Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

[acs]

There was a short but plausible sounding article in this weeks Economist about Target's struggles in the last five years or so:
-Focusing on low-margin groceries at the expense of clothes and furniture and electronics.
-Losing the cheap-chic edge they enjoyed in the late '00s.
-Expanding too rapidly into Canada.

This kind of stuff goes way beyond a shoddy corporate culture, but are strategic errors at the executive level.

http://www.economist.com/news/business/ ... ba3c16df4a

Obviously I like Target's new focus on city targets and express targets, but that comparison to Trader Joe's just makes me cringe. It smacks of what Kohl's attempted re-branding in imitation of Apple post-recession (for those who don't remember, that was a collosal failure and one reason they might not be around much longer).

JCPenney was another retailer that tried and failed at wholesale transformation. It sounds easier to pull off than it is, I guess.

Sorry I did mean JCPenny in my earlier post. It's hard to keep my failing large retailers straight sometimes.

[acs]

http://www.twincities.com/ci_27630821/t ... re-live-at

Target is one of many companies that have recently opened digital offices and innovation centers on the tech-heavy West Coast, a roster that also includes Richfield-based Best Buy.

But opening a satellite office is one thing. What will give Minnesota economic officials heartburn is seeing the chief strategy officer, Casey Carl, boast that corporate Target is "branching out to other places" to secure talent - then showing a slide that listed Target's growing lineup of offices in California, New York and India, on the same day it said it would cut thousands of jobs from its hometown.

Brennan, the St. Thomas professor, thinks it's a small bit of relief that those Minneapolis job cuts will be "spread out over a couple of years."

But, he added, "What kind of impact does this have on restaurants in downtown Minneapolis? What impact does this have on high-rise residential towers that have been planned? I think it's going to have a material impact on those things."

[grant1simons2]

Dave Brennan... Look him up in archives of bizjournals or startrib. He's constantly being interviewed. I see about 7-8 articles alone where they talked to him about Target. I get that he's a business professor (and kind of a bad one by the looks of the ratemyprof grade), but why is he the guy they always talk to. He was right about Amazon opening up a distribution center when asked why Amazon would start collecting sales tax from us at least.

[LakeCharles]

Maybe Target employed too many young people in this town, and maybe it made it slightly harder to make super fast decisions. But they were profitable every year (except Canada, but that was only 450 jobs, this is 3500) and it was a great thing for the region. Now Target wants to become even more profitable, but it was explicitly stated the money will be going to investors. So essentially what was $2 billion going to Minnesotans will now be $2 billion going to New York. How is that a good thing at all?

[xandrex]

Dave Brennan... Look him up in archives of bizjournals or startrib. He's constantly being interviewed. I see about 7-8 articles alone where they talked to him about Target. I get that he's a business professor (and kind of a bad one by the looks of the ratemyprof grade), but why is he the guy they always talk to. He was right about Amazon opening up a distribution center when asked why Amazon would start collecting sales tax from us at least.

If you take RateMyProf (or any online rating site for anything) seriously, you'll be in for a surprise. Some of my best profs were ones that got scathing reviews because they actually challenged their students. There's also a pretty stark divide between the ability of a professor to teach and their ability to research/analyze/be a thought leader. A lot aren’t very interested in teaching (unfortunate), but they know their shit.

As for why people get used over and over again: media friendliness and the way PR departments work. Read just about any article where political analysis is necessary. 9/10 times you’ll get Larry Jacobs or Kathryn Pearson (a fascinating professor, BTW, but her RateMyProf grade is middling). Want anything remotely addressing design or, apparently, regional identity? Tom Fisher. Inequality in the region? Lots of Myron Orfield.

[twincitizen]

Surprised you didn't mention Prof. David Schultz for political analysis. Some local TV news stations must think he's the only guy around.

[xandrex]

^I prefer to read my news and rarely catch the local TV stations. But now that you mention him, yeah, he gets a lot of airtime. Professors can be wonky/jargony, camera shy, unquotable, etc. So when a reporter finds someone who can actually talk and knows that they're talking about, they're going to latch on.

I don't really get the qualms about Brennan though.

[mattaudio]

^Local TV sucks, but Almanac is a good exception to that rule.

[grant1simons2]

Looks like Gov. Dayton wants to meet with the Target CEO to have a little chat.

https://twitter.com/Stowydad/status/573170503914950656

[seanrichardryan]

Surprised you didn't mention Prof. David Schultz for political analysis. Some local TV news stations must think he's the only guy around.

He's the go-to guy for KSTP. They're always interviewing him on his porch with loud passing traffic in the background.

[Didier]

Since journalists typically aren't experts or authorities in the topics they are reporting on, it makes sense that they'd regularly interview academics who are experts.

[xandrex]

It's more about credibility. People trust professors in general. They're accepted as authorities.

Most journalists have a beat and they become subject experts of that beat, build a roster of sources, and know who to trust. The ones who aren't experts or authorities are either 1) new to a beat, or 2) general reporters (typically younger and out chasing the day-to-day little stories while more experienced journalists chase down the difficult stories).

[Didier]

With a few exceptions, journalists aren't experts in the sense that professors are.

[xandrex]

^I thought that much was apparent. Professors have advanced degrees in a topic and have a strong academic/studies-based knowledge of the topic with some also having real-world experience. A journalist is either going to have some real-world experience (I know several business journalists who ran their own business or worked in corporate America, for instance) or they have built up a working knowledge of their beat. Journalistic expertise is in knowing a topic well enough to know what questions need to be asked and who needs to be asked. Using your own knowledge (or lack thereof) is really just being a columnist, not a reporter.

[Didier]

We're not really in disagreement.

There was question about about why journalists keep going back to the same few professors for insight on a given subject. I thought it was pretty obvious.

[Nick]

i made a chart

https://streets.mn/2015/03/06/putting-th ... rpsective/

[grant1simons2]

Sounds like black Tuesday at Target today... From what Jim Hammerand is tweeting.

He just said 1,700 workers are being cut today according to an email sent to employees

This is just sad: https://twitter.com/MaggieLaMaack/statu ... 9398080512

[min-chi-cbus]

It's official.....I can never be a CEO. I'm not cutthroat enough! I could never willingly destroy 1,700+ workers' lives just to save money, increase net earnings, improve the P/E ratio, and ultimately, increase share prices for shareholders (ahem...me). I would sooner lower my salary and ask every employee to do the same in face of mass firings. The only exception would be if the company was downsizing because it was becoming more and more obsolete (like Radio Shack). Target is still growing!

[acs]

Cutting your way to growth and prosperity... yeah that usually works. Look at Scott Walker and Wisconsin.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation or ties to Target corp other than being an occasional shopper and downtown resident. I just think that when you read between the lines of what this guy is doing there's a ton of bullshit and this guy has no real plan.

[Silophant]

Yeah, I went to bar trivia last night with a Target employee. He somberly mentioned that it might be his Friday.