With strategic missteps, an outsized compensation contract and a knack for alienating employees and shareholders, Home Depot’s Robert Nardelli turned out to be a star-crossed leader. Wharton faculty members and other experts say Nardelli, a talented former executive at General Electric who came within a hair’s breadth of replacing Jack Welch as head of the giant conglomerate, brought the wrong toolbox to the job after he was recruited for Home Depot’s top spot in December 2000. He did not know the retailing business and mistakenly thought that what had worked at GE could be readily transplanted to Home Depot’s more freewheeling, entrepreneurial culture. After years of a declining stock price — and a now-legendary 2006 shareholders meeting where an imperious Nardelli refused to answer questions — Home Depot announced the CEO’s resignation on January 3. He walked away with a package worth $210 million.…