In 2025, The Home Depot (Home Depot), an American home-improvement retail corporation, had 2,350 stores, with 790 branches distributed across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the US Virgin Islands, and 10 Canadian provinces. Only six of those stores boasted a Shell gas station in the parking lot. But nearly 20 years earlier, those six stations belonged to Home Depot, constructed to be the first of potentially 300 convenience store/gas station/car wash combinations designed to generate between $5 million and $7 million in annual revenue. For Home Depot, success of the growth initiative that became known as Home Depot FUEL could have firmly cemented it as the reigning home-improvement retailer across the globe, rendering fast-approaching competitor Lowe's a distant second. But Home Depot sacked the pilot program less than a decade after it was launched. Why?

This case presents the story of Home Depot FUEL using John Kotter's 8-step process for leading change: (1) create a sense of urgency, (2) build a guiding coalition, (3) form a strategic vision, (4) enlist a volunteer army, (5) enable action by removing barriers, (6) generate short-term wins, (7) sustain acceleration, and (8) institute change. In using this framework, students are invited to assess the development of the growth initiative at each step to potentially uncover why the company ultimately pulled the plug on it.