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Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target, wrote a letter to Target’s shareholders talking about the Annual Report for 2021.

Target has grown a lot over the past years. Throughout often difficult months, they have taking action of which the results did not speak to the past but to the future. “In the simplest terms,” Cornell said, “we’ll keep growing because we’ve invested in the team, strategy, and capabilities to do what’s at the very heart of our company culture.”

Cornell states in the report that in 40 years in business, he has never seen a better blend between a team’s aspiration and the capabilities that are needed to bring them to life. In addition to that, Cornell says that back in 2017, Target didn’t have the tools to perform on the consistent level and scale that they had envisioned. But now that they do, the results are unmistakable. “It has also sparked exceptional business performance,” Cornell says.

Target’s record growth of 2020 and their additional expansion of 2021 were enabled by investments they had made in a unified set of initiatives which intended to drive growth over long time horizons. Target, however, remains much closer to the start of their growth than to the end of it.

Five years ago, Target saw enormous potential in their purpose, and now they have the actual performance to back it up. This performance points to even greater potential. Target expects that the investments that they have been making will keep them growing faster than the marker for years to come.

Cornell concludes the report saying that no one understands better than their team how much potential there is in front of them. When he reflects on different issues the team has worked through together and he can’t think of a team that is better suited for this job than the team that the have. Cornell says that they have shown as a team that they have the values to meet the requirements of the job. And that is why, in Cornell’s opinion, Target will continue to deliver tremendous value for shareholders and all stakeholders for many years to come.

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