InformationWeek

December 21/28, 1998

People Person: Ron Griffin

Home Depot's Ron Griffin applies technology to the bottom line, and bottom-line thinking to the retail industry

By Clinton Wilder

on Griffin can produce a list of a half-dozen major applications The Home Depot Inc. has deployed this year. But Home Depot's senior VP and CIO likes to think his No. 1 accomplishment is helping the bottom line. In the first nine months of this year, Home Depot's income jumped 31% over the same period last year. The $30 billion retailer's pretax profit margin rose from 8% to 8.3%--pretty impressive at a time when margins in all retail sectors are under unprecedented competitive pressure.

"That reflects a mix of everything we do," says Griffin, runner-up for InformationWeek's 1998 Chief of the Year. "You can't pinpoint one application or technology. Our philosophy is giving them the tools to go run a good business."

Griffin is well-versed in Home Depot's management gospel of decentralized decision-making. He joined the Atlanta company nine years ago as director of application development, was promoted to VP of development, and then to VP of IS and later CIO in 1994. He became senior VP the next year.

Griffin's charge is delivering information and technology capability right to the aisles, checkout counters, and returns desks. This year, staff members in more than 700 stores began using a Mobile Ordering system that harnesses radio-frequency and pen-based technologies to relay orders from store aisles directly to suppliers. Mobile Ordering garnered Home Depot an innovation award at Retail Systems '98, the industry's largest IT trade show.

In addition to running IT at a huge and growing company, Griffin has become one of the retail industry's most visible executives. He works closely with the National Retail Federation's effort toward year 2000 compliance throughout the retail supply chain, is involved in the drive for a Java point-of-sale standard (now called Universal POS), and serves on the executive committee of the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards board as well as the Research Board. "Ron is a great consensus-builder both within and outside of Home Depot," says Tom Friedman, president of Retail Systems Alert Group, a retail IT research firm. "He's one of the few executives who can listen to everyone and help them understand they have a lot of commonality with other companies."

To Griffin, such commitments just make good business sense. "Getting technology and commerce standards in place around the globe is very important to us," he says. "We participate and help lead the charge so that when we get there, we can do business the way we'd like to--which is maximizing customer satisfaction and minimizing costs."

Return to "Chief Of The Year."