Housing.com News, Analysis & Opinion: Home Improvement: The Rise And Fall Of Robert Nardelli

"Mr. Nardelli moved to cut back on higher-paid full-time employees with experience as plumbers or handymen," the Wall Street Journal reported, "and to rely more on part-time workers with less experience answering home-improvement questions from customers."

This is really the key, to me, of why Nardelli failed. More than at any time in recent history, the housing boom of the past few years meant more people buying refits for their kitchen, garage, patio, etc., because they believed (rightly or wrongly) that they could pull money out of their home equity and return it via a better asking price at sale time. In a situation like that, you're going to want customer support that's knowledgeable and helpful--something a bunch of part-timers cannot be expected to be. People don't shop at Wal-Mart because of the friendly assistance, after all.

It's more of a marketing-centric article than real estate, but an interesting read nonetheless. Nardelli has been a morbid pet fascination of mine, as I find his saga emblematic of the housing bubble and bust as a whole, and I am glad he's out on his butt.

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Ad Age's Al Ries has an interesting look at "the most overpaid CEO in America": "Mr. Nardelli moved to cut back on higher-paid full-time employees with experience as plumbers or handymen," the Wall Street Journal reported, "and to rely more on part-time workers with less experience answering home-improvement questions from customers." This is really the key, to me, of why Nardelli failed. More than at any time in recent history, the housing boom of the past few years meant more people buying refits for their kitchen, garage, patio, etc., because they believed (rightly or wrongly) that they could pull money out of their home equity and return it via a better asking price at sale time. In a situation like that, you're going to want customer support that's knowledgeable and helpful--something a bunch of part-timers cannot be expected to be. People don't shop at Wal-Mart because of the friendly assistance, after all. It's more of a marketing-centric article than real estate, but an interesting read nonetheless. Nardelli has been a morbid pet fascination of mine, as I find his saga emblematic of the housing bubble and bust as a whole, and I am glad he's out on his butt. You can read my selected entries dealing with Nardelli here.