The shared risk by upper mgt., from a publicly held company such as HD is, comes in the form of stock compensation. Very common for bonuses & portions of compensation packages for upper mgt. to be "paid for" by a set number of shares of the company's stock. If that stock goes up, the upper mgt. makes more $$, and if it goes in the dumper, they make diddly. So it is in their best interest, financially, for a company to do well. That's the reason that boards offer top execs company stock as bonus/slary packages - to insure the company does well. Of course this only works as long as a company is well managed & it's product line does well, and it makes a PROFIT. Without a profit, given enough time, the company itself goes in the dumpster which is bad for top execs, middle mgt. & line employees. It's all about sales & profits & the products/services needed to ensure same.
Not sure if HD execs have stock options & frankly not going to invest the time to find out. My bike is running ok & I wish gas was $.29 a gallon like it used to be.