Michael O’Neil: Yes. I think the best example is the work that’s underway now in apparel. This one is near and dear to my heart. My first role at Target was the finance partner for our women’s apparel business. I also think it serves as a really great example of what is possible with this work. Apparel, just like the rest of our business, has seen explosive growth. We’ve grown over $3 billion and now over $17 billion business in apparel business. It also has its unique complexities, right, from the fact that we partner with vendors to source raw materials to the fact that we have unique fixtures in store for presentation. So all the geographical and weather and demographic considerations that go into assortment planning and allocation.
And so that growth, combined with that complexity, makes a tremendous opportunity to step back and say, “How do we run this business at a larger scale? And how do we position it for future growth?” And so we’re focused right now on driving simplicity, speed and consistency across the entire pair of value chain. And in doing so, we expect to see benefits from assortment planning, to supply chain, all the way down to guest fulfilment. And the benefits will be across the P&L. We’ll see it in lower markdowns, received increased productivity, labor productivity, and we’ll see it in top line sales. And so I love that example because I give you a chance to step back and say, “Look, we’ve seen this growth over the last three years. How do we look end-to-end across the value chain to position it differently?
How do we simplify for the work for our guest?” And in doing so, we believe we’ll see benefits across the P&L with the most important one being top line sales.
Brian Cornell: So Mike, I love the way you framed this up. This is all about fueling future growth, driving simplicity, reducing complexity, never compromising the guest experience and the role our teams play. Are there any other components as you think about this, you want to touch upon?
Michael Fiddelke: Well, I’d say thanks for let me come up with are just a couple of examples. I would say I’d reiterate is this starts with growth. It starts about how do you make it simple and easier for our team members to deliver a great experience. And that work is going to be a multiyear journey, and it’s a end-to-end problem solving across the value chain. But when we do that, we focus on making a better team member experience, we’ll see a better impact to our team, our guests and our P&L.
Brian Cornell: Well, Mike, I want to thank you for joining us on stage here today. We’re really excited about the opportunities that are in front of us. You’ve heard a few examples today, and we’ll continue to provide updates along the way. So Mike, thank you for joining us. Michael, I’ll have you back here in a second.
Michael Fiddelke: Great.
Brian Cornell: So as we get ready to hear from you and take your questions, I thought I’d briefly recap some of the themes you’ve heard today. First, our commitment to our guests is as strong as ever. Second, our strategy, our multi-category portfolio, our stores as hub model will provide the flexibility we need to keep growing because we’re going to stay closely connected to our guests. Finally, there have been some fundamental changes at Target over the last 3 years. We’re more than $30 billion bigger. We set the omnichannel standard, which stores as hubs. We’ll continue to build and innovate in that realm. We’ll set the pace in supporting and developing the very best team in retail. Perhaps the most important takeaway is something that hasn’t changed.
