The 93-year-old co-founder of Home Depot has attacked the current generation of business leaders for prioritizing “wake up” issues over shareholders and employees.
Bernie Marcus, valued at more than $5 billion by Bloomberg, said he was dismayed to see the world’s business leaders gather in Davos this year and call for investment in causes that “don’t hit the bottom line.”
“I don’t really understand the new leadership,” he said on Fox Business Network. We need new leaders who think about shareholders and their employees. I think today it’s all about awakening and diversity — things that aren’t quite as minimal.
Marcus targeted modern office workers as well, whom he accused of being lazy and with short-hour expectations. “They want to work three days a week,” he said.
His comments came after he told the Financial Times in December that his hugely successful retail business would have been suffocated by modern business culture. So he blamed HR executives, government bureaucrats, regulators, socialists, Harvard alumni, MBAs, Harvard MBAs, lawyers, accountants, Joe Biden, the media, and the “woke people.”
Appearing on Fox Business Network, Bernie Marcus, 93, said modern business leaders prioritize the “wake up” agenda over their shareholders and employees.
Marcus is a co-founder of Home Depot. Bloomberg estimates his wealth at more than $5 billion, but he said the company wouldn’t have been so successful today at all
When asked this month what he would like to see in future business leaders, he said, “I certainly don’t want to see the awakened generation coming, especially the leaders.”
“I see what happened in Davos, and they recommend spending more money on climate control, when we don’t have it,” he said. “We’re already overspending.”
“If anything climate control has caused most of the problems we face today,” he added, before also targeting white-collar workers.
You can’t hire people. They don’t want to work, no one wants to work anymore, especially office workers. ‘It’s unbelievable.’
The businessman pointed to the importance of small businesses in America, which he said employed 70 percent of the country’s workers, and blamed their uncertain future on inflation and an inability to retain employees.
“We just had a survey recently, 60 percent of small businesses think they won’t be here in the future,” he said.
A New York poll last November showed that young workers had record high salary expectations. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the lowest average annual wage workers were willing to accept from a new employer was $73,667.
When the bank began conducting the survey in 2014, the forecast was less than $55,000, which would be about $68,000 today accounting for inflation.
Home Depot has 2,300 stores across North America, a market capitalization of $300 billion and annual revenues of more than $150 billion.
Home Depot CEO Bernie Marcus (left) and Arthur Blank (right) started their successful business in 1978.
Home Depot hailed record sales in first two fiscal quarters, topping $80 billion in first half of 2022
A New York poll last November showed that young workers had a record high salary expectation of $73,667. When the bank began conducting the survey in 2014, the projections were lower than $55,000, which would be about $68,000 today with inflation in mind.
The bank noted that the increase in salary expectations was most pronounced among job seekers under the age of 45.
It was the highest amount ever recorded and an increase from the $57,206 they expect to receive in July 2021 after the pandemic has dealt a blow.
In his interview with the Financial Times, Marcus said that the company he started with Arthur Blank in 1978 would not have been as successful today.
“We’ll end up with 15, 16 stores,” he told The Guardian. financial times. “I don’t know we can go any further.”
He added that he worried about capitalism and said thanks to socialism, “Nobody works. Nobody cares.” Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work – I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid.”
Marcus has been an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and a member of the White House reopening task force during COVID. He said he provided money to both Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – Trump’s potential challenger for the 2024 Republican nomination.
He said, “It’s going to be a lot of fun on the 24th because I think DeSantis will challenge him. And the better guy might win.”
Home Depot has 2,300 stores across North America, with a market capitalization of $300 billion and annual revenue of more than $150 billion, according to financial times.
Home Depot is Georgia’s largest public company based on revenue and had a really successful 2022. In November, the home improvement retailer reported sales of $38.9 billion for the third quarter of 2022, up 5.6 percent from the same period last year.
“We’re going to end up with 15, 16 stores,” said Marcus, seen here with Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot. I don’t know we can move forward ‘if they start in 2022, because of the people who stand in the way of the business community
Marcus has also made a mention of his philanthropic endeavors, having joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in pledging to donate at least half of his fortune to good causes.
He has given $2 billion to more than 500 organizations through the Marcus Foundation and has supported the construction of the Georgia Aquarium. Not many people can ever see the ocean. I can bring it to their doorstep,” he wrote in his book.
The Marcus Foundation has donated to research on autism, stem cells, cancer, and strokes.
In 2019, he told Atlanta Journal-Constitution: I want to live to 100 because I want to be in a position to let go of those things that I truly believe in.
I have all the homes I need. I live well. My children are being taken care of. Everything I live for now is finding the right things to put my money in and that can give me a rate of return of feelings and do good things for this world.