Target announced a leadership change with Brian Cornell stepping back after 11 years and COO Michael Fiddelke appointed CEO to prioritize returning the company to growth. The company has faced multiple operational and reputational challenges, including anti-LGBTQ+ backlash, understaffed stores, shifting postpandemic consumer habits, product lockups tied to a shoplifting panic, supply disruptions from imports and tariffs, and a nationwide boycott over rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. Those factors have coincided with falling sales, revenue, foot traffic, and stock value, and a reported 20 percent decline in earnings versus the prior year.
On Wednesday morning, just hours before Target's much-anticipated quarterly earnings call, the embattled retailer made a notable announcement: CEO Brian Cornell will relinquish his position after 11 years on the job, stepping back to chair the board of directors that had just unanimously voted to appoint COO Michael Fiddelke as his successor. True, Cornell had come to the end of a three-year contract extension he'd signed in 2022, but the actual reasons for this switchover seemed obvious.
Growth-part of the mission statement for any large for-profit corporation, yes, but an especially timely one for the Minneapolis-headquartered shopping giant, which has spent the past two years facing down anti-LGBTQ+ right-wingers, public frustration with understaffed outposts, postpandemic shifts in consumption trends, controversial product lockups made in response to the ginned-up shoplifting panic, supply issues aggravated by imports and tariffs, and a nationwide boycott led by Black and brown customers opposed to the company's rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments.
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