hbcu future leaders in retail challenge

The HBCU Future Leaders in Retail Challenge is a case study competition to develop comprehensive leadership plans that will provide students with exposure to the scope of responsibilities and dynamic challenges that Target Leaders tackle on a day-to-day basis while further developing their own leadership skills, professional acuity and retail acumen. 

Scenario: Announced Group Vice President Visit 

Imagine this... 

After you graduated from your HBCU, you began your Executive Team Leader (ETL) role at your local store. After six years of leading multiple teams within your location, you have been promoted to Store Director! You are now a new Store Director (SD) that has been in role for 3 months at your store.  

Your boss, the District Stores Director (DSD – District Manager), sent you an email letting you know that since you have hit your 90-day mark, you will host a visit with the Group Vice President (GVP) in 2 weeks. The GVP is responsible for leading the teams in 6-8 Districts, totaling 60-80 stores, and 6,000-8,000 team members. The GVP’s scope of leadership is typically across 2-3 states. To help you prepare for this visit, your DSD has asked you to present a PowerPoint presentation in one week to highlight the stores wins, what you are currently focused on in store, and be able to present how you carry the store to the ideal state in the next 90 days. 

Using the information below, create a PowerPoint presentation to present to your boss, the District Stores Director, that includes the following: 

1. Current store wins
2. Current focus areas (opportunities for improvement) and why you’re prioritizing those.
3. What current focuses (opportunities) will be wins in two weeks – prior to the GVP visit
4. Your plan to grow the store to the ideal state, while adding your own unique touch, in the next 90 days.  

*Be sure to consider the time of year, season, and external factors that could impact the guest’s (at Target, our customer is our “guest”) mindset. Think about the Target’s you’ve interacted with in local communities. What do we do well?  How can we show up differently for the guests in those communities? 

Background Information: Your Store and Your Team 

It’s early February, the start of a new fiscal year and you are a Store Director at one of our stores, which produced $35 million in sales last year. Your store is in a metro area and is moderately busy at times. Your guests are incredibly diverse; varying in socio-economic, ethnic and generational backgrounds. They enjoy seeing their various cultures and interests reflected in your assortment. It is your job to understand who your guests are so that Target can create products, services, and experiences that bring joy to their everyday lives. 

Your store is in a metro area and is moderately busy at times. Your store is split up into four core areas:  

1. Service and Engagement (Guest Experience and Front of Store)
2. General Merchandise and Food
3. Specialty Sales (Beauty, Tech, and Style) *Style = Apparel & Home categories
4. Flexible Fulfillment (Order Pick up, Ship from store, Drive up, and Shipt)

To help you grow, lead, and inspire your team, you have 4 direct reports that are all Executive Team Leaders (ETL), also known as assistant managers. 

1. ETL - Human Resources 
2. ETL - General Merchandise and Food
3. ETL - Specialty Sales
4. ETL - Assets Protection (Security & Theft Prevention)

You also have hourly Team Leaders (Area Supervisors) that help you lead the four core areas of your store.  

• Two (2) Service and Engagement Team Leaders
• Three (3) General Merchandise Leaders 
• One (1) Food, Café, and Starbucks Leader  
• Two (2) Specialty Sales Team Leaders

Finally, you also have a Team Leader who manages two support areas: Property Management and Assets Protection.   

In addition to all these leaders, you also have another 90-100 team members that report to those leaders and support the day-to-day operations and guest experiences in all the above areas. In summary, you are a leader of leaders, who also leads leaders.

The Current State of your store based on the Current Group Vice President’s Priorities: 

*Note: all numbers included are hypothetical and do not correlate any actual specific store or company level results. 

Safety and Sales:

• The Cleaning team (a team that is responsible for cleaning high touch areas 2 hours before store opening and 1 hour after close) has been inconsistent. 
• The daily call-to-action (a safety checklist that must be completed by the store leadership team at 8am and 4pm daily) has been executed daily and on time, but after you reviewed it you realized it wasn’t being done to the company standards. 
• Your team has been consistent in creating safe working environments in your receiving department and your store has shown a reduction in accidents of 10% (4 fewer team members and guests than last year). 
• Year-to-date sales growth versus last year – 9.31% 
• The big 6 categories for the holiday season have reported the following sales increases compared to last year (called “sales comps”): Toys 8%, Technology 10%, Seasonal 25%, Grocery 21%, Small Appliances -3%, and Sporting Goods 1%. 
• Out of 10 stores, your sales growth ranked number 6 in the District. 

Guest Experience:

Net Promoter Score (the voice of the guests) is 82 on a goal of 85 

• Interaction With Employees While Shopping – 77 on a goal of 85 
• Interaction With Employees During Checkout – 92 on a goal of 85 
• Cleanliness of shopping experience – 86 on a goal of 85 
• Finding Product – 62 on a goal of 85 
• Wait Time at Checkout – 79 on a goal of 85 
• Order Pick-Up Wait Time – 86 on a goal of 85 
• Delivery Condition of Items – 98 on a goal of 85 

Save the Sale (the ability for guests to order items online from inside of the store) is consistently at one (1) transaction per day on a goal of four (4) transactions per day.   

Team:

• You have long tenured leaders (hourly department leaders), with average results, that can be sometimes resistant to change. 
• Your store has a history of being behind on company initiatives and waits for the District Store Director (your boss) to make necessary changes. 
• Staffing for Team members is at 80% (staffing needs are for Small Appliances, Sporting Goods, and Technology). Staffing for Team Leaders is at 100%. 
• Scheduling is consistent and schedules are posted on time weekly. 
• Your store has been recognized as a model training store for new hire team members. This means your new hire onboarding processes set an example for other stores. 
• Your Team engagement score is a 72 on a goal of 80. This means that Team Engagement is moderate (team members are neither greatly motivated or demotivated regarding work) and team members require additional direction because of it.  
• Your store has missed payroll the previous 3 months (for example, the monthly number of hours that your store was allocated was 2,700 hours, but your store has actually used more than 2,700 hours). This means your store has gaps in efficiency when it comes to the time needed to accomplish key functions. 
• Your Executive Team leaders (salaried assistant managers) are fully engaged and listen to you with enthusiasm.

Operations (Inventory Management):

• Your store’s Brand (how beautiful and accurately stocked) of your store is inconsistent daily. 
• Your store’s Backroom Units (the amount of safety stock that’s in your backroom awaiting to be replenished on the sales floor based on sales and data accuracy) is at 65,000 on a goal of 35,000. 
• Your store’s Item Fill Percentage (the percentage your team is replenishing the sales floor of the safety stock that is in the backroom) is 35% on a goal of 50% and above. 
• Your store’s Backroom Location Accuracy (the percentage of your safety stock that is accurately stored in the backroom) is 95% on a goal of 97%. The district is at 98% on average. 
• Your store’s Order Pick-Up Wait Time (how long the guests have to wait when they arrive to pick up their item that they ordered online) is 1 minute and 30 seconds on a goal of less than 2 minutes. The district is at 2 minutes and 30 seconds. 
• Your store’s Pick On-time (the amount of time it takes for the team members to identify and properly hold the merchandise for the guests prior to order pick up) is 100%. 
• Your store’s Transition Set On-time (accurate and timely execution of new merchandise set up and roll-out in store) is 80% on a goal of 95%. 

challenge resources:

In addition to the details above, to help you better prepare your presentation, below you will find Target’s 4 leadership behaviors (which will serve as the judging criteria), the Store Director job description, a recent group visit recap, an email from the Group Vice President, and an interactive store map. Also, you will have a Target Store Director available to you throughout the challenge to help you better understand the Store Director position, the metrics above, Target’s lingo, and help keep you aligned with your presentation. Feel free to ask them questions about their experience overall as well! 

• Target Core Behaviors
• Store Director Job Description
• Recent Group Visit Recap
• Email from Group Vice President
• Interactive Store Map
• Store Director Mentors – our Store Directors have volunteered to provide guidance, deeper insights to inform your presentation and feedback as you develop your solution. (Use these tips to guide your conversations)
• Target HBCU Future Leaders in Retail Challenge Participation Agreement

Good luck on your Group Visit! 

1. Review the challenge details, associated resources, challenge rules and program FAQs for additional context to inform your proposed solution.   
2. Develop a solution to address the proposed challenge.   
3. Submit your entry via the online submission form – this should be a PowerPoint or PDF – voiceover/video within to help narrate your proposal is permitted.  (Note: By submitting your entry, you are confirming your acknowledgement of all terms & conditions as listed on the contest rules & restrictions page. Please review prior to submitting.)
4. You may also submit a maximum 1-page note giving additional context for presentation if you elect not to do voiceover/video. This is optional.   
5. Entries will be reviewed and evaluated by a cross-functional team based on the judging criteria below.   

After submission of your entry, you can add the HBCU Future Leaders in Retail Challenge to your resume using the following language: "Competed in Target's inaugural HBCU Future Leaders in Retail  Challenge to propose innovative solutions to improve guest experience and team climate through the perspective of a Store Director."  

judging criteria: