Target Corp. yesterday announced that its COO, Michael Fiddelke, will succeed Brian Cornell as CEO, effective February 1, 2026. At that time, Cornell will transition into the role of executive chair of the Board of Directors.
The move came as Target announced its Q2 results, saying that net sales with down 0.9 percent from the same period a year ago to $25.2 billion – though it emphasized that those numbers were “a nearly 2 percentage point improvement versus the first quarter.” Same-store sales were off 3.2 percent, while digital comparable sales grew 4.3 percent. Second quarter operating income of $1.3 billion was 19.4 percent lower than last year.
The Wall Street Journal writes that the combination of the CEO change and the quarterly numbers had an impact – “shares of Target fell more than 8% Wednesday … Target’s stock had risen slightly in recent months, as investors hoped that the retailer’s turnaround plans and sales results could bring a stock surge. They didn’t.”
In its explanation of its CEO decision, Target wrote:
“During his 20-year career at Target, Fiddelke has been instrumental in building many of the company’s core strengths, holding leadership roles across merchandising, finance, operations and human resources. As chief operating officer, and previously chief financial officer, he has overseen efforts that enabled exponential growth across the business, including investments to build and scale the company’s stores, supply chain, digital capabilities and team. To further fuel areas of investment and innovation, Fiddelke spearheaded enterprise efforts to deliver more than $2 billion in efficiencies. He has also been an advocate for investing in pay and benefits for the company’s team members, including industry-leading wages and development programs like Dream to Be.
“Recently, Fiddelke established and began leading the company’s Enterprise Acceleration Office to reshape how Target operates – removing complexity, expanding technology and enabling more flexibility so the team can move faster to improve performance and drive long-term growth.”
In his comments after the announcement, Fiddelke said:
“There’s real power in drawing on 20 years of knowing what makes Target, Target. (It) gives me a clear focus on who we are in retail and what our unique path is”
“We’ve got to get back to growth. That is mission 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. We haven’t had enough of it over the last few years. We know that. I know that.”
“I didn’t know how much I was well-wired for that—the constant feedback loop of, we try things, we figure out fast what works and what doesn’t, and we need to iterate on that. I am built for operating in that environment.”
KC’s View:
I got a couple of emails pointing out that I did a story on Monday about a dismal new store just opened by Target in Connecticut, and said that the company clearly needs new leadership – there was no excuse for what they opened last weekend. Those same emails wondered if I was the straw that broke the camel’s back – but while I appreciate your confidence in MNB as a camel back-breaker, I’m pretty sure you are over-estimating my influence.
Besides, I was pretty clear in my commentary – I said that Target needs to have a merchant in the CEO chair, not a finance person or logistics expert. So much for my influence.
I didn’t realize that Fiddelke was a lifer until I checked his LinkedIn page – and in my opinion they really needed an outsider who could shake the place up, bring new insights to the business, but still understood what made Target’s value proposition unique. (Or at least what used to make its value proposition unique. Best I can tell, these days there is no real value proposition other than “not Walmart” and “not Amazon,” and those aren’t necessarily the best messages to be sending.)
When you check his resume, the roles are largely finance and operations – there is very little in his resume that suggests that he is a merchandiser in his bones. But, maybe the board sees something that isn’t immediately obvious on a resume.
A friend suggested to me that Cornell was an outside hire when he came to Target, and that maybe this pushed the board in the direction of going inside. Which is a fair point. But for the record, Cornell had a pretty good eight years or so as Target’s CEO – it is just the last few during which things spun out of control.
I’ll give Fiddelke this. The CNBC story about his ascension to the CEO job pointed out that he said he had three priorities: “Reestablishing Target’s reputation as a retailer with stylish and unique items, providing a more consistent customer experience and using technology more effectively to operate an efficient business.”
My experience with Target – and a lot of other folks’, which you’ll see in today’s “Your Views” section – suggests that he’s right on all three counts. But I have no idea if being able to identify the problems means that he has the insights, muscle and horses to fix them.
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