publishing home business opportunities

For a surprising number of people, last months National Hardware Show served as much as a job fair as it did product expo. Along with the expected retail buyers, exhibitors and reps, Chicagos McCormick Place seemed to be filled with its share of headhunters in search of executive talent to represent and displaced merchants, salesmen and managers looking for someone to hand their resumes to. Ironically, my colleague, executive editor John Caulfield, pondered a recent spate of departures among high-level industry executives just a couple of issues ago.

Since Johns column, however, what once was a trickle has turned into a flood. At Home Depot, a slew of names synonymous with panys meteoric rise are now pursuing other business opportunities.

Scott Richards, once the key merchant at HomeBase, is out now that HomeBase officially has e House2Home see story, page 4. John Roach, the somewhat enigmatic force behind the creation of the pro dealer BuildersFirst Source, has moved on.

While change might be inevitable and, in certain situations, utterly necessary, one has to wonder about the degree to which it is reworking the world of home-centered products. When even Home Depot feels the need to reinvent itself from the CEOs office down, something of dramatic significance is clearly underway.

In the case of BuildersFirst Source, its not hard to see why Roach was the one to go. While the concept behind pany -- a nationwide network of builder-oriented lumberyards pieced together through acquisition -- was his, Roach was never long for the job in the first place.

Almost from panys outset in 1998, Roach made it known the eventual goal was to cobble together a far-flung enterprise with vast economies of scale, then take it public in a bid to e the Home Depot of the pro side. Given the historic lack of investor interest in building materials dealers, however, it was a risky proposition from the start, and the real surprise is that Roach hung around as long as he did.

Now the question es what does the future hold for the mishmash of operations hes left behind? Ditto, HomeBase. By certain accounts, Richards never fully bought into the do-or-die plan to turn the troubled retailer into a chain of decor- and outdoor living-oriented warehouses.

Only time will tell if such doubts prove warranted. But if indeed Richards harbored them, he certainly wasnt alone.

The situation at Home Depot seems much harder to read. To be sure, no one expected the status quo when Depots directors went outside pany to find an heir to the Orange Empire.

Still, its somewhat shocking to see the force of the changes being made. After all, the retailers very success was supposed to emanate from deep inside people like Barry Silverman and Vein Joslyn, two of the latest Depot veterans to take their stock options and go home.

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