Target has picked its new CEO. To no one’s surprise, it’s Target lifer Michael Fiddelke. He will replace Brian Cornell following his retirement on Feb. 1, 2026. But Cornell isn’t going quietly into the night. He’s moving upstairs to the board’s executive chair, keeping his hands on the wheel of a company whose brand and performance have eroded under his watch.

Target’s sales peaked in fiscal 2022, reaching $109 billion and then started a slow, steady decline. As of Q2, it’s experienced eleven consecutive quarters of flat or declining sales. Through the first half of the year, net sales are off 1.9% to $49.1 billion. 

That’s not to say that Fiddelke isn’t eminently qualified for a CEO post, but maybe not at Target in the state it is in now. When he said in a Yahoo Finance interview, “I bleed Target red after 20 years here,” he may have unconsciously revealed why he is a poor fit for the job. At this stage in Target’s lifecycle, it needs a total “Tarzhay” transfusion, not to keep the same blood pumping through its veins. 

More Of The Same

While Fiddelke mentioned change numerous times in the latest earnings call – “You can expect me to operate with candor, urgency and pace and making the changes that we need to get the growth we expect,” he said – analysts aren’t convinced he’s the change agent Target needs: 

• Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown –

“Although Michael Fiddelke is likely to be seen as a safe pair of hands, having already overseen a big efficiency drive, the appointment appears to have seriously underwhelmed investors. There may have been hopes that a successor from a rival in the market could have brought extra knowledge, insight and energy, valuable assets at a time of intense competition.”

• Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData – 

“We have very mixed feelings about this appointment. While we think Fiddelke is talented and has a somewhat different take on things compared to current CEO Brian Cornell, this is an internal appointment that does not necessarily remedy the problems of entrenched group think and the inward-looking mindset that have plagued Target for years.”

• Michael Lasser, analyst at UBS – 

“Many in the market favored an external hire, arguing that would be the only way to re-energize this retailer and jump-start its strategic reinvention. Now, with the company’s decision to go internal, we think the market will now likely question how its trajectory could change meaningfully.”

• Joe Feldman, analyst at Telsey Advisory Group – 

“We are not surprised by the news, given Fiddelke had been groomed to become CEO, evidenced by his multiple leadership roles, including COO and CFO. We expect a smooth leadership transition, although we are unsure of how Fiddelke will change the strategy he helped create.”

Rubber Stamping Board

Hawksnest Group principal John B.R. Long, who’s advised on some 100 C-suite placements and put in over 30 years in management consulting with Korn Ferry, Bain, Russell Reynolds and Accenture, doesn’t pull his punches. 

“Michael Fiddelke’s appointment to CEO is ‘tone deaf’ and a slap in the face to shareholders,” he said. “The subtext is, ‘Things are fine, let’s just have an orderly transition and not rock the boat,’ while rewarding Cornell and keeping him deeply involved.”

Acknowledging that Fiddelke has transitioned through numerous corporate positions designed to groom him for the CEO role, Long also suggests that after his promotion to COO in January 2024, no discernible improvements are evident in operations. 

“If anything, we’re hearing reports of poor store standards,” he said, pointing to the fact that Ulta’s decision to pull out of Target was influenced by slipping presentation in the store. 

Long also believes that keeping Cornell on the board suggests it will be more of the same, rather than the real changes Target needs. 

“The board put Fiddelke in the job with ‘training wheels’ as Brian becomes the executive chairman, constantly looking over his shoulder,” Long opined. “And arguably, one might say, shouldn’t it be someone other than Brian looking over his shoulder, given the company’s performance over the last three years.”

And Long added, “The board isn’t giving Fiddelke the vote of confidence that you would expect by keeping him in ‘training wheels.’” For example, he points to Macy’s appointment of Tony Spring to CEO in early 2024, after which outgoing CEO Jeff Gennette retired from his board position.

Change Agent Needed

Long is just about to release a book, Hire Without Ego, designed to help corporate boards and executives make the right decisions in hiring or promoting talent based upon where the company is in its lifecycle – launch phase, growth, maturity or decline – and matching the unique skill sets needed at each stage.

In selecting Fiddelke as the company’s next CEO, Target’s board seems to have miscalculated where the company is in its trajectory. Fiddelke is a great choice if Target were in a maturity phase, which could have happened if Cornell chose to go out on a high in late 2021 or early 2022 – Cornell received the National Retail Federation’s “Visionary Award” back then. 

But he overstayed his welcome and Target slipped into a painful decline. It takes a different kind of executive to pull a company the size of Target out of a tailspin. 

“The talent that’s best equipped to turnaround a business in decline must look at a business very starkly and with a fresh pair of eyes,” Long stated. “Very often, that cannot come from internal people.”

As a finance guy, Fiddelke has the skillset to be able to read what the numbers tell him and act on it. But like any human, he comes equipped with cognitive biases that can color his perspective and a deep commitment to the established Target corporate culture that could keep him from making the changes needed.

“A long-time executive, like Fiddelke, knows the business really well and is part of the culture. Sometimes that is really important. But in this case, you could look at it as a liability. Is he so ingrained in the culture and the business that he actually might not be able to see the forest for the trees?” Long concluded.