Business Analysis: Home DepotIntroductionWhen two senior executives decided to leave their jobs at the small hardware store they worked at, "Handy Dandy", they had a vision and decided to expand a company that catered to "do-it-yourselfers", and with this idea, The Home Depot was born. As the company grew from one store to hundreds, it quickly became the largest supplier of building materials and remodeling materials in the United States. However, this move was short-lived, other companies were approaching the same idea and the market was shrinking. Planning officials, at the time, needed to develop a strategic plan for Home Depot that would take advantage of today's business landscape, "globalization, technological change, the importance of knowledge and ideas, and collaboration beyond organizational "boundaries" (Bateman and Snell, p. In today's business culture, more and more industries are becoming globalized. American retailers are looking internationally not only for sourcing and outsourcing products and services, but also new consumer and growth markets The author of this article will describe how Home Depot operates in a globalized world and keeps pace with the global business community through innovation and innovation. diversity. Finally, the authors will discuss how Home Depot is going “green” with the help of today's technology Globalization Globalization is a prevalent factor for companies wanting to achieve competitive advantage. on their competitors. Taking advantage of foreign markets can be a process that can prove very useful to a business. The Home Depot is no different. In 1998, the company saw the opportunity and seized it, opening stores in Santiago, Chile, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. To avoid the obvious obstacles of cultural and language barriers, as well as product barriers, the company entered into an alliance with a local retail chain. Before these stores opened, Home Depot's international portfolio consisted of stores located only in Canada (Johnson, 1998). The company had the foresight to realize that some obstacles would likely be related to the location of these stores and planned to partner with a local retail chain in order to alleviate some of the difficulties. This decision allowed Home Depot to control the external factors involved in the openings. Even as the company expands into international chain stores, the percentage of its inventory manufactured outside the United States remains low..