Target's Ulrich to step down at a precarious time in the retailer's history

Posted May 2nd 2008 12:40PM by Brian White
Filed under: Management, Competitive Strategy, Target Corp. (TGT)

When longtime Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) CEO Bob Ulrich retires soon, he'll leave behind a very impressive legacy. Target, the second-largest discount retailer in the U.S., has grown alongside its larger competitor Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT). While Wal-Mart was opening stores and increasing sales at a blistering pace, Target was no slouch. Even though Wal-Mart grew much faster, Target's strategy worked pretty darn effectively, too.

Target seemed to beat Wal-Mart to the punch on the trends many customers cared about: brand-name clothing, hip marketing, clean and bright stores and very effective marketing and merchandising of its own store-brand product lines. While Wal-Mart became the generic big-box store, Target seemed to be the store shoppers flocked to to stay away from Wal-Mart's lifeless marketing, boring stores and grand-central-station customer traffic. In other words, price isn't everything to every U.S. retailer customer.

Now that Ulrich is retiring, his longtime company sidekick Gregg Steinhafel will be taking over with some lingering challenges that will put him on the hot seat almost immediately. Target is suffering, along with other retailers, from a seemingly-persistent economic slump and from the performance of its credit-card business (which is being hit with defaults due to consumer credit problems nationwide). Although things can be rosy at Target, they aren't for all of its customers at this time. With rising energy prices and the spike in food staple prices recently, Target's store brands like Archer Farms may suffer or need to be priced at the level of brand names -- and then they may lose their appeal to consumers looking for quality alternatives to higher-priced brand names. Steinhafel will have his plate full as he takes over when Ulrich turns 65 --Target's mandated retirement age for the CEO position.

Tags: Bob Ulrich, BobUlrich, Gregg Steinhafel, GreggSteinhafel, Target CEO, Target Corp., TargetCeo, TargetCorp., TGT

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-02-2008 @ 12:55PM

Kent said...

I prefer Target over Wal-Mart; it's spacier and more convenient to shop at. I would compare Wal-Mart to buffet dining vs Target as the coffee shop if you get my drift.

10-08-2008 @ 12:40AM

ben dover said...

this is some messed up crap!!!!!!!!

>
> Who Own's Target Stores
>
>
>
> Wasn't it last Christmas that Target refused to let the
> Salvation Army ring their bells in front of their stores?
>
>
> Dick Forrey of the Vietnam Veterans Association wrote.
>
> 'Recently we asked the local TARGET store to be a proud
>
> sponsor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during our
> spring recognition event.
>
>
> We received the following reply
> from the local TARGET management:
> ' Veterans do not meet our
> area of giving. We only donate to the arts, social action
> groups, gay & lesbian causes, and education.'
>
> So I'm thinking, if the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
> and
> veterans in ge neral, do not meet their donation criteria,
> then so mething is really wrong at this TARGET store. We
> were
> not asking for thousands of dollars, not even hundreds,
> just
> a small sponsorship for a memorial remembrance.
>
> As a follow-up, I E-mailed the TARGET U.S. Corporate
> Headquarters and their response was the same.
> That's their
> national policy.
>
> Then I looked into the company further.
> They will not allow
> the Marines to collect for 'Toys for Tots' at any
> of their
> stores. And during the recent Iraq deployment, they would
> not allow families of employees who were called up for
> active duty to continue their insurance coverage while
> they were on military service. Then as I dig further,
>
> TARGET
> is a French-owned corporation.
>
> Now, I'm thinking again. If TARGET cannot support
> American
> Veterans, then why should my family and I support their
> stores by spending our hard earned American dollars!
>
> And,
> have their profits sent to France .< /I>
>
>
> Without the American
> Vets, where would France be today?
>
>
> 'They, most likely would be speaking German and trading
> in Deutsch Marks'
>
> Sincerely,
> Dick Forrey
> Veterans Helping Veterans
>
>
> Please send this on to everyone you know
> to let Target know
> we don't need them either !
>