Forbes® Best Business Mistakes: How Today's Top Business Leaders Turned Missteps into Success

Chapter 9. ARTHUR BLANK

Co-founder of The Home Depot

Owner of the Atlanta Falcons

Founder of the AMB Family Foundation

Arthur Blank may have learned many lessons in his business career, but he taught a huge one that should be learned by every executive who makes personnel decisions:

If you're going to fire someone, make sure they can't come back and put you out of business.

Blank and his colleague Bernie Marcus essentially did just that to Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers, a California hardware chain specializing in providing the tools and materials to fix up or repair things around your house. A political battle evolved in upper management, with Blank and Marcus on the losing end. They were fired.

Almost immediately they put their heads together and dreamed up an idea for a home improvement hardware chain called The Home Depot. The idea was to do everything the other hardware store did—but do it better. And there would be one driving value for every employee—excuse me—associate.

"You could open up another store that looked exactly like that," Blank says. "Okay, this store is 100,000 feet, this is the merchandise they carry, this is the pricing, this is who they buy from, and so on. But what was unique in our company was the level of customer service inside the store, and the commitment our associates had to taking care of customers."

After 23 years devoting his life to starting up and running one of the most successful retail companies in American history, Blank feels that attention ...