"Bad Leaders DESTROY Companies" - Target Loses $12B & Stock CRASHES After CEO SHOCKING Exit
Episode Stats
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Summary
Walmart and Target are two of the fastest-growing U.S. retailing companies, and they're doing so in opposite directions. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the difference between the two, and why Walmart is doing so much better than Target.
Transcript
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When you think about what happened with Target, Target stock plunges 7% as the new CEO picks.
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Rob, I want to combine this with Walmart together, Rob, and then Tom, I'm going to come to you.
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And I think you're going to be ready for this one.
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Target shares up 7% to 98% after naming Chief Operating Officer Michael Fidelke
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as CEO effective February 1st, 2026, replacing Brian Cornell,
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who said there is no one better suited to move Target forward than Michael Fidelke,
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but investors expecting an external hire were disappointed.
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Gerald Storch, former Target vice chairman and ex-Toys R Us CEO, told The Post,
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this guy's apparently got credibility, he's the ex-Toys R Us CEO,
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the stock price reflects that there won't be change when change is needed.
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Fidelke, 20-year veteran at Target, responded during an internal meeting saying
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there are no shortage of critics out there today.
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The way to prove these critics wrong is with action that leads to results.
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Target reported a 1.9% decline in same-store sales for the second quarter,
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ending August 2nd, 2025, with customer transactions down 1.3%,
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and average spending per transaction down 0.6% despite beating Wall Street earnings estimates.
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As Fidelke noted on a post-earning call, now we need to move more of those examples across the category,
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but they can give me a ton of confidence that we're on the right path here,
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citing improvements in home goods like Disney and Marvel.
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Now, while this is happening, folks, the complete opposite is happening with Walmart.
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Walmart wins over more shoppers as tariff push prices higher.
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Rob, is this a tariff story or the target story?
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And this actually became a very big campaign that this black pastor was driving,
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saying black Americans spend $12 million a day at Target, but Target doesn't listen to us.
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There were people who didn't believe the fast would work.
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Where we are right now is the stock has plummeted.
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The former CEO's salary was slashed by 42%, and now they got a new CEO.
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What have you learned through this process about the interaction of Target and this community in particular?
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Yeah, well, this is the most effective and sustainable boycott for black people in 70 years since the Montgomery bus boycott.
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We had to teach a new generation on the sustainability of unity and that you don't see it overnight, but it's a protracted process.
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Look, if you didn't know, we, a lot of people, especially black people, love Target.
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In fact, they gave it a nickname of Tarjay at some point.
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What was that like trying to convince folks out there to give it up?
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The Bible says people die from a lack of knowledge.
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When black people understood that we spend $12 million a day at Target, and I couldn't think or find one black company that earns $12 million a day,
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people begin to have the light bulb go off and say, I can't spend my dollars where I'm not getting dignity.
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First, Target in 2023, they had that, they go back, they had a CEO that came from the outside world, not, didn't grow up in Target.
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The first five got kind of rough because, boom, suddenly he's in COVID.
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But as it came out of COVID in 2023, he went DEI crazy and was putting all of these trans kids bathing suits for six-year-olds.
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Yeah, that contained instructions and said they were tuck-friendly.
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So tell your six-year-old boy, don't worry about this little extra equipment you came with.
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And meanwhile, there was also these churches that were looking at it and saying, wait a minute, we don't think this is dignified.
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This has been multi-year, and it's been very effective.
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It's been over two years that this has been working.
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For those of you that don't know what the word means in this category, when they say a fast, it's like you will fast from something,
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Hey, I'm fasting, accept water on Friday, and I'm having a day of reflection and prayer.
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So when you see those signs that say Target fast, it says time to fast from Target, meaning abstain from Target.
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Meanwhile, when all of this went down, what did Walmart do?
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Hey, remind them that we're from Bentonville, Arkansas.
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We are seeing customers switch to other items that are affected or not affected by tariff,
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but we will continue to absorb some of the cost of tariffs to keep price hikes below national retail averages.
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In other words, we're going to try with the tariffs, with all the inflation and everything,
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we're going to see if we can get our price increases to be lower than the national average.
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And they went back and they doubled down on who they were, which was America's big box retailer.
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The COO who's been here, who's part of this executive team, we're going to put him in charge.
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One of them breaks a bunch of windows in the neighborhood.
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My other son is going to be president of Neighborhood Watch.
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That's actually a very good example you're using there.
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Would you bring somebody from the outside in this situation?
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Would you use the same—would you use somebody internally?
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Because maybe, you know, maybe, just maybe, this guy was the problem.
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Maybe, just maybe, this guy was part of the issue of being too much of DEI.
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Now, do we know if this guy, Michael Fidelke, this guy was the other guy's right-hand guy?
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And sometimes I think you have to make the move that Starbucks made.
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And we're going to bring somebody from the outside because we want the outside guy to address everybody on the outside.
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So what if this guy's the interim guy until they find a guy to get a full-time job?
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Because, Rob, can you pull up the picture I just sent you right now in text?
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This is by far the best visual to look at, what I'm about to show you.
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It's going to show you where Target's stock price was a couple years ago compared to where Walmart is now today.
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Look where Target was in 2022, and look where Walmart was.
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There was a point people were saying Target's a better product than Walmart.
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The moment you forget who your customer is, who shops at your place, families, families who can't afford.
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This is low- and middle-income families that are coming to your place.
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I'm telling you ourselves, we would go shop at Target.
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But you make decisions like this, you lose them.
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The thing that this was a double whammy, Tom, this is the part that was a double whammy.
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Not only did they lose the family guys by going woke with the whole trans, all that stuff, but you lose the black vote?
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That's what you call double dumb, is what you call it, right?
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I mean, Target is basically the Disney of retail shopping.
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You know, don't forget where Target, their headquarters is located.
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So, interesting, the George Floyd situation, they're at the tip of the spear.
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Meanwhile, you said that Walmart's headquarters isn't where, Arkansas?
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Almost, some might call it one of the reddest states in the country.
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You know, I used to, believe it or not, guys, there's no Walmart in South Beach.
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The only time I actually did spend time at Walmart is when I live in this beautiful, beautiful town called Addison, Texas.
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I went to Walmart after living in Miami my entire life.
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There is a Target in Miami Beach, in Miami, that I'll go to from time to time.
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And I understand why he said that, you know, certain people call it Target.
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I don't, how do you think Target is going to, do you think they're going to bounce back from this, Pat?
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Like, I don't see Target going out of business or anything like that.
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This is the part I'm really trying to find out on, was it DEI?
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Was it not listening to the African-American community with that pastor who looks like he's a second away from singing a song called,
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He looked, I mean, he looked like he was related to, but watch this here.
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So if you, Rob, can you pull up, did Walmart have DEI?
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And can you compare DEI policies between Walmart and Target?
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Compare DEI policies between Walmart and Target.
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Because it's not like Walmart wasn't doing some DEI stuff.
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Yeah, Walmart did it as well, just not at the level.
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But they didn't make the headlines for the talking.
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So they ended their DEI program November of 2024.
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Significantly scaling back the DEI, including sunsetting a racial equity center established after George Floyd.
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Phases out DEI language, replacing it with communication with terms like belonging and experience.
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Though still asserting that equity and non-discrimination remain core.
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Okay, stopped prioritizing suppliers based on racial, gender, diversity, and also removed certain transgender.
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So external reaction shareholders, Democratic Pivotal pushback, requesting rollbacks, lawmakers, Arkansas, Walmart changes.
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Policy changes, concluded major DEI internships early 2025.
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Okay, so they waited a couple months later, including wrapping up the three-year DEI goal and reach, whatever.
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Okay, ended participation, external diversity surveys.
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Management cited alignment with the evolving external change.
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Significant consumer pushback, including boycott and loss of market value.
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Target reportedly shed $12.4 billion of market value and faced a 40-day boycott after the rollback.
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African Americans at that church went after Target, but not Walmart.
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But it's not even the African American rollback, because if you go back up to Walmart, go back up a little bit more.
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External reaction shareholders and Democratic officials pushback, requesting explanations for the rollback, calling it disheartening.
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State lawmakers in Arkansas questioned Walmart leaders on the changes, and Walmart responded by emphasizing that associate treatment, hiring practices, and supplier efforts have not changed.
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Backlash from customers and staff followed, including boycotts over the rollback Walmart defense.
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So Target put all that stuff all out in front when you walked in, trans kids.
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So when you look at DEI, compare trans with Walmart and Target.
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And while he's doing that, Tom, I just don't understand, like, when you see what's happening with Bud Light, and you see, like, these people, could they just not get out of their way?
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What makes you as a company with shareholders, Pat?
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Meaning they're getting more in line with who their customer is.
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Because Walmart also had the trans stuff in their company as well.
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And the CEO had no clue how to handle it better.
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Their marketing team probably had no clue how to do it.
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Their PR team didn't know how to handle it better.
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That tells you bad PR, bad marketing, bad storytelling, bad leadership, moving too slowly, cost them $12 billion.
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Just by moving a couple months faster, saved yourself $12 billion.
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Can you go to Walmart's stock price, please, Rob?
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Let's just kind of go five years, if you don't mind.
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Go to the five-year right there to the right, all the way to the right.
00:14:09.220
No, if you just ask, what was Walmart and Target's market cap in 2020 versus 2025?
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I'm trying to find out because if we look at market cap, because stock doesn't mean anything.
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So end of 2020, Walmart was a $408 billion company.
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Target end up, in 2020, was a $88 billion company.
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While Target was getting close to competing with Walmart, Walmart is officially, look, look
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Walmart was only four and a half times bigger than Target.
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Very, very interesting because it's not as black and white as you see it here.
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I think there's more to it than we're looking at.
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Do you think people are just deciding, all right, I'm not going to go shop at Target.
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A part of it could be, so for example, the three words at the beginning of the year, speed,
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That's the word I announced beginning of the year this year, right?
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How fast did they address that DEI wasn't working?
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How fast did they replace leadership team that needed to be replaced?
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How much noise did Target create and not know how to handle the noise?
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What did they actually buy, invest in, and develop?
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What did Target do to make the product be better?
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That right there, do you take the COO of the last 10 years and put them in the chair?
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The more I'm thinking about this, the more I'm going, I don't even think it's DEI only.
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I think it's called, hey, you know, here's a question, Rob.
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Can you find out if Target ever reached out that pastor?
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You know that pastor from that church that the video came up?
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Can you ask if Target, did Target ever reach out to Jamal Bryant to have a conversation with him?
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There was one meeting with Jamal Bryant, Target leadership.
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More recently, as Profit, Brian stated he is open to meeting with Target's incoming CEO to negotiate a resolution.
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Target did reach out as evidenced at the first meeting with Brian Cornell.
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However, no further communication has taken place.
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Brian remains hopeful and willing to meet with the new CEO.
00:17:36.500
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00:18:29.780
Next, a lot of you guys were asking about we hadn't done a new series of signing the books, schedule, craziness, call it whatever you want to call it.
00:18:41.800
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