The Home Depot didn’t look bad on paper in early 2007. But online, I the home improvement giant didn’t look good. And the story of that disconnect gets at the heart of this book: we’re entering an age when goodness matters for companies like never before.
In January 2007, Home Depot ousted an unpopular, highly paid CEO, Robert Nardelli. And although Nardelli’s whopping $210 million severance package irked investors, the company signed a much more reasonable deal with his successor, Frank Blake.1 The Nardelli-Blake transition earned Home Depot positive press.2 And although Home Depot was suffering from the housing market decline, Blake announced a hopeful outlook in late February.
“The long-term fundamentals ...
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