Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew the Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew the Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion Book

Built from Scratch : Paperback : Random House USA Inc : 9780812933789 : 0812933788 : 03 Jul 2001 : One of the greatest entrepreneurial success stories of the past twenty years When a friend told Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank that "you've just been hit in the ass by a golden horseshoe,"" they thought he was crazy. After all, both had just been fired. What the friend, Ken Langone, meant was that they now had the opportunity to create the kind of wide-open warehouse store that would help spark a consumer revolution through low prices, excellent customer service, and wide availability of products..."Read More

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  • Amazon Review

    Built from Scratch is about two businessmen who achieve the American Dream by fundamentally changing the realm of home-improvement retailing. Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, cofounders of the Home Depot, explain how they established the first national chain in the industry by concentrating on low prices, customer service, and strong leadership values.

    Ultimately, this is a book about grit and determination. "Building the Home Depot was a tough, uphill battle from the day we started," they write. "No one believed we could do it and very few people trusted our judgment." The two cofounders launched the company only after they were fired by a California hardware retailer because of politics. The Home Depot lost $1 million in its first year of operation in Atlanta. Today it's one of the great successes on Wall Street, with more than 700 stores across the country and 160,000 employees.

    One reason the book is so engaging is that it includes corporate anecdotes. A favorite: the company banned wild parties after several employees were demoted and a couple were fired in the wake of a drunken annual managers' meeting. Another yarn involves Sears, which made one of the worst financial mistakes in retailing history when it passed on a deal to purchase Home Depot in the early 1980s. The authors are self-serving at times; for example, they whine too much about paying $104.5 million to dispose of a sex-discrimination lawsuit. But there's no denying the smashing performance of Big Orange. Marcus and Blank paint a story with some sparkling advice for practically anyone in business. --Dan Ring

  • Product Description

    Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus were both fired in 1978 by corporate raider Sandy Sigiloff. Blank, a CPA, and Marcus, an ex-pharmacist, were devastated. Bernie, heartbroken and virtually broke, fell into a deep funk. Arthur considered becoming a private CPA. Both thought a former associate was crazy when he told them: "You've just been hit in the ass by a golden horseshoe".

    They proved him right. Blank and Marcus both recovered from their professional downturn to found The Home Depot, a phenomenally successful business with 1,000 locations, 200,000 employees, and $30 billion in sales. The Home Depot story is one of the great entrepreneurial tales of the last twenty years -- how incredibly determined and creative people built a business empire from nothing. It's an inspirational tale of two people who had to beg for capital to begin and grow their business but never forgot their principles.

    The Home Depot today is one of America's toughest, most growth-oriented companies, but one with a huge sense of responsibility to its employees and to the communities in which it operates. Well over 1,000 Home Depot hourly associates are millionaires (from stock options and other benefits) who continue to work at the store level. When disasters like the Oklahoma bombing or Hurricane Andrew hit local communities, Home Depot employees don't call central headquarters for permission to do something. They close the store and take personal action.

    The Home Depot is a category killer -- but one you can love. It is "Toys 'R Us for adults" and the founders, Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, are the "Ben and Jerry" of the retail world.

  • 0812933788
  • 9780812933789
  • Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Bob Andelman
  • 1 June 2000
  • Three Rivers Press (CA)
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 356
  • Reprint
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