The day you're hired, the bullet's fired, yet again

There is a reason that the Target logo is a bullseye -- everyone in the company is wearing one:

Target Corp.’s transformation once again took a toll on its Minneapolis headquarters, where about 140 employees were let go Wednesday. 

Most, but not all, of those laid off in this latest round of job cuts were in the recently formed “business performance optimization” group, which works on large-scale projects within the company’s core strategic areas. It is one of seven “centers of excellence” that the retailer has been forming in recent months as part of a new corporate structure.

As is usually the case, the sanitized buzzwords were in play:

The eliminated positions were in places “we identified redundancies or opportunities for greater efficiencies,” Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail.

One way to optimize business performance is to get rid of people who don't have a strictly defined role within an organization. What would a "business performance optimization" group do, precisely, within an organization? Are these people financial analysts without portfolio? Are they Six Sigma black belts? Are they consultants? Based on the job title, it's difficult to know. It's not a place you want to be, even if it's part of the "centers of excellence" that Target is apparently trying to establish:

One of the ways [CEO Brian] Cornell has been trying to change the way Target’s headquarters does its work is by organizing seven “centers of excellence” that cross traditional business functions.

In addition to business performance optimization, the other centers are data analytics, customer experience, pricing and promotions, indirect sourcing and procurement, business development and integration, and enterprise items.

In the past, Target put a lot of attention on "customer experience" and was quite good at it, but they've lost their way in recent years. I'm not sure where logistics fits into this matrix, but it will always be Target's greatest challenge. Walmart has won the day because no one is better at getting the product to the point of sale. It's a behind the scenes activity, but it's all that really matters. You can't sell what you can't provide and when I walk into a Target store these days, I see too many out-of-stocks.

Corporate America is a ruthless place. A guy with a spreadsheet and a desire to make his bonus can wreak havoc on a lot of lives. I've experienced this myself -- during my days at Bank of America, a financial analyst based in Charlotte decided that B of A should close its Minnesota operations because this market "wasn't in footprint." It didn't particularly matter that our loan center was outperforming every other loan center in the country. It didn't matter that B of A spent considerable sums on relocation for some and severance pay for others. The person who made the decision didn't take any of that into consideration, because he didn't have to.

It is unfortunate when someone with a spreadsheet disrupts your life, but it can happen at any time. You can't take much for granted and there's no point in taking it personally. The good news for these latest ex-Targeteers is that they all likely have portable skills and there are still a lot of opportunities in this market. If they can explain what their business performance optimization skill set can do for a prospective employer, they should be just fine, eventually.