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A Formulation Of A Swot Analysis For Home Depot

Strengths
- rapid expansion
- Establishing a brand name
- corporate structure:
- training
- Personal involvement of CEO - store managers
- Bottom-up training - train the carry-out people first - C225
- Use of technology
- Satellite communications
- UPC scanning - 1989
- Customer service
- Differentiation based on service
- Human resource
- Stock options
- Reduced cost in shares (15% discount)
- Authority Vs. responsibility
- If a store manager wants to change the display or order more/less of a product they do not need to get authorization from headquarters - C227
- Cannibalization of sales of new stores to existing - C228
- Home Depot will open up new stores close to existing stores to:
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Reduce delays in shopping
- Increase utilization by existing customers
- Attract new customers to more convenient locations
- organizational structure:
- Decentralized management:
- Casual working environment in the corporate offices, according to an Human Resource spokesperson
- Regional managers
- There are 20 regional managers
- Each one is only responsible for six to eight stores

Weaknesses
- rapid expansion
- May be expanding too quickly and growing faster than corporate culture can handle
- See C224 - distracting to existing stores
- Corporate structure:
- Promoting from within - only will get an inside prospective
- Advertising
- Their strategy calls for aggressive adverting (C230), yet their sales are growing exponentially, yet advertising is stagnate
- Only targeting on sub market - DIY
- Suppliers
- Purchasing from 1900 - seams too high
- Employee turnover

Opportunities
- Small market share in the home improvement supplies market
- Approximately 5%
- Overseas
- Form partnerships with larger contractors
- Form partnerships with suppliers
- Use of newer technologies - such as the Internet
- Attract new business
- For example offer tips
- Form advertising relationships - i.e. the pop up...