“Exploding Cultural Symbols of Bad Behavior” … Say What?

This past Tuesday, the head of Marketing at Target Stores, Jeff Jones, published a cathartic mea culpa of sorts on LinkedIn. Jones “shared the pain” of all that the Target organization has been through since the disclosure of information security leaks back during the holidays.

I couldn’t resist commenting on the post because I find these kinds of things both self-indulgent and deceptive … at best a PR stunt, at worst, meaningless.

Of course any firm has to issue apologies and declare a plan of action when something like this happens. But the key is the action.

Letting it all hang out like this doesn’t increase my confidence as either a customer or shareholder that the organization is taking action. It does tell me there is a senior executive with a massive ego!

Near the end of Jones’ post, which was a lot about brand assets and fixing the culture, came a few classic management slogans. Like every other company in creation, Jones stated Target is “accelerating innovation” and “simplifying decision making”.  Yada, yada, yada!

But then something utterly new and disturbing: “We are exploding cultural symbols of bad behavior.”

What the heck does that mean? How does this have anything to do with restoring information security to a position high on management’s priority list? Why would I destroy “symbols” of bad behavior versus simply addressing that behavior, straight up?

Target is a great brand and has been a true innovator in retail, of this there is no doubt. But when this kind of puff is used to demonstrate sincere action and critical thinking, could we be witnessing the zenith of a great organization?

Am I being too harsh?