Will Target Turn to an Outsider in Search for Next CEO?

When Gregg Steinhafel agreed to step down immediately as the chief executive of Target, there was no one in line to replace him. He had been running the company since 2008 and working at the retailer for three decades before that. Yet he didn’t have an internal successor, and the board hadn’t looked for anyone from outside the company. Target’s chief financial officer, John Mulligan, has taken over for the time being, another long-tenured executive who has been at the company since 1996.

Target has a pretty insular culture—it’s based in Minneapolis—and companies in general don’t like to bring in outsiders to become chief executive. But with so many problems—the security breach, a disastrous and expensive expansion into Canada, slowing sales in the U.S.—Target may have to break with tradition. Here are a few outsiders who might be a good fit for the job, in no particular order: