The Boyar Value Group recently sat down with Frank Blake who helped orchestrate a successful turnaround of Home Depot (HD, Financial). Frank has a fascinating background. After law school he became a Supreme Court clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens. He later served as deputy counsel to Vice President George Bush. Later on he became Senior Vice President of Corporate Business Development at General electric where he reported directly to Jack Welch. Frank left GE to become deputy secretary of the U.S. department of Energy. In 2002 Home Depot recruited Blake to lead its business development and corporate operations and eventually became its CEO in 2007. He is currently on the boards of Procter & Gamble (PG, Financial) and Macy's (M, Financial). He also serves as non-executive Chairman of Delta Airlines (DAL, Financial).
In this wide-ranging interview, Frank discusses:
What investors should look for when analyzing a turnaround situation.
His views on Amazon and what physical retailers must do to effectively compete against the online giant.
Which publicly traded retailer (besides Home Depot) he admires.
Where he believes we are in the U.S. housing cycle.
His surprising thoughts on Wall Street analysts.
A lesson he learned from President George Bush.
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