MINNEAPOLIS _ Casey Carl, a Target Corp. lifer and currently its chief innovation and strategy officer, is leaving the company amid a narrowing of innovation efforts to those that yield faster results tied to its core business.
He is one of the most senior among a number of digital- or innovation-focused executives who have left the Minneapolis-based retailer in the last year.
Carl's exit does not come as a huge surprise since Target has been dismantling a number of his projects in recent months, including a store-of-the-future concept with robots and some initiatives undertaken by outside entrepreneurs Carl brought in as part of an in-house residency program.
Target CEO Brian Cornell announced Carl's impending departure in an email to headquarters employees Thursday morning. He said the retailer will search for a replacement who will help elevate Target's core business, vet new business ventures and create new avenues of growth.
"Innovation is alive and well at Target," Cornell wrote. "Our new leader's job will be to build upon the progress we've made. And while this leader will play a critical role in Target's innovation story, it's not a story they will write alone. Innovation must be a mind-set, an essential component of every business, every strategy and every team."
One of Cornell's first leadership changes after he became CEO in 2014 was promoting Carl to his current role, a newly created position on his senior leadership team. Carl was previously president of omnichannel and senior vice president of strategy.
At that same time, Cornell also elevated Jason Goldberger, who was president of Target.com, to be its chief digital officer. Goldberger left the company last fall with most of his duties being transferred over to Chief Information Officer Mike McNamara.
In his nearly three years as CEO, Cornell has overhauled the C-Suite with only two of the 11 executives on the senior leadership team still in place since he took over.
Cornell called Carl a "true change agent" who helped Target transition to the digital age. He lauded some of his efforts that remain intact such as the experimental Open House store in San Francisco that showcases internet of things products as well as Target's partnership with Techstars on retail-focused accelerator for startups that is now in its second year.
In his own email to employees, Carl, 41, said the work he's done over the last few years has been some of the most rewarding and challenging of his career.
"It's no secret that there's been a lot of change recently at Target and this is the right time for me to pursue what I'm most passionate about and builds upon what I've started here," he wrote, adding that he hopes to continue to explore disruptive strategies for growth and innovation.
His last day will be May 5.
One of Carl's deputies, Jamil Ghani, who was senior vice president of strategy, left Target earlier this year to take a job at Amazon. Jeff Jones, who was Target's chief marketing officer and a prominent voice pushing for innovation within the company, took a job at Uber last year that ended up being short-lived. And West Stringfellow, who Carl hired to be vice president of internal innovation, also recently left the company, Target confirmed.
Stringfellow was one of three entrepreneurs in residence that Carl brought into Target in 2015 to come up with new businesses and fresh ideas. One of Stringfellow's projects, a secretive startup called Goldfish that was working on creating an online marketplace, was shut down earlier this year after Target disclosed that holiday sales had come in lower than expected.
Another project spearheaded by one of the entrepreneurs was the creation of the Food + Future lab in Cambridge, Mass., aimed at bringing more transparency to the food system. Among its areas of exploration has been building farms within stores.
But in recent months, Target has been trying divest the lab. It was preparing to shut it down earlier this week until a potential offer to buy it surfaced that is now being considered.
Many of these big-idea projects were greenlighted when Target's business was still growing. But in the last year, it sales have been sliding as more consumers have been shopping online and as its grocery business has been struggling.
Cornell recently said that the retailer can no longer afford to invest in projects that don't pay off within the next few years.
Instead, Target is focusing on lowering prices, remodeling stores, launching or refreshing a dozen new in-house brands, and overhauling its supply chain to better integrate its digital and physical operations.
