Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli was fired from his post in January 2007, but it wasn’t because the stock of his company had dropped that much. In fact, the stock for Home Depot had stayed about the same during his tenure. Many analysts credited Nardelli for making major substantive changes.

So what was the root of his downfall?

Of course there was his well-publicized huge salary and his $200 million Golden Parachute. But what many analysts cite as his downfall was the arrogant way he tried to talk to people. At the 2006 Home Depot annual meeting, Nardelli created legions of enemies by severely limiting who could ask questions and the length of each question. Worse, he specifically told his directors not to come to the meeting so that investors couldn’t ask them questions.

Nardelli went to these extreme measures because he didn’t want to be questioned, about his salary or anything else.

Was he successful? Yes. Nardelli did control his audience, but it came at a cost. Nardelli sowed so many seeds of resentment that day, they eventually came back to destroy him.

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