Target CIO Helped Retailer Find Its Tech Groove

Michael McNamara knew Target Corp. had challenges when he was hired as chief information officer in 2015. The retailer, knocked around by public failures including a December 2013 data breach, was “lacking confidence” and “down on its heels,” he recalled. While rival Amazon.com Inc. was amassing e-commerce market share, Target’s information-technology staffers—mostly outsourced—were focused on traditional IT tasks such as managing hardware and software vendors. Technology staff spent a lot of time on noncritical work, the CIO said. “IT projects were always late and cost too much, and they were never right,” said Mr. McNamara, who before joining Target spent about 17 years at U.K.-based grocery giant Tesco PLC.