Methodology 

Our goal was to produce a timely, informative and professional product to be presented to our customers, Dr. Carol Larson Jones, Michelle Reymundo, TA, and our MHR301 classmates. Our team project is about Dayton Hudson Corporation, which changed its name to Target Corporation in January 2000. As a result, throughout this report we will refer to Dayton Hudson as Target Corporation. In the March 1, 1999 and February 21, 2000 issues of Fortune Magazine, Target Corporation was ranked number two in the category of General Merchandisers. For ranking purposes, Fortune Magazine uses eight key attributes of a company’s reputation. The attributes include Quality of Management, Quality of Products/Services, Innovativeness, Long-Term Investment Value, Financial Soundness, Employee Talent, Social Responsibility, and Use of Corporate Assets. (Fortune Magazine, March 1999 & February 2000) 

For the purposes of our project, our team elected to conduct research and report about Social Responsibility and Quality of Management. We chose these two attributes because of their respective ranking order as listed in Fortune Magazine and because we thought these were important and interesting attributes. Target’s highest ranking was for Social Responsibility, which ranked 16 out of 100. And Target’s lowest ranking was for Quality of Management, which ranked 100 out of 100. Our team wanted to learn why those rankings occurred and how Target Corporation utilizes the management principles we are learning, thereby reinforcing the importance of effective and efficient management. (Fortune Homepage, September 28, 2000) 

Our strategy includes primary research using personal interviews with employees at the Target Store in West Covina and a telephone interview with Mr. Paul Singer, SVP/CIO at Target Corporate Headquarters in Minneapolis, MN. Secondary research includes the use of the Internet, magazine articles and books regarding management and social responsibility. 

Our first priority was to create a master plan, after which, we determined the report should be broken down into specific sections and then team members volunteered to take responsibility for a specific section. Two sub-teams were established to conduct research on each attribute. Khuong Luu, Sandra Sheffield, and Hung Tran took Social Responsibility, while Mary Forthun, Tram Phan, and Janet Boydell took Quality of Management. The entire team participated in a team building exercise that included developing an interview questionnaire and actual interviews with Target employees.  Sandra Sheffield took responsibility for consolidating the results of the Target store interviews and each team member wrote about what he or she learned from the experience. Janet Boydell prepared the questionnaire and conducted the telephone interview with Paul Singer, SVP/CIO at Target Corporation Headquarters. Mary Forthun took responsibility for collating and typing the experiential exercise that each team member completed. Khuong Luu and Hung Tran took responsibility for development of the Power Point presentation slides and the web site. Janet Boydell took responsibility for coordinating all processes of the final report, and Mary Forthun prepared the Reference List. Each team member took responsibility for reviewing the final report prior to presentation. Our efforts are evident with this final document and represent how working efficiently and effectively can produce a quality product. 

---

                                               * Team 12 *