The Home Depot value wheel is a circular diagram that displays the company's eight core values. It appears on every associate's orange apron, across store buildings, and in internal communications. The wheel was created in 1998 and has remained one of the most visible symbols of Home Depot's workplace culture ever since.
The Basics: What the Value Wheel Actually Is
Before anything else it's not a chart of financial priorities or a strategic planning tool. It's a cultural framework. Home Depot uses it to define how associates are expected to think, work, and treat each other and customers.
The circular format matters. There's no top value or bottom value. No hierarchy. Each of the eight values sits equally on the wheel, which signals that none of them are optional add-ons. They're meant to work together, not compete.
You'll find it stitched onto aprons, painted on walls, embedded into onboarding, and referenced in leadership communications. For a company with over 400,000 employees, having something that simple and visible is a deliberate choice.
Who Created the Home Depot Value Wheel
Faye Wilson created the value wheel after joining Home Depot as Senior Vice President of Value Initiatives in 1998. Wilson had previously helped secure early financing for the company at Bank of America she was instrumental in growing Home Depot from 19 stores to 100.
When she joined full-time, creating this values framework became one of her defining contributions.Her work is recognized formally: a physical version of the wheel was donated to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution, where it sits as an artifact of American business culture. It's currently not on public display, but its presence there says something about how the wheel has been regarded beyond just internal branding.
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The Eight Core Values on the Home Depot Value Wheel
Here's each value as Home Depot defines it, followed by a plain explanation of what it actually means in practice.
1. Excellent Customer Service
Home Depot describes this as going the extra mile to give customers knowledgeable advice and help them use products to their maximum benefit. In practice: don't just point someone to aisle 7. Help them understand what they're actually buying and why.
2. Taking Care of Our People
The company frames this as the key to success encouraging associates to speak up, take risks, and grow. It's an internal-facing value. The idea is that how you treat employees shapes how employees treat customers.
3. Building Strong Relationships
This one covers vendors and suppliers, not just customers. Home Depot's scale means its supplier relationships are significant. This value acknowledges that the business runs on trust across multiple directions, not just at the checkout counter.
4. Entrepreneurial Spirit
Associates are encouraged to find creative ways to serve customers and improve the business. Not a typical corporate stance. It's an acknowledgment that a lot of good ideas come from the store floor, not the boardroom.
5. Respect for All People
The company ties this to creating an environment free of discrimination and harassment. Simple enough in statement, harder in practice at the scale Home Depot operates. It also connects to the broader culture set by founders Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, who built the company on a relatively flat, people-first model.
6. Doing the Right Thing
Home Depot phrases this as exercising good judgment by doing the right thing instead of just doing things right. That's actually a meaningful distinction. It means following the spirit of a policy, not gaming its letter. Accepting accountability rather than deflecting it.
7. Giving Back to Our Communities
Volunteerism, disaster relief, and community investment. Home Depot has a well-documented track record here, including post-hurricane rebuilding efforts and the Home Depot Foundation's work with veterans. This value has visible operational expression, not just lip service.
8. Creating Shareholder Value
The most straightforwardly business-oriented value on the wheel. Home Depot states plainly that investors who provide capital need a return. Including this alongside community and people values is a candid acknowledgment that profitability and purpose aren't mutually exclusive — they're both requirements.
How the Value Wheel Gets Used Inside Home Depot
Knowing the values is one thing. Understanding how the wheel functions inside the company is different.
On the Apron
Every associate wears it. Literally. That level of physical visibility is unusual. It means the values aren't a poster in the break room they're on the person helping customers. It's both a reminder and a signal to customers about what the company claims to stand for.
In Leadership Communication
The wheel's biggest moment came in 2007. CEO Frank Blake took over from Robert Nardelli, whose tenure was marked by a departure from the company's founding culture. Blake made the value wheel one of his first communication tools on day one. He used it alongside a companion framework called the Inverted Pyramid.
The wheel defined what Home Depot believed in. The pyramid defined how priorities were organized with frontline associates at the top and the CEO at the bottom. Together, they formed the cultural reset Blake was trying to execute.
Blake also embedded the wheel into monthly associate quizzes, which all 300,000 Home Depot employees were required to complete. Not as a test but as a touchpoint.
One minute a month, every associate was hearing something from the CEO directly. The values weren't abstract at that point; they were woven into routine.
The Nardelli Era Context
This is worth understanding to appreciate what the wheel represents beyond decoration. During Nardelli's tenure (2001–2007), Home Depot's culture reportedly drifted.
Centralized decision-making replaced the founders' entrepreneurial model. Customer service metrics fell. Employee morale suffered.
Blake's revival of the value wheel wasn't introducing something new. It was reclaiming something that already existed.
The wheel was created in 1998 and had been present throughout it just hadn't been at the center of how leadership communicated. Blake put it back there.
The Value Wheel vs. the Inverted Pyramid
These two tools are frequently mentioned together, and they're easy to confuse. They serve different purposes.
The value wheel answers: what does Home Depot stand for? It's about beliefs, behaviors, and culture.
The inverted pyramid answers: how does Home Depot prioritize? It places associates at the top and corporate leadership at the bottom — a structural statement about where accountability flows.
One defines character. The other defines hierarchy. Both are needed to understand how Home Depot communicates its culture internally. Neither replaces the other.
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Why the Value Wheel Has Lasted This Long
Most corporate values statements don't survive leadership changes. The fact that the Home Depot value wheel created in 1998 is still on aprons in 2025 is worth noting.
A few reasons it's held: It's visual and simple. It doesn't require a memo to understand. The wheel format implies equality among the values, which prevents any one of them from being deprioritized. And the Smithsonian recognition, while not directly operational, signals that outside observers have found it culturally significant enough to preserve.
What's often overlooked is that the wheel didn't survive because leadership mandated it. It survived because it was already embedded in how the company trained, communicated, and rewarded behavior. By the time Blake revived it in 2007, it had institutional memory behind it.
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Conclusion
The Home Depot value wheel is a circular framework of eight equally weighted core values, created by Faye Wilson in 1998. It has appeared on associate aprons for over two decades, shaped leadership communication during major transitions, and earned a place in the Smithsonian. Simple in design, durable in application.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 8 values on the Home Depot value wheel?
Excellent Customer Service, Taking Care of Our People, Building Strong Relationships, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Respect for All People, Doing the Right Thing, Giving Back to Our Communities, and Creating Shareholder Value.
Who created the Home Depot value wheel?
Faye Wilson, who joined Home Depot as SVP of Value Initiatives in 1998. She was also Home Depot's first female board director and played a key role in the company's early expansion financing.
Where does the Home Depot value wheel appear?
On every associate apron, throughout store buildings and facilities, and in internal leadership communications. It has been a physical fixture of the brand since 1998.
Is the value wheel the same as the inverted pyramid?
No. The value wheel defines Home Depot's eight core values. The inverted pyramid defines organizational priorities associates at the top, leadership at the bottom. They're two separate frameworks often used together.
Is the Home Depot value wheel in a museum?
Yes. A physical version is part of the National Museum of American History collection at the Smithsonian Institution, gifted by Marty Greco. It is currently not on public display.
