Don't blame Alvarez, or Brian. He's doing what had to be done to make up for years of mistakes. Face it, sales have sucked for along and time and yet, they kept adding more and more people. They created organizations to take over pricing, assortment planning, segmentation, promotional planning, and on and on. With the promise that by adding more people and more systems and more processes sales would increase, margins would improve. and, at the end of the day, they took their eye of the guest. Sales were declining. Amazon was eating our lunch, during the recession we let massive numbers of people walk away from Target because Gregg, and the gang on Lake Minnetonka, didn't see that our guests were leaving. We were perceived as being too expensive, they felt that shopping at Target made them feel guilty, and the bailed, And they never came back. We didn't attract the millenials because we weren't cool any more. Assortments were cut, Optimized sorry, and we became just another discounter, lost that special find experience that guests liked. Our online strategy was years behind. There's a ton of reason why this happened, at the end, bad strategies that we all lined up for and leadership that, after Bob left, wasn't interested in dissent or criticism. That's why we got where were.
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Hi. I cover TGT. Would love to chat. mtownsend9@bloomberg.net
I don't think anyone disagrees that a change was needed. We were top heavy. This company does run and will continue to run with the hard working team. We embody the FFF in our business and personal life. How this all went down and how poorly managed execution is a big issue. People who had the knowledge and experience were exited and people who had no experience stayed because they made less. A person was not given the option for a pay cut or demotion who was a loyal and devoted employee. These are the people who would have brought the teams together and helped rebuild their departments. Now departments are split and the person running it does not know where to start. There are areas where entire management is now gone and reports and payments are not being made because all of the people who did those functions are now gone. A person with no background or any knowledge is left to pick up the pieces. How is this a effective way to run a company. I am a low level peon at Target. I am trying my best to keep a smile, tell everyone things will be alright,lets prioritize and move forward together. This is VERY hard to do when you have zero faith with our leadership team and the board. They have not shown me anything that proves we are going in the right direction as a company. Brian needs to step down and Mulligan needs to take the reigns for the rebuilding. Our VP's and department leadership needs to be allowed to adjust and move their teams to cover the roles as they see necessary and not what was decided for them (yes I understand this maybe more eliminations). With the people we have left, we need to be more strategic with the skills of the people and what skill each role needs as we move together to become the Best Company Ever again!
Very well stated!
Very well stated!
Can't argue with anything here. Pretty much nailed it.