Home Depot CEO Frank Blake sees a housing market rebound ahead. Company co-founder Bernie Marcus already sees a rebound taking place within the home improvement chain under Mr. Blake's leadership.
The two men appeared together on the CNBC morning Squawk Box show.
"People love what they are doing," Mr. Marcus told the show's hosts. "The culture [co-founder Arthur Blank] and I created has come back."
Mr. Marcus said the company had gone into a tailspin under former chief Robert Nardelli and that he had personally stopped visiting stores. He said morale had sunk to extreme lows as the company got rid of its best, most experienced people in the name of cost cutting.
According to Mr. Marcus, Home Depot under Mr. Blake's leadership has refrained from cutting jobs, invested in upgrading stores and begun to revive the chain's missing culture of service.
Mr. Blake indicated that a housing market turnaround and, in turn, Home Depot were getting "close" but that "it's still a very tough market."
Discussion Questions: How much progress would you say that Frank Blake has made in reviving the organizational culture that made Home Depot a success? Is the "old" Home Depot good enough in today's business climate?