I think pdd won't be hot as hard as other areas but I think we will get hit, I think no area at target is safe. As far as pdd goes, I think it's going to come down to a large restructure and re org to better align duplicative workload, aka align bbbg and nit and merge teams and cut the fat. I agree that our jobs could be sent to the vendors but part of what distinguishes target is style and the fact that it is designed in house, if they send it all back to the vendors they will incur higher costs, lower pmu and less guest friendly designs. the other thing I would add is it seems they are cutting higher paid positions first so like any other part of the company it's most likely they won't lay off as many of the doers but more likely the people who don't touch te product as they may be seen as added layers to the process (ie design managers, directors, ect)
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Bump 2025! Interesting to see how TGT hasn't changed much in 10 years... still chasing after Walmart and trying to be Walmart - letting vendors do most of the designing, not giving designers autonomy to make decisions as design experts that they are, too many layers now in PDD, and we still haven't learned from it.
All areas will be impacted by lay-offs, including PD&D. There are no areas within Merchandising that doen't have at least some degree of duplication and redundancy of work. As buyerships and divisions are collapsed and absorbed, support areas, like PD&D, will have a mirror-effect. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Wow. Not my experience at all. What division is that ?
Just seems like soooo many people in pdd, and we no longer even look at / approve actual product. So if it gets to stores wrong we can blame the vendor for executing it wrong but we barely give vendors specs anymore. How do we add value?
Also, would it make sense for Kathee to have a whole video showcasing the talent of PDD shot for the sole purpose of showing our investos at the earnings call on Tuesday if PDD didn't factor large into the company's growth strategy? That would make zero sense. PDD is probably one of the safer areas. Note I did NOT say "safe" however.
Differentiation is Targets golden ticket. We'll never beat Amazon or Walmart at their own games and honestly why would we want to? Puke. An emphasis on style and design is what brought Target into its pre-Steinhafel pinnacle and then Steinhafel happened and somehow thought chasing Walmart would be a good idea. We lost our way. I'm not saying that exact same road from before leads to the future, but Design is part of Target's DNA. And to compete it has to be differentiated. PDD will be part of the game plan going forward. If not Target has no chance.
Re: vendor design is at an all time high-
Designers are giving some of their programs to the vendor to design. 7 years ago it was a program here or there. Now nearly all of some brands are designed by vendors. HQ designers send them ideas and inspiration to design from.
73682 - Don't you think there's something heroic about the designed in-house aspect of so many of our owned brands? I feel like Target needs to offer something special and unique and on-trend and I think Brian recognizes that. Yes, there will be layoffs but to say the majority of roles will be moved to vendor-driven design shows that Target vastly underestimates the talent it houses under it's own roof.
So, maybe there will be layoffs but I sure as hell hope not. If we're re-visiting the "target of yesterday" - that means better design and that means target should be housing that itself not sending it out.
"Vendor Design is at an all time high" - please expand on this
With the increased amount of design work moved to the vendors, I think some of the Doers will be let go. Vendor Design is at an all time high and the technical teams have been training vendors to do their job for years.
PDD is probably in the best position here