In this episode of One of One, Darren speaks with Frank Blake, former chairman and CEO of The Home Depot.

Frank stepped into the CEO role at Home Depot at a moment of profound uncertainty. It was early 2007, the housing market was beginning to unravel, and culturally, the company had lost touch with the values that once defined it. Frank had never aspired to be a CEO, and yet he was asked to lead one of the largest retailers in the world through one of the most turbulent periods in its history.

Over the next eight years, Frank restored Home Depot's customer first culture. He paused new store openings to reallocate capital toward improving the customer experience, and led with a deeply unconventional philosophy that the CEO belongs at the bottom of the organization, pushing purpose upward rather than letting authority cascade down. This episode explores how to lead in crisis, the truth revealed by capital allocation, the discipline of focus, and what it really means to serve an organization.

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One of One is produced by Darren Gold, Emily Shaw, and Karen Welsh. Engineering by Aja Simpson.