Strategic Management Assessment of Target Corporation Report

This report presents a comprehensive strategic management assessment of Target Corporation. It begins with an executive summary outlining the company's current objectives and strategic posture. The report then delves into Target's past corporate performance, strategic posture, corporate governance (board of directors and top management), and external environment, including societal and task environments (industry analysis). The internal environment is examined through corporate structure, culture, and resources. A SWOT analysis is conducted to identify key strategic factors, followed by a review of the company's mission and objectives. The report concludes with strategic alternatives, a recommended strategy, implementation considerations, and evaluation and control mechanisms. The report highlights Target's financial performance, competitive strategies, and challenges, offering insights into its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The analysis provides a foundation for strategic recommendations aimed at enhancing Target's market position and future success.

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Strategic Management Assessment of Target Corporation
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1STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
Executive Summary
The current business objectives of Target are to offer all its target consumers with exceptional
deals, high-quality owned brand products, and innovative partnerships along with exceptional
marketing efforts for making its business offering a high quality service. The objective of the
report is to analyze the current strategic situation of the selected company Target along with
evaluating its external as well as internal environment within which it operates its business.
Target Corporation attempts to be highly tech and social media savvy where it actively
communicates and builds connection with its target consumers through social media platforms
and informs them about latest news, trends along with consumer services. Most of its
competitors such as Amazon are much better established online business than Target
Corporation. Target Corporation can consider integrating various parts of its international
business along with considering integrating domestic with international business. In attaining
competitive advantages and increased market reach in the international a marketplace, the retail
company can consider implementing product standardization strategy through considering the
impact of cross border cultural differences in its international market operations.

2STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Current Situation..........................................................................................................................3
2.1. Past Corporate Performance Indexes....................................................................................3
2.2. Strategic Posture...................................................................................................................5
3. Corporate Governance.................................................................................................................5
3.1. Board of Directors................................................................................................................5
2.2. Top Management..................................................................................................................6
4. External Environment..................................................................................................................6
4.1. Societal Environment............................................................................................................6
4.2. Task Environment (Industry Analysis).................................................................................7
5. Internal Environment...................................................................................................................9
5.1. Corporate Structure...............................................................................................................9
5.2. Corporate Culture...............................................................................................................10
5.3. Corporate Resources...........................................................................................................11
6. Analysis of Strategic Factors.....................................................................................................12
6.1. Key Integral and External Strategic Factors (SWOT)........................................................12
6.2. Review of Mission and Objectives.....................................................................................12
7. Alternatives and Recommendations..........................................................................................13
7.1. Strategic Alternatives..........................................................................................................13
7.2. Recommended Strategy......................................................................................................14
8. Implementation..........................................................................................................................14
9. Evaluation and Control..............................................................................................................15
10. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................18

3STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
1. Introduction
Target is positioned as the eighth largest general merchandise retailer based in US that is
involved in selling products by means of its online stores as well as digital channels. The retail
company is involved in offering edited food assortments and other house essentials. The
company recently has more than 1802 stores within US and has also successfully expanded its
online business operations. The company also generates revenue from its in-store amenities as
well as its licensed departments where the major competitors of the company are Amazon, Best
Buy and Costco (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019).
The objective of the report is to analyze the current strategic situation of the selected
company Target along with evaluating its external as well as internal environment within which
it operates its business. The report will also consider evaluation of the strategic factors along
with reviewing its mission and objectives in attaining strategic competitive advantages. Based on
such analysis recommendations will be developed for Target along with discussing its
implementation, evaluation and control plan.
2. Current Situation
2.1. Past Corporate Performance Indexes
From analyzing the annual report of Target Corporation it has been evidenced that overall
revenue of the company has indicated an increasing trend over the years from the year 2013 to
2018. The figure below also indicates that the operating income, net earnings and diluted
earnings per share has increased over the years from the year 2013 to 2018. Over the past five
years the average growth rate of the company was around 5% and the net change in cash flow of
the company has indicated improvement in the operating income (Target 2018 Annual Report |
Target Corporate., 2019). Moreover, the company’s price to earnings ratio is also on the high
side at 18.10 that makes Target Corporation a good stock market investment. With maintaining
an exceptional business growth Target Corporation has exceeded analyzers expectations for its
revenue and earnings and considering such results it is observed that sales of the company
increased by 5.3% from the previous year.

4STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
Figure 1: Six Years Financial Highlights of Target Corporation
(Source: Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019)
Over the past few years, Target Corporation’s digital sales increased more than 25% till
the year 2018 and attained a net income increase of 26.5%. Such prospering corporate
performance of the company over the years is observed as it delivered better than anticipated
earnings during its critical holiday sales period as its in-house brands and simple delivery options
attained high consumer traffic (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019). Such
situation in Target Corporation has also resulted in same-store sales growth over the past decade.
Moreover, the major reasons for its boosting corporate performance over years include 5.3%
increase in Target’s store sales and 31% increase in online sales.
Figure 1: Total Sales Highlights of Target Corporation

5STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
(Source: Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019)
2.2. Strategic Posture
The current mission of Target is to focus its business options towards guided
commitments to offer great value, the community, diversity and environment. The strategic
posture of the company is to make the company a preferred shopping destination for its
consumers through delivering exceptional value, constant innovation along with high quality
consumer shopping experience through consistently fulfilling consumer needs at fewer prices
(Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019).
The current business objectives of Target are to offer all its target consumers with
exceptional deals, high-quality owned brand products, and innovative partnerships along with
exceptional marketing efforts for making its business offering a high quality service. The
objective of the business is also focused on attaining increase in its total revenues and operating
margin. Another major strategic objective of Target Corporation is to attain 15% and more for its
average earnings per share with passing years through demonstrating effective leadership along
with corporate governance approaches.
The current strategies implemented by Target includes offering an assortment which is
tailored to this group’s needs at low price, differentiated as well as augmented through wide
selection of private label goods particularly in the apparel and home categories (Target 2018
Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019). Another competitive strategy followed by Target
Corporation is to constantly expand its bricks-and-motor stores so that they are located in several
locations of the nation and products are shipped to consumers when booked online at great
speed. It has also implemented its successful three-step strategy for dealing with fierce
competition that aligns its capabilities, resources and corporate goals in nr retail landscape.
Current polices implemented by Target includes all the policies related with the business
code of ethics that represents its values and commitments made by the company to its
consumers, employees, stakeholders, communities and Target brand. Target Corporation is also
committed to follow policies related with the labor and human rights to have an effectively
functioning human resource department that offers exceptional consumer value. Target
Corporation has also developed effective privacy policy in maintaining confidentiality of its
collected and shared personal information in accordance with the applicable law (Target 2018
Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019).
3. Corporate Governance
3.1. Board of Directors
The board of directors of Target Corporation is indicated below:
 Roxanne S. Austin (President, Austin Investment Advisors): The person is a president
of a private investment organization and previously has experience of being a chief
executive officer and chief financial officer (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target
Corporate., 2019).

6STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
 Douglas M. Baker, Jr. (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ecolab Inc): The
person is a provider of water and hygiene services along with technologies for hospitality,
food, energy and industrial markets and held several leadership positions before.
 George S. Barrett (Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cardinal Health,
Inc): The person is a former chairman and chief executive officer of a global integrated
healthcare services along with Products Company (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target
Corporate., 2019).
 Brian C. Cornell (Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Target
Corporation): The person is former chairman and chief executive officer at Target
Corporation since the year 2014. He previously served in several executive positions in
pharmaceutical companies and in healthcare supply chain segment.
 Calvin Darden (Chairman, Darden Putnam Energy & Logistics, and LLC): The
person is currently the chairman of a company that sells full products and was previously
the chairmen of Real Estate Development Company (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target
Corporate., 2019).
 Donald R. Knauss (Former Executive Chairman, the Clorox Company): The person
was the former chairman of The Colorox Company that is avoiding manufacturing
organization. He also previously held various marketing and sales positions in PepsiCo
Company.
2.2. Top Management
The top management of Target Company Corporation includes the following:
 Brain Cornell (CEO): The person is the board chairman and CEO of the company and
responsible for managing its global business (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target
Corporate., 2019).
 Rick Gomez (Executive Vice President): The person is responsible for overseeing the
media and marketing strategy of the company being member of Target’s executive
leadership team.
 John J Mullign (Executive Vice President): The person’s responsibilities encompass
stores, global supply chain and merchandising being chief operating officer of Target
Corporation (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019).
 Melissa Kremer (Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer):
The person is responsible for leading all the aspects of human resource for Target
Corporation’s global team being the chief HR officer of the company.
4. External Environment
4.1. Societal Environment
The societal environment that is deemed to impact the operations of Target Corporation
includes class distribution and target consumer population demographics. The societal
environment is the direct reflection of the society and also includes belief, culture, and attitudes
along with values which the majority of population might hold as a community. The impact of
the social factors is not just vital for the operational aspect of the Target Company along with the
marketing aspect of the company (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019). The
company considers carrying out a thorough understanding of the target consumers along with
their lifestyles, education levels along with beliefs or segments followed within the society. This

7STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
facilitates the company in designing both the products along with marketing messages which can
lead to success of the organization. Considering same, the societal factors that are deemed to
impact Target Corporation’s operational and management performance are indicated below:
 The demographics of the target population including their respective genders and ages
which are deemed to broadly impact whether or not a particular product might be
marketed to them (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019). For instance,
the company also realizes that makeup is mostly catered to women target consumer
segment ad considering such situation targeting most of the male population will be
irrelevant target market to be selected than targeting a pupation which is mostly female.
 Class distribution among the target population is of utmost importance. This is for the
reason that Target Corporation will be unable to promote a premium product to the
general public and in case majority of the population belongs to a lower class the
company would have to rely on carrying out niche marketing (Target 2018 Annual
Report | Target Corporate., 2019).
 To certain extent, the differences I the educational background of people that considers
between the marketers and the target market might make it quite complex to relate to
along with drawing in the target market in an effective manner. Target Corporation
considers being extremely careful in a way that they do not lose any connection to the
interests as well as priorities to the target market (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target
Corporate., 2019).
 Target Corporation also considers the societal environment to be highly aware of the
health standards, reactions to the harassment claims and also considers providing an
increased importance to the environmental protection prevailing within the industry
overall .
4.2. Task Environment (Industry Analysis)
PESTEL Analysis
 Political: That Corporation has strong work relationships with China as majority if its
offerings are derived from the Chinese markets (Wilson, 2015). In addition, Target’s
Policy Committee is behind the decision-making for the political conducts the company
participates within. The company joins the associations and also contributes to
corporations on a state along with national level.
 Economic: American economy is deemed to affect Target Corporation as the retail joint
is the major shopping choice in the US. In order to keep up with the changing demands
the company feels the need to analyze prices in order to remain highly competitive (West,
Ford & Ibrahim, 2015).
 Social: Target Corporation considers the societal changes and considerably supports the
community through offering variety of services as per their needs. The products offered
by the company are diverse for several ethnicities because of which all its target
consumers have a positive shopping experience. Consumers of the company highly prefer
to acquire its selection of hair styling products that offers a diverse range of choices for
the consumers (Weinstein 2016).
 Technological: Target Corporation attempts to be highly tech and social media savvy
where it actively communicates and builds connection with its target consumers through
social media platforms and informs them about latest news, trends along with consumer

8STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
services. User content, reviews along with product images indicates quality of its
products.
 Environmental: The Target Corporation offers fresh as well as organics produce for
majorly the health conscious consumers and also ensures that their manufacturers follow
necessary standards in avoiding contamination (Taylor, 2016).
 Legal: The Company is dealing with product recalls along with liabilities as that serves
as safely concerns for the consumers. They are making attempts in following labor,
environmental, privacy and employment laws in decreasing drug and food contamination
from their pharmacy and produce.
Porters Five Forces Analysis
Porters Five Forces analysis of Target Corporation is indicated below:
 Rivalry among Existing Competitors: Target Corporation operates in a fiercely
competitive environment where it faces tough business rivalry from major retailers such
as Wal-Mart, Costco, Kroger and whole foods market. The level of competition is
extremely high that result Target Corporation to bring its prices down along with
jeopardizing company’s profitability (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate.,
2019). Existing big retailers are fiercely competing in order to attain an increased market
share that is making rivalry a stringer force.
 Threat of New Entrants: New entrants can attain easy entry in the industry and establish
their business but they cannot compete successfully with the large players such as Costco,
Wal-Mart and Target as these companies attain competitive cost advantages and acquired
economies of scale than the potential entrants. Moreover, the government policy is also
not that favorable for the new entrants as it is necessary for these companies to fulfill
strict licensing and legal requirements (Rodríguez, Paredes & Yi, 2016).
 The Threat of Substitutes: Certain products liked the groceries and the electronics are
observed to be greatly undifferentiated among the retailers that facilitate consumers to
easily switch between companies devoid of incurring considerable switching costs.
Target Corporation has also made attempts in increasing consumer loyalty through
centering on improving its guest experiences. The company is also renowned for offering
goods which are available exclusively through its private label brands at Target
Corporation (Phadermrod, Crowder & Wills, 2019).
 The Power of Buyers: Due to fierce competitive retail environment faced by the Target
Corporation, consumers have attained several choices from which they can select their
products both in the online medium and from the brick-and-motor stores. Products of
Target Corporation have low degree of differentiation because of which the company
feels the pressure to keep its prices highly competitive in order to increase sales. Butters
of the Target Corporation look for superiority, self-respect, prestige and status.
Considering same, Target Corporation offers products at exceptional quality at
reasonable prices (Peppard & Ward, 2016).
 The Power of Suppliers: Target Corporation is positioned as the largest retailers in US.
However, it has been observed that due to availability if wide variety of merchandise that
it has on sale, no particular vendor accounts for more than 5% of the company’s sales.
Moreover, total number of suppliers within the industry is large which indicates the

9STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
suppliers have very less control over the prices and individual suppliers have decreased
influence on large retailers such as Target Corporation.
Figure 3: Porter’s Competitive Forces Analysis
(Source: Lasserre, 2017)
5. Internal Environment
5.1. Corporate Structure
Through analyzing the corporate structure of Target Corporation it has been gathered that
the company is positioned as the second-largest discount store retailer where the managers are
responsible for defining the goals, establishing strategy, developing strategic plans,
organizational goals along with controlling the overall organization. The upper management of
the company has the responsibility of resolving group conflicts motivates the employees and
resolves the employees negative behaviors. From the figure indicated below it is gathered that
the company follows functional organizational structure that focuses on growing tasks and
allocates responsibilities to employees based on their specific knowledge and skills (Kumar,
Anand & Song, 2017). The company vertically structures all the operational departments with
allocating roles from CEO to finance and sales departments, consumer service and to employees

10STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT OF TARGET CORPORATION
aligned for making one product or service. From the corporate structure it is evident that the
senior management of the company includes positions such as president of community relations,
senior vice president of merchandising, executive vice president and senior vice president of
sourcing services.
Figure 4: Corporate Structure of Target Corporation
(Source: Target 2018 Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019)
5.2. Corporate Culture
Corporate culture followed within Target Corporation is focused on respecting and
valuing the individuality of all its team members along with its consumers. Moreover, the culture
followed within the organization is focused on encouraging enjoyable workplace surrounding so
that they perform at their best (Hanson, Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2016). Moreover the
corporate culture of the company is to behave ethically and with high integrity in order to ensure
that organizational reputation is maintained as a great place to work along with being a preferred
shopping destination for the consumers. Target Corporation is also focused on developing a
culture within the workplace that fosters its position as a responsible corporate citizen. Corporate
culture of the company is developed to maintain diversity and inclusivity that makes its
employees work better. The company creates a diverse and inclusive workplace surrounding that
can cultivate an inclusive consumer experience and maintaining equality within the society. The

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company always celebrates successes and also looks forward for new opportunities and in
ensuring same, teamwork is the key to address challenges and having fun at the same time (Hitt,
Ireland & Hoskisson, 2016).
5.3. Corporate Resources
 Marketing: The marketing operations are specifically reliant on the social media
promotional activities along with e- commerce platforms for maximizing the rate of sales
volume of the venture. The extensive online presence of the organization permitted the
same in empowering the engagement of the customers in the different activities. The
careful selection of the marketing operations permitted the venture in maximizing the
scope of awareness among the target customers. Moreover, the multi- channel
distribution of the organization permitted the venture in providing the customers with an
increased convenience buying option for maximizing the sales revenue (Target 2018
Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019).
 Finance: From analyzing the annual report of Target Corporation it has been evidenced
that overall revenue of the company has indicated an increasing trend over the years from
the year 2013 to 2018. Over the past five years the average growth rate of the company
was around 5% and the net change in cash flow of the company has indicated
improvement in the operating income
 Research and Development: The capital investments that are made by the organization
for improving the R&D operations enabled the same in developing the rate of operations
as per the needs of the venture. The R&D activities of the organization are aimed at
improving consumer experience with the propositions. In this relation, the R&D
operations are based on continuous innovation the propositions through assessment of the
needs of the customers and a careful study of the market trends (Target 2018 Annual
Report | Target Corporate., 2019). The different modifications in the organizational
propositions are reliant on the extensive range of R&D operations while operating in the
different markets. The improved R&D operation of the venture permitted the same in
gaining a competitive edge over the existing market players.
 Operations and Logistics: Operations of Target Corporation has a fully digitalized
supply chain that makes its operations highly efficient through automating demand
forecasting and fulfillment. This facilitates in decreasing stock-outs and optimize
inventory for ensuring better consumer service.
 Human Resources: The concerned organization follows HR good practices for
regulating the different activities of the employees. It has been noted that the organization
employs an employee centric HR policy for improving the engagement of the different
stakeholders in the organizational process (Target 2018 Annual Report | Target
Corporate., 2019). On the other hand, the organizational management also considers on
developing efficient communication with the employees for identifying and mitigating
the concerns for facilitating uninterrupted functioning of the systems.
 Information Systems: The organization implemented CRM with the objective of
maximizing the engagement of the customers while developing the organizational
undertaking of the needs of the same. The development of the IS in the organizational
model permitted the venture in developing efficient relation with the customers.
Therefore, the concerned organization developed the different operations through the
implementation of the CRM while improving relations with the customers (Target 2018
Annual Report | Target Corporate., 2019).