CIO McNamara has re-invented its technology work, bringing much of it back in-house.
Target CIO Mike McNamara has worked magic with the retailer’s IT department, adding about 700 new engineers despite a shrinking IT budget. He has also streamlined its tech agenda from more than 800 projects to 80, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Soon after taking over in his role as CIO, McNamara told CEO Brian Cornell that his budget was too large. That was the moment that foreshadowed a major overhaul of technology at Target. At an analysts meeting in New York earlier this week, Cornell remembers that moment, explaining “For the first time perhaps in my career, I had someone walk into my office and say ‘Brian, I’ve got too much capital to spend. I want to give you some dollars back.’”
And he did – hundreds of millions of dollars.
McNamara explained to the Star Tribune that “We were just doing too many things. I mean, we had over 800 projects. Even a company as big as Target doesn’t have 700 priorities.”
Target also had briefly outsourced about 70 percent of its technology work and about 70 percent of its technology workers, but McNamara has brought more work in-house and now has the retailer claiming about 70 percent of technology workers as its own. According to McNamara, Target's technology workforce has started writing much more of its own software code rather than relying on outside software suppliers, an effort which contributed to a recent update of its website.
Target also recently announced that it was searching for tech talent for its mysterious tech startup called “Goldfish” led by West Stringfellow, as Innovative Retail Technologies reported. The elusive startup is part of Target’s efforts to create innovative ways to propel the retailer forward.
McNamara told the Star Tribune that the company currently has about 800 tech openings, and that “I could easily fill another thousand positions. We need to have a much stronger engineering capability than we had, and we need to own it. We need to own our technology.”
As retail adapts to the new realities of shoppers, access, and profitability, technology and supply chain will each play a much larger role. “They will be the new battlegrounds for retail over the next decade, McNamara asserted. “Whoever has got the best technology and the best supply chain has the best chance of winning.”
And for McNamara, that means bringing it all home.
