dispatches from the new world of work

Imagination!

I was appalled by the Home Depot Annual Meeting fiasco—an unprecedented display of corporate arrogance. On the other hand, I am beside myself with glee at HD's new effort to add value through the imaginative provision of new Client services. Forbes (0918) reports on the Home Depot Business ToolBox ... a new package of services provided to its precious plumbers, electricians, carpenters, small homebuilders, etc. Included is more or less a customized, turnkey kit to support the businesses of these folks. For instance: payroll processing, credit card processing, personnel paperwork, shipping services, mobile phones, and the like. And then there is the most surprising-fabulous (as I see it) part of "and the like." HD is offering these quintessential small businessmen ... health insurance. Yup. Health insurance for the principals and their employees ... at Home Depot's highly discounted corporate group rates! I call all this the IBM Global Services "encompassing professional services" analog in the land of the Yellow Box.

(Will this be an automatic "big win"? Of course not. Hard work of a new sort will be required to pull it off. Nonetheless, it is wonderfully imaginative—and a very interesting part of CEO Bob Nardelli's longterm effort to provide ever more services to business and retail customers alike.)

Tom Peters posted this on 09/25/06.

Comments

In my admittedly limited experience, Home Depot has always babied their contractor customers, often at the expense of the rest of us amateurs who just want a little service. It is therefore no surprise to see that HD will continue to be the supplier of choice for the good-old-boy builders who not only get cheap materials, but get good service. Those of us who fell for the "you can do it, we can help" BS get to stand in the aisle wondering where our orange-aproned service rep ran off to thirty minutes ago. Yes, I see this as a negative. Sorry. I shall never darken the door of this two-bit operation again. Thank goodness for Lowe's and Menard's.

Posted by Shops at Lowe's Now at September 25, 2006 11:46 AM

As a chartered accountant (=CPA in USA) this post has more relevance to me than most.

Interestingly Ron Baker,the author of the Professionals Guide to Value Pricing raised a similar issue, on his blog recently. http://www.verasage.com/index.php/community/dont_fear_costco_entering_your_industry_fear_disney/

We don't have Home Depot's in the UK, but we do have similar operations (Focus, B. and Q., etc).

Posted by Stuart Jones at September 26, 2006 11:06 AM

Cool, very clever initiative.

It will work if it's not considered a profit centre. And at the beginning, it may not be.

The big gravitational field that will likely catch it, though, is after 4-6 quarters in operation when Finance starts questioning the ROI (the benefits aren't measurable in bookable $$s) and starts pushing to have them "carry your own weight". The 4-6 quarters could be shorter or longer if a bad quarter hits them or doesn't.

But that temptation to turn dept.s/initiatives like technical support or partner-enhancement into profit centers is "a losing proposition but one you can't refuse" in U.S. business social structures.

Posted by jeff angus at September 27, 2006 10:17 AM