Target's Chief Innovation Officer is next to leave

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Apr 24, 2017

Casey Carl is the latest high level executive to leave Target, having been in his role as Chief Innovation Officer for just over a year and a half.

Target has had a rough year. In addition to making the news for controversial restroom policies and finding itself in the center of a #boycottTarget petition garnering 1.5 million signatures, its stock has dropped $30 a share since last April and has been labeled a "strong sell" due to declining brand value.

It has been going through high level layoffs, recently having lost its chief digital officer, its head of marketing, and its head of stores. It also lost its head of grocery and head of HR. The series of layoffs comes from a notably under-performing Target over the past 3 quarters.

Target CEO Brian Cornell said in an official statement that despite Carl's exit, “innovation is alive and well at Target.”

The exodus is indicative of tightening budgets and added pressures on Target executives to compete with ecommerce giants Amazon and Walmart. Target's $3.1 billion in online annual sales last year only made up 5% of Target's total sales.

As Target continues to try to shape and hone consumer experience, it has a $7 billion dollar plan to overhaul both in store retail and online ops over the next 3 years. Retail operations will see a new tech heavy concept store in San Francisco. There were plans for a Silicon Valley robot-powered store inspired by the Internet of Things as well, but those plans have been scrapped in the face of shrinking budgets.

Online, Target has established a relationship with Techstars which is an incubator for retail tech mentorship. Techstars will be Target's attempt to chase Walmart, who has already announced its plans to form a similar retail incubator.

It is no doubt that Target executives are under pressure now about how they will run their business under tightening budgets. Target is faced with having to drop its prices to compete with Amazon and Walmart so margins are shrinking as well as project budgets for added innovation.

Regardless, even with Carl's exit, CEO Cornell noted, "Innovation must be a mind-set, an essential component of every business, every strategy and every team."