This is an editorial pick, not a submission — Talmyn’s own research into a leadership decision we think other executives can learn from, published as part of our ongoing Talmyn CEO of the Year coverage.
Michael Fiddelke became Target’s CEO in 2026, an internal promotion following a period of underperformance for the retailer relative to competitors. Rather than a broad, vague commitment to “improve everything,” the turnaround plan he presented to investors is built around a roughly $6 billion investment concentrated in specific, named categories — home, baby, and beauty — plus new store openings, remodels, and a stated push to move faster on trend-driven merchandise using social-media monitoring.
Why he made this list
The specific, checkable detail here is the category concentration: rather than a general promise to be more competitive everywhere, the plan names exact departments getting the investment and explains why — Target’s own executives have described it as trying to recover the retailer’s older reputation for merchandising taste in specific categories, rather than trying to out-discount larger competitors on price across the entire store.
That’s a real strategic bet with a real tradeoff: concentrating investment in fewer categories means other parts of the business get comparatively less attention, which is a genuine risk if a competitor moves aggressively into the categories being deprioritized. It’s also the kind of specific, falsifiable plan that can actually be checked against results in a way a vaguer turnaround pledge couldn’t be — the beauty category rollout across 600 stores this fall, in particular, is a concrete, dated commitment that will be easy to evaluate.
Talmyn’s CEO of the Year coverage looks for a decision specific enough to be wrong, not just optimistic language. Fiddelke’s category-by-category turnaround plan, with real dollar figures and dates attached, is exactly that kind of decision.
