That Tarzhay magic? It takes an incredible operations team behind the scenes to pull it off, helping ensure your favorite products make it from our distribution centers to our stores and all the way to your doorstep, quickly and efficiently. And over the past few years, we’ve invested in new ways to help our team and operations become industry-leading, increasing our capacity to serve guests and enhancing the services they love so we can deliver joy now and into the future.
As we look to the next chapter of Target’s growth, we know our strong supply chain and logistics will continue to play a key role in our success. And today, we’re excited to introduce Target’s new chief supply chain & logistics officer, seasoned operations leader and Target veteran, Gretchen McCarthy.
Hello, Gretchen
Gretchen is no stranger to Target. For the past 18 years, she’s held a wide range of leadership roles across the company, from merchandise planning and buying to supply chain and, most recently, as senior vice president of global inventory management. In this role, she led inventory management and operations, developing inventory strategies that support our company’s growth and optimize our supply chain. She sat down with A Bullseye View to share more about her experience and what’s on the horizon for the best-in-class supply chain and logistics team she now leads.
Congrats, Gretchen! You’ve held a wide range of roles throughout your career at Target. How has that experience prepared you to take on this next role?
My approach to every role I’ve held is to be curious. My very first job at Target was as a buyer in the newborn, infant and toddler division. Everything was new to me, and I didn’t even have my own lived experience as a parent yet to draw from. So, I learned from the experts, asked a lot of questions and trusted the experience I had built to help me make good decisions. It’s a trait that has driven my career and led me to new opportunities across the business — from working on Target’s merchandising transformation initiative, to leading our global teams through supply chain volatility these last few years.
The lessons I’ve learned and relationships I’ve built are assets I’ll carry forward as I work alongside my team on a larger scale in the years to come. Over the next several months, my team will see me listening, learning and asking questions, all in service of driving our strategy forward and continuing to transform our operations for our guests and team members.
What has been one of the most memorable initiatives you’ve worked on at Target?
I was honored to work on the efforts to transform Target’s merchandising and supply chain capabilities and functions a few years back, which required us to reassess how the work got done internally. We made an investment in the team to create experts at every corner and through the lens of the guest. The outcome has been a refreshed Target shopping experience that is deeply rooted in ease and inspiration for our guests. We enhanced our technology, supply chain and inventory management with the goal of spurring growth. It was an opportunity to apply a new level of strategic thinking to what could be possible for Target, and it has yielded incredible results.
Through that work, we established a stronger connection between the supply chain organization and the rest of the enterprise. That was when we really started to realize the potential of what supply chain could mean for Target and our growth. The work that started then continues now, and the enterprise lens that we apply to everything we do in supply chain and logistics is a big advantage for Target’s growth into the future.
What are you looking forward to the most as Target’s new chief supply chain & logistics officer?
I love Target, and I love being a part of this team. I’m so excited to step into this role and build on the amazing momentum we’ve created. I look forward to forming new relationships with our global team and representing supply chain and logistics both inside and outside Target. What I’ve seen and experienced, especially over the last two years, makes me so proud to call myself a Target team member. The team continues to show creativity, grit and empathy for one another, even in the midst of an extremely challenging environment. Growing together over this time has been so rewarding.
What’s something that’s always in your Target cart and why?
Pancake mix and ice cream! We make a lot of pancakes in our house. My husband and I have two young kids and pancakes are probably the most requested breakfast item on our menu! And we love ice cream and trying new flavors together as a family.
