Target (TGT) CEO Brian Cornell took the retailer’s top job in 2014, at a time when the business was struggling and coming off of a large data breach. Over the majority of Cornell’s tenure, Target has held its own against rivals Amazon (AMZN), Costco (COST), and Walmart (WMT). Cornell led the company to a revenue increase of nearly 50% from 2015 to 2022, peaking at over $109B as part of a pandemic-related spending surge.

Since that peak, Target sales and profits have dipped due to a decline in discretionary spending among consumers, and other factors, including retail theft. In 2022 alone, inventory shrinkage, mostly in the form of retail theft, shaved off $700M from the company’s profits. Following a wave of high-profile ‘smash and grabs,’ including several at Target stores, Target and other retailers have leaned in to increased security and technology to not only reduce and deter theft but to make stores safer and more accessible for customers. These efforts, along with government involvement, are already having an impact, according to Cornell.

“I feel so much better today than I did a year ago, and I think it comes back to support at the federal level, at the state level and at the local level,” Cornell says. “To be clear, we do not like locking up product, but we like running stores and we want to keep our stores open. We want to make sure they're safe.”

For more of the full conversation with Cornell, tune into Yahoo Finance Live on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 10:30 a.m. ET. For more of our Lead This Way series, click here, and tune in to Yahoo Finance Live for more expert insight and the latest market action, Monday through Friday.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Brooks.