Case Study Of Target's Data Breach

During, and leading up to, the recent data breach that occurred at Target, it is evident that many mistakes were made at the executive level. As any company, Target possesses a primary goal of balancing both effectiveness, and efficiency; however, the organization under CEO Greg Steinhafel did not achieve these goals simultaneously. Prior to the data breach experienced by Target, the company primarily focused on efficiency --- the act of determining and implementing the most cost effective method of utilization for products, resources, or personnel (Kinicki and Williams, 2016). This manner of management by the executives did meet the minimum requirements of cyber security set by government regulations; however, it was not not effective enough
One of the most important resources that a store can have is their reputation. This means the reputation of the brand itself and of the managers that run the stores and the upper managers that run the company (Sohn & Lariscy, 2012). In this case, Target’s brand reputation has come under fire due to a data breach that allowed thousands of Targets customers information to be stolen, including credit card numbers, email addresses, and even physical addresses. This made customers feel unsafe using their cards at target stores due to identity theft. Then the CEO was honest with the public about what was happening and how the corporation was going to deal with it. There were many different spins to the story and how he actually handled the crisis. I do believe that he took the right approach of being honest with the public because if he had tried to hide it and it leaked out it would have ruined the reputation of the brand and the leaders of the brand. When advising senior management o how to handle this I would suggest that they stayed as honest as possible with the public and promoted their reputation as it directly affects sales across the country. I would advise them to focus on that aspect that their team is being honest with the public and that they wish to keep customers in the loop about how they are fixing the situation and how they intend on keeping it from happening again in the future. I would advise the team to possibly create some type of survey that could be sent out and analyzed to customers on what they believed would be the best approach to fixing this brand reputation and what would make them feel secure again shopping in their stores. This could help senior leaders develop new ways to advertise and build brand loyalty back into the