Balanced Scorecard Toolkit for Crisis Management

Target Corporation is the second largest retailer of discount products after Walmart in the United States. Target was ranked at 30 in the Fortune 500 list of companies, with revenues of $65.36 billion and profits of $2.49 billion. In October 2006, Center for Health, Environment, and Justice based at New York and a group of environmental and health organizations started an anti-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) campaign.

The campaign was conducted by these groups by displaying blowup plastic yellow ducks in front of all leading stores as a protest against the use of PVC and plastic products. Target was asked to reduce the PVC content in its branded products that mainly included children’s toys, infant products, fashion and packaging accessories, and shower curtains. A test of more than 50 toys conducted by Clean Water Action Alliance based in Massachusetts revealed that at least 11 toys had been contaminated with lead and out of them 10 had been made out of PVC.