What did Target, Starbucks, and Nike have in common barely a year ago? All three consumer icons had freshly announced new CEOs, which were wrongly greeted with hasty skepticism from analysts. Target’s Michael Fiddelke was scoffed at as an uninspired insider; Nike’s Elliott Hill was underestimated as a nostalgia hire, unable to stem Nike’s loss of market share, while questions abounded over whether Brian Niccol could actually turn around Starbucks amidst pervasive in-store service struggles, despite his sterling record at Chipotle.
We saw it differently. At the time of their appointments, we vocally and presciently touted all three new CEOs as the right person for the job at the right time, while other analysts rolled their eyes. Unlike the frequent, sometime successful model of the messianic hiring of industry outsiders as turnaround tians, these new CEOs hit the ground running as each had decades of experience in their sectors with glowing track records, priceless relationships, and balanced expertise across marketing, finance, strategy, and operations,.
Furthermore, we were the first to confidently predict the certainty of their success, even knowing that it would take some time to reposition their enterprises and for their new leadership to gain traction. Now the receipts are in, showing striking progress in all three cases, with each already well on their way to cementing their reputations as the architects of some of the most remarkable corporate turnarounds of our era.
Target – Michael Fiddelke’s stunning results despite widespread initial skepticism
When Michael Fiddelke, a Target lifer who had risen up the ranks from a lowly intern over two decades ago, was named CEO, cynics sneered that the board had chosen entrenched groupthink over fresh blood. We argued precisely the opposite—that the data overwhelmingly shows internal candidates outperform splashy external saviors, with insider CEOs appointed over the prior year delivering roughly 15% annualized shareholder returns while external hires averaged negative 9%. New brooms sweep clean, but the old broom knows the corners. Furthermore, we argued that Fiddelke was uniquely positioned to build on the many successes of his widely admired predecessor, Brian Cornell, despite simultaneous urgent challenges.
This week brought resounding vindication. Target’s second-quarter sales jumped 5.3%, digital sales grew nearly 9%, Target raised its full-year outlook for the second consecutive quarter, and the stock soared nearly 5%. Indeed, on a year to date basis, Target stock has soared nearly 60%.
A year too late, Wall Street seems to be catching on to what we said first: Bank of America declared it a “impressive improvement in sales under new leadership” while remaining somewhat wary; Morgan Stanley credited Fiddelke with “pursuing the right initiatives” as “initial newness and innovation is gaining traction,” which Telsey sees as “a strong signal that the turnaround is working.”
Behind the numbers is the simple fact that Tar-zhay is getting its verve back, as it is becoming newly cool and trendy again, ranging from buzzy partnerships from Pokémon to LoveShackFancy to Olivia Rodrigo, Isaac Mizrahi as creative director at large. We see this not only through the data, but anecdotally. Even our fashion-forward Assistant Director, Isabella Giansanti, tells us she is now back to shopping at Target and once again an avid fan, after having been disappointed by the brand for years – which we find more compelling as a barometer of where the puck is going in fashion than any data point!
That turnaround has been the product of savvy decisions from Fiddelke and his impressive leadership team. Not only did Fiddelke have the courage to launch a $2 billion investment program to refresh Target’s stores, boost service quality and improve the in-store experience for customers; Fiddelke also leaned in on building out Target’s underleveraged digital platform, driving record sales growth there alongside high-margin digital advertising revenue growth, with a newly appointed chief AI officer well positioned to continue to build on that progress, including by harnessing partnerships with Google and OpenAI.
Starbucks – astounding results from Brian Niccol’s investment in frontline workers and stores
Brian Niccol entered the company at a time when so much of its prior turnaround efforts had fallen short and new item launches fell flat. Previous CEO Howard Schultz was vocal that the chain had lost its way, publicly stating that “The stores require a maniacal focus on the customer experience, through the eyes of a merchant. The answer does not lie in data, but in the stores…focus on being experiential, not transactional”.
That is exactly the focus Niccol has adopted, as we touted he would at the time he was appointed, but now he is taking it to an even higher level. Relentlessly focused on frontline employees, Niccol unveiled an unprecedently generous incentive compensation program offering industry-leading pay and benefits, re-motivating a highly committed workforce passionate about improving the in-store experience for customers. Indeed, baristas and shift supervisors are now able to earn up to an additional $1,200 a year based on coffeehouse performance, with extended tipping options increasing what hourly partners receive by up to 8%, on top of pay packages valued at more than $30/hr on average plus comprehensive healthcare, stock awards, a paid college degree and flexible leave. Niccol has also committed to fill 90% of leadership roles from within the ranks, providing tangible pathways of career progression for the best frontline employees.
The results of Niccol’s sustained investments and commitment to his employees have been nothing short of astonishing, bearing out in financial results which have defied Wall Street consensus by miles. Global and U.S. same-store sales surged nearly 8% last quarter, powered by genuine transaction growth of over 4%, not price hikes; operating margins expanded a stunning 430 basis points, and management has raised guidance two quarters in a row and counting. More than 1,000 coffeehouse “uplifts” are complete and ahead of schedule, peak service times have fallen below four minutes, and brand affinity has reached five-year highs—led, remarkably, by Gen Z.
Morgan Stanley called these results “impressive in any industry backdrop”; and indeed, Niccol declared in January that “Starbucks is back”, with Wall Street analysts now rushing to upgrade the company, declaring how “impressed” they are with “management’s turnaround efforts that appear to have successfully repositioned Starbucks for sustainable multi-year growth” with the stock up 25% year to date, and counting.
Nike – green shoots of progress under Elliott Hill
Of these three remarkable turnarounds, Nike is in the earliest chapter. Critics point out that the stock is down 45% in the last 12 months and 78% from its 2021 peak, hitting a 12-year low, but what they miss are that the green shoots of progress are already visible. A closer look is warranted at what is happening underneath the surface at Nike, despite widespread cynicism and skepticism.
Elliott Hill, the 32-year Nike veteran who came out of retirement to turn around the company, inherited an unenviable hand, after the unforced errors of his predecessors in cutting off vital wholesale distribution partners in a botched direct-to-consumer pivot, whose failures led to massive discounting, lack of innovation, and a self-reinforcing negative feedback cycle as Nike bled market share to upstart rivals like On and Hoka.
Rather than hiding from the toughest challenges, Hill confronted them head-on despite knowingly taking on some short-term pain and cost. Hill started by rebuilding damaged wholesale partnerships, resulting in wholesale revenues in North America jumping 10% this quarter with the most important wholesale partners posting positive growth for the first time in four years. Similarly, Hill launched a program of deliberate strategic surgery after excessive discounting, initiating some store closures, a significant scaling back of certain lifestyle products, in particular three specific massive sportswear franchises across AF1, Dunks, and Air Jordan’s which were previously over-relined on, and a painful but important China reset, prioritizing brand & margin integrity over volume.
And most important of all, Hill’s return as CEO marked a return to Nike’s cultural core in celebrating elite performance across sports and running, with the core running category posting double-digit growth for every quarter under Hill’s watch, adding roughly $1 billion in revenue and 5% of global market share, and soccer momentum surging on the heels of successful World Cup partnerships. Indeed, Nike’s World Cup campaign drew 1.5 billion views in its first week, national-team kit sales more than doubled, and the Mercurial became the fastest-selling boot launch in Nike Direct history. No wonder that Wall Street analysts are now back to declaring that the question on Nike’s turn is no longer “if,” but “when.”
The emerging turnaround playbook for CEOs in 2026
The common threads across these three revivals carry lessons that transcend the consumer sector alone.
First, boards chose CEOs who know the business cold with loads of front-line and operational expertise —Elliott Hill at Nike and Michael Fiddelke at Target are decades-long insiders who practically grew up in their companies; while Brian Niccol is a proven brand-builder with a track record of prioritizing the customer experience—rather than celebrity saviors armed with slide decks detached from frontline experience. All three CEOs are personally lowkey and would rather shine a spotlight on their employees and their customers rather than themselves.
Second, each of these three CEOs has prioritized investing in the core customer experience—whether boosting barista pay at Starbucks to unprecedented levels; making Target cool again by investing $2 billion in stores; or returning Nike to its elite sports and running performance roots. All three CEOs understood implicitly that prior alienation of primary points of customer contact are more destructive than any mere marketing campaign can fix.
Third, each of these CEOs has focused on fixing operations rather than reaching for the tired but easier playbook of financial engineering, buybacks, and cost-cutting into oblivion. There were no shortcuts here: all three CEOs have committed to genuinely turning around the operational performance of their companies, investing for the long-term while understanding that stock multiples and re-ratings will follow if they get operations fixed first.
And fourth, each moved fast, front-loading the painful medicine of store closures, marketplace cleanups, and resetting Wall Street expectations immediately upon taking over, rather than kicking the can down the road, letting problems fester.
A century of business history—from IBM under Gerstner to Apple under Jobs to Microsoft under Nadella—teaches that iconic institutions can be reborn when leaders restore pride, purpose, and product; and Target’s Michael Fiddelke, Starbucks’ Brian Niccol, and Nike’s Elliott Hill are now writing the newest entries in the canon of successful turnarounds of iconic American brands, as all three are already well on their way to cementing their reputations as the architects of some of the most remarkable corporate turnarounds of our era.
The old adage that “new brooms sweep clean” wrong seems to favor outsider newcomers but, in fact the second verse of this Rastafarian proverb is that “But old brooms know the corners.” The success unfolding at Target, Starbucks, and Nike shows that wisdom, humility, hard work, and imagination can payoff when the boards are patient.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
