Home Depot’s decline?
Is it just me, or is Home Depot going downhill?
I remember a few years ago how Home Depot was a really fun store. The shelves were well stocked and organized, the selection was great, the staff could point you to anything, the displays were fresh and fun to look at, the garden plants were healthy, and the seasonal stuff was always exciting. But now the place seems grubby and disorganized.
For example, yesterday I was looking for a socket to fix a lamp. It’s not hard to find the sockets, in the aisle with electrical switches, plugs, and other doo-dads. But the little boxes under the display switches are a mess — all jumbled together with random stuff from other parts of the store mixed in. I finally found the socket I needed, about 4 boxes away from where it belonged.
There were only a few switches to choose from, all from the same manufacturer, and all somewhat overpriced at about $3.50. A couple years ago (when I last fixed a lamp) there were twice as many choices. Even Lowe’s has more selection. And better prices.
This is just one little thing of course. But over the past year I’ve been noticing more and more a feeling of grubby disorganization in the store. I used used to find inspiration at Home Depot, but nowadays it’s just depressing.
Two weeks ago a friend of mine was telling me about another friend who was laid off from Home Depot. He said they got rid of all the most experienced people because they were the highest paid.
Yikes. I know there’s always at least two sides to a story like that — I’ve been through layoffs, and they’re awful for the employees, but they’re also awful for the managers who have to fire people. These decisions are very hard.
Still, this story jibes with my anecdotal impression. Somebody on the sales floor has to really care about all the little details. Someone has to make sure the dust is dusted, the bins are straightened, and the obscure items are stocked. That someone has to be on the floor noticing details every day. Not working the register. Not stuck in an office writing performance reviews.
Argonne on Twitter
I just noticed that Argonne National Lab is on Twitter. Hmm, makes sense I guess. Maybe the United States of America should also tweet. Oh, I see it already does ;-). (btw, I’m allowed to use smileys on my own site.)
Argonne is also on facebook.
Collectivist societies, Deming, and Agile development
I just read an op-ed in the NYT by David Brooks called Harmony and the Dream. He talks about collectivist vs individualist cultures. He suggests that the USA, as the most individualistic country, has a lot to learn from collectivist Asian societies.
This made me think of W. Edwards Deming, the American who helped reorganize Japanese industry after WWII. In this country Deming is mostly known for teaching statistical quality control methods, to be used in manufacturing. But Deming was not just a statistician — he viewed corporations as integrated systems, made up of a dense mesh of relationships between employees, management, suppliers, customers, and even competitors. He encouraged corporate culture that stressed these inter-dependencies and lines of communication, where every employee was aware of, and to some degree responsible for, the larger system around them. It was very collectivist, and it worked very well in Japan.
It also made me think of Agile software development, which is a set of techniques that acknowledge how unpredictable software development (or any creative business process) can be. Agile techniques emphasize openness, communication, and group awareness to keep the process flexible, efficient, and satisfying.