The other day I wrote an angry post about Home Depot. It has generated some interesting replies, both on the side that the company is getting many things wrong under Bob Nardelli and on the side that, however outsized Nardelli’s compensation may be, it is wrong to judge the company’s performance on share price.
The most revealing comment, however, has come from Home Depot’s public relations department. Sheryll Campbell provides the complete text of a press release from the company detailing the votes at their annual meeting and stating that they will return to a more conventional format for meetings in future — not one that seems designed to ignore dissident opinions.
Whatever final judgement anyone reaches on Home Depot, I think their corporate willingness to engage with a lone blogger like me is a good sign. It’s a sign that major corporations are understanding the importance of conversation and openness, and the futility of cowering in a bunker until a storm blows over.
I agree with your last paragraph, Mr. Knobel. It’s a very good sign, and I think indicates a switched on PR/Comms department. Good on you Sheryll Campbell for engaging in this conversation.
Home Depot: Calling Off the Dogs
In the wake of shareholder outcry at the way Home Depot’s annual meeting was handled last week (as I blogged about a few days ago – also see this WSJ editorial), Home Depot issued this press release yesterday noting that next year’s shareholder meeting will return to “normal” (ie. shareholders will be permitted to ask questions and directors will attend).
In addition, the company announced that it intends to implement “majority vote measures” since a shareholder proposal seeking a majority vote standard received support from 56% of those voting. It will be interesting to see what those “measures” comprise of given that 10 of Home Depot’s 11 directors received high levels of withheld votes: over 30% (the only director not receiving a similar level is a brand new director). According to this WSJ article, these high levels are mainly due to anger over CEO pay. Depending on the math, if broker non-votes were not counted and a majority vote standard had been in place, this board might have been gone!
Interestingly, Home Depot has landed near the top of the ISS CGQ scoring system in recent years (99.6% right now) – which can be taken one of two ways, either the conduct of this meeting was an aberration or CGQ scores should be taken with a grain of salt…
Thanks, Broc Romanek
Editor, TheCorporateCounsel.net