March was a month of Frank Blake settling in and beginning to shape the company to his vision.  In late February, HD outlined its five key priorities in focusing on its retail business.  These include engaging associates in making the shopping experience a good one, employing greater product innovation and promotions, targeting proper inventories so that the right numbers of the right products are available, cleaning and "uncluttering" stores, and being the number one choice for repair/remodel professionals.  In this venture, they expect to spend about $2.2 billion. 

As Big Orange considers its future expansion strategy, one thing they're trying is two new store sizes: superstores and ministores.  The superstores (about four football fields or 225,000 sq. ft.) will carry new merchandise and a bigger selection, such as a bigger appliance showroom and home electronics offerings.  A superstore is set to open in April or May 2008 in Union, NJ.  On the other side, the ministore concept is focused on small and/or vacation markets, aimed at yielding the "neighborhood hardware store" feel, and is targeted for the San Francisco area as a test market.  Info on the new stores is below:

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/03/24/24home...



There was a good article on MarketWatch about Blake's personality and management style.  Among noteworthy items are descriptions of how he removed artwork in the Atlanta headquarters of top executives, and replaced it with pictures of store employees and customers.  Another interesting storyline is HDs commitment to setting a new precedent with CEO pay:  Blake's base salary is under $1 million.  In a "hope-it's-not-too-good-to-be-true" story, Blake seems to be the back-to-the-basics type of guy sorely needed after the Nardelli years.  The article is below:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7BA586A765%2D4B8E%2D40...