Target India has 2,900 workers in India.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Target India, the branch of the Minneapolis-based retail giant whose red circular logos are pervasive across the US, is partnering with Indian IT start-ups to grow its technology support team.
Target India has been in the subcontinent for eight years, and is responsible for the majority of Target’s IT infrastructure. Now, in order to expand its operations and keep up the pace, the company is starting what it calls a “start-up incubator model†to foster development of smaller companies that it can partner up and share resources with.
The company currently employs roughly 2,900 workers in India, a huge expansion from the roughly 30 it started out with in 2005. They originally opened an office in Bangalore before opening a secondary one in Mysore shortly thereafter. Target India was also responsible for the designing of the 124 stores Target has opened so far in Canada, although there are no announced plans to open up stores in India.
Speaking to the Business Standard, Target India President and MD Navneet Kapoor said, “We believe that the start-up ecosystem is quite rich in India now; there are plenty of talents and companies. Many of them have one foot in India and the other in the US. We are looking at working with them, learn and hopefully share with them.â€
Kapoor explained that the company used to focus more on bigger partners, but says that innovation is more readily abundant in the start-up sector. He also said that Target and Target India are going to begin focusing more intensely on digital and analytics platforms, saying that he believes the future of retail is going to rest within those two avenues.
Target’s technological infrastructure has been criticized heavily in the past few months, after it was hacked by a teenager and transactions made over a period of weeks – including the lucrative and high-traffic Black Friday shopping weekend – were compromised. Many Americans saw their financial data stolen and bank accounts illegally accessed, and Target has been moving swiftly to control the damage.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com