Functional Area Impact on Target Canada's Business Failure Report

This report examines the failure of Target Canada, a subsidiary of Target Corporation, which experienced significant losses and ultimately closed its Canadian operations. The report analyzes the impact of various functional areas of responsibility, including management decisions, expansion strategies, product pricing, and inventory management, on the company's performance. It discusses the management's perspective on the challenges faced, such as poor store layouts, inability to compete with competitors' pricing, and lack of innovation. A SWOT analysis is presented to highlight the company's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats it faced in the Canadian market. The report concludes with recommendations for improving decision-making, enhancing product quality, and establishing effective e-commerce strategies to prevent similar failures in the future. The report emphasizes the need for companies to adapt to changing market conditions, address management problems, and focus on customer satisfaction.

Running head: IMPACT OF FUNCTIONAL AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY ON FAILURE OF TARGET CANADA
Impact of functional area of responsibility on failure of Target Canada
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IMPACT OF FUNCTIONAL AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY ON FAILURE OF TARGET CANADA
Table of Contents

IMPACT OF FUNCTIONAL AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY ON FAILURE OF TARGET CANADA
Introduction
Target Canada Co. is basically subsidiary part of Target Corporation situated in Canada and it
is termed as eighth- largest discounted retailer that is located in United States. Its
headquarters were initially located in Mississauga in Ontario and it went unsuccessful since it
undertook initiatives on over- aggressive expansion and there were very high prices of
products and there was a limit on selection of products in the market (Nummela, Saarenketo
& Loane, 2016). This particular discussion revolves around management responsibilities
undertaken by the department that would have an effect on business performance of Target
Canada, various strategies as well as directions towards policies. It also takes into account
SWOT analysis to understand the functions of the Company and also various impacts due to
failure.
Discussion
Perspectives associated with management responsibilities it can be predicted that there are
several functional roles that usually have an impact on the business performance in Target
Canada that resulted in Company failure (Cândido & Santos, 2015). As soon as Target
entered into business sector in Canada, the Company had to undergo $2.5 billion of losses
and this resulted this Minneapolis- based Company to shut down its branches in almost 133
different locations and also led to turning off 17,600 employees.
I was there in the management team of Target Canada and there were certain drawbacks due
to my functional area of responsibilities and this also contributed to the failure of the
Company Target Canada. I find there are some valid reasons behind the closure of these
stores like dreary locations, empty shelves as well as unexciting merchandise that led to
entice these small shoppers that are located in Canada. Almost $5.4 billion, there was a write-
down in business operations and loss of approximately $2 billion took place. In this case I

IMPACT OF FUNCTIONAL AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY ON FAILURE OF TARGET CANADA
realize that although the business reached at its peak however without additional form of
funding, it was not able to meet all the responsibilities. If it is judged from the perspectives of
our managerial grounds, it can be identified that there are certain reasons behind failure of
Canada.
Target Canada actually laid down the store leases and this has led to poor configuration for
layout of Target’s big box and it was almost not frequented by middle class customers and
therefore low end culture has diminished the image of people in Canada (Kendrick, 2015).
Since there were havoc problems and as a result of these bare shelves, it was very difficult on
part of shoppers of Canada. Target also found very difficult to compete with pricing
strategies with that of Wal- Mart, it could not offer good pricing strategies and this actually
annoyed the customers.
SWOT Analysis for Target
Target had major strengths in terms of great brand name that was duely respected by the
customers and it had major expertise in the field of marketing and this derived profitable
segments in retail industry that includes fashion as well as furnishings associated with
household (Magnan, 2015).
However Target failed to undertake several changes in that of business model from the year
of 2015. However it was actually failing in efforts with respect to e- commerce and it could
not cope up with the sales of Wal- Mart.
Target had a brand promotion in the market of Lily Pulitzer products and this actually helped
to attract a large amount of traffic through fashion bargains. Target was offering very large
number of discounts at the stores of United States and this actually helped middle class
people to acquire more discounts from shopping.

IMPACT OF FUNCTIONAL AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY ON FAILURE OF TARGET CANADA
Due to less buying power of Americans, profit purchases of Target had fallen drastically and
there had been rise of similar brands in the market gradually like Dollar stores and also many
young shoppers preferred e- commerce over traditional methods of shopping. It started facing
a very difficult retail environment and the Company had to do lots of struggles in order to
survive in that type of environment.
On judging the above SWOT Analysis of the Company, it can be understood that my
department had main problems in incorporating innovations in the industry therefore the
Company failed to attract target customers towards it. There were certain management
problems in the industry and so the Company could not keep a proper care over production
process in the industry as a result the Company was undergoing process of failure. More ever,
it was failure on our part since we could not provide extra remunerations to our employees as
well as attractive prices on the products and so there was another lag on our managerial part.
Conclusion
It was necessary on our part, to take care of these problems and also facilitate opening of
large number of departmental stores and on further renovating the infrastructures of these,
would actually have improved the sales condition in the market. As a result of this, it is
necessary on our part to undertake decision making strategies so that it can improve
production as well as sale of goods as well as services.
It is also necessary on our part to provide good training facilities to the labourers so that
quality of products can be improved and they could be provided at substandard prices. So it is
necessary on part of the Company to establish specific e- commerce strategies so that there is
quality manufacturing of products as well as services in near future.

IMPACT OF FUNCTIONAL AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY ON FAILURE OF TARGET CANADA
Reference List
Nummela, N., Saarenketo, S., & Loane, S. (2016). The dynamics of failure in international
new ventures: A case study of Finnish and Irish software companies. International
Small Business Journal, 34(1), 51-69.
Cândido, C. J., & Santos, S. P. (2015). Strategy implementation: What is the failure rate?.
Journal of Management & Organization, 21(2), 237-262.
Magnan, A. (2015). The financialization of agri-food in Canada and Australia: Corporate
farmland and farm ownership in the grains and oilseed sector. Journal of Rural
Studies, 41, 1-12.
Kendrick, T. (2015). Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for failure-
proofing your project. Amacom.