1.From a management perspective, do you think Target made any major mistakes?

Explain.

From a management perspective, for me target had made a few major mistakes.
Firstly, the Chief Executive, Mr. Steinhafel had made a major mistake when he announced
a bigger number of customers who had affected with the stolen credit and debit card
numbers. At the beginning, the number indicated was smaller. Mr. Steinhafel has an issue
of dishonesty towards the public and Target’s customers. The revealing about the big
number of Target’s customers who were affected with the case will causes more Target’s
customers lost their trust towards Target Corp.

Secondly, the major mistake made by Target was providing free credit monitoring
and identity-theft insurance to all its customers. This means that they are offering the
insurance to all Americans. Target need to spend a lot of money on this service even only
a few of their customers were affected with the credit and debit card numbers stolen issue.
Target could be bankrupt for this massive action made by its Chief Executive, Mr.
Steinhafel. Mr. Steinhafel should only provide the free monitoring and identity-theft
insurance to all Target’s customers who were affected by the cyber theft issue as an effort
to gain their customers confident and trust towards Target’s services.

Lastly, a major mistake made by Target was having a low network security system.
Hackers got Target customers credit and debit card information through ‘malware’ that
installed in Target’s network system. A big corporation like Target should have a safer and
higher network security system to ensure their customer’s privacy so that hackers will not
easily hack into customers’ privacy. Target need to have a professional IT officer to
upgrade their network security system.

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2. Which of the four principal managerial functions were exhibited by CEO Greg
Steinhafel？

Firstly, one of the principal managerial function was exhibited by CEO Greg
Steinhafel is planning. Planning is defined as setting goals and deciding how to achieve
them. When a manager plans, he projects a course of action for further attempting to
achieve a consistent co-ordinate structure of operations aimed at the desired results. The
CEO of Target Corp, Greg Steinhafel had proposed in a meeting that Target Corp would
provide free credit monitoring and identify-theft insurance for one year to all its customers.
This new chip technology to replace magnetic strips on credit cards could cost about $100
million while the card-monitoring services for customers cost tens of millions. CEO Greg
Steinhafel plans to use hundreds of millions of marketing dollars to repairing the
company’s brand after the company was hacked.

Besides that, another principal managerial function was exhibited by CEO Greg
Steinhafel is organizing. Organizing is defined as arranging tasks, people, and other
resources to accomplish the work. Organizing also is the process of identifying and
grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority
and establishing relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work most effectively
together in accomplishing objectives. In this tough situation, Mr Steinhafel clag in Target’s
trademark red shirt and khakis store attire appear in a video on Target’s website to thank
customers for their trust, provided tips to monitor their accounts, and promised zero
liability to shoppers for any fraudulent charges. Mr Steinhafel began organized his team by
holding twice-daily “status meetings” to provide a better service to their customers after he
promised to them in the video.

Last but not least, CEO Greg Steinhafel also exhibited leading as another principal
in managerial function. Leading is defined as motivating, directing, and otherwise
influencing people to work hard to achieve the organization’s goals. Mr Steinhafel had to
make a tough decision and motivate his staffs to follow his decisions. CEO Greg Steinhafel
motivates all his executives such as the CFO who was testifying on Capitol Hill and

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managers who are walking down hallways on their cell phone. Mr Steinhafel began holding
twice-daily “status meetings” in a 32nd floor conference room that trying to motivate and
lead his team to solve the problem in a positive way. Mr Steinhafel is trying his best to
regain consumer trust after the company was hacked.

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3. Which of the seven managerial challenges discussed in this chapter is Target facing?
How are they handling these challenges?

Firstly, the managerial challenge that Target facing is related to information

technology. Target need to dealing with the new normal. In this part, the breach was
massive and required a lot of expense and investment in information technology to
overcome the problem and also to prevent future issues for the organization. All of this
includes new chip technology, marketing funding, forensic and also data security expenses.
Moreover, the costs are collected for reissuing cards and staffing centers. In my opinion,
Target should handling these challenges by using technology to add value and reduce the
costs in order to solve the problem. By this, they must be aware to make timely decisions
that is critical to the success of a rapid-growth of their company, and that ability is
intimately connected to the availability of information to support decision-making.

Secondly, the challenge is related to competitive advantage. Competitive advantage

means the ability of an organization to produce goods or service more effectively than
competitors do, thereby outperforming them. Therefore, Target must be more responsive
to the customers, which means it has to invest in call centers and increased staff at locations,
and it also has to be more innovative and invest in safer technology. The case points out
that Target is moving in this direction, and is trying to handle this challenge as best as it
can.
Lastly, the challenge is about ethics-related. Through the disclosing an extremely
high number of affected users and creating significant expenses for the organization such
as credit monitoring for all customers may not be the best decisions. This can lead to some
even questioning the ethics behind such decisions. In my opinion, apologize is the best way
for Target to rebuild the customers confidence about the company. Whether the breach was
the result of corrupted employees or neglected security provided by a third-party,
consumers will always place the blame directly on the shoulders of the business that
“leaked” their information. It’s pointless to try to shift the blame, and doing so could even
make the company look worse. Accepting responsibility and releasing a public statement
of apology can go a long way in regaining trust. In any case, “I’m sorry”, is free, and it
opens a line of communication between the consumer and the company.

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4. What is your evaluation of Steinhafel’s ability to effectively execute the three key
managerial roles- interpersonal, informational, and decisional? Explain.

Firstly, one of the managerial roles is interpersonal roles. The meaning of the
interpersonal roles is managers interact with people inside and outside their work units.
This role are showed when Mr. Steinhafel were comes to the conference room in the Target
Corp with the purpose of discuss how to solve the cybertheft’s problem they are facing. In
my opinion, it is more effective and clearly when we do a discussion by face to face.
Besides, this way will not cause any misunderstood between Mr. Steinhafel and employees.
This can also improve the relationship between Mr. Steinhafel and employees and this will
form a harmony environment in the company.

Seconds, the another managerial roles is informational roles. Informational roles is

defined as managers receive and communicate information with other people inside and
outside the organization. This role are showed when Mr. Steinhafel insisted on making the
bigger number public, sparking news reports that as many as 110 million Target customers
has been affected. He believe that if he try hard to solve the data breach’s problem by using
all method , the customers will come back and continue support Target Corp. In my opinion,
Mr. Steinhafel, a person that are very brave to disclosure their company’s problem to public
although he know that it will affect Target Corp and lost many customers.

Lastly, the managerial roles is decisional roles. In decisional roles, managers use
information to make decisions to solve problems or take advantage of opportunities. This
showed when Mr. Steinhafel had make a decision that Target will provide free credit
monitoring and identity-theft insurance for one year to all its customers no matter the
customers that has been affected or not. In my opinion, Mr. Steinhafel are very responsible
to their customers. When this case is happened, he had make this decision to make sure
the customers won’t have any loss in this case even though it will spent very high cost.
This can showed that he will pay more attention to the customer’s rights but not profit.

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5. If you were a consultant to Target, what advice would you give to senior management
about handling a crisis like this? Discuss.

From a management perspective if I were a consultant to Target, I should give

advice to senior management about handling a crisis like this.

Firstly, I should recommend senior management cooperation with BT which has

developed a programme Cyber Roadmap Consulting. This is because programme Cyber
Roadmap Consulting can help Target to determine their level of cyber risk and make a
perfect plan to solve the cyber problem. This approach not only identify gaps and also can
help Target stay ahead of the threat curve. After that, Cyber Roadmap Consulting is
according with ISO 27002, the U.S Commerce Department’s National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) Cyber Secrity Framework and the U.S Federal Financial
Institutions Examination Council (FFIFC) requirements for the financial services industry.
Cyber Roadmap Consulting with senior management to protect customers’s sensitive
information and hoping this crisis will no occur again.

Secondly, consultant can give advice to senior management about controlling and
balancing the customers’s interests. This is due to the senior management is difficulty to
handle the sensitive information of customers especially when the senior management want
to handle millons of the customers. Therefore, senior management need improve the cyber
security framework and provide available information of the customers. Remember that
prevention is always better than cure, when senior management can control and balance
the interests of customers, it will protect customers’s information as well as possible.

Lastly, I should give other advice to senior management is they must check and
refresh cyber security framework every half year. This is because senior management may
appear and repair loophole of the cyber security framework promptly. Then, senior
management always update the cyber security framework for avoiding customers’s
available information are stolen. This action not only can protect sensitive information of
the customers, it also can get customers’s trust and support to Target. Hence, it will help
Target increasing profit. Senior management can handle crisis like this easily.

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