The third case study “Home Depot's Blueprint for Culture Change” studied Robert Nardelli's role as CEO of Home Depot. He approached management in an autocratic style, which was criticized by many. This article will examine how Nardelli's style follows Kotter and Cohen's model of change. It appears that Nardelli and his team followed some steps of Kotter and Cohen's model, but not all. There are additional steps his team could have taken to improve morale and further develop the team. Nardelli sees management as a top-down command-and-control style, prized by efficiency managers, but criticized by many. He particularly focused on process controls and metrics (including cost and quality). It also borrowed many management principles from the military and especially hired managers, who served in the military (Nussbaum, 2007). Nardelli worked hard to build a disciplined team (with order, high pressure and high standards) (Grow 2006). Step 1: Establish a sense of urgency The first step is to “establish a sense of urgency.” Mr. Nardelli brought a sense of urgency, especially with how quickly some changes were occurring. In some ways, one might feel that the changes were happening faster than the employees were ready. Nardelli could have spent more time demonstrating why the changes were necessary and why the urgency. Taking a look at the communication strategies (discussed later in this document), it appeared that there had been a great deal of one-way communication, but less collaboration and some employees may have felt that their opinions did not matter. Therefore, not everyone agreed with the changes, however, expressed a sense of urgency. Step 2: Create the guiding carbon...... middle of the document ...... tics and critics, management needs to take note when it might be a good time to listen to their employees. As an industry comparison, Lowe's culture is much more low-key, collaborative and collegial. However, many investment reports show that historically Home Depot is often ahead of Lowe's (Grow 2006). After Nardelli, Frank Blake, who followed Robert Nardelli, decided to bring back Home Depot's inverted pyramid, with customers at the top and the "CEO" at the top. the fund (Tobin 2010). Blake's goal was to listen to employees and customers more. Blake also brought personal responsibility back to managers, who may have greater knowledge of market needs (Jacobs 2007). It still hosts TV shows, but now monthly and live, under a different name of InBox Live. Regardless of their level, all members are encouraged to ask him questions (Tobin 2010).