For all of the impressive work experience on his resume, Brian Cornell's most important attribute may be what he does not have: a career at Target Corp. When the PepsiCo executive takes over as the retailer's next chief in two weeks, becoming the first outsider to ever lead it, he will have to shake up a cautious, bureaucratic culture in order to address challenges including e-commerce rivals and the grinding decline of the big-box store format. That should be easier to do without the baggage of years inside the retailer he is trying to shake up. Cornell has in the past three decades worked for at least six companies as diverse as warehouse clubs and orange-juice makers. By contrast, his Target predecessor Gregg Steinhafel had spent 35 years at the company. "There is clearly an advantage in bringing in an outsider for the organisation to bring some fresher perspective to Target," said Arun Daniel, a senior fund manager at J O Hambro Capital Management. "There is no overnight fix for Target." There is clearly an advantage in bringing in an outsider for the organisation ARUN DANIEL, FUND MANAGER Companies that have turned to outsiders have had mixed results in the recent past. Ford Motor managed to avoid the bankruptcies and bailouts that befell its competitors after hiring Alan Mulally away from Boeing. The executive led the carmaker to US$42.3 billion in profit in the past five years before he stepped down last month. Ron Johnson attempted a transformation of JC Penney that ended in disaster, shrinking the company's sales back to where they were in the 1980s, after the department-store chain hired him from Apple. While he is new to Target, Cornell has spent 30 years working for consumer goods makers and the companies that sell them. At Wal-Mart's Sam's Club warehouse, he strengthened bonds with suppliers and instituted a digital couponing programme that helped results, said David Strasser, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets. Sales rose 15 per cent during his tenure, outpacing the company's overall 11 per cent gain. "Although Cornell was not at Wal-Mart for a long time, during that period, we did get to know him and were impressed with where he was taking the division," Strasser said. "During that period of time, Sam's Club showed improvement." Cornell, who will also become chairman, will have plenty to improve on at Target. Aside from fixing its Canadian operations, which lost US$211 million before interest and taxes in the first quarter, he will have to get its brick-and-mortar and online operations more in sync. That could be a challenge for him, since it is one area he has not worked in much, according to Brian Yarbrough, an analyst with Edward Jones & Co. "He has a lot of good experience at other large retailers as well as consumer products," Yarbrough said. Another main challenge will be finding out how Target fits in a world where smaller retailers and online sellers are making big-box stores obsolete. One way may be by reinvigorating its practice of striking exclusive deals for cool merchandise that shoppers cannot get anywhere else. The problems may require bold solutions, something Target has not been known for recently. Even before Target's holiday data breach, which exposed the personal information of tens of millions of customers, the retailer had lost its way by becoming too cautious and bureaucratic, interim chief executive and chief financial officer John Mulligan said. Since Mulligan took over, he hired a top data-security executive, replaced the retailer's Canadian chief and moved the company's entire leadership team to the 26th floor of its headquarters to allow faster decisions and more clarity. Target also started scaling back on its four governance meetings, which have focused on the supply chain, marketing, design and capital expenditures. Steinhafel held himself personally responsible for the security attack. About 40 million credit and debit card numbers, along with 70 million addresses, phone numbers and other pieces of information, were captured by the malware attack on the company's 1,797-store network in November and December last year. Target's profit has fallen for six straight quarters, also hurt by weaker demand from consumers who have remained cautious about spending during the economy's shaky recovery.