Target's Stakeholders Essay

Discussion Question 1.1

How might Target 's stakeholders (in particular, employees, customers, local communities, and suppliers) influence the manager 's decisions about building competitive advantage in the analysis stage of the AFI framework?

Target’s stakeholders have enormous influence over its corporate strategy to build competitive advantage. Through social media, word of mouth, and contacting the company directly, both customers and local communities can express concern and distaste over actions and strategies of the company. We have seen micro-examples of this in recent history through Target removing gender specific labeling in its toy section and removing certain items from its shelves for various reasons (Fisher, 2015; Hains, 2015; Mohney, 2015). On a larger scale, customers of the company have caused it to begin including more natural, organic, and sustainably developed in its product selection as a result of their economic demand for such products (Winston, 2015; Thau, 2015). Employees can influence manager decisions through direct interaction and discussions with management over company policies, customer service, and future strategies. Since Target relies on its employee’s efforts and skills to help the company succeed, it should be willing to listen to their opinions in an

Today, we see a more highly consolidated industry than was present before the collapse. The large banks who were involved in the risky lending practices that caused the collapse now hold an even larger market share because of government bailouts, consolidation, and ability to internalize the cost of stringent regulations. Those small and regional banks who continued to uphold ethical lending practices either struggled to survive the economic recession were forced to sell to larger entities or close their