Target vets create new consultancy

Conlego is the name of a new consulting practice established by several former Target executives who hope to leverage their experience to help companies create value through negotiations, partnership and corporate social responsibility.

The name Conlego means “unifying people for a common purpose,” according to the pair of former Target executives who founded the firm on the premise that more value can be created by finding collaborative ways of working together on solving the business and social challenges every organizations faces.

Minneapolis-based Conlego is led by Daniel Duty and Will Davis. Duty previously served as Target’s VP for global affairs and corporate social responsibility and Davis served as Target’s senior group manager for social responsibility.

Their plan is to help retailers and consumer product companies create value by developing strategies, tools and organizational capabilities for negotiating more strategically and building partnerships that innovate and solve complex challenges. Conlego also expects to help evolve corporate approaches to social responsibility in a way that meets new expectations and delivers both business and social impact, including identification and mitigation of risks at the intersection of business and society.

“Expectations of how companies engage with their stakeholders has dramatically changed. By negotiating more strategically, building successful partnerships and embedding social impact in its operating model, businesses can unlock substantial value,” Duty said.

Smith added, “companies will succeed in the future when they prioritize authentic social impact as a business model.”

While at Target, Duty also served as a director of business partnerships and negotiations, helping to create new growth opportunities with partners such as Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. He led the company’s enterprise strategy team and developed its corporate social responsibility strategy. As a VP of global affairs, he brokered the formation of the global Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety which is working toward solving the issue of worker safety in ready-made garment factories.

Davis led the transformation of Target’s corporate social responsibility strategy internationally where he identified, vetted, and prototyped opportunities where Target could build new business models that could grow the bottom line, reduce risk and transform Target’s core business for good. He led merchandising for Target’s online toys business and created the partnership, negotiations and engagement strategy for several multibillion-dollar business categories.