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Discount Store News, Sept 18, 1995 by Richard Halverson

"Speed is Life." That is the motto that moves Robert Ulrich, chairman of both Target and its parent company, Dayton Hudson Corporation. Last month, Ulrich accepted the unprecedented honor of being named Discounter of the Year for the third time.

In accepting the award, Ulrich said, it "belongs to the entire Target team," as well as the chain's vendor partners that helped make it happen.

"The award is the result of the fabulous teams I've had over the years," Ulrich said. "Speed and mobility are the keys to our success," Ulrich added in expounding on his "Speed is Life" theme.

Target focuses on being "trend right," he said, that requires the help of vendors to spot those trends early on and then using technology to execute on those trends first.

The "Boundaryless Organization' is another of Ulrich's favorite themes, and at Dayton Hudson that means sharing ideas and technology across all three divisions (discount, department store and Mervyn's, the promotional department store division), he told his audience at the awards banquet held during the National Hardware Show in Chicago last month.

Target rapidly rolled out its private credit card because DH has consolidated many backoffice functions, including credit and property, Ulrich said. As another example, Mervyn's benefits from sharing the merchandising and real estate expertise of Target, he added.

DH can leverage the assets of all three divisions, he said, leading to the "power of one."

The divisions "don't compete alone," Ulrich said. "Communication among them is strong."

Target is expanding its store square footage by about 11% in 1995, opening 60 to 70 stores, he said.

In 1996 and 1997, Target will enter major new markets in the mid-Atlantic region, Baltimore and Washington. In addition, it will open other Eastern stores in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Target ventured into fresh food when it opened its first Super Target in Omaha in March and will open its second in Lawrence, Kan., in October, he said. Over the next two years, Target will open about 20 Super Targets at unspecified locations.

"That will give us a solid base of information" on which to decide the future of Super Target, Ulrich said.

Ulrich concluded by reiterating that "the award belongs to the entire team."

After the dinner, Ulrich told Discount Store News, "I'm excited and very pleased to be chosen for the third time as Discounter of the Year. It's an honor not just for me but for all of the more than 100,000 people who make Target the successful retailer that it is."

His first job in retailing was in 1967 as a merchandising trainee at Dayton's. In November 1981, Ulrich became president and chief executive officer of Diamond's Department Stores, a former operating division of DH. In 1984, he became president of the newly formed Dayton Hudson Department Store Company. He was named president of Target and later became chairman and ceo in October 1987. In July of 1994, he was promoted to the posts of chairman and ceo of Dayton Hudson Corporation.

He was elected Discounter of the Year in 1989 and 1992 by readers of Discount Store News.

In his year as chairman of the corporation, Ulrich has embarked on a program of stripping out layers of management, such as vice chairmanships, tightening lines of control and communications, and casting a favorable eye on executives who perform well at Target. A major step was retaining the position of chairman and ceo of Target after assuming command of DH.

His latest move to consolidate the reins of power was taken last month, when he eliminated the position of group vice president of Dayton's and fired two senior vice presidents.

In a further step toward what some call the "Targetizing" of Dayton Hudson, Ulrich promoted Linda Ahlers to the position of executive vice president of merchandising of the department store division. As such, she moved up from a key role as a Target merchandising executive.

As if to emphasize the role of Target as the growth vehicle for DH, Ulrich maintains his office as chairman of DH in the same place as his office as Target chairman.

As for education, Ulrich earned a B.A. degree at the University of Michigan and completed the Stanford Executive Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

His community service includes serving on the board of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and on the Advisory Board of the Metropolitan Economic Development Association. He also belongs to the Minnesota Business Partnership and the Business Roundtable.

In his first letter to stockholders as DH chairman, Ulrich revealed the basics about his management approach.

"What is powerful about the approach is its simplicity, Ulrich wrote. "It means taking all the tools we have across the corporation and concentrating them on our primary purpose-servicing guests by providing them with the merchandise they want.

"It means sharing resources and expertise between divisions. It means taking advantage of the natural increase in speed that comes from eliminating organizational boundaries and layers. It means looking at every idea that works in one of our divisions to see if it would work just as well in another.