THE GREAT RETAIL REINVENTION

摘要

late February, Target CEO Brian Cornell was sipping coffee in a Manhattan deli-one eye on the keynote address he was soon to give at an investor conference, the other on his phone as news alerts of America's first confirmed Covid-19 death buzzed in. Target's communications, investor relations and special-events teams had spent months agonizing over every detail of the speech, given to 200 Wall Street analysts and journalists and able, in a matter of minutes, to send Target's stock price climbing-or crashing. Three years ago, Cornell, 61, who took over Target's top spot in 2014 after running Pepsi's food business, had caused the company's shares to plunge 12% after analysts scoffed at his bid to counter Amazon by investing $7 billion to upgrade Target's then-1,800-plus stores and raise worker wages.