s the purpose and plenty of company they
They they um they’ll hire consulting firms and come in and help them come up with a purpose and then help them come up with a a set of words that describe the purpose and then they put those words on the lobby you know in in the
Entry way of the company and and so the first thing I’d say is you know if you’re if you’re a company um you know are you aligned to that purpose and if you are you know is is it genuine is the company actually is is the company actually behaving in that
Way that that their their purpose or their mission statement um suggests and you know how you change it I mean that that’s a challenge for sure I mean it it has to be Grassroots um that that you surround yourself with you know the friends you make at work the things you do the
Things you volunteer for um Monday I heard I heard loads of stories this this one woman um said that that when she came to her district and districts have 10 odd stores and they they were the lowest engaged team Depot store and that’s measured by things like how many
Projects do you do how many elementary schools did you go out to and do landscaping how many veteran homes did you go you know paint how many you know ramps did you build um you know for people who need um wheelchair access Etc and her store was dead last and she was
Brand new to the company um oh she’s only been at the company two years which is extraordinary and they were dead last and she’s very purpose-driven um and she volunteered to be the team Depot captain for the district as a brand new associate to toome Depot and
In um a brand new store manager volunteering to be the team Depot Captain is you know crazy and you know as she told her story Monday 10 odd stores in a district um last year they were number one um the number the number of of of projects the the number of Associates
These associates volunteer this is unpaid time so this is offthe clock time that Associates are going out and doing the projects that that I that I used as examples and she pulled that off in less Le than two years so you know the power of the individual is it’s a real thing
You can make a difference um and I’d suggest if you give it all you got and the company isn’t responding and it isn’t it isn’t genuine and it maybe doesn’t have a chance to be genuine then maybe think about a a career change because you know
You’re can spend a lot of time at work and if if you can find a type of work that that you enjoy and that you happen to have a a skill set for um you know not like hey I want to be a baseball player well I can’t hit a curveball so
You know that’s not going to work so do you have some passion for something you know do you have some skills for it did you did you find a place that that you can do that that is aligned with your values and then lastly are the
People you know around you are the kind of people you know that you think of as brothers you know the same kind of feeling that we all had as brothers in in school man you have just hit a home run in in in what a blessing to have
That sort of career setup so if you know the advice would be if you if you are younger and you’re not feeling it and I’m by the way I I no way am I recommending a lot of job hopping in fact I I I don’t I think people you know
Hop jobs too much but but if if the company isn’t isn’t you know right for you you know make the call because you know it’s like the fraternity we joined I think I mean I believe this fully I think that that um I was blessed to be
At a place like William and Mary William and Mary is not for everybody it is a very very unique place it is a crazy strange unique place if you like to go to school with you know people in Clone costumes buildings from 1690 it might be
For you um but I think it’s an incredibly unique place and then Sigma Kai is is I mean I could go on with Sigma Kai with the same sort of passion that I do with Home Depot and the difference that makes to be associated with people in a in a system and in
Sigma Kai very much has a system and it you know it starts with with the white cross and it starts with our ritual and what we believe in and what’s important and that’s what Drew us all to the fraternity and anyone who’s a graduate taking the time on a on a Wednesday
Night to be in a call like this sigmak Kai means something to you if you can have that kind of relationship with the business that you’re working for in the brand and feel I I mean I I feel the same Pride with sodomi on here I feel the same Pride for
This orange you know Home Depot as I do for the cross and that is just an absolute blessing to be in that place you just had to go and outdo us with the eight values instead of the seven that we’ve [Laughter] got okay uh you know David I’ll I’ll
I’ll pepper in a few questions at this point you know Ted you’ve been talking or touching upon uh uh the the people at Home Depot um you know Staffing in the post-pandemic era has become an acute challenge for near nearly every business what is Home Depot doing to attract and retain talented employee
Associates well it’s um it’s sort of a two-prong on on on the attract you you have your you know the store associates who as I said will hire 800,000 um Associates a year and we have a a very aggressive um you know marketing program in Outreach and contact program including military you
Know transitioning military folks um providing Pro training to to to people um to to bring that that individual into Home Depot and and and we we do a a really nice job our HR team I mark Marvel at at what they do to hire 100,000 people they probably you know
They’ll look at millions of of resumés and applications a year and we look at our talent pools so you know is is the strength of the pool of people applying to Home Depot you know strong and we saw during the pandemic that pool was getting weaker than we liked and that
Was one of the reasons we made our big wage move you know last year we increased wages by billion dollars um and increased our our minimum start rate to $15 across the country but in many places we’re starting at you know TW up to $20 an hour um so you know that’s
That’s what we do on the traction side and then you you’ve heard me me talk a lot about you know what we do to to show the potential and you know 90% again of the store managers started as hourly Associates so there’s very much a merit
Ry that you can build your career at Home Depot and then on the the store support center side where we’re looking at you know it or Finance or you know um supply chain folks you know we do a more traditional oncampus recruiting and in Outreach um internal and external uh
Staffing teams that are contacting people on LinkedIn um universities Etc to to bring that talent in and then again get get people engaged in in this this brand we we say give us give us sort of 3 six months and you’ll you’ll understand what Kool-Aid we’re drinking and um you know
If it if it’s your flavor you know great and and this this will be a ride of a lifetime for you so that that’s sort of the the two pronged approach now we do a lot of work on a lot of Associates in the store support Center started in the
Store we have a store to SSC program a number of at different levels of the organization to encourage people to come into the SSC we have a very robust internship program um we’ll bring in 250 to 300 interns most of them you know college but many about a third are from
Our stores and not all of them have college degrees and you know this isn’t me hate to to to to you know keep going on and on about Home Depot but I think it’s three years in a row now not just in retail but corporate internships Home
Depot has been rated the number one corporate internship program well that’s an accomplishment because I know in many places internships are are um not necessarily the most valuable experience depending on how much attention the company pays what the intern gets to do right and and we and we
Hire um in in matriculate about 65% of our interns end up working at Home Depot when they graduate yeah and I think what you talked about in terms of the uh the store managers coming from uh you know the Frontline employee talent pool you know is a tremendous factor in retaining
Good people um well I’m going to ask you to talk a little bit about the the the customer experience uh for Home Depot uh by the way my store is the uh Route 17 store in pamis New Jersey all right and I always have a good experience if not a
Great experience every time I go in there but you know a lot has been written uh about uh generating a great customer experience and I think that’s particularly true for for retail oriented businesses what has Home Depot done to put focus on generating a great customer experience so again the credit goes to
The founders because you know they they they developed this business model and we call it the three-legged stool and it sounds basic but you know we offer incredible value broad selection in great customer service and you might say well that sounds logical but in retail um and this isn’t good or bad but
Different business models it’s very hard to do all three of those things so when you think about a Walmart they’re offering incredible selection incredible value but you don’t go to Walmart expecting service in knowhow in in knowledge um Nordstrom on the other hand is an example you would get incredible
Service and incredible ible selection but you know relative value might be there but you’re going to pay for for that um what the founders did is they put all three Under One Roof and and there are very few retail businesses that have done that in customer
Service is is really um has always been incredibly important and you know what what the team has done over so many years you know we start started off um really teaching the Baby Boomers how to do Home Improvement I mean before Home Depot you you know anything of
Significant problem unless you’re a real real real Handy person you know you you would call a trades person to do whatever it may be in your home and then if you were doing anything yourself you would go to the paint store the hardware store the lumber store the landscape you know
Nursery um the lighting store the flooring store Etc so they put all of that Under One Roof and then they really taught you and and built the confidence of the consumer that you can take on these projects so it might start with getting a washer to stop a leaky faucet
To the next thing you know you’re learning how to turn off your breaker panel in changing out a a hanging light fixture and next thing you know you’re you’re doing your basement remodel by yourself and you’re you’re going into the store we call it belly to belly apron to
Apron um where you’re you know you’re in the plumbing aisle you’re in the electrical aisle you’re you’re you know in the in the in the hardware aisle looking for that Fastener to to to fix something and that Home Depot associate is is spending so much time with you to
Build your confidence to do the project and and Bernie Marcus not only is a genius businessman in culture but but um you know he’s an amazing motivator and Storyteller and one of his his best you know stories would be you know if someone comes in on a Saturday with a leaky
Faucet it would be so easy to sell them a new faucet and you know he has stories of you know reprimanding Associates who who sold the new faucet and what he teaches us is to you know show them the washer you know ask what kind of faucet
Is oh it’s just a leak and you know 99 out of 100 times you just need to replace the washer and he’s like get him the 19 Cent washer in fact just give it to him and you know you you have a customer for Life yeah you did not get a
Faucet sale that day but you have a customer for life and as the business is involved in in in every you know so much has become digital um We call we call digital Commerce interconnected Commerce virtually 70% of Home Depot shopping trips start on our website so a customer
Is you know looking at the store hours looking at our inventory quantities doing discovery of the product that that we have that to satisfy what they’re looking for and then they go to the store so the shopping Journey for Home Depot is very much interconnected and
That’s why we use that term because if you’re doing a project it it’s often multiple Journeys multiple stops um you’re not getting one thing you’re you’re buying multiple things to do your project and it might take you two or three weekends to do your project and you’re going to weave in between the
Physical in digital world of of our property so we’ve we’ve invested as much as any other brick-and mortar retailer in the the digital experience to be as seamless as possible knowing that you know virtually every shopping occasion is associated with some sort of digital engagement and just being aware of that
And listening to the customer and being customer back and customer cust Centric and thankfully with our scale you know we can afford the the literally billions of dollars that we we put into to that digital journey and in supply chain that’s required to to have on time and complete timely
Deliveries has has just been a Hallmark you know maintaining that that third leg you know one of the three legs of the stool of customer service over the 45 years that the expectations and in the journeys have have changed well it it sounds like that strategy has been a big part of the
Company’s success um and it’s interesting to hear that Boomers like me can actually learn stuff like what you’re talking about right I’ve had partial success but I try uh uh you know we’re running a little short on time David I’m going to turn it back to you
I’ i’ I’d appreciate appreciated if you could ask Ted that question about dealing with Wall Street as a different topic and then maybe finishing up with the sigma Kai related questions sure not a problem and just as a reminder to to all the folks that are on if you want to
To ask a question please submit it in the comments and we’ll try our best to get that uh once we get through this but uh to ask that stock market question you know one fine day back in uh last year you know the stock market enjoyed really spectacular results
And Home Depot share price Rose by more than $15 and you know CEOs and CFOs of public companies have a challenge in managing that relationship that they’ve got with Wall Street so what do you consider to be particularly important in your Communications with h you know those
Analysts well we we have a terrific um investor relation team um and we’re in constant Communication in engagement not not just with the analyst who are you know offering advice and recommendations but we spend a lot of time with the actual portfolio managers of our biggest shareholders so we’ll
We’ll spend as much time with the large shareholders themselves as we do with the the cide Wall Street analysts and you know we built we’ built a reputation of being you know transparent and um um you know very um available you know to them we’re hosting investors maybe not you know not weekly
Probably every couple weeks there’s someone um on the team meeting with investors in Atlanta or or or elsewhere I’m meeting with investors probably every other week I’ll I’ll I’ll have some sort of Engagement with with an investor or an analyst and you know we’ve earned a reputation
To to um you know not drop any surprises and and um consistency of earnings and consistency of message is very very important and you mentioned a day that that we went up $15 but you know one of our values is doing the right thing you know and I mentioned the wage investment last
Year um you know that was something that you know you you couldn’t signal that that you were going to make another wage investment we made a couple over over the pandemic as wages were were running as as we were trying to to get talent in during the pandemic but you know when
All that dust settled we we were still like you know what the you know think of think of um you know grocery bills and in in gas prices and what was our what was our you know increase in in true inflation adjusted take-home pay for our Associates and you know we weren’t
Comfortable where it was and when we did our first our fourth quarter earnings call last year um where we have to set the plan for for 2023 we announced the billion doll incremental um wage investment and that was a surprise to the analysts and it
Took us some time to explain to them why we were doing it get a better talent pool as we talked earlier in and increase our retention um and on a day like that our stock went down $20 so it it’s no fun being on an earnings call watching your stock value drop
Literally 20 billion doar you know in a 45 minute phone call it’s not always up 15 you can can be down 20 but if you stick with your strategy if you stick with with it with um um the the investment programs that that you’re executing to drive the
Business you make the right calls on on something even if it is out of sequence with that big of a a wage investment and then spend a lot of time after the call um explaining to your investors you know why you did it we got that $20 back over
You know the next month or so so you just kind of live live through the short-term pain you know get your rationale out if you if you build up Goodwill with them um they appreciate what you’re doing and and and then ultimately trust what you’re doing and
Then as we’ve done this year we’ve delivered and we’ve taken tremendous share as as the year went on and I think one of the big reasons is the stability of our of our associate base we we had a better pal talent pool coming coming in and our attrition numbers essentially
Haved and so when you think about our business when you have to have knowledge and people are coming up to you asking you questions the fact that you’ve been around a couple years you’re just so much more informed and confident to engage with the customer and offer that
Knowhow that service that that Home Depot is known for so you know you kind of have they trust you on it and they get over the shock they Trust do on it but ultimately have to prove it and fortunately we did and um and and we’ve
Had we’ve had a a pretty good run giving a year of of negative sales comp in 2023 after the three prior years of just insane growth during the pandemic well let’s conclude our questions uh Portion by bringing things back to Sigma Kai because you know we
Are after all on a sigmak Kai program and you talked little bit about the academic side when you were at way and Mary but talk to us a little B about your you know your undergraduate Sigma Kai experience at the college you know what in sigmak Kai helped sort of shape
Your own leadership philosophy and even your personal life yeah I think it starts with um you know that that association with with an organization and a message that that resonates with you and you know we all went through rush and and I kept being drawn back to
Sigma Kai and in the brothers and you know all fraternities have or most anyway have have a great set of Brothers you know you could go you could go anywhere and and be engaged and have you know great friend group but as I said like like Home Depot there was something very
Profound um in in in a strength of that core of of the values of Sigma Kai and you think of the founders at at Miami of Ohio and you know here here Jim your question on an English major you know a number of those guys were were literature majors and you know their
Worldview in in what they thought you know what what’s important how should one live their life and then they had that that that um ability to articulate that in the charter and the principles and the values and the symbols of Home Depot or or of of Sigma Kai and Like
Home Depot I truly believe it it’s just it’s incredibly unique it it’s stitches together you know the Constantine and in the white cross and in you know our my favorite value in at Home Depot is do the right thing I think do the we all know we all know in virtually every
Situation what the right thing to do is whether we do it or not is is is a question that we have to answer for ourselves but we all fundamentally know what the right thing to do is in any situation and I think of my um initiation night I think
Of this all the time in the parallel at Sigma Kai would do the right thing was the man in the mirror and I think about the man in the mirror all the time and am I living up to the man in the mirror and am I am I happy um with that
Reflection in in in in the value structure of Sigma Kai so you you know similarly would say find it find an interest in know type work you like you’re particularly good at a company you’re passionate about that happens to have a great culture and great people if
You can find this great group of friends in undergrad and then it’s associated with with an infrastructure in a value structure of a sigma Kai I mean wow what an incredible blessing we all had um to to be introduced to this incredible Brotherhood and to to be
You know engaging on a on a Wednesday night as we are well it’s it’s really great to not only have you on but also have you as a brother of the zets salon chapter at way Mary so gota gota give you know some props to the chapter there but you know
I mentioned earlier on that you know one of the founders you know Ken langon is also a Sig at what point in you know know yall your your sort of relationship with Home Depot did you two make that connection well you know it’s it’s it’s
Crazy we never did and um we never did personally and um there was another brother who was on the board Dick Brown and trying to remember where dick went to college but he was a sigma Kai and Dick saw somewhere in the magazine that there was called out that I would
Had had got my new role at Home Depot and he called Ken because they were both board members and told Ken Ken never said anything to me we never talked about Sigma Kai and it’s right up there with with the phone call in London to work for Home
Depot was Ken was in town and he called me and he said hey let’s meet for lunch and just want to go over a few things in Atlanta and I went to where was it I guess it was uh a Ritz Ritz property for lunch to meet him at lunch and he said
Hey I’m up in a private room um you know just so be more quiet we can shot come up to you know function room whatever and I went up there and the door was closed I I knocked on the door Ken answers the door we’ve never talked
About Sakai he answers the door and the foundation happen to have be having their their semiannual meeting in Atlanta so all the leadership of Sigma Kai and the foundation were in Atlanta and they were having a ritual meeting and so Ken greets me gives me the handshake we had never talked about
Sigma Kai and there we sat down and we had the had the ritual meeting which I hadn’t participated in a ritual meeting in 35 years and then and then he presented me with my my significant Sig award and it was just blew me away I I couldn’t believe it we had never connected
On and now every time I see him it’s a hug it’s a handshake um it’s just such another incred I mean he’s the founder of Home Depot and he’s a brother I mean it’s just unbelievable and we never knew it well I think it also speaks volumes of what
Sigma Kai can do for a person and uh in terms of their own personal development and look where the two of you all have gone and become and all the things that you all have accomplished in your lives well he a lot more than me well uh you know we’re we’re coming
To the end of our our our program today and we do want to take a couple questions and I know we’ve got a few uh Hefner do you want to put up the one from Anthony so Anthony asks you know I’ve somewhat recently in the last six months
Come into a director level role uh at a PE firm and now in a position to make hires or at least recommend for junior level positions there are a lot of younger brothers who reach out to me for potential internships and roles as I’m sure you are all in the same position
What are some of your guidelines or Sops for hiring Brothers of the fraternity I myself was offered my first in internship from a connection with the fraternity so that it’s honestly it’s a it’s I think it’s a bit tricky um um whether it’s a family member or a
Brother or a childhood friend I I’m generally um probably more conservative on that I will always make an introduction I will always make an introduction um if possible talk to the person first but if it’s an email and you know you you say I’ll I’ll pass it
Along to to the right people you know I I’ll generally you know pass it to someone in HR or the business unit and I’ll say you know this is an Outreach to me um you know whether it’s a fraternity brother a childhood friend a a son of a
Friend what have you I don’t know this person I’ve heard good things please ensure they receive an interview so that is is the general the the pressure I will put on is make sure they get an interview and then I I leave it at that
Um have I have I broken that a couple times you know put a little more pressure on yes but you got to be careful of your reputation that you’re not oh my God he hires all his best friend’s kids you know he’s always you know pushing Sigma Kai so just be
Careful yourself you want to do the right thing and support brothers or family friends but um you don’t want to be that guy either and then our next question comes from Kyle Rose uh he asks how much time do you spend each day on personal growth
What books are you reading or what books do you recommend for business owners or Business Leaders and what are the kpis you look at most um so keep that question up because there’s a lot there um so you know I I’m not a stickler for the personal growth stuff but I am
Fascinated by it and and and really appreciate that that what people do and you know they’re different flavors of it but it’s all generally you know similar things that you know you’ve got to take care of your body and your physical fitness you you’ve got to do what you
Can for your mind um you’ve got to you know have some sort of spiritual um whether that’s Sigma Kai or or or theology um you know you’ve got to do things for your family be and be close and supportive of your family and then and then personally you know you need to
Grow somehow whatever that may be I want to be a beekeeper I want to I want to learn you know martial arts or whatever you’re going to do but so there there’s so many different flavors but those are are generally the themes I think the the 500 a.m. thing that’s that’s going along
Right now I mean you know brilliant it’s the same thing get up at 5 give yourself an hour do 20 minutes of exercise 20 minutes of mindfulness and I’m not sure what the other 20 minutes is you read nii or something but you know whatever works for you um
Doesn’t matter but do something along those lines and on books I tend I still tend to read literature and then for business I don’t read like howto business books but I will read biographies um I just finished Elon musk’s book and I’m I’m conscious that even saying that can elicit different
Reactions so I’m not talking about some of his personal stuff which is you know I comment on it but the business principles um and what he’s done in in how he’s done it you know sometimes it it’s incredibly abusive and aggressive but you know he has moved
Heaven and Earth in our lifetime and like him or not you know he he is I think D Vinci esque I mean he is the 21st century D Vinci um in in what he’s done and you read the book and I had no idea um you know what he’s done um again
Not the way we’d want to do it but but it it’s quite extraordinary what he’s done um so I’ll read I I read that book I read Bob iger’s book journey of a lifetime or the ride of a lifetime of his story at Walt Disney and that was
Before he came back so now he’s now he’s come back um I read some a lot of military history I read an amazing book you know rather than read a book on lit leadership you know like here are the 27 principles of leadership you know I by number four I’m
Confused it’s like what am I supposed to do again how and I have and I have 23 more to go um I read nimts at War as an example what an incredible leader Nimitz was um to run the Pacific Theater in World War II and how he about that so
You can glean um leadership principles and and business principles um right now I’m reading uh biography of of John Rockefeller who was who whose son John Rockefeller Jr gave the money for Colonial Williamsburg in the 30s and and therefore William and Mary um so that’s what I’m reading um kpis
Um we’re a growth company and at 45 years old we still focus on growth and so Home Depot is dialed for growth so kpis for us is you know are you are you growing growing the business um and and are you growing it the right way with
The right values Etc but we our number one kpi at Home Depot is growth well Ted I want to thank you for for my part in the Washington alumni chapter and of course as a Wayman Mary brother and turn things back over to Jim to close us out
Thanks David uh Ted you know uh one of the things we we teach in uh The Croc transformational leadership uh workshops uh every summer in the true north uh course is you know a willingness to show your vulnerability and and how that can really work for you in terms of making
You a truly authentic person and you know I I really feel like we picked up on a little bit of your vulnerable side tonight which I really appreciate for someone who’s a captain of industry and running one of the the largest corporations in America so so thank you
For that uh it’s truly been an honor and a PR privilege to have you as part of our Sig talks program and we wish you uh just continued personal success and success for the Home Depot Corporation for many years to come thanks Jim appreciate that very much thanks thanks
For having me it’s uh just a real pleasure to to engage with with brothers and I I’ll show one more prop um you know we love these aprons and when you go walk a store we have phenomenal artists in in the store and they they’ll decorate an
Apron to to symbolize where you are and I have plenty from Washington I couldn’t find a DC one but here was one from a recent walk we did in New York so when you go to the store they’ll present you with an apron and you wear their aprons
So there’s the the skyline and Statue of Liberty and then here’s kind they get wild here’s one where you’ve got the um the different scenes from Men In Black in New York City um but just again our Associates are just so passionate and name the company that you’re going
To go visit and you’re going to get a personalized apron by just an incredibly creative artistic associate and um absolutely love them I have hundreds of them yeah it’s always astounding to find out about the talents of your people that you just didn’t know about well
Thanks for letting me share all that um hopefully there’s some takeaways and I I didn’t bore people to death but I I really appreciate the evening thank you I think I think we all learned a lot tonight thanks Ted see youall now
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