AI Summary
5 min readOrbiting Home
When Mike Rowe asked Ted Decker, CEO of Home Depot, which aisle he'd show visiting aliens, the answer came without hesitation: power tools. "I just want to show them, hey, we're pretty sophisticated too," Decker said. "You can get a cordless power tool with the same power and runtime to do an entire day's job on a site. Don't need the electrical cord. Don't need the compressor." That moment captured something about the two conversations in this episode—both centered on manufacturing, workforce, and the gap between what people think is possible and what's actually happening.
The inverted pyramid and what it reveals
Decker runs a company with 475,000 employees—more people than most American cities. But he described Home Depot's structure as an inverted pyramid. The customer sits on top. Below them, the front-line associates. Below them, staff. At the very bottom: the executive team. "We exist to support the associate so they can take care of the customers," Decker said. "It's not just lip service."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (04:36) **Ted Decker (Home Depot CEO) on the Inverted Pyramid** - Decker explains Home Depot's inverted pyramid leadership model, where executives sit at the bottom supporting associates who serve customers.
- 2 (06:55) **Why Home Depot's CEO Sees the Economy Before Economists Do** - Decker explains that Home Depot's front-row seat to consumer behavior gives them real-time economic insight.
- 3 (09:18) **The Housing Turnover Crisis at a 40-Year Low** - Decker reveals that housing turnover has dropped from the historical 4.5% to just 3%, suppressing GDP by 1.5-2 million homes not turning each year.
- 4 (10:50) **The Skills Gap: 300,000-400,000 Tradespeople Short** - Decker details the skilled trades shortage and Home Depot's $50 million (now surpassed) commitment to address it.
- 5 (13:19) **Path to Pro: Home Depot's Internal Pre-Apprenticeship Pipeline** - Decker explains how Home Depot's "Path to Pro" program connects candidates with pro contractors through their website.
- 6 (14:50) **Military Bases as Trade School Classrooms** - Decker describes active classrooms on nine military bases where servicemembers earn trade certifications before transitioning to civilian life.
- 7 (16:50) **Pell Grants Extended to Trade Schools: A Game Changer** - Decker notes that starting July 1, Pell Grants will cover short-term trade school programs of 12-13 weeks.
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Show Notes
What do a Home Depot employee and a satellite have in common? More than you might think. In this episode, Mike Rowe talks with two CEOs about the people and technology quietly building the future around us.
First, Mike sits down with Ted Decker, CEO of The Home Depot, to talk about workforce development, the company's "inverted pyramid" philosophy—where frontline associates and customers sit at the top and management exists to support them—and why developing people from the ground up is central to the company's success. Decker also explains the story behind Home Depot's Kids Workshop program, which has introduced generations of young people to tools, building, and the satisfaction of making something with their own hands.
Then Mike talks with Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree Ian Cinnamon, CEO and co-founder of Apex, a company tackling one of the space industry's biggest challenges: making satellites faster and at much greater scale. Cinnamon explains just how many aspects of everyday life depend on satellites—from communications and navigation to weather and national security—and why getting more capable spacecraft into orbit is becoming increasingly important.
From the aisles of Home Depot to the edge of space, this is a conversation about building things, building people, and building what comes next.
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