Following several decades of successful global expansion, many consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies now find themselves managing a wide array of products, brands, categories, and channels. Many of them also serve diverse customer segments in multiple countries worldwide. As a result, their organizational structures tend to be more complex than those of companies in other industries. This also means that organizational excellence is an important source of competitive advantages for CPG companies.
What we do
We help CPG executives address key organizational issues, including organization design, transformational change and capability building, human capital, merger management, and organizational insights. As part of our client service, we employ a number of proprietary tools and approaches, such as the Consumer Organization Database (COD), a proprietary source of functional CPG headcount benchmarks.
Organization design
We help clients make fundamental decisions about the design of their organizations, including enterprise-level structure, functional structure, management processes and decision rights, and roles and responsibilities.
Transformational change and capability building
We help clients achieve systematic and sustainable improvements in areas such as business performance, organizational health, and functional capabilities. We engage with executives to design the overall transformation approach, conduct diagnostics, establish concrete change initiatives, and lend implementation support. We also develop and conduct top-level client-learning programs to strengthen our clients’ leadership skills. Examples of such programs include Centered Leadership and Lean Leadership. Our functional capability building programs (e.g., the CPG Marketing Academy) comprise turnkey approaches and complete training modules that help build functional capabilities and optimize organizational performance.
Human capital
We work with clients to unleash the true potential of their people. We offer guidance on talent strategy development, excellence in talent management, and the establishment of a talent culture. We also engage with clients on workforce strategy and planning.
Merger management
We support clients who are considering a merger or an acquisition on preliminary planning, post-transaction integration, and capability building. We offer guidance on the definition of integration aspirations, the development of an adequate integration approach, and the alignment of organizations and cultures. We also help clients with integration execution and help them build capabilities for future transactions.
Organizational insights
We partner with the Organization Practice to provide expertise and support around organizational research and information issues, diagnostic tools, survey design, and data analysis. Learn more about our capabilities on the Organization Practice site.
Tools and solutions
Consumer Organization Database (COD)
Proprietary database of functional headcount benchmarks in CPG that allows for comprehensive and consistent analysis across all functions of a CPG company.
Proprietary CPG libraries
We maintain proprietary databases and libraries that cover top-team organization structures and operating models at leading CPG companies, as well as best-practice CPG process maps, decision rights, roles and responsibilities, and job descriptions. Also, we collect and aggregate best practices and organization structures for key CPG functions such as, e.g., marketing, sales, R&D, and supply chain management.
CPG Marketing Academy
This CPG marketing training approach helps clients address and overcome their most pressing marketing capability gaps. Thanks to its modular nature, the Marketing Academy can be adapted to specific client needs.
Centered Leadership program
This personal leadership program helps top CPG executives strengthen strategic thinking, adopt a new growth mindset, and build high-performing teams.
Lean Leadership program
Lean Leadership programs typically accompany CPG transformation efforts and support their sustainability through capability building and mindset change.